Hong Kong Time

    It’s four o’clock in the morning here in Hong Kong and I’m wide awake. Just lying in/on the bed waiting for Doreen to begin stirring so we can get the day started. So much to do - I need to shower, I need to shave, I need to re-arrange my bags, I want to get out on the street and see this fascinating city. We took a couple of hours last night and walked around the neighbourhood, took a couple of pictures and grabbed a bite to eat before sacking out shortly before nine o’clock.
    The flight from Toronto to Hong Kong was probably the easiest 15-hour flight I’ve ever had. The seat was comfortable and not overly cramped, the crew was efficient and the meal service was fine. The plane wasn’t even uncomfortably cold as is often the case when the a/c is cranked too high. Only two minor annoyances. For some reason, you can’t listen to crew announcements and/or watch the safety presentation while wearing noise-cancelling headphones. And what’s with the ads when you want to watch a movie!!
    Things have come a long way since the one movie fits all on a screen at the front of the aircraft section. With seat-back screens, individual controls and a wide selection of digital choices, life is good. But Air Canada wants to force feed you a set of ads. Every movie I selected came with this caveat. And, unlike the home DVD, there was no option to skip the ads and jump right to the movie. Talk about a captive audience! We’re strapped into this tin box at 12000 feet and we’re not going anywhere (except Hong Kong) for the next 15 hours.
    We were a little late landing and it took a while to get to the gate for de-planing. The airport is huge but beautiful and things are well organized to move large numbers of people quickly and efficiently. It took us only 15 minutes to clear immigration and retrieve our bags. We wasted a little time searching unsuccessfully for a cheap cell phone (when do you ever find anything cheap at an airport) and then caught the rail link into the city. Just what Toronto needs.
    The airport train brought us to the Hong Kong central station and the hotel shuttle bus picked us up there. Looks like a nice hotel (Dorset Regency) though the swimming pool is not impressive. But, we didn’t come to Hong Kong for the swimming. On to the Peak!!