We're not in Canada anymore, Toto

    It’s two days and three countries later. We left Hong Kong yesterday morning, took an Air Asia flight to Kuala Lumpur in Malaysia, sat around the KLIA for eight hours, took another Air Asia flight to Medan in Indonesia and stayed overnight at the Grand Swiss-Belhotel. In the morning, we took a Sriwijaya flight to Banda Aceh, caught the ferry to Pulah Weh and took a taxi to the Rasa Seni Hotel.
    Hong Kong was somewhat disappointing. I’m glad we took the time to see a little of the city but it won’t make my list of places I’d like to re-visit. We have another day here at the end of our trip and we’ll see some more things on the Kowloon side then. Like most Asian cities we’ve visited, Hong Kong is teeming but it doesn’t have the same vibes as Tokyo or Seoul or Kuala Lumpur or Singapore. Maybe it’s because we’re not really interested in  the shopping.
    Hong Kong isn’t as clean as Tokyo and it doesn’t have the swarms of bicycles. It’s as gritty as Seoul but it doesn’t have the swarms of scooters. Generally speaking, Hong Kong streets are clogged with swarms of double-decker trams, double-decker buses, smaller 16-passenger buses and red-and-white taxis. Not so many private cars, though we did see some Rolls Royces, Porsches and even a MacLaren. And people. Lots of people. Almost all Chinese. Go figure.
    We didn’t get to ride the Metro (they don't have nearly the extensive subway system as the other cities) but we did spend a lot of time on public transportation. It’s a great ride for a tourist but it must get old quickly for a resident. With narrow streets clogged with traffic, getting anywhere is a slow process. When we went out to the Happy Valley racetrack on Wednesday night, it took us just over 90 minutes. The other side of depending on public transit is the lack of control. We took the bus out to Stanley on Thursday and it was a great ride. There were some terrific views along the way but no opportunity to stop and take pictures. Of course, the road is so narrow and busy, I doubt you could stop even if you were driving your own car (not that I would even consider driving in these conditions).
    Our flight out of Hong Kong was delayed because Air Asia was concerned about a couple of passengers who had checked in but not boarded. When they couldn’t track down the missing passengers, they had to unload their luggage. Drunk in an airport bar or potential terrorists? Air Asia is a point-to- point budget airline so we had to collect our luggage in Kuala Lumpur and then re-book for our next flight. Air Asia doesn’t open its counters until two hours before flight time so we had to shlep all our bags around the terminal. And we don’t travel lightly.
    The Kuala Lumpur airport hasn’t changed much since we first saw it. It certainly hasn’t gotten any more interesting or any less frenetic. When we finally arrived in Medan late that night, we discovered that the hotel had neglected to send their shuttle. We spent the extra time trying to ignore the taxi touts who couldn’t seem to grasp the concept of ‘waiting for pickup’. At the hotel, we (and our luggage) had to pass through a scanner at the hotel entrance. The next morning, while waiting for our ride to the airport, I noticed security checking the undercarriage of an arriving car with a mirror on a long pole.
    One final note. Many of the consumer goods we take for granted in Canada are also available in Asia. Cell phones, iPads, BlackBerry’s, mp3 players seem to be ubiquitous. Everybody seems to be wired. But there are differences. Case in point - I saw lots of Lays chips in the convenience stores and the most popular flavor seemed to be ‘seaweed’. BTW, many of the convenience stores were familiar brands–Circle K, 7/11, etc.