The main purposes of the trip are (i) attend the 70th anniversary of Grace Evangelical Church and (ii) visit Hope International’s new offices in Kunming, China. Anne has a business meeting in China and will come down to Hong Kong after that is done. She is still in NJ at the moment, leaving on Sunday for Beijing.
Tim wrote me an email a couple of days ago saying typhoon Megi is aiming directly for Hong Kong and will hit about the time I land (Saturday 6 pm local time). Indeed the initial tracking reports were not very encouraging. As the hours progressed, however, the typhoon has been veering a bit more north and will now always be more than 400 km from Hong Kong (forecast). So we dodged a bullet here, the Grace Church events are Sunday; if I missed them there would be no reason to be in Hong Kong until Thursday. Let’s hope it isn’t too bumpy as we descend.
A note on the travel arrangements. I end up flying UA (via SFO) and the ticket costs $1170 or so. When I first looked, CO had an airfare of less than $1000 but the price kept creeping up and got to as high as $1500 plus. And I kept holding off on the purchase while I kept kicking myself for not having done so earlier. So when I saw this lower price on UA I grabbed it, even though I had to leave EWR at 6:30 am instead of 3:15 pm, and get into Hong Kong at 6 pm instead of 5 pm. Hotels are quite expensive also, I booked myself into this L’Hotel in Aberdeen. It’s new but in an industrial area. Wonder how that would turn out. Ruby took care of the Kunming trip reservations.
Friday 10/22/2010. UA91 EWR-SFO. Being incapable of getting to bed early, I woke up “this” morning at 3:30 am after 2 or so hours of sleep. When Anne came back from LAX Monday morning, she said the CO terminals were packed, and lines were so long that they overflew to the next level. I had two suitcases to check – bringing a security system and some wine to Tim, among other things – and was worried on the way up that I might not have enough time. The UA terminal was very quiet, someone helped me right away with the luggage, and security screening had only a few people in line. The plane left one time, I had a lot of leg room with an exit row Economy Plus seat, and managed to doze off quite often during the 5:30 hour flight. Had shrimp fried noodles at SFO Fung Lam.
I have never seen the UA SFO Red Carpet Club (International Departure) so crowded. Very few empty chairs. I wonder if this is a time-of-day or UA/CO merger issue. Now they cross-recognize each other’s elite flyers, there are many more people looking for upgrades and lounge access. With Gold status at both airlines, the merger so far doesn’t benefit me. It may be different if the miles get pooled though. One improvement is the availability of internet access, all I needed was a card from the receptionist.
Of course now CO for its domestic flights sell food (cold) instead of giving it away (sometimes warm). Can’t quite fault them, but still makes for unhappy campers.
10/22/2010. UA869 SFO-HKG. To drive home the point about the merger, Economy Plus is quite packed (this is about 9 hours into the flight.) I have Seat 38G, not much legroom (I have to tilt the computer as I type this), but an empty seat next to me – my definition of a good flight still holds. I also managed to dose on and off a bit. Somehow I managed to catch the three movies soon after they started. They are all mindless comedies that I had no trouble following. “Cyrus” talks about a son trying to ruin his mother’s relationship with her new boyfriend; “Dinner for Schmucks” is about bringing idiots to dinner and making fun of them, and how one participant ended up learning more about himself; and “The Back-Up Plan” has a woman meet a man she likes soon after she got pregnant through artificial insemination. All have potential to be real funny, but ended up being just so-so. There is still about 5 hours to go before landing, I want to do three things: read Oliver Twist on Kindle, listen to Mahler’s Symphonies, and sleep some more. We shall see. (I am resuming this on Tuesday morning 10/25 local time.) Managed to get some sleep while listening to Mahler, didn’t read much of Oliver Twist, though. The descent was quite smooth. Turns of the typhoon (Megi means catfish in Korean) veered way to the north, unfortunately some casualties resulted from its hitting the Fujian area.
Saturday 10/23/2010. Plane landed a bit ahead of schedule. By the time I collected my luggage and arrived at Hong Kong Station, Tim, Wally and Ling were there waiting. We drove to Aberdeen. After checking in at the hotel, we had dinner at the LIS (L’hotel Island South) Restaurant. Busier than I expected – it was after all Saturday – but the meal wasn’t as good as I expected. The lobster and bouillon main course was just a bowl of soup … The hotel itself is nicer than expected. This part of town is industrial, so there isn’t much nearby, but as I found out the next morning, Aberdeen town is only a short bus ride away.
Sunday 10/24/2010. Woke up at 6 am. Took minibus to Aberdeen for breakfast at Café de Coral. Went to ABC (walked from hotel) and got on Tim’s boat heading to Lamma for lunch. It looked very deserted, and we thought we were too early – it was around 11 am – so we went to ABC Middle Island for coffee and then headed back. It was still deserted, turns out some restaurants were closed in preparation for the typhoon that never hit. Had a simple lunch at Lamma Rainbow. Wally, Ling and I were then dropped off in Kowloon City so we could attend the Grace Church 70th Anniversary Service which lasted two hours. Then we all took a bus to Laguna Restaurant in Hong Hom for a banquet, attended by over a thousand people. A bit long. We left before dessert and it turned out to be quite easy to get back to the hotel. Hong Kong does have an amazing public transportation system.
I have mixed feelings about the service. It is good I got to go, but there is a strong feeling of “you cannot go home again,” which is a bit sad. I spent a lot of time at the Grace Church when I was in elementary and high school, and had many good memories of people and events from that time. I did get to meet up with several old friends, but we all felt like strangers with not much in common. I suppose if I live in Hong Kong I will be comfortable with attending this church, but I feel I would need some time reconnecting and regaining a sense of belonging.
Monday 10/25/2010. Went to Aberdeen to have breakfast – Tsui Wah Café. Then to Central Wing On Building to pay for Alfred Wong’s HKG-KMN tickets. Alfred is a last minute add to our group. Also booked hotel in Kunming for Alfred.
Had French Toast and coffee at Tsui Wah in Central – couldn’t resist.
Delivered coat to Liang Huei’s friend while sitting at Starcbucks – Tai Po station. Then went with Wally and Ling to see Tai Po house, coming together nicely. Came back to hotel, tried but failed to sleep. Decided to skip dinner with Ling and Wally, and I went to South Horizon’s Shopping Center to find dinner. Not that many offered cuisines that I wanted, so went to Coconut Hut and had curried lamb. Took wrong bus (90B) and had to change to 75 to get back to the hotel.
Anne got into her Beijing hotel. She will have a late night teleconference call for her USC class.
Tuesday 10/26/2010. Not much to report today. Did bring laundry to Aberdeen.
Ran into a bit of a problem trying to get more pages for my passport at the US Consulate. Last time I went they would just let you in and you wait for them to add the pages, for free. That would be around 2005, it turned out my passport was in too bad a shape that I had to get a new one instead. When I showed up at 10:30 am or so this morning the guard said the system has changed, now you have to make an appointment over the web (I tried calling with the numbers the guard gave me and they wouldn’t make an appointment), but in the afternoon they take ten walk-ins, and that the passports are usually available late in the afternnon. And they will collect a fee. I am a believer of fee for service, so that doesn’t bother me. But it would be three trips altogether where there used to be one, which is really stupid. Since I couldn’t fight City Hall (best I can do is to write a letter) I went back in the afternoon. It was relatively simple and the whole process took about 45 minutes.
Wednesday 10/27/2010. Went to get blood test at Tim’s, then went to the Peak and hiked down to Pokfulam Road (about 3 km). Dinner was at Tim’s. He unexpectedly had to do a show, so it was more hurried than we’d like. Had coffee with Wally & Ling afterwards.
Thursday 10/28/2010. Breakfast at Lin Heung Restaurant with Ling and Wally. Had 14 dim sum dishes. Cost HK220 (Ling paid). Picked up Anne at airport. David & Ruby arrived at about the same time and we had dinner together at the airport.
Friday 10/29/2010. Dropped off laundry at Aberdeen cleaner, then took taxi to visit Anne’s mother who was heading to Central for a medical check up. While Anne waited a while at the Doctor’s office, I went to Tim’s office to pick up Joe Jr’s ID. Then we met up with Larry for lunch at Hong Kong Club. Went back to Aberdeen after lunch to pick up laundry, and I bought several long sleeve polo shirts as the weather is much cooler than I expected. Back to hotel, changed, and took bus/MTR to Ling’s apartment to drop off a suitcase we don’t need for our trip to China tomorrow. MTR to City Hall, and joined up with David & Ruby first for dinner and then a Hong Kong Philharmonic – All Schumann concert. Took bus back to the hotel. A lot of running around, yet not much accomplished.
Saturday 10/30/2010. When elevators don’t have the capacity to accommodate the demand, a couple of things happen. First the cars stop at every floor, the doors open, people realize no one can get in, door closes, and then the process gets repeated one floor below. Second, people jump into the cars going up, ride them to the top and then back down again. This results in a very slow through put for the system when it should be running at full capacity. That’s what we had this morning at 9 am at the L’Hotel. And there were very few taxi’s in that part of the city. So it took us 30 minutes after we left our hotel room to get into a taxi. Good thing the traffic wasn’t too bad, and we got to Hong Kong Station in 20 or so minutes. Rest of “process” was quite smooth.
Met up with Ruby & David for breakfast on the airside of the airport. Flight MU734 to Kunming was rather full, some turbulence, and a bit of a rough landing. After checking into the Grand Park Hotel we went for a walk, then had tea, and decided to have dinner as well. Things are relatively cheap in Kunming, taxi to hotel was RMB30, dinner for 4 RMB132.
Alfred showed up at around 9 pm. He said Hong Kong Express flight was quite empty.
Sunday 10/31/2010. Breakfast at hotel. At 10 am five our us took rented minivan to go to Shilin, about 1 ½ hours each way. This was our second visit to the place and isn’t nearly as impressive as the first one. Nice weather, though. And we got to know the driver got less than ½ of what we paid the hotel, and the guide got less than 1/3 of what we paid the park. Had noodles when we got back. Then we went to visit the Ruyles, chatted for a short while and then to Red Bean Garden for dinner. Had a lot of dishes for about RMB300, for eight people.
Bunches of ears of corn hung out to dry. I am told they are ground into corn flour.
Alfred, Anne, me, Ruby and David in Shilin.
Another picture taken in Shilin.
Monday 11/1/2010. Alfred felt sick, so he stayed behind at the hotel. The four of us went to meet with the Ruyles for a short while and then went to lunch at a Thai Restaurant by Cui Hu (Lake). Chatted for quite a while afterwards, and got back to hotel in time to see Alfred off. Laws and we went to a Yunnan Restaurant (where we went last time) for dinner.
Tuesday 11/2/2010. Early flight to Hong Kong. Had one of the most expensive cups of coffee I ever had at the airport (at RMB48). Checked into the Royal Park Hotel. Went to meet K Choi to talk about some of Hope’s plans and potential issues. Stopped by Hankow Road to try the noodle restaurant Johnny recommended, probably ended up in a different one. Went to Ling’s to pick up luggage left at her place. Late snack with Ruby and David. Anne didn’t join because of class.
Wednesday 11/3/2010. Anne went with Ruby and others to Shenzhen for the day. I decided not to go. Went jogging along Shing Mun River. Went to Tim’s place to have dinner. Ling cooked some wild boar (Italian style). It was so well marinated and stewed that there was no gamey taste. The skin was nice. Worked with Alyson on her physics homework. Anne had dinner with Elaine and Larry Jr.
Thursday 11/4/2010. Spent the day with David & Jamie Hsieh, Alfred Wong, and David & Ruby Law. Started with a trip to The Peak and talked about various landmarks. Had “Mak Un” noodles and Pacific Coffee. Then taxi’s to Aberdeen Boat Club to get on Tim’s boat. Julie (Ruby’s sister) joined us. Today wasn’t the most pleasant – cool, windy, and a bit of rain. We ate lunch at Rainbow/Lamma. Afterwards the ladies went shopping in Kowloon, and the men walked around Pacific Mall and had some coffee. Dinner at Chiu Chow Garden in Vicwood Plaza joined by Mamie, Ka Shi, Kan & Carmen.
David, David, Alfred and me at Mak Un Noodles at The Peak.
Friday 11/5/2010. I’m in the SFO Red Carpet Lounge as I type this. This was one of the more bumpy flights I have experienced, and I had a “regular” aisle seat in a row that was fully occupied. The young lady one seat over threw up, but seemed okay. A good thing is the flight was relatively short at about 11 hours. The audio system didn’t work; wonder what compensation we’d get. The plane landed at 9 am, and the Newark flight is at 2:10 pm. We went to the Hong Kong Airport early this morning because Anne has a different itinerary to get home. She is now in Seattle and won’t leave until 4 pm local time. Alfred Wong and I were in the same flight so we had breakfast together, and we saw each other briefly in the Red Carpet Lounge. He said he slept most of the way, I only did so fitfully.
I got upgraded to first class on the SFO-EWR flight, which was a pleasant surprise. Too bad the seats are just “regular” first class seats. I plan to wait for Anne and take a taxi home together.
[Note added on Sunday] I ended up getting in quite early so took a taxi home and drove back up to the airport to pick up Anne. My seat in first class was in the last row so had limited recline. I still managed to catch some sleep.
