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Too Early

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.

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Zoom

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…

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Something you’ll never see in the US

HKG is a big big airport.

They have to use people movers to get people from the gate to the terminal.

When you come down the escalator, you may see or hear the train leave. Being from San Francisco, my first instinct is to run like hell down the escalator and try to jam the doors. This is behaviour that has been ingrained due to years of a MUNI victim, never knowing if or when the next bus/train will come.

Then you look up and see this:

And sure enough, it does! Never see that in the US.

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Mystery food

Well, the cuts in airline food budgets have even hit the international flights, at least in steerage.

This carb-laden plate passed as “dinner”. Another passed as “breakfast”. It looked exactly the same as this except for different meat. The snack box inbetween meals consisted of a small instant noodle cup, an apple and a cookie.

I shoulda brought some Shin Ramyun like I did the last time I flew UA to HKG…along with some Diet Coke.

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TSA Fun

Any doubt that the TSA is just another government bureaucracy?

I’m at the front of the line with about 150 people behind me. There are two open checkpoints.

Stop, make that one open checkpoint. Despite the frumpy hordes behind me in line, they close the checkpoint anyway.

It’s just like the customer service “commitment” that the post office or the DMV has.

Meaning none.

Next up: a 14 hour flight on a packed 747-400 to HKG…

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When the Going Gets Tough…

the tough go to Asia!

I’m back in HK and Tokyo for the next 12 days.

Hopefully will scout around the expat job market, eat some good food, take in some scenery and relax. Because it gets busy after I get back.

The flight over will be difficult…I’m on UA and have a bulkhead seat. In steerage! Bleagh!

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Japan is lovely for many reasons

I tell everyone…

Besides the abundance of bijin (literal translation, not common usage), there are many many forms of booze at many different price points.

When asked what I liked to drink over there, I say “beeru” and “shochu”.

What’s shochu? I really couldn’t explain it very well. Saying Japanese vodka doesn’t give it justice. This does though.

There’s a form of cheap beer that’s not really beer too. Good for a quickie.

Still not going anywhere so far this month. Blah.

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Travel Fun

Sooooo I woke up early this morning.
Had a healthy breakfast.
Caught the F to Jay Street
Caught the A Train within 5 minutes.
Straight to Penn Station, got on a NJ Transit train within 10 min to EWR.
Get through security. No line!
Right on time.l
Then all the flights to ORD has this ominous word in the place where the departure time should be.
“DELAYED”.
Naturally, the gate staff were absolutely useless. “we Don’t know. Perhaps you’d want to try that gate”.
Flights were being delayed on average, about 3 hours.
I said the magic word, “reroute”. Flying through DEN.
It’s all good tho. I got upgraded on both legs and the DEN-SFO leg is a 747-400 with M-Power in the seat.
Finally!
And the absolute kicker of this trip to NYC: I found a ramen joint on 57th and 5th Ave AND I had a burger at the Burger Joint at the Parker Meridian.
There’s a lot of neat places midtown!