Archive for August 31st, 2009

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An NW A330 next to my gate, not headed to Narita but Amsterdam, poor SkyTeam logo

Sorry this is rather late in coming, to be honest I’ve just had no time to update my blog or upload any pictures, most of this will probably have to wait until I return home. In any case, my flight was uneventful, despite the moderate turbulence which required our flight to divert slightly to the south for the NW7 leg. Once again my NW7 flight was great in Y, two decent meals and an ice cream bar, with free drinks was a nice touch. The IFE was not bad either, although the movie ‘Star Trek’ was not as great as I’d hoped, a few episodes of ‘Fraiser’ and ‘The Office’ made up for it. It was nice to be in Japan if for only two hours, I really wish I had enough time to leave the airport or even spend a night in Tokyo, but my time was limited. By comparison, the NW29 was abysmal hellish experience. As expected, the 744 was terrible compared to the A330, and I was seated next to a strange man, screaming children (naturally), and a fat guy who could not fit in the seat behind me and was only able to read his book by pressing it against my head rest.

Hong Kong customs was just as easy as getting into Japan, and once through I found my travel companion, Matt, waiting at the Burger King like we had planned. I wasn’t able to see much of Hong Kong that night, since my flight got in at 10:30pm, however the one thing I remember and will remember throughout my stay in Hong Kong was the heat and the humidity. Staying a constant 80-90 F with at least 80% humidity meant I was perpetually drenched in sweat. We stayed at the Yesin Hostel, which although small was relatively clean, centrally located, and cheap. I would recommend it for anyone staying in HK on a budget, although all you get is a closet sized room with a bed, and an all in one bathroom.

The next day we headed out and saw the Tian Tan Buddha. Although the Ngong Ping Cable Car was down for maintenance, we were able to take a bus to the Buddha and the monestary. The views were fantastic from the Buddha, and the bus ride also provided great views. Later that day, we headed back into Kowloon to walk around the city and visit a few markets. Oddly enough, most of the markets listed were literally what the titled suggested. For example, the ‘Goldfish Market’ was selling Goldfish. We were rather concerned after we decided to visit the ‘Ladies Market’, however this broke the trend and was just selling clothes and jewelry . . . not ladies. I didn’t see anything I wanted to buy and neither did Matt. For dinner we at at some random Halal place in Kowloon which proved to be a fantastic find. There was a group of foodies apparently doing a review of the restaurant. The food was fantastic, although I have a feeling we were not only given the english menu, but also the english priced menu. Even so our entire bill was just over $12.