Three days in Hong Kong

It had been nearly twenty years since I had spent a couple of days in Hong Kong, this was back in the days of the old airport well before Kai Tak Airport was decommissioned so I got a pretty good close up view of Hong Kong as the plane rumbled in between buildings.

Sometimes just getting there is half the adventure; however, my transit flight through Singapore wasn't eventful and the cabin crew performed their jobs admirably. Jetstar to me is a cheap and nasty airline, they have plenty of little tricks to squeeze some more money out of you.

I have been informed their staff aren't well remunerated and the conditions are nowhere near as good as a major airline; regardless of their work conditions, they acquitted themselves well.

I too am cheap and I am willing to forgo comfort for a cost saving on selected flights. So with this in mind, I departed Perth after work on a late night flight to Singapore. I have been known to be a little critical of Jetstar in the past, although in my defence, this normally relates to their clientele on Bali flights.

Tonight was good, to save money I didn't take any check-in luggage as the ticket costs soared so I decided on just carry on luggage. I exceeded the 7kg carry on luggage limit by 2kg and I was given a friendly warning to not do this again, I will heed her advice in the future.

My next bout of anxiety began when I recalled the bottle of Hugo Boss aftershave I had thrown into my bag. There is a 100ml limit of liquids allowed on flights, this stuff is a little pricey and I wasn't entirely enthusiastic about having this confiscated as potential bomb-making materials.

This was a brand new bottle so I wasn't keen on confiscation. The customs and immigration staff asked about toiletries and liquids so I handed over my cologne and toothpaste; she throughly checked the contents and I must have not exceeded the limit - second win tonight.

The aircraft arrived in Singapore at 4:30am and I was pretty tired, Terminal 1 at Changi Airport was open with only a few food and beverage shops open for business. I grabbed a little sleep on the floor to clear my head, I was tired and I don't sleep well on flights.

I cleared immigration and jumped on the MRT heading to Marina Bay for some breakfast at TWG Tea in the main shopping complex. I wandered around the mall for a while before heading back to Changi Airport.

Arriving at Hong Kong International Airport late in the evening, I was surprised at the scale of the airport as all the terminals were remote. None of them were joined and arrival information was limited. Obviously the language was Chinese, I was thankful English flashed up every now and again but this was on little help.

I caught the Airport Express into Kowloon, this was well after midnight and although $75 HKD perperson sounded somewhat expensive. The 5.9:1 exchange rate did make everything appear expensive, about $13 is actually pretty good value considering the distance traveled from the airport to Kowloon terminal.

The first day was spent down in the Tsim Sha Tsui district on the Victoria Harbour waterfront. I was really looking forward to wandering the waterfront before heading into the space museum but this was unfortunately closed for refurbishment and the opportunity was missed.

I visited there back on my first trip to Hong Kong and I really wanted to visit again. There was intermittent rain throughout the day and a pretty good day was had in the district. Going out to dinner was interesting, the area was really exciting on a Friday night, this was fun.

The second day was spent on the Hong Kong side of Victoria Harbour, the plan was to walk the old town through the historic streets viewing the sights. The rain had not let up all morning and I was attempting to navigate the undercroft areas.

I was the only person without an umbrella and when the downpour came, all hopes were dashed and the day was spent in the malls around Central and Hong Kong MRT stations.

The rain never let up all day and even returning home via Jordan station in the evening resulted in a drenching. Lunch at WG Tea was excellent but I had to enquire about the name change and was given a pretty good answer as the name was already registered in Hong Kong.

Still raining on Sunday, whilst it didn't let up on Saturday, I was hoping the final day was going to be fine - it wasn't. Headed back over to Hong Kong Island to see the sights we missed on Saturday and ended pretty much where we were on Saturday.

I'm okay, there was so much more I could do and experience in Hong Kong but I have no regrets, I have more to do on my next visit and hopefully it won't be another twenty years between visits.