Hong Kong 2/16/02 - 2/24/02

First some general observations:

Airports:

Why does it seem that the airports in OTHER countries often seem so much better than the ones in the NY area ?? The Hong Kong airport is a masterpiece of design and engineering - which leads to a totally functional entity. The thought that has gone into the construction makes the building WORK . If I had to pick ONE telling aspect of the airport to rave about - it would be that - it is level friendly - by this I mean that one can wheel a luggage rack from the departure vehicle area to the gate - without having to go up and down levels. This does not seem like a big deal — unless you are the person with several large pieces of luggage that have to be moved. By comparison - the Newark airport is level flawed. We encountered at least two instances where we had to go up or down - 1) the elevators were WOEFULLY inadequate in size and 2)a neat trick is when you go in one side of the elevator which is too small - and angle and pack three luggage carts into the TINY elevator - then when you go up to the next level - the OPPOSITE door of the elevator opens to let you out — there is everyone stuck on the wrong side of their luggage carts - which are angled sideways - with the automatic brake on the luggage carts on (one has to push down on the cart handle to make it move) and no one can move their cart to get out the opposite side of the elevator when the doors open — and shut...

The second "level flaw" we found at Newark Airport was that in the international arrivals building - the floor of the "air train" (what was wrong with continuing to call it a monorail ??) was about four inches higher than the floor of the platform for the train . I thought that I could just get up some speed and that the luggage cart would roll up into the air train compartment - it didn’t work — the cart came to an abrupt stop when the front wheel hit that 4" height difference - but my luggage did make it into the air train - by flying off the cart — THEN - as I stood outside the air train - the door of the train started to close - in preparation for the trains departure - which would have been WITH my luggage but WITHOUT me — at that point the luggage cart came in handy - to block the train door from closing ...

OK - I said my peace about the airport level design flaws of the Newark Airport — now we can go onto:

3) The fact that Hong Kong is one of the most covert, but still openly rampant, male chauvinist and femininely degrading cities I have ever come across.

How can something be both COVERT and OPENLY RAMPANT at the same time, you ask ?? Simple - it is a little thing having to do with the fact that WE do not speak, much less, read Chinese. In the Monkok area of the mainland side of Hong Kong we (myself and my wife) observed numerous ( over fifty) well advertised brothels . The signs for the brothels consist of a series of multicolored vertical fluorescent tubes that look like this: ||||||>, and point to (usually filthy) stairway. On the signs are the numbers 45 and various other Chinese letters and numbers. Apparently the Chinese letters indicate the nationality of the girl and the numbers indicate the cost for the girl’s services for a 45 minute time period. Chinese letters indicate the following types of girls (and rates) :

Thai 260 HK$
Filipino 280 HK$
Mainl. Chinese 340 HK$
Hong Kong 340$
Singaporean 700 HK$
Malaysian girl 270 HK$

The conversion factor is approximately 7.77 HK$ to one U.S. Dollar - so the advertised rates range from less that $ 40.00 to a little more than $90.00 (in U.S. dollars).

What I found to be incredible was that all this "action" is taking place right in broad daylight - one block away from the main shopping road of this "cosmopolitan" city of Hong Kong. There are, apparently local, families (sometimes couples and sometimes couples with their children) visiting the storefront establishments in the streets there - and being literally surrounded by bordellos as they carry on their daily life. I can not imagine the effect that this must have on the children and teenagers who travel in this area - and are confronted with the obvious and blatantly advertisement of flesh for sale.

Also apparent, and very common, was the sight of a 50+ year old (usually Caucasian) male - walking along hand-in-hand with a young (25 years or younger) oriental female . The words "sugar daddy" would seem appropriate for this situation.

These things being said - let us proceed to the "blow-by-blow" of the trip:

Saturday - February 16th, 2002 -

We left on time from the Newark Airport on a Continental - direct flight to Hong Kong. The flight was as good as a 16.5 hour flight can be. The route taken by the flight plan called for the plane to go directly north from Newark - through Canada - over and North Pole, and then south to Hong Kong. As such we passed through mainland China - and lost a day of time (due to the westbound crossing of the international dateline). The plane landed on Sunday, February 17th, 2002 at about 5:20 p.m. . I don’t know what procedure was used for the luggage transfer from the plane, but whatever is done - NY airports should take note. The luggage was arriving on the luggage carousel as we walked into the luggage retrieval area - we were through immigration, luggage retrieval, and customs, in less than fifteen minutes.

Upon entering the main arrivals hall we found the representative from Pacific Delights there to meet us and take us to the bus that would bring us to our hotel. While we waited for a few other people to arrive - we went to the Cook Foreign Exchange and changed some money ($50.00 ) into H.K. Dollars. The rate at the airport was 7.30 (later downtown at the Western Union - we found 7.77) H.K. dollars to one U.S. dollar. It was getting dark out - so we had limited views as we went to the hotel .

The Marriott New World Renaissance Hotel is a very nice hotel with an excellent location for exploring Hong Kong. It is a few blocks from the underground station on Nathan Road - and approximately 1/2 mile ( or less) from the Star Ferry Terminal. The hotel has a very complete daily breakfast buffet - that includes both American (cooked to order eggs, pancakes, waffles, juices , etc.) and Chinese items . The cost of the buffet is exorbitant if one purchases it at the hotel - approximately $30.00 U.S. dollars a person - so I would suggest that you pay in advance for the breakfast buffet as part of your room package.

Continental Airlines does not offer service to and from Hong Kong every day - as they had prior to September 11th, 2001. As of this writing it is offered four days a week; and we were informed that this was soon to be expanded to five days a week. The package deal we had for the trip included the air and six nights in the Marriott. I had chosen to stay an additional night - and used some Marriott Rewards points so that he seventh night was free. As it turned out - we could not have left for the trip when we did and stayed only six nights at the Marriott - because there was no return flight from Hong Kong to Newark on February 23rd, 2002. We had to either stay one less day then we paid for and leave on the 22nd, or stay an additional day and leave on the 24th .The other people that were there through the same package also stayed for an additional night as well. Pacific Delights tours took advantage of this situation by informing us that because we were not returning to the airport on the final day of the tour package - that they would not be able to provide transportation back to the airport for us (which was otherwise included in the tour package).

We were starving when we arrived at the hotel - so after doing some minimal unpacking - we headed out to find some food. We were somewhat shocked at the cost of a meal $480.00 H.K per person ) at a local - nothing special - seafood restaurant, and instead found a "