hong kong

This photoset has 264 pictures

aug 11-19, 2007.

aug 11, 2:30pm – YVR airport.

Just a half hour till my plane departs. Knots of dread have been stealing into my body over the past few days at the thought of flying over the Pacific. This 14-hour flight all by my lonesome is combining 2 of my biggest fears: falling to my doom from a burning plane, and drowning in the the biggest, darkest ocean in the world. Friday’s Level-8 typhoon has only exacerbated my anxiety. Nor was it helpful to hear from Shawn that his Pacific flight had yo-yoed 4 feet in the blink of an eye.

So far, though, waiting for the flight to board has been extremely dull. Even with picking out souvenirs for my colleagues and Kuya Mike (a tin of Roger’s chocolates; maple sugar candies; a photo-panoramic book of downtown Vancouver) I had over 3 hours to kill in the international terminal.

A bit about this terminal, since I don’t get to see it every day. High-end boutiques galore, staffed with clerks that are more adept at filing their nails than helping the stray customer. At its hub is a pleasant atrium complete with trees, a bubbling brook, the requisite First Nations art, and 2 walkways to enjoy the greenery. At the end of the atrium is a fantastic aquarium that kept me enthralled for 30 minutes. Puts those Windows screensavers to shame.

We’re now 3 hours into the flight and 32,000 feet high. Despite my initial fears, this ride has been blissfully smooth (knock on wood!). Been keeping busy with Shrek the 3rd (tired), a peppy little Japanese movie about travelling through time via washing machine, and dinner.

Dinner did not disappoint: sweet and sour pork that I wolfed down in seconds plus marinated mushrooms and an orange cream cake. Quite the leap from the crappy pretzel packs of Westjet.

We’re nearing the international date line which cuts through the Pacific like a jigsaw piece. I wonder if anyone lives near enough to the date line to be routinely affected by the arbitrary switch of time. It’d be pretty cool to have a next-door neighbour that is constantly (and literally) behind on the times. [Cue lame-o music here.]

T-minus 5500km, 36,000 feet high, and approximately 6.5 hours into the flight. Then it hits–and just like that, it’s suddenly 5pm on Sunday afternoon. Time travel is not all it’s cracked up to be.

Snack time…what? Piping hot BBQ pork bun?! Oh my lord, how I love Cathay Pacific.

After a short nap I wake to 4 hours remaining on the flight. Somehow we managed to skip any sort of breakfast in favour of a lunch menu. I chose the soya chicken with a fruit salad and mango mousse cake. Checked the 13 channels of movies again…oooh, Monsters Inc! Gotta love Pixar for entertaining you so much that you don’t almost die of terror during the 30 minutes of violent turbulence near the southern coast of Japan.

Only 2 hours to go! Time to read up on what to do in town. The in-flight magazine tells of a giant food exhibition from Aug 16-20th, called Food Expo 2007. Sounds like a great way to spend my Saturday!

Landing…hello, Hong Kong!

In the restroom at the airport and my first “she must be Chinese” encounter occurs: one of the cleaning women tries to explain something to me in Cantonese. I helplessly sign that I can’t for the life of me understand her, but the woman continues to chat to me in a stream of unintelligible syllables. A passerby takes pity and translates for me. Phew…

9pm Sunday evening and I’m joined by Johnny and Alan, who were nice enough to keep me company on my first night here. After a scenic route around Causeway Bay and browsing the closing restaurants of Times Square, we settled on a 4-person set menu of Cantonese fare at Chung’s Cuisine. My camera happiness caused the staff to wonder if I was a reporter. We should have said yes in case that got us freebies =) Check out the photos for now…I’ll eventually write a proper review. It was a terrific meal and a great start to my first week in Hong Kong.

More tomorrow!