HONG KONG-THERE AND BACK

Pinoy Boat Yard
Port Carmen,Cebu
Philippines

Kathy and I have just returned from one of the few land adventure trips that we take. Our visit to Hong Kong was quite an adventure. We departed from here in the boat yard on Monday to spend the night in a hotel near the airport as our flight was in the early morning hours. Monday was also the day that typhoon UTOR made landfall on the northern Philippine island of Luzon packing 200 plus kilometers per hour winds or 120 mph. This was far north of us and posed no problem but was crossing Luzon and heading toward our destination of Hong Kong though scheduled to arrive after us.

Our flight left on time for the slightly more than two hour flight. We arrived through the clouds with no view of the city. first was exchanging some money to Hong Kong dollars, basically 7 HK $ to 1 US $. Next it was to figure out how to use the rapid transit system or MRT to get from the airport in to the city and our hotel. The MRT was very similar to the one we had used extensively in Singapore which was a big help. Only a slight mistake was made getting off the MRT one stop to soon but after some direction by a helpful MRT person we made a short walk through the rain to our hotel. Checked in though as we were early our room was not ready. Our baggage was left, two small backpacks, and we were off to look about and have some lunch. The rain was continuing along with wind. Lunch was found at a local eatery. The menu was all in Chinese so we pointed to pictures of what we wanted. One young employee spoke enough English to tell me
what I ordered was beef with noodles not pork. Lunch was OK and we both managed with the chop sticks but for a basic noodle shop not cheap at a little over ten dollars US. We were soon to find that very little is inexpensive in Hong Kong. As the rain and wind continued we made our way back to the hotel. We asked about internet and found in the hotel it was $20 US for a 24 hour period!! Hey it's free at the Starbucks across the street but they only allow you 20 minutes a day. Kathy bit the bullet and we could now be connected. As "UTOR" continued to make it's way toward us crossing the North China sea we spent the afternoon lounging about our room, quite nice on the 18th floor with a city view. During our stay it was a view of the clouds racing by and rain pelting down. dinner was at the hotel, they had a great looking buffet but at $50 US per person we declined staying with the regular menu but still it was $50 for the two of us. Kathy had a chicken Ceasar {sp} salad and I a barbecued pork dish.

Wednesday morning I was off early to visit Starbucks for my morning caffeine intake. Back in the hotel I noticed the message board regarding "UTOR", still headed our way but not a direct hit. The weather officials had hoisted signal flag 8 meaning winds above 63 kilometers/hour or 38 miles/hour. Later when Kathy and I headed down to Starbucks for breakfast we asked what could be done during the day under typhoon watch. The answer was stay in the hotel as no buses or taxi's were running, most stores and all the shopping malls were closed and if the wind warning increased the MRT would close. So after a bite to eat and a short walk it was back to our room.

Later in the day the wind warning dropped to 3, the order is 1, 3, 8, 9, 11 sounds odd to us but!!! Off we went for a ride on the MRT and to see some of the area. We did walk around in some of the market areas but about 85% of things were closed.

Thursday our flight was to be at 0940 so we were off to the MRT at it's opening of 0600 and headed back to the airport and the Philippines. All went smoothly on our return and after a stop at a Cebu mall for some groceries we were back aboard by 1700.

Kathy and I have decided that we truly do not enjoy big cities. The trip had some interesting moments but I can now add Hong Kong to the list of cities I've visited and have no desire to return to.

You'll notice that I am posting this through our email provider as the internet here is poor. I hope to add photos if our connection improves

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TYPHOON TRACK

EMPTY STREETS

READY TO BOARD THE TRAIN

THE STALLS ARE CLOSED

PEOPLE STARTING TO MOVE

HERE IN HONG KONG MY FAVORITE