We're up and going in time to catch a 7:30 or so taxi on the main road just by where they're converting the central reservation into a giant fountain and water thing for the Songkran festival of drenching all and sundry for three days solid to celebrate the Thai new year. At least that's what they do in Bangkok and Chiang Mai, the rest of the country watches the drink driving death toll reach 400 or so for the period.
The taxi man raises four finger and says B300. Hmm. I don't care to argue. Then there's the B40 for the expressway toll. At least the expressway is just that, the ground levels of Bangkok all too easily grind to a halt. It looks like our guy played plenty of those Sega racing games at the arcade as he expertly weaves us around the, clearly moving too slow, traffic. Unsurprisingly the fare is B440. There's no point in arguing. For airport trips they turn off the meter and you're stuck with a fixed fare.
We've enough money for breakfast at airport prices -- actually not too bad -- and spend the time scribbling about yesterday. There are a good proportion of people wearing surgical masks, a high proportion of staff and a small proportion of passengers. Though no caucasians I was about to say but as I looked up to see who just sneezed ("run away! run away!") I see a couple of businessmen who were happy in the restaurant but have put their masks on down here in the quiet but filling departure hall.
That said, we're handed a mask as we step on the plane. After patiently waiting for me to follow the simple instructions for wearing it the guy said I looked very handsome, Cheeky bugger. They spray the cabin with disinfectant, like entering South Africa and better than the foot and mouth thing last year when we biked into Ireland and had to ride through a car wash style shower of disinfectant. Gee thanks! Peering out the window the fields in the first few miles east of Bangkok were quite odd. The roads are long and straight and run parallel to each other a good 300-400m apart. Along the roadside are people's homes and a strip of land, the width of the house plot, then runs towards the next road. The result is very long thing strips of land to the horizon. Quite beautifully, like deliberately placed cracks in the whole, snaking rivers and roads cross through the patchwork. Further east the roads become less organised and the fields square up.
We note the economy class cabin is at most one fifth occupied. I've only had it for twenty mintes and the mask straps are hurting my ears. We're offered some "flavoured crispy japanese green soyabean" warning us "NO AFLATOXIN" and it doesn't look good. But in fact it [Thai Airways] is a good service, the food is good (subject to taste) with huge (for airlines) hunks of beef and they even wander around economy offering a glass of brandy after the meal. Emirates still wins hand down for top airline. At least there I could punch up my personal skymap and see what bit of land we've just flown over striking in its sandy bleakness, a huge dry washout river dominating this bit of coast. Small plots presumably on high ground dotted about. That changes into a very developed landscape but from here it looks very dry.
As I scribble "live" I'm reminded of how much I wish I could have written -- and how much more eloquently -- if only I wrote about what I saw when I saw it rather than in daily summary format. There's so much to see and talk about, new things, different things and just as importantly, the same things. The whole world, these days, is the same, only different, sometimes! I have to remove my mask to slurp my wine -- being taken in in solid quantities under the illusion that its dubious beneficial effects on poorly cooked food apply to respiratory diseases as well -- and I'm not sure I should bother wearing it. If goes against my general principle (c.f. alcohol) that a few germs are good germs but I'm too unsure to buck the plane-wide trend. Do I want to invoke hysteria in the other passengers? In addition to the immigration forms we have to fill in a health declaration -- they're not slow on the uptake -- and Helen has to declare a legitimate cough which is a symptom of SARS/atypical pneumonia.
The Skymap appears -- no feature film for us -- revealing it was the Chinese Hainan peninsula we just crossed, now lost under white puffy cloud. I notice now that given wine and spare time I've wittered. I could ask my readers (both of you -- thanks!) what they think but my cheapo, hand crafted in a "I need to learn JSP" fashion website doesn't support reader feedback. I think the law of diminishing returns can be readily invoked here.
We land in Hong Kong, the airport looking more deserted than expected and we whizz through customs, immigration, baggage without stopping almost. At the hotel reservation desk we agree to a US$83 per night 3 star in North Point which appears to be to the east of Hong Kong Island. Transportation is by the hotellink shuttle bus service for KH$140 (HK$7.2 to US$1) door to door compared to the airport express train for HK$100 which drops you off in western Hong Kong Island. The coach is very nice and it makes a change to have a non-aggressive, even polite, driving. The airport is miles out of town and our journey takes us past large anchorages of cargo ships disappearing into the mist that covers the tops of the taller tower blocks that are everywhere. The newer tower blocks are taller and generally a more snowflake, say, design such that some windows don't get much of a view, the older ones generally show it being a lot dirtier and generally having clothes hanging out to dry from every window. A thin strip of gold appears on the horizon turning out to be the 2.2km Tsing Ma bridge spanning the water from the Island to Kowloon. Not for us though as we disappear under skyscrapers in all directions. I'd guess 40-50% of people on the streets are wearing masks. Eventually we stop and in the Newton Hotel get an upgrade to an Executive Suite (same size room, better furniture and a harbour view) and take a few moments in our plush new surroundings.
We head out at 7ish aiming for Times Square about 2km away which lets us sample the Hong Kong evening life. Not dissimilar to other Asian cities we've been to but with hardly a single street hawker and considerably less, in fact no harrassment. Much like you see on TV, the streets are buzy with people walking under a bewildering array of neon signs. It's pleasantly warm rather than hot and/or muggy and it's nice to walk down the road without being haunted by the waft from open sewers.
We peek into a couple of shops including a couple of hi-fi shops which are a curious reminder that we're likely to be home (or in my case, homeless) in a few short weeks. We bought the Lonely Planet book on Hawaii which suggests our budget for Hawaii is woefully inadequate so perhaps our trip might be considerably shorter still. We head to the top of Times Square (it's an arcade/mall) and on the 12th floor choose what turns out to be the Water Margin restaurant. Very tastefully decorated, very attentive service and excellent Chinese food. At HK$470 (about US$70) you'd hope so! Even then we still come in under budget -- a good thing as our budget for five days in Tokyo is an oversightful US$0!
Newton Hotel, Hong Kong N22.28836 E114.19273 Elev. 25m
Copyright 2003 Ian Fitchet. All rights reserved.