19 Hours in Hong Kong – Milage Run #1

Again, most people will think I’m crazy (I know the K certainly does), but instead of spending easter weekend with family or friends, I decided to take a trip to Hong Kong.

Thursday April 2nd 7:15am EST

Having checked in at the counter and passed through security I stopped by Dunkin to grab a bite to eat before getting on my first flight of a two day high altitude marathon. The trip from Boston to Dallas was uneventful, and I touched down right around noon. My next flight departed shortly thereafter from a differnt terminal, so I had to rush to get to the gate. Unfortunately I took the sky train (or whatever they call it) in the wrong direction, so I got a much more senic trip than I was anticipating. With very little time to spare I grabbed some aspirin (to help avoid DVT) from the convienence store and walked over to the already boarding flight.

AA137 is a non-stop flight from Dallas to Hong Kong on a Boeing 77-300ER (also know as the 77W). I had managed an upgrade on the 16.75hr flight (the longest I’ve ever taken), and was looking forward to trying American’s new business class they keep advertising on TV (the commercial with the business guy using wifi on the really large silver plane). The seats are leaps above their old long-haul business class (like on the 777-200) instead of a 2-2-2 arrangement it’s a 1-2-1 with angled lie flat seats.

The picture doesn’t fully show how cool it was. My only complaints about the hard product are that the TV screen swings out in such a way that when stowed it cannot be watched. This is a little annoyance, but it means that you can’t watch anything during taxi/takeoff/landing/taxi as the screen has to be stowed. And secondly that due to the angle of the seat, some sort of cushion/padding is required on the seatbelt, which makes it much more bulky. Over all the designers did a really nice job with everything (although I guess we’ll have to see how it holds up). The service wasn’t bad, but it certainly serves as a reminder as to the difference between US and non-US carriers.

16 hours is a long time to spend on a plane (actually 16hrs is a long time to spend anywhere). I spend most of my time watching movies (very good selection), in addition to having dinner, breakfast, walking around a lot, and taking a nap for a few hours.   

Salad and a rolled beef appetizer – “meh” taste

Ben & Jerry’s vanilla sundae with hot fudge? Don’t mind if I do…

5:45PM Friday April 3rd Hong Kong Local time

Touchdown in Hong Kong, while I had a seat in the middle of the plane I was able to get a comple glimpses of scenery out the window as we made our approach. Clearing customs and immigration was very quick (no questions about how long I was going to be staying, which could have led to an interesting conversation). Last time I was in Hong Kong we took a cab front the airport to the city, but this time I decided to take the train. It was 150HKD (~$15) and was very quick and clean.

Arriving at Kowloon station I made my way to the free hotel shuttle bus, and was soon checking into my room. After a quick shower I headed out to track down something I’ve been craving since my last visit to Hong Kong three years ago, pork buns from Tim Ho Wan. I knew that I wouldn’t be able to make it to dim sum re next morning as I had to leave for the airport too early, but luckily there was an outpost in Hong Kong station, so I grabbed a cab and journeyed across the harbor. I was in luck, but just barely. By the time I arrived the restaurant was being cleaned and closed for the night, but they had one last order of pork buns I could get to go.  

These are the best pork buns I’ve ever had (well, maybe the ones in the restaurant last time were a little better, but still)

I ate my buns in the middle of the train station not caring about anything else in the world. Once all three buns were gone I needed to figure out what to do for the rest of the night. I’d heard of the night market, but hadn’t visited it last time. Given that I wanted to stay out for a few hours it seemed like a good place to check out. A short MTR ride got me back to the Kowloon side, and I decided to walk up Nathan road to the market.

The night market is tucked away just off of Nathan road, and occupies a few stretches of narrow street. The stalls were jammed next to each other, leaving only a very narrow aisle down the middle of the street. The merchandise carried from cellphone battery packs and selfi sticks to framed artwork (all mass produced) in a pattern that seemed to repeat every few stalls. Walking from one end to the other I saw some very cool cards with pop-out 3D paper cuttings. Finding them as a few different stalls I was able to find a bunch that I liked to bring back as souviners. Using the bargaining skills previously aquired in Asia, I was able to get them for a very reasonable price (starting to walk away from the deal does a lot to the price… 😉).

Feeling a little hungry for dinner(?) I walked over to a bustling seafood restaurant. One of the ones where they have the live crabs, shrimp, and fish swimming around in tanks and buckets for people to see. I decided on a beer, razor clams in black bean sauce, and some sort of green vegetable with garlic. Everything was super flavorful and fresh, but try as I might I wasn’t able to finish the greens (they seemed to get bigger with every portion I took). By this time it was getting close to midnight, so I started walking back to the hotel to crash for a few hours.

Part two coming soon!

Cheers,

-N