Saturday, June 26, 2010— I left the hotel at 9:00 and took the metro and the light rail to the airport. It is a convenient, fast way to get there at a very reasonable price. It took one hour. Then it took only 30 minutes to check in, go through immigration and security, and get to the gate. That was the only part of the day that went smoothly, though. I had some leftover Chinese currency. Since it is no good outside of In advance of my trips, I make currency exchange charts that will let me glance to see the equivalent value in dollars when I am spending money in another country. I just keep one of these charts paper-clipped to my money. While waiting at my gate, I put away my Thirty minutes before my flight as I sat at the gate with a small group of other people wondering if we were traveling on a small plane, they announced a gate change. We had to rush through the terminal where we found a wide-body jet already full of people. Apparently they changed the gate after we checked in and no one thought about us until they realized they were missing about 25 people. The airport was so busy that it took us almost an hour in line on the plane before we were able to take off. The flight is only a 3-hour flight, so that added 1/3 more time to our trip. Then when we got to As I had expected it was raining in Putting everything together, I spent 11 hours today getting from my hotel in The
This is the first time I have been in Hong Kong for 35 years! I am hoping the weather will cooperate some so I can see the changes. The sun will be out Tuesday. If I am lucky, Monday will also be a decent day. But it is raining today and looks like it will be raining tomorrow, too. Spending Update: During 52 days in Sunday, June 27, 2010— The rain is still falling today, so I will stay in the area of the hotel and explore rather than go further out. I hope it doesn't spoil all my days here. The desk in the hotel has a plug for a broadband connection, but there is no wire. And I do not have a wire myself. Therefore, I went downstairs to ask if they had one I could borrow. They actually had one they give as a gift to guests—a portable one that coils into a small plastic case. And along with it came a small multi-card reader with USB hub for downloading photos from camera cards. What a nice gift! But then I came upstairs and tried to get on the Internet. It is not free here! In fact, they charge over $5 US per hour to be on the Internet. That's a ridiculous price considering how little broadband coverage costs these days. It just confirmed something I have always observed—the more expensive and fancy a hotel is, the more they tend to charge for every extra service. It's strange how a $35 a night motel will let you make free local phone calls and have free wi-fi, and a $300 a night hotel will charge you for them! I pulled out my guidebook and started reading. Also as I have observed before, it said that My neighborhood is an interesting one with narrow streets and small blocks that are lined with small shops and restaurants. There is also a nice market. I passed a bakery with nice looking pastries and bought myself two for breakfast—one with pressed ham and an egg cooked inside it and another that had coconut and pineapple inside and a crumbly sugar mixture on the surface. Both were good and in a dough that was a bit sweet. It rained more in the afternoon, so I took a nap, read from my current book, watched TV, etc. Then I went back out at 17:00 to explore some more. There are many meet markets nearby with cooked meat—pork, duck, chicken, etc. I bought some pork and a box of rice to go with it and brought it back to the room for dinner. Then I stayed inside doing more of what I had done in the afternoon. By 22:00 I was tired and went to sleep. |
Sunday, June 27, 2010
Hong Kong
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