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Monday, 13th September
1999
London - Hong Kong: 6,560 miles.
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Bruce leant towards
the window as closely as he dared to see Hong Kong's
new airport.
Our plane landed nearly half an hour early at 10:00
am. |
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We were met at
the luggage carousel by our Kuoni
rep. for the holiday. Her name was
Elizabeth Taylor. "And that's the
only time I will use that name", she
said, "from now on it's Liz or Lizzie".
We eyed our travelling companions
for the next two and a half weeks
doubtfully. Would we like them? Would
they like us? All Bruce knew was that
he liked the new airport! |
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There were only
eleven of us. The other twelve, Liz told us, could
not get on this flight and would be travelling on
the next one, arriving in six hours' time. She introduced
us to Ricky, the Tour East rep. in Hong Kong. He
was wearing a lime green short sleeved shirt, and
apparently had a mobile phone surgically attached
to his ear. He led us through the white modern stylish
airport building to the exit where we were hit by
a blast of hot humid air. Oh dear! Should we have
travelled later in the season when it was cooler?
We were quickly shown onto the air-conditioned coach
- what a relief. Ricky told us that Typhoon Signal
number 1 had been raised because of the presence
of typhoon York in the vicinity, but we were not
to worry, as the typhoon season was almost over. |
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We were driven
over the new road/rail bridge (the
longest in Asia, Ricky said) to Kowloon
and were quickly in the bustling Chinese
area of Mong Kok and the 20-storey
Stanford Hotel. The hotel wasn't quite
as swish as the Victoria Hotel, where
we stayed last time, but it was modern,
with everything we needed (including
air-con, thank goodness) and an incredible
view from our 17th floor windows across
this older part of town with its blocks
of apartments (and part of the Kowloon-Canton
railway line!) |
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We were opposite
a school where we could see small children
sitting in their classrooms. |
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The rest of the
day was ours to do as we pleased. We
went for a brief mooch and went to the
nearby MTR (mass transit railway) station
and bought an "Octopus Card": a ticket
allowing up to HK$150 of travel, with
any unspent value refundable. The card
has a chip which means it does not need
to be inserted into the ticket barriers,
but merely waved close to a receiver
on the barrier. Some people did not
bother to remove their card, but just
put their wallet or handbag over the
device. Very clever. We visited some
familiar places in the Kowloon area;
then headed back to the hotel for a
nap (which in the event turned out to
be a 2-hour coma). We awoke at 5.00
pm and went to Central for dinner...
at Jimmy's Kitchen. It was just as I
remembered when Bruce took me there
on our first night in Hong Kong nine
years ago: it was all very romantic.
I had a beautiful piece of sea bass;
Bruce the lamb. Home and bed for a good
five hours sleep... |
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