29/8/03

It's midnight Friday night. Flew into Hong Kong earlier this evening. The last few days have all been pretty hectic. Hit the doctors yesterday to get my biological shields recharged, ended up having to chase vaccines all over south-east Melbourne. Five shots (the bad kind..) later, my shoulders will never forgive me! Went and picked up this notebook, my bank a real thumping. Went out last night with the family, down to Sails on the beach, was a good night, the traditional "Hooray! Here goes Sam!!" celebration. After spending most of last night trying to shove a squash ball through the eye of a needle, I managed to get everything packed.

Up bright and early this morning. Out to the airport, where the powers that be got one on me. Being overweight (the baggage that is) for at least 50% of the flights I've been on finally caught up with me. To the tune of A$600. Ouch. All that ranting and raving about Cathay Pacific hardly paid off. Speaking of paid off, my credit card would never come close to being that. But being a good sport Mrs. Christophersen took one for the team (more specifically me). Regardless, it felt like a good time to curse and swear... so I did. Flight up was fairly uneventful, not quite as luxurious as the last time I flew Cathay, but no complaints (except about their $@#$ excess baggage fees, I hope my bags gave them hell, ahem... composure needed). Kept myself amused watching a few DVDs on the laptop, and the odd Cathay movie. Saw 'Phone Booth', not bad, clever idea.

Eight and a half hours in (or half an our before landing), I started chatting to the guy next to me. Despite giving me the impression he was from HK, turned out he was from Montreal, had lived there for 25 years before being posted to HK on business. He worked for CIBC. Nice guy, gave me the rundown on the place.

Through customs in Hong Kong, no problems there. As a result of SARS (apart from having to fill out a health declaration), they now screen your body temperature as you pass through. They have little screen that show your body heat. All very exciting. Turns out I'm not that hot after all. Picked up the baggage and jumped on the Airport Express. I thing one of the things I like about this place is how well organized it is. Forget fifty dollar taxi rides from the airport a la Toronto, Melbourne, Singapore, and just about every other developed city on the planet. Here you jump off the plane, do your business, pay HK$50 for a return Airport Express ticket, and jump on the train, complete with baggage handlers. The train is high speed and stops off at the three major points in Hong Kong; (in no particular order) Kowloon, Hong Kong Island, and the third one which has slipped my mind. After arriving at Kowloon station, I jumped in a cab, A$3 later, was at the hotel. Which turned out being rather nice.

Checked in got settled, and at about 10.30, hit the street. They call New York the city that never sleeps. I don't know if 'they' have been to Hong Kong. Shops here are open till at least midnight every night of the week. It is something else. People line up to have dinner at restaurants at 11pm, if ever there was a sleepless city, this is it. The only real thing I was after was an Ethernet cable so I could hook up back at the hotel. Walked into a random store and gave the old bargaining skills the test. I think I lost (HK 1 Sam 0). HK$150 later I had a cable, but he didn't seem to dismayed about the price, something I am going to have to work on. Feeling the exhaustion set in (being 2am in Aus) I made my way back to the hotel. That's where I am now. Have just checked the vitals (Footy scores, email), having found that Collingwood beat Essendon, and as a result am going to bed an unhappy camper. For all those concerned, fear not I did stop in at the hotel bar for a drink before coming up to my room.

- Sam