I often say all I need are two good reasons to make a trip to Asia/Oceania. I do have two reasons: to attend the day long meeting at Brisbane School of Theology, and to attend Hope International meetings in Hong Kong and Singapore. Those, plus the usual suspects: Anne and I often visited Australia during the Chinese New Year time frame, and I don't really need much motivation to visit Hong Kong in any case. Anne has teaching duties, and her hip is also giving her a problem. I am making this trip by myself, and if today is any indication, it is probably prudent for her not to join me. (Today isn't particularly busy, just that a lot of getting around.)
It was also quite a challenge to try to lower the overall travel expenses. United had a low cost for EWR-SYD, HKG-EWR in basic economy, but regular economy priced out to over US$10,000 (yes, five digits), which is considerable higher than booking the tickets separately.
A few weeks back United also ran an award special to Sydney, with Premium Plus costing 70,000 miles (mixed cabin). So I grabbed that. I bought the HKG-EWR ticket at a higher price as otherwise it would not be upgradeable. I got a note from United (February 14 in Sydney) saying my HKG-LAX segment has been upgraded to Premium Plus, so there is that. I am still waiting for upgrade to Business, that usually is last minute, if it happens at all.
It turns out the price for BNE-HKG-SIN (stopover in Hong Kong) on Cathay Pacific is considerably cheaper than buying BNE-HKG and HKG-SIN as two separate tickets, so I went for that and saved some money. Of course I still needed to buy SYD-BNE (on Virgin Australia, now United's partner) and SIN-HKG (CX is considerably cheaper than SG).
The other issue is lodging. After going through a few permutations, the plan is to stay in the Mascot area for a couple of nights, and then with Ruth. For Brisbane I will stay with Ling. In Hong Kong, Causeway Bay. In Singapore it will be one night at a hotel. All the hotel stays (3 nights) are with OneKeyCash accumulated from Hotels.com and Orbitz. With the recent devaluation in points awarded, I am moving away from Hotels.com, and try to do hotel bookings with Chase, or directly with Marriott if they offer reasonably-priced properties.
It's difficult to pick one photo for the entire entry. This view of the Sydney Harbour Bridge and Opera House is as good as any.
Monday 2/12. Anne dropped me off at the airport at about 3:15 pm for my 4:30 pm flight. The CLEAR line had quite a few people, so I decided to go to TSA Precheck directly. Other than having to show some ID (and half the time I need to do that with CLEAR, it seems), the process was quick. The person I took a mental note of was still in the CLEAR line waiting for a kiosk when the TSA agent cleared me.
That still gave me about 20 extra minutes, so I used the (renovated) United Club near Gate C80. When the plane was ready for takeoff, the pilot said we would have a wheels up time of 5:08 pm as one runway in SFO was shut down (I knew about that). The plane actually was airborne at 5:02, no more than a "normal" delay due to traffic at Newark. It touched down at 10:37 pm NJ time, and I left the jetway around 7:45 pm (10:45 pm NJ). While the flight itself took only 5:35 hours, the boarding to deplane time was 7 hours, and another 1:15 hours from curbside to boarding. I am writing this all down because I wanted to know how long this trip would take.
The EWR-SFO segment was in coach, and the plane was packed. I was actually quite comfortable in the aisle seat, even though sitting next to me was a tall gentleman (his legs encroached on both sides).
At SFO I took advantage of Priority Pass and had soup and wings at SF Giants Clubhouse, close to UA1527's arrival gate. After walking to the International Terminal, I spent a bit of time at the United Club. I boarded UA863 at about 10:10 pm. Actually I first went to the wrong gate which was boarding the flight to Brisbane. The flight was delayed by a few minutes to accommodate some late connecting passengers. Wheels up was 11:33 pm, and the plane touched down at 8:25 am Sydney time, and I deplaned at 8:45 am (it had to wait for a Finnair plane to clear the taxiway). That would make a flight time of 13:52 hours, but a board to deplane time of 15:37 hours. And Newark curbside to deplaning at SYD? 25:30 hours.
UA863 had light load in the Premium Plus and Economy sections. In Premium Plus there were about 10 passengers for 24 seats. I was the only passenger in the 4-seat center row. One could not lie across the seats, so it was somewhat of a "waste." In the economy section quite a few people had the entire row (3 or 4 seats) to themselves. I didn't watch any movie, and had internet (courtesy T-mobile) for only one hour. I must have fallen asleep quite a bit, but my watch tells me I slept fitting for about 4 hours, with no REM or deep sleep. I am typing this at around midnight 2/14, and have been quite alert most of the day. Towards the end of the flight the 777 was cruising at 38,000 ft. My understanding is the cabin pressure would be at about 7,000 ft, and I could feel a headache coming on.
Seating chart showed 17 out of 24 seats occupied. I don't know what happened (I know at least one got upgraded to business at the last minute), perhaps 10 people were in this section. For instance, the last middle row had no passengers.
The Premium Plus section. I didn't create all the mess, the person at the other end got a last minute upgrade.
This dinner looked a lot more substantial than it actually was. The main dish was a few small pieces of chicken smothered in cream sauce, with potatoes and green beans.
I didn't know what this group of islands is. Turns out to be Vanuatu.
Breakfast was more substantial.
SYD has been using this 2-step immigration process for a while now, there may be some savings (in personnel, at least), but the process takes a bit longer. One tends to stop at the first kiosk to scan the passport, so the line at the first bank of these kiosks was quite long. It turns out there are additional ones further along, but there are no signs to that effect, so people who do this often would know there are choices, but newcomers to Sydney (or those with faulty memory) won't know. I declared the bread and energy bars I brought for the trip, but was waved through anyway. I left customs at 9:07 am. Only a spoiled traveler would complain the process took too long; but I have been spoiled by the ease to get through Australian customs.
I bought a data SIM card from Telsim (a wholesaler for Telstra), had coffee before taking the train to Mascot. I was still too early to check in the hotel, so I left one piece of luggage with the front desk, and took a bus to East Gardens (about 15 minutes on bus) to meet up with Ruth and Stephen. They drove me to the Eastern Suburbs Memorial Gardens so I could visit our parents' graves. Afterwards we had dim-sum at East Phoenix.
I then walked to Green Square to the train station to head back to Mascot. My attempt to take a nap wasn't successful. At about 6 pm I left for the Sydney Opera House to see The Magic Flute. I stopped by the McDonald's at Circular Quay and it took close to 20 minutes to get a burger. After the opera I tried to get another burger at Burger King (Hungry Jack). They ran out of beef and chicken, except for small burgers like the Chicken Royal I got for A$3.50. I was back to the hotel a little after 11 pm.
From left to right: Island Princess, Brilliance of the Seas, and HMAS Adelaide.
Curtain call at completion of Mozart's The Magic Flute.
It was a cloudy and wet evening. This was taken at around 10:30 pm.
The Apple Watch APP says I walked 6.4 miles today.
Accommodations. Adina at SYD (2 nights).
Thursday 2/15. I had most of the day to myself, and did what I love to do: make use of the Sydney (technically NSW) Transportation. There were many options available, I ended up going to both Manly Beach and Bondi Beach. The weather has been cool and somewhat wet since I got here, so there wasn't much going on at either beach, except for some surfers taking advantage of the "rough" conditions.
It ended up being a long day. I left the hotel at around 10:30 am, didn't get back until around 9:30 pm.
Ferry rides from Circular Quay to Manly take 20 minutes. The seas were particularly rough between the North and South Heads. An announcement came on to warn passengers to not venture to the outside decks, although some still did - I was worried they might get tossed overboard. It was raining when I got to the pier, so I had lunch at Guzman y Gomez before going the the Corso to get to the beach. Shelley Beach, about a mile from Manly Beach, usually has lots of swimmers as it is calm, no one today. Many people were on the path, though.
It was Bondi Beach after Manly. To get there from Circular Quay, I walked to Martin Place to catch T4 to Bondi Junction, and then catch one of several buses to the beach. Bondi is the more popular one as it is much easier to get to. At about 1/2 mile it is small compared to Manly's 2-mile stretch. Of course the area surrounding Bondi Beach is heavily built up. (Many would argue it's the same with Manly Beach.)
On one of the trains several uniformed ticket inspectors came on board - the first encounter I can remember from the decades I have used public transportation in Sydney. A search of the web says about A$100M is lost by fare evasion, and there are 800 officers employed to deter it. Not sure about the economics.
St Matthews at Manly is an Anglican Church. Last time they were advertising ESL classes for new immigrants. This time it is the Alpha course.
Manly Beach seen from path to Shelley Beach. The Beach is about 2 miles long.
The renovated Fairy Bower Rockpool along the path to Shelley Beach.
The three beaches from the left are: Manly, Freshwater, and South Curl Curl.
Interesting tree not quite blocking the footpath.
The Greater Crested Tern.
The Australian Brushturkey.
Google identifies this as either the "Silver Gull" or the "Red-billed Gull."
The bills on this pair are clearly red. The most common gull in Australia is the silver gull.
Virgin evidently has a fleet of cruise ships. This is the Resilient Lady.
Bondi Beach can be very crowded on a sunny summer weekend. Today was neither sunny nor a weekend. It's still summer, though.
Bondi Murals.
This beach measures about 1/2 a mile.
There are still quite a few public phones in the downtown area. This is is still a "payphone" but offers free calling to anywhere in Australia.
I stopped by Westfield at Bondi Junction to have coffee and cake, and to while away the time until it was time to meet up with Ruth at Chatswood at 6:30 pm.
Dinner was with Ruth, Stephen, Susanna and her family - 7 of us altogether. The food offered at Mr. Stonebowl was quite good, and quite inexpensive, costing less the A$120 for the seven of us. While the Ngo's rushed home so the kids can do their school work, Ruth, Stephen and I spend some time having coffee. The "food court" used to have a Tim Ho Wan, business was quite poor then and the place was quiet. It looked considerably busier today.
Fried rice with calamari at Mr. Stonebowl in Chatswood.
It was about 9:30 pm when I got back to the hotel. I walked 7 1/2 miles today.
Friday 2/16. Not much happened today. I checked out of the hotel at around 11 am, and took the train to Chatswood. Again some ticket inspectors came on board, so the issue is taken seriously. I forgot to pack a jacket with me, so spent quite some time at the Uniqlo store in the Westfield Shopping Center to see if I could get one; but finally decided against it. I also had lunch at the Westfield center: a half-chicken at O'Porto.
A short Uber ride got me to Forestville, where I will stay the next two nights.
Tim and others stopped by after their visit to Alfred (the dentist), and we talked about their fishing adventures the last few days. The weather was quite bad the last few days.
William - a long time friend of Stephen's - invited "everyone" to dinner. It was at the Greenwood Restaurant in North Sydney. The dinner lasted about 2 1/2 hours.
A duck dish offered at the Greenwood Restaurant.
Accommodation: Duke Street, Forestville. (2 nights)
Saturday 2/17. For lunch we went with Susanna's family to a cafe (the farm bethel) in Killarney Heights. A hamburger here cost A$22, on the expensive side. Then again the town is an expensive town.
We then drove to East Gosford to meet up with Tim, Whitney, Alyson, and Johnson. Tim had been fishing in the area for the last few days, and have lost quite a few fish because the fishing lines kept getting caught on the rocks or chewed off. His trip today was a bit more exciting than usual as he needed to help a disabled boat. For "afternoon tea" we had the fish they caught that morning.
For dinner we went to this Peking Garden Restaurant in Gosford. The food is described to be from the "olden days." I was surprised at how busy the place was (being a Saturday night might be one reason). The food was of good quality. We didn't order a lot as we just had tea less than two hours ago, the bill came to about A$200 (feeding 11 of us). We had desserts of fried ice cream and bananas, that added A$50 to the total. Still very reasonable.
The catch of the day. It turned into afternoon tea for us. Fish soup, grilled fish, steamed fish and baked fish. The blue swimmer crabs here are a lot bigger than the blue crabs found in the Navesink.
This is the boat (about 23') used by the fishermen. I had a chance to drive it for a while.
15 of us were there. Alfred and his family couldn't join us for dinner.
"Robert Chicken" offered at Peking Garden Restaurant in Gosford. The lightly fried chicken tasted very good. Presentation could be improved.
Tomorrow I will be heading to Brisbane.
Sunday 2/18. Ruth took Tim's group to the airport early so they could fix some seat assignment problems on their flight back to Hong Kong. (Ultimately unsuccessful.) Chris dropped me off at the Chatswood Station so I could take the train to SYD domestic airport.
I had lunch at Bistro Bar 2020, courtesy of Priority Pass. Prices here are a lot more reasonable than the restaurants in San Francisco. I ordered a "big breakfast," a coffee, and a bottled water and the total was less than the allowance of A$36. Virgin Australia is a partner of United, so I could visit their lounge. (Indeed when I went to get a luggage tag at the airport kiosk I was allowed three suitcases.)
Parts of Central Station looked very different from the last time I visited. Now escalators take passengers to the platforms, so luggage becomes less of a problem. Wasn't very crowded on a Sunday.
Big Breakfast at Bistro Bar 2020. All this came to less than A$36.
Weather had been iffy throughout Australia the last few days, and indeed an earlier Virgin Australia SYD-BNE flight was canceled. Ours was delayed by about 30 minutes, but it was the late availability of the fueling truck that caused the delay.
Alfred came to pick me up, and we had dinner prepared by Ling.
Accommodation: Bellbowrie House (4 nights).
Monday 2/19. Stayed in Bellbowrie. Ling, Wally and I had dinner at Bellbowrie Tavern.
Fish and Chips (salad substitute) at Bellbowrie Tavern. A$16 for seniors.
Panna Cotta with strawberry ice cream. A$5 for seniors.
Tuesday 2/20. About mid-morning I took Bus 444 to town and visited a couple of museums located in the South Bank. I had visited both on prior occasions.
Free admission to Queensland Museum basically allows one to visit three exhibits: insects, someone's collection of butterflies (and other insects, it turns out), and another exhibit on dinosaurs "native" to Australia. If the insect exhibit is any indication, I imagine they are all quite informative, albeit on a narrow subject. There is a display on how "foreign predators" are introduced to control "foreign invasive species," and leaves the visitor with the impression these are smart moves. I just kept thinking "cane toad" when I was viewing them.
One is greeted with this panel upon entering the Museum.
Panels like this are quite informative. I read most of them.
Introducing foreign species to combat other foreign species. What happens when "prey" runs out?
There evidently were quite a few dinosaurs roaming the continent. Not sure what this is, or when it was around.
Queensland Art Gallery has a nice collection of local art, both Indigenous and European. A good resource if one were to understand how the "art scene" in the country has changed over the decades. As I am not a student of the subject, I just try to "absorb" what I see. Indigenous art is easy enough to spot, I just kept thinking of European artists when I see Western-style paintings. Think Renoir, Cezanne, and Picasso (interestingly no Chagall or Mondrian), I leave it to the reader to decide if this is a compliment.
Google Lens knows a lot of these paintings. But not this one.
See explanation below. These paintings looked more hideous in real life.
Comets, I think.
Brisbane in 1880.
The Indigenous Peoples were doing pointillism way before Seurat.
On the way back I had coffee in Indooroopilly with Alfred.
Although it took me a while to figure out if the Translink Go Card had enough balance on it, using it for my three bus rides was quite convenient.
Dinner was lamb prepared by Ling. After dinner I walked for about an hour - I hadn't done much for the prior two days.
Wednesday 2/21. Today was spent at BST attending a CAC meeting. It was a once-a-year gathering with people from other cities flying in for the event. Wally and I left at around 8 am, so caught a lot of the rush hour traffic - the trip took an hour, it takes 25 minutes during off hours. Most of the group went for dinner at Katsuco Restaurant, located at Jephson Hotel, which I had stayed at a few times.
New sign at BST. CAC now figures reasonably prominently. So do the toilets.
My old battery died (it got very hot, good thing it didn't catch fire), so Wally took me to an Aldi store which sold them at A$20 each.
I went out for a walk later in the evening, and completed my rings. Today was a lot more humid than yesterday, so I was rather soaked after the walk.
Thursday 2/22. This morning Ling had to go see her doctor, but she was back by 10 am. I toyed with the idea to go to town, but the forecasted high of 91 deterred me, so I stayed in the whole day.
Dinner was at Yum Cha Cuisine with Alfred. Then it was back to Bellbowrie, a shower, final bits of packing, and to the airport. Security was a bit slow (we are talking 15 minutes), and immigration automated. Priority Pass provided two options: a restaurant, or Plaza Premium Lounge. PPL usually is quite dependable, but the one at BNE is quite small, very limited food selection. When I got here at about 10 pm, it was quite crowded. An hour later things quieted down a bit.
At Yum Cha Cuisine in Indooroopilly.
The Plaza Premium Lounge at BNE is one of the smallest I have seen. When I first got here (around 10 pm) it was very crowded. An hour later things have quieted down a lot. 2 more flights this evening.
My flight leaves after midnight at 12:40 am, and the gate is close by, so I have some time still in this lounge.
Only a few planes (perhaps 3?) would leave after midnight. Entire wings of the airport have no activity this late at night.
Accommodation: Overnight CX156.
Friday 2/23. At first I though boarding was going to be chaotic as it was supposed to be "by row" but all the coach passengers lined up in one long queue. But it ended up being quite smooth, It took 7 minutes for me to board after our group started moving, and I was in my seat at 0:13 after midnight for a 0:40 departure. And I have absolutely no status with Cathay Pacific.
The 777-300ER looked a little dated, but the seats were comfortable, the legroom was sufficient (32" per SeatGuru), and - best of all - seat 50E was empty. With the eyeshades I brought along I managed to get some sleep. Without a full load there were no long waits for use of the bathroom either. There was about a 4 1/2 hour window between dinner and breakfast service, and I managed to doze off every now and then - the Sleep APP says 2 hours, it felt longer.
There is enough traffic between Brisbane and Hong Kong that Cathay uses a 777-300ER for this flight. The plane was quite full, but I did have an empty seat next to me.
A proper menu for economy passengers.
These colors are brighter than what I actually saw in the dim cabin. The sauce was nice, but "where is the chicken?" I had to dig through the actual dish to find it.
Breakfast was quite decent.
This is an unintended review of Cathay Pacific, and my experience was that it was a pleasant passenger experience. With economy plus in United, I am generally happy. Food on United was typically a free burger (a 1K perk) that was a challenge to eat "cleanly." Of course I am comparing international with domestic service, but Cathay managed to elevate the long (8:15 hours) flight from tolerable to pleasant. A lot of that probably because there was no one in Seat 50E.
It took about 25 minutes to get from the gate to immigration, including a tram ride. For perspective, airport express takes 24 minutes to get to the "town center" (I assume that is Central). I had breakfast (again) at Tai Hing Restaurant after I left customs. Then it was the usual Airport Express followed by a taxi ride, during rush hour. Ling told me Hong Kong has lost a lot of its bustle, indeed there were no traffic issues getting to Causeway Bay. (The streets were also not crowded in Causeway when I went out during lunch time.)
For lunch I went to Hysan Place, ate at Fisholic as Pepper Lunch was too crowded. Afterwards I walked around CWB for a couple of hours, stopping by Uniqlo to get some clothes, and Wellcome for some groceries. The Uniqlo store at World Trade Center has closed down.
Glutinous Rice Dumpling and Congee at Tai Hing Restaurant at HKG Airport.
I have been riding these Hysan Place elevators for all these years, didn't realize there are some "double deckers" in operation. [I posted this same picture earlier already.]
Pepper Lunch is my go-to place for a meal. Today the line was just too long. So I went next door to Fisholic.
Fried fish skin and fried fish sticks. With the drink the bill was HK$75. Too much food.
Tim stopped by the apartment after work and gave me hyaluronic acid shots for my knees. While he did his show in the evening, I went out for dinner.
Accommodations: Causeway Bay Apartment (5 nights).
Saturday 2/24. I was living in Kowloon City when I left Hong Kong in 1970. Today I made a visit, walking the streets, and spending sometime in Kowloon City Park. In some way the area is still quite "sleepy." Many apartment blocks have undergone renovations, but many look they have remained the same.
I spent over 10 years as a child in the Kowloon City area. We first moved to Fok Lo Tsuen Road #44. It's now being rebuilt, or under renovation - I couldn't tell.
After I left for the US, my family moved to Lion Rock Road #6. I visited a few times after I graduated from college. The building looks the same, but the small alley next to the house seems to have disappeared.
Kowloon Walled City Park.
Many different birds can be found (well, mostly heard) in the park. This - per Google Lens - is an Oriental Magpie-Robin.
A spotted dove - Spilopelia chinensis.
The Pink Ball Dombeya originated in India.
Dinner was at Ho Hung Kee at Hysan Place. The food court area was as crowded as I have seen, being a Saturday night.
A double decker elevator. Never noticed this sign for the many times I have ridden an elevator in this building.
Sunday 2/26. Tim came by at around 10 am to take me to Aberdeen Boat Club, where we had a late breakfast before heading out in his boat. It had to take way more than an hour at about 8 knots to get from ABC to Sham Tseng. The area has long been known as the place for roasted goose since I was a kid. I was surprised at the number of restaurants (big and small) that serve up this dish. We went to Yue Kee. Tim caught the fishing bug from his recent visit to Sydney, so we trolled for fish both ways, but no fish bit. The route is a busy shipping channel. While we were sure we could get out of the way, we still needed to be alert to some huge container ships and some fast ferries (we crossed the route taken by these jetboats to and from Macau).
I finally managed to get dinner at Pepper Lunch in Hysan Place.
Heading towards Tsing Ma Bridge connecting Tsing Yi and Ma Wan Islands.
Underneath the slender span of the bridge.
The cable-stayed bridge to the left of the Tsing Ma Bridge is the Ting Kau Bridge connecting Tsing Yi to the mainland.
On the right is the Kap Shui Mun Bridge connecting Ma Wan and Lantau Island. With a main span of 430 meters, it is the longest cable-stayed bridge in the world. The name means "fast flowing water gate."
Noah's Ark is located om Ma Wan Island.
Tim's boat in the background.
We encountered many container ships along the way.
Finally, a meal at Pepper Lunch. This is the Australian Sirloin.
Fairwood closed at 8:30 pm, so I had some fried noodles at the W Welcome Restaurant nearby.
Monday 2/26. Tim scheduled a CT angiogram for me, so my morning was spent at the Epic Medical Lab. A lot of time was spend waiting for the drug to lower my heart rate to kick in - a little over 30 minutes. The procedure itself was less than 10 minutes (10 seconds or so of exposure), but extra time was needed to make sure I can safely take the test. Hong Kong has this medical voucher system for residents, and I managed to make use of it.
Kam Kee Cafe grew from a street stall in the 1960s to today's several locations. This one at Windsor House in Causeway Bay.
I was looking for "French Toast," all they had on offer was half a toast with - in this case - fried chicken leg. Nostalgia often not backed by reality. Reasonable combo (including the coffee) at HK$47.
I scheduled the renewal of my HK ID for 8:30 pm, the process involved talking to two immigration officers, and took all of 15 minutes. Appointments were difficult to come by (booked as soon as they became available 96 days prior), so they added evening shifts. I booked tonight's appoint about three weeks earlier, and there were few people here tonight. Things have gotten efficient; of course the truly efficient would issue the new card right away, it now takes about 10 days for the new card to be ready.
Tuesday 2/27. A bunch of Cornell alumni would have lunch every couple of months. I joined them for the first time today. Several I have kept in touch with, including two who were in the same department as I. It was at a small restaurant (Hop Sze) in San Wan Ho.
Menu from Hop Sze. The restaurant has sold its name to another company and will close down in May. A much larger one will open in central, headed by the current executive chef.
This obviously is a crab dish. It didn't occur me to take a photo until we were done.
From the front: Sonny Y, Eddie W, Keng L, Clement Y (standing), Michael T, Michael C (?), Philip C, me, Daniel L, Arthur C, James W (?), Abraham (?), ?. Many of whom I hadn't know (one of them got his Ph D in 1966), or hadn't met for a long time.
Wednesday 2/28. To catch the 9 am flight to Singapore I had to wake up around 5:30 am. I did manage about 5:15 hours of sleep. Uber Taxi (called with Uber APP) is convenient, I got on at 6:25 am, and got to the departure gate area at around 7:30 am. I had to go through a staffed lane to clear immigration as I have only a temporary HK ID, that took a bit of time.
Hong Kong has one of the four Chase Sapphire Lounges world-wide, and this early there were very few people. Overall, however, it was a disappointment, mostly because of its food offering. For hot food only oriental selections were offered: and I was in the mood for bacon and eggs. One could order using the online menu, but the selection is quite limited.
It was disappointing that only a limited selection of hot Asian breakfast items were offered at the lounge.
Didn't stop me from going for a second plate.
Cook-to-order items are available, but nothing strikes my fancy.
CX759 uses a 7-year old A350-900, but the interior felt a lot more dated. The good thing is Cathay Pacific serves a reasonable hot breakfast (with eggs and sausage!), and I had an empty seat beside me, the plane was about 80% full. That I am bringing only a backpack makes things even more straightforward - although I keep thinking I left something behind.
A respectable economy class breakfast offering.
The moment the plane touched down. The airport is practically at sea level, but the altimeter on this "pilot screen" still says 47 m. Let's hope it isn't really what the cockpit sees.
Singapore immigration is completely automated, and straightforward. My passport is in its nineth year, so scanning properly took multiple tries (similar problem in Hong Kong). Since I had time, I stayed at Terminal 4 for a while, had lunch, before grabbing a taxi to the hotel. I ate at the Arrivals level, with only a few restaurant options, turned out there are a few more at the Departure level. The Grab APP was easy to use, and I was checked in a little after 3 pm.
Dorsett Singapore.
Room adequate, especially for one person.
Another reason Singapore is a fine city. They used be able to laugh at themselves for all these restrictions, not sure if they have retained the same sense of humor.
The evening's Hope event was held at The Mandala Club, a one-minute walk from the hotel.
Joe Tang introducing the evening's program.
With Peter Greer. Notice this is a "disco room."
For a couple years Anne and I were on many zoom calls with Corrine. This is the first time we met.
Honey handed out at the Hope event. I had only a backpack so had to throw this out after tasting a bit of it.
More than 75% of the Singapore population is Chinese. The hotel is close to Chinatown, and streets are decorated to welcome the year of the dragon.
Prior to the recent past, most Singaporean Chinese descended from South China immigrants. Now most restaurants serve northern cuisine.
Accommodations: Dorsett Singapore. (1 night)
Thursday 2/29. I mistook "green tea" for "herbal tea" late last night, that might explain why I didn't sleep well at all. The Apple Watch "Sleep" functions says 4:30 hours. So I had no trouble getting up at around 6:30 am to prepare for the trip back to Hong Kong.
Priority Pass allowed me to visit the Blossom Lounge (run by Premium Plaza) at Terminal 4. I have yet to find a good breakfast at a club during this trip. The scrambled egg was lumps in watery "eggs," and the laksa was short on ingredients. Nonetheless, the lounge provided some respite, even though the airport wasn't all that crowded.
CX658 left on time. Indeed the pushback was a few minutes early, and the flight attendants scrambled to "arm the doors." How good a coach flight feels definitely depends on whether there is an adjacent empty seat, even though I didn't have to get up at all as the A350 has a 3-seat middle row. Cathay Pacific provides a camera view, which can be interesting as the plane retracts and drops its landing gear at takeoff and landing. The lunch again was quite substantial compared to what I am used to (that means United Airlines). The highest cruising altitude was 43,000 ft, cabin pressure was around 6,000.
Today's aircraft felt a bit older than its age (less than 3 years).
View from outside Room 704 at the Dorsett Hotel.
Inside Terminal 4.
The scrambled eggs were watery and lumpy. But at least there is a choice of western and oriental breakfast.
The plane is less than 3 years old (used another source).
The "Pilot View" provides this view. Here taxiing at SIN.
Again, a decent early lunch for coach passengers.
The HKG gate was reasonably close to immigration, and the process was quite straightforward. Still it took an hour to get from Gate to Central. I saved perhaps 10 minutes by buying the ticket after the train gets to the Hong Kong Station. So it would be more than 1 1/2 hours from Gate to apartment.
I vaguely recall a traditional cafe in Central and did find it. A "French toast" and hot lemon tea cost HK$33.
Still looking for the perfect "French toast." This one served at Chiu Lung Cafe is close. There was another cafe right below it (in the basement).
Accommodation: Causeway Bay Apartment (8 nights).
Friday 3/1. There was a Hope HK Board morning meeting at the American Club. We frequented this club in the early 1990s when we lived in Hong Kong. They put out an excellent Sunday brunch buffet and Anne's extended family usually attended. Exchange Square used to be the premier office space in Hong Kong. I am sure it's still expensive, but not that exclusive anymore. The buildings in Hong Kong - especially Central - are designed in such a way that it is really difficult to find one's way around. After getting off the taxi, I had to take two escalators up to the atrium, and then a lift to the 47th floor, and then another "lift shuttle" to the 49th floor. The meeting was one floor below, so another set of stairs. I can imagine the confusion of a first time visitor.
The Hope event was also held at the American Club. More than 100 people showed up, including my brother Tim and several DBS old boys. Tim said the food was good, the speakers were engaging and convincing, from him that's some endorsement. Preliminary results were better than expectations, which is great.
In the early 1990s my family frequented the Hong Kong American Club as my in-laws were members. This is the first time I stepped foot in the place in over 30 years. There is still a degree of familiarity to it. This is where we used to do Sunday brunches.
What I remember as American breakfast served here looked much better than this. Of course the food had been sitting there for a while as we were late starting the meeting.
The meeting of current and former Hope HK Board members were held in the Presidents' room.
That's why it's so named. On a wall are portraits of presidents who signed them for the club.
From the balcony.
I was seated at the far table. Tim was to my right
It was a surprise to see Edwin. He now lives in Abu Dhabi.
The events at American Club didn't meet the minimum spend requirement, so we "bought" several bottles of wine, and I took one.
Saturday 3/2. After Tim got off work (he works 1/2 day on Saturdays) he drove me to the Tai Po House where we met up with a relative and had a late lunch. Afterwards I walked up the path (Tat Wan Road) to get my exercise.
An unexpected cold snap hit Hong Kong. This is single digit centigrade, which I don't recall ever occurring when I was here as a kid. (It did get to single digits in the New Territories.)
This Koi pond started out as a swimming pool. For a while a few oscars were kept. They grew because of the abundant smaller fish, but couldn't survive the winter.
Met with my relative at this Boat One Restaurant in Tai Wo.
A rather nice hiking trail from the Taipo house.
Now one can take an MTR from Taipo to Admiralty. This is the new part of the Admiralty MTR station.
Sunday 3/3. I attended the 10:45 am service at the North Point Alliance Church. That was again followed by the walk up Broadwood Road.
Tim and Alyson went trolling for fish during the day, and we met up at Aberdeen Boat Club. We expected to have early dinner at the Fullerton Hotel at Ocean Park. The restaurant won't be open for dinner at 6 pm, so we decided to have afternoon tea instead. It costs HK$788 for two, so we added some savory dishes (small) to get to HK$1000 in spending to avoid the valet parking charge. Yes, it sounds pretentious and silly.
I went to the North Point Alliance Church for Sunday Service. My seat in the auditorium had a view of two TV screens. This is the summary of the sermon today.
I happened across this ornate Alexandra Hotel. The decor borders on being gaudy. It was very quiet except for the restaurant, offering a Sunday buffet lunch.
I checked the room rates. For March 8, it's about HK$1000. This screen says a promotional rate of $18,888 for a month is available, which works out to about US$81 per day for a 30-day month.
During the day the hike up Broadview Road provides a nice view of the city. The Hong Kong Stadium is in the middle, further in the background are the Harbor and Kowloon.
It was quite quiet at the Fullerton Hotel Cafe at Ocean Park.
With Alyson, my niece.
Afternoon tea for two.
Since there were three of us, we ordered a couple more small dishes.
The mascot of Ocean Park is a panda.
Alyson drove me back to Causeway Bay afterwards.
Monday 3/4. With a rescheduled return flight to NJ, I have a few days to fill. Today I decided to hit Taipo, for a couple of reasons.
The Railroad Museum in Tai Po Market was a place I had always wanted to visit, and with the new direct rail service from Admiralty to Taipo Market it was relatively straight forward. It took about 50 minutes from the Causeway Bay Station to The Tai Wo Station. After lunch at Tai Wo Shopping Center, I took the short 10-minute walk to the Museum. The locomotives and railway cars still felt somewhat familiar. The Museum was converted from the Tai Po Market Station, which was de-commissioned in 1983.
One road, two separate pedestrian lights - one for each direction of traffic. If one is not careful, one may see the green light and walk onto the crosswalk (see photo), with serious consequences. Locals probably know how the lights behave, but not visitors. Always stay alert is the right advice.
This is the Lam Chuen River, and it floods during heavy rains. I wonder what happens to these moored boats. Notice how green the water looks.
Upstream maybe 200 yards. The difference in clarity is real.
The old Tai Po Market train station, decommissioned in 1983 and turned into the Railway Museum soon afterwards.
I vaguely recall this kind of locomotives when I was young. The line was called KCR, for Kowloon Canton Railway. The same route (with some rerouting) is now called the Eastern Rail Line.
First Class travel.
Third Class. My usual seating on my frequent trips between Kowloon and Tai Po Market.
Didn't expect to find this, but here is the Spanish International School.
Even more unexpected is the Norwegian International School.
The visit was followed by a walk to Lin Au Public School (more properly Village School) where my father taught for many years. It took about 30 minutes, with an elevation gain of about 400 feet. My heart circulation certainly got a work out, and I have a new appreciation how the daily trek must have felt, on more uneven footpaths at that.
Lin Hoi Public School, where my father taught for many years, is a 30-minute walk up a rather steep slope.
Close by is a pavilion which is used mostly by hikers.
Village dogs remind me of the time I was chased by several, and bitten by one, about 30 years ago. I am still apprehensive, and was ready to scream. This dog didn't pay me any attention, and just walked away.
White egrets are common. This is probably a bittern, it flew away before I could get close.
I got back to Causeway Bay a little after 4 pm. The trip began at around 11 am.
Tonight an aisle seat in the Premium Plus section of UA802 opened up, so I grabbed it. Joe Jr's advice was to keep looking as things tend to move (some are confirmed to Business, for instance).
Tuesday 3/5. I called in the Toronto "Getting Traction" meeting this morning, at 7:30 am HK time.
My tour of the day was the Hong Kong Museum of Art. I don't know what kind of collection it has, but all the displays are of Chinese art, with particular emphasis on a calligrapher and a painter. Some of the displays are interesting, and some are even educational, but the overall effect was a bit wanting.
The Hong Kong Museum of Art.
This "Small Small World Panorama" reminds me of the Disney. I was ready to break into the song.
"To the youngsters, art has no categories."
No idea what this text, copied by Jat See-yeu, means.
This plaque explains why Jat wrote the text. One would think a photo of the basin would be helpful.
The poem is familiar to most Chinese.
If you don't understand Chinese, you are out of luck.
The calligrapher also tried his hand at painting.
At a kiosk one's personality can be determined from a series of 12 questions. I scored a "perfectionist," others are "adventurer," "elegance" and "fashionista." (Yes, they need another word for elegance.)
This is supposed to be the perfect object for me, the perfectionist. I am not a great fan of "blue China."
Panaromic view of the Hong Kong Island from the MoA's balcony.
I took the Star Ferry from TST to Central. The boat AIDA is docked at Ocean Terminal.
For my exercise I walked up Pottinger Street.
In the evening Nathan hosted a debriefing meeting on last Friday's events.
Wednesday 3/6. I went to Wanchai to collect my new HK ID, and decided to visit the Space Museum.
The HK Space Museum was built in 1980. I vaguely recall a classmate at Cornell returning to the city to work in the museum. It is closed on Tuesdays, so I couldn't visit it yesterday (it would have been a rushed visit anyway). The modest fee (HK$10?) charged for general admission is waived on Wednesdays (yes!), although some special exhibits require additional tickets to be purchased.
I walk away with mixed feelings. I did learn something from my stay, that's good. On the other hand, there are "facts" which may be doubtful. Astronomy and cosmology have made great progress in the last few decades, so perhaps it's difficult to keep up with the most current facts.
It was a misty day. One could barely see the Cultural Center from the Wan Chai pier area.
The Golden Bauhinia next to the Convention Plaza.
An interpretative plaque illustrates how much the shore line has changed since 1842. There unfortunately is no scale to the map, so I couldn't really tell how drastic the changes have been.
Never quite understand why these rows of palm trees.
The Aqualuna II is a motorized Chinese junk with decorative sales. Tourists, of course.
This reminds me of the spider at the Bilbao Guggenheim Museum. The Bilbao museum is much younger, but I don't know how this (looks like a crab) and the spider relate, if at all.
This galaxy model is put together with many sheets of acrylic (?) with stars embedded.
I am not sure if my knowledge of astronomy is current, or the Museum needs to update some of its displays.
There are sophisticated displays like this, and then it seems necessary to explain the doppler effect and the blue and red shifts.
For dinner John Louie and I joined a group from our high school class for dinner at ClubONE Victoria in East TST. Our class had a reunion in 2019, so I saw a few of them at that event. John and I attended this for the first time, so we didn't have to pay. One of the attendees (not a DBS old boy) has a fish farm and he brought along a grouper to be cooked by the restaurant, that reduced the cost tremendously (I think it was about HK$2,500 for 12).
Thursday 3/7. Lunch was with Joe T, Alex, Eden and Joe's mom. Joe's mom lives in the LA area, but is visiting, partially due to the arrival of another grandchild.
Afternoon at Coffee Academics with Arthur.
Then I caught Minibus 30 to Causeway Bay and then MTR to Tseung Kwan O. TKO is very easy to access nowadays. Nathan, Sharon and I had dinner at this M&C Duck restaurant, and some Chinese dessert to continue our conversation as the restaurant would only give guest a 90-minute window.
With Nathan and Sharon in Tseung Kwan O.
Friday 3/8. Last night I had two zoom calls: with the York PA group and Fidelity, which ended at 1 am this morning. And I had the Toronto group call starting at 8 am this morning. As a result I didn't get much sleep.
Kam and Susanna are in town, we have known them for decades. I took MTR to have an early lunch with them, and then coffee. I stopped by the apartment they are staying at to pick up a book, and saw the leak that has left quite a few streaks into their bathroom. Things can get complicated if one's neighbors are not friendly or cooperative.
A friend in Canada just had a tooth implant, costing him considerable money. I am sure the China option is a lot cheaper. This is an ad in an MTR car.
Lunch with the Wongs. They plan to spend three months out of the year in Hong Kong.
It was then back to CWB, pack, and shower as preparation to the evening flight. Tim was back before I left. With Uber taxi to HK station, and HK Express to the airport, it took me 1:10 hours from leaving CWB to getting through immigration, which was quite good.
This time I stopped by the Plaza Premium Lounge by Gate 35 (UA802 departs from Gate 29). It was quiet when I first got there, but was getting busy as the evening wore on. One remark I want to make about these Asian airport lounges is that their standards have fallen considerably. That is especially true in their limited food offerings.
Plaza Premium Lounge by Gate 35 was quiet when I first went it. It got busier as the evening progressed.
I had a Premium Economy seat HKG-LAX, and watched Oppenheimer (a three-hour movie). I didn't do much the rest of the flight, and I suppose I managed some sleep. The flight was 11:30 hours. Per the Sleep APP, I was in bed for 6:31 hours, and slept for 10 minutes. I am sure I was not conscious for longer than that.
I sat near the deplaning door, so I was able to get through Immigration very quickly. There didn't seem to be a lot of scrutiny in any case. Even though the plane landed at Terminal 7, it was still quite a walk from the customs area to the security area (and somehow I wounded up in Terminal 6). CLEAR has proved absolutely useless during this trip as the lane was closed a couple of times due to equipment malfunction. I ended up moving to the "normal" Precheck line. Surprisingly all I had to do was to show my ID, my passport in this case.
There was going to be an empty seat next to me, but the husband of the woman, seated in an aisle seat in front of her, moved to the center seat. He half expected I would take his seat, but I was too petty and vindictive to take the hint. In any case, someone moved into that seat rather quickly. The flight was short at 4:30 hours, and I didn't get much sleep. Service on this red-eye was minimal, my tray table wasn't cleared until just before the plane landed. (Perhaps some person with a garbage bag came through but I was asleep; but couldn't he/she at least pick it up?)
Accommodation: Overnight flights (2).
Saturday 3/9. On weekends NJ Transit starts running at around 6 am. And Uber - to my surprise - costs only around $40. It was around 5:30 am that I got home.
This was a very long trip: 26 nights total. Even in my business travel days, 3 weeks was my limit.
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