Category: Overseas Travel

Well, this trip was for doing things that I didn’t do before.

After all, Tokyo is the second biggest city in the world and HK is HK…that’s all that needs to be said about my destinations. Lots of things to do and see on top of the things I usually do and see.

But old fun habits die hard. Like staying out until the last train. And busting butt to catch it.

Once again, I’m on the last Yamanote to Nippori via Ueno.

A western ward of Tokyo divided by a train station. West is highrises, the Tokyo Metropolitan City Hall and that Park Hyatt where Lost in Translation took place.

East is shopping, Kabukicho and a general mess which means it’s the fun area.

There’s an observation deck at the top of the tower (like most big buildings in Tokyo do) and I was able to see the New City Hotel where I stayed in with some friends on my first visit here.

Not that impressive. It is a business hotel, meaning very basic and very old, from the 1960’s.

You really get an idea about how big it is here and just how expansive the city sprawl is.

That’s only looking west now! Looking east, you can see Tokyo Dome AKA the Big Egg where the Giants play.

I’m what’s considered an internet traveler.

I get a guidebook about a place I’d like to visit and devour it.

Then I research places to stay on the internet and usually make my decisions based on that.

Generally they’ve been hits as opposed to misses. Like the place I’m staying at for this trip. They even have broadband in the rooms for free (bring your CAT5 cable!).

The flight from HK was a bear. Well, actually not. Getting up early to get to the airport, that was a bear. Thankfully, in front of my HK digs, there’s a taxi stand.

This place is another “hit”. It’s smack in the middle of Causeway Bay, a short block from the MTR, exit E and another short block from a Wellcome, because every traveler needs a 24 hour grocery store.

Then I was upgraded gratis to Business Class. For free. Nice.

The flight was about 3.5 hours. Like flying to ORD from home. But then once you land at NRT, you have to endure a 1 hour long train ride into town and then you have to try to find your hotel. Which brings me to the topic of this rant.

The maps on these Japanese hotel sites (I ran into this last time when I stayed at this place) are NOT to scale. They’re great at noting landmarks where you turn left or turn right. But the distance between these landmarks, at least on the map, is the problem. It’s usually longer than it looks like on the map!

Gotta go stretch my legs, this was a long day.

This is Kowloon City, near the site of the old Kai Tak Airport.

It’s not accessible directly from the MTR so you either need a good map or some local friends to take you around. Big difference from Central, eh?

They look like they need the Caped Crusader really bad! I mean, that’s a big lightshow with a LOT of spotlights…

heh.

Here’s some snaps I took this morning from the 42nd floor of that feng-shui challenged masterpiece, I.M. Pei’s Bank of China building.

This is the Bank of China building in case you don’t know how it looks like. Rather iconic, eh?

This is the base of it with one of the historic buildings in HK Park for scale. The BOC is actually across the street. It’s pretty big, eh?

Now, here’s the snaps. This is the International Financial Center 2, the third tallest building in Asia. It’s really tall and it looks like it will shift the skyline further west then it is now. Here’s how it looks from the ground.

And from the Harbour via the Star Ferry:

That’s one big building folks.

You also get to see the other side of the former Governor’s Compound. This time you can see the front.

Until all the big buildings and landfill happened, the Governor’s Compound loomed over all of HK side.

This is the former War Memorial. During British administrations, the Union Jack flew from the harbour side and the standards of the three services, the Royal Navy, British Army and RAF flew from the island facing side. Knowing the power of symbols, the ChiComs immediately fenced it off when they took over in 1997, being unable to simply bulldozer it because people would remember that there was once something there and it’s harder to rewrite history in a (for the moment) free society.

And…since I was up ANYWAY, I decided to putter about.

The Hong Kong Park is on a hill between the Mid-Levels and the ground. It’s pretty nice and it’s compact and right next to the British Embassy. An oasis from the urbanism that is Hong Kong.

There’s a walk-in fountain that looks like you’re under a big umbrella in a very large rainstorm.

There are statues and memorials to various people and causes, as expected.

There’s even this testimony to the fact that there are apparently a lot of Americans here too.

You have to be going UP the stairs to see this. Duh!

When you go on vacation, it’s an opportunity to do different things that you wouldn’t do at home.

One of those things for me is to wake up early. I woke up at 0630 after a deep sleep. Couldn’t sleep any more.

Since today is the 11th, there’s a morning flag raising ceremony in Wan Chai.

This is one of the things that I’ve never seen (the other is the firing of the Noonday Gun) here in HK. From what I’ve been told about the ceremony, it’s still in the British style. Lots of foot stamping and shouted commands in english.

This compares to the daily ceremony in Tienanmen Square where you’ve got 32 goose-stepping PLA soldiers goose-stepping across Chang’an Lu.

And if there was any doubt of the traditional aspects of the HK ceremony, these guys played at the end. You could hear them three blocks away!

I shot some video with my Ixus but you’ll have to wait until I get back to see it. iPhoto only downloads photos. Now I need to get some breakfast.

Landed at HKG this evening; long long flight with awful food and indifferent service.

Had bulkhead seat on border with Business Class. Everyone there had their laptops out and plugged in so they could escape the Hollyweird rejects that passes for inflight movies.

Except for Master and Commander which looked pretty good. Now that it’s up for an Oscar, it’s in the theatres again so I can see it on the big screen.

Customs was a breeze but this was the first thing that you see coming outta there. It’s a bit disturbing.

Took the Airport Express, 23 minutes to Central and then a free shuttle bus to my guesthouse. Nice. BART has nothing on this way to the airport. Neither does Tokyo, BTW.

Even got to grab some dinner (wonton place across the street from Times Square, my PM arrival place). Don’t ask me the name, I don’t know it. Just know where it is.

See, there’s a ritual I’ve got. If I arrive in time for lunch, I have wonton at Tsim Chai Kee in Central. I arrive after dark, I go to this “across the street from Times Square” joint. It revolves around food, yay!

Even dragged my friend out to Lan Kwai Fong for a pint. But that’s it. Too tired to go on. Back at guesthouse to sleep…