Back from Hong Kong

[Capstone]

I returned last Saturday from an amazing 9 days in Hong Kong but have just now found the time to write up and post a trip report.

Flight to Hong Kong: Left Atlanta at about 10:30 am on Jan 30th, connected in Newark after a 2 hour layover for my flight to Hong Kong. Flew Continental Airlines on one of the latest 777 models and had a surprisingly carefree and enjoyable flight. The flight crew consisted of mainly Chinese women attendants and 2 American men. I have to say that the flight crew was very attentive and very professional. Since the plane was a new 777, the personal entertainment system on board was state of the art – I had a choice of over 350 movies and over 150 TV series to watch, all on demand. Needless to say this helped the 16 hour flight to pass much quicker than it would have.  The flight was a polar route which I had never taken – we left Newark, passed over Greenland and over the North Pole and then descended through Russia and China into Hong Kong. This was the first time that I have ever flown to Asia and not crossed the Pacific.

Arrival in Hong Kong: Touched down in Hong Kong at about 7:00 Pm on Jan 31st and collected my luggage and passed through immigration & customs in short order. The Hong Kong airport is new and ultra modern with some of the best facilities in the world. After exiting immigration/customs I purchased an Airport Express/MTR travel card for HK$240 or about $30US which included a trip on the Airport Express train into the main Hong Kong Station on Hong Kong Island and also 3 days of unlimited use of the MTR (subway) which is definitely the best way to get around HK. One thing to note about the MTR – it is without a doubt the best subway system that I have ever been on, it is ultra clean, modern, extensive and the air conditioning in both the stations and trains kicks ass!! Arrived at the main Hong Kong station via the airport express and then took a taxi to my hotel for about $4US. I stayed at the Cosmopolitan Hotel, which is a 4 star hotel located right next to the Happy Valley horse racetrack. I would highly recommend this hotel to anyone and would stay there again myself anytime. The hotel was very clean with the rooms being rather spacious by Hong Kong standards. Complementary fruit and bottled water were furnished daily and the hotel is located about a 5 minute walk from the Causeway Bay/Times Square shopping area and subway station. Because I stayed at least 5 nights I was able to get a 30% discount on the room rate – which ended up costing me $83US/night which I can not complain about at all.

First Couple of Days: Since my girlfriend is a Chinese citizen, she can only get a 7 day visa for Hong Kong but I was there for 9 days. I arrived 2 days before she did which turned out to be a really good thing because that extra 2 days allowed me to recuperate from my jetlag and to get acquainted with the basics of HK. During those first 2 days, I took the time to acquaint myself with the ends & outs of the subway, bus and trolley systems plus become familiar with my new neighborhood and surroundings.
One important piece of advice that I would like to give anyone considering a trip to HK is about cell phones. HK is a cell phone obsessive society – you absolutely cannot get by without one and the cell phone technology that they have there is truly amazing, easily being 2-3 years ahead of what is available in the US. Anyway before I left the US I purchased a no frills, unlocked international phone from cellhut.com for about $30. Once I arrived in HK, I went to the nearest 7-11 (there is a 7-11 about every 200 feet in HK) and purchased an international long distance sim card for my phone. I bought a sim card which allowed me to make international & local calls for 2 Hong Kong cents a minute which is ridiculously cheap ($1US = HK$7.8 ). The card that I purchased cost HK$88 ($12US) and came with HK$98 credit. I made numerous calls back to the US and to mainland China not to mention many local HK calls and still have a balance of about $HK91 on my sim card. So anyone making a trip to HK, this is definitely the way to go – do not use your locked US phone and pay roaming charges when for a few dollars you can make as many long distance calls as you need to with an unlocked phone and locally obtained sim card.

Girlfriend Arrives:  My girlfriend arrived on Aug 2, accompanied by her sister-in-law. Let me first say that I am so glad that her sister-in-law also made the trip because it allowed me to meet another member of the family and I got along with her wonderfully. Her sister-in-law arrived for a 2 day shopping excursion – apparently they try to hit HK twice a year for shopping since many items are not available to them in mainland China. Anyway my girlfriend calls my hotel room at about 10:00PM the night that she arrived and says that she will meet me in lobby. I arrive in the lobby and wait a few minutes and then this gorgeous woman arrives who just puts me in a tailspin. Up to that point I had seen numerous pictures of my girlfriend and chatted via a webcam but had never seen her in person – but when I finally did I was absolutely taken back by her beauty – her pictures and the webcam just did not do her justice. So after putting my eyes back in their sockets we decide to go out to dinner since neither of us had eaten yet. We hit a Japanese restaurant near the hotel and after eating just sat at the table talking for a long time – I immediately felt very comfortable around her and never had to search for things to talk about. She is a high school English teacher, so we never had any trouble communicating except every once in a while I would use a slang word/term that she was not familiar with and it was fun to teach her what they meant. After dinner we went back to our rooms at the hotel and got some rest for the coming days.

Shopping: For the next 2 days I accompanied my girlfriend and her sister-in-law on a shopping spree. Now I usually am not too much into shopping but I truly had a good time with these 2 girls – they were both funny and carefree and did not spend a lot of time in one store. OK so I will note here that HK is very reasonable when it comes to the prices of food, transportation and hotels but I thought that the shopping was outrageous – everything in the stores over there is priced much higher than in the US, especially electronics. Now granted, you can find a much wider selection of electronics and many of the items you will not be able to find in the US for several years but you definitely pay a premium for it. So my girlfriend and her sister-in-law spent several thousand dollars each over those 2 days on clothes, cosmetics and cell phones. Because like I said many of the items they are not able to get in mainland China. Let me also say that I did not buy any of these items – they bought everything with their own money (so much for the myth of China being a 3rd world country comprised of peasants!!).

Rest of trip: After 2 days of shopping my girlfriend's sister-in-law departed back to Xiamen and for the next 4 days we happily acted like total tourists. We went to all the major tourist sites in HK and had a great time doing so. Which begs me to mention that one of the best things to do is to take the Ngong Ping cable car on Lantau Island – this cable car is by far the longest/highest that I have ever been on and offers amazing views. Plus it takes you to the Big Buddha statue and monastery which is indeed a sight in its own. Some other things that we did which I would recommend is Afternoon Tea at the Peninsula Hotel (very posh), Victoria Peak, and Harbor cruise. One thing that I would definitely advise to stay away from is anything located on Nathan Road in Kowloon. This is the infamous tourist trap area of HK where everything is overpriced and not worth the effort. This holds true of the tailors in the area – especially the infamous Sam's Tailor which you tend to hear so much about. Sam's is on the black list of every expat in HK as his service and quality has gone way down hill while his prices have skyrocketed over the years. One tailor whom I would recommend for custom made shirts though is Jantzen located in the central district. On the advice of several expats, I had 5 custom shirts made and they fit absolutely perfectly and the quality of the material used is top-notch. Each shirt cost about $39US.

Food: HK has some of the best restaurants in the world and although I went to a couple of the more famous gourmet type establishments, I mostly stayed with the neighborhood tea house type restaurants and was very pleased. Cantonese food is the norm however Sichuan, Shanghainese and Hunan are also easily found and very good. Although I must admit that after 6 days of nothing but Chinese food I needed a break and decided to take my girlfriend to the Morton's of Chicago Steakhouse in Kowloon. The Morton's in HK is just like the ones in the US – same beef and break the bank prices!! It was worth the expense though because my girlfriend had never been to an American type steakhouse before and very much enjoyed the experience.

Return Flight: The return flight was again on a new 777 however this time instead of a mainly Chinese flight crew, the flight crew consisted entirely of American women. Now I am not sure what conclusions to draw from this but I must say that the service was absolutely horrible on the return trip - the flight crew seemed offended by any requests by the passengers and did not go out of their way to help anyone. In fact before they flight began the lead flight attendant made an announcement over the intercom letting us all know that the flight crew were there for the passengers safety, not to serve them - go figure and big suprise!!

HK Recap/Conclusions: Hong Kong is an ultra modern and clean city which I would recommend to anyone – it would be particularly advisable to those who have never visited Asia as it would allow you to get your feet wet so to speak. You can experience an Eastern culture but still have many of the comforts of home and most people speak at least a bit of English. HK was surprisingly (at least to me) affordable – food, hotels, and transportation were really good deals. I enjoyed my time there very much and would definitely return again if the opportunity arises. The only thing about the trip that I regret is that it was too short and that I had to leave.

 Girlfriend: I enjoyed every minute that I spent with my girlfriend as we got along wonderfully. It was very important to me to visit her in person as I know first hand that the so called magic that you encounter via email, messaging and phone calls does not always equate to the same chemistry when it comes to face to face meetings. After meeting face to face though we both were very pleased with how well that we got along. I must say that it was very hard to say goodbye to her at the airport and I began missing her almost instantly. After getting back home we have decided to go ahead and take the next step – so we have begun the gathering of documentation needed for the K-1. I will file the paperwork just as soon as we get everything gathered and I look it over and check it 3 or 4 times!!   I plan on making a trip to Xiamen to visit her in late January/early February as this coincides with her winter break at work – it is going to be a long 5 months!!!

[Bear]

Not bad.  Sounds as if different places had different prices and the items from more westernized places cost the most; I'd say that was typical.

I have heard that our airlines had cut the perks but I never in no way thought that meant personal service too?  I thought it meant pillows and magazines, etc.  Wonder why it was different going than coming back?  Was it the same airline?

You mentioned a lot of your costs, about what did the 9 day trip set you back?

How about the people and culture.  How were you treated?  Ya know, we always here how mad the world is at us.  Did you experience attitudes like that?

The Bear Family

[Jeff S]

In my travels all over I've never experienced anyone mad at Americans. They may not agree with our government but I've always been treated with politeness, friendship and smiles.

[Capstone]

Hi Bear,

I was very surprised as to why the service was so much better on the outbound flight than on the return flight - same airline (Continental) and aircraft type for both flights. The only noticeable difference was like I mentioned - it was a mostly Chinese aircrew on the flight to HK while on the flight back the aircrew consisted entirely of American women.

I was treated fabulous by everyone that I encountered during my stay, everyone was very cordial and the service was outstanding everywhere that I went in HK. No anti-american sentiment was ever displayed toward me in any fashion.

This trip was very inexpensive for me because I was able to use frequent flyer miles to obtain a free flight. I spent about $700 on the hotel for 8 nights and then maybe another $1500 on food, transportation, sightseeing, phone, etc. Had I done some shopping then my expenses would have been much more but I was very surprised at how affordable HK is.

[Dave H]

Hey Capstone,

Congratulations! It sounds like you and your girlfriend had a great time together! Thanks for the very informative trip report! Good Luck!

Dave

[Bob_S]

After exiting immigration/customs I purchased an Airport Express/MTR travel card for HK$240 or about $30US which included a trip on the Airport Express train into the main Hong Kong Station on Hong Kong Island and also 3 days of unlimited use of the MTR (subway) which is definitely the best way to get around HK.

Oh, yes!  The legendary Octopus Card.  An ingenious system for getting around.  When I visited there, they were talking about adding taxis to the list of items you could use it for, but I guess they haven't yet.  But still a great thing, and you don't lose unused money deposited on the card.  You get it back at the airport when you leave.

One thing to note about the MTR – it is without a doubt the best subway system that I have ever been on, it is ultra clean, modern, extensive and the air conditioning in both the stations and trains kicks ass!!

After experiencing the metro systems in other countries, I can't say I was all that impressed.  The seats were uncomfortable stainless steel, and the whole design seemed to be to make it easy to hose off at the end of the day.  But it did get you quickly and efficiently where you needed to go.

... Nathan Road in Kowloon. This is the infamous tourist trap area of HK where everything is overpriced and not worth the effort. This holds true of the tailors in the area – especially the infamous Sam's Tailor which you tend to hear so much about. Sam's is on the black list of every expat in HK as his service and quality has gone way down hill while his prices have skyrocketed over the years.

That's too bad to hear about Sam's.  At one time he was highly recommended even by expats for their visitors with limited in-city time.  You could get a custom tailored suit for less than off-the-rack in the U.S., and it would be ready within days for business travelers on a tight schedule.

I must say that it was very hard to say goodbye to her at the airport and I began missing her almost instantly. After getting back home we have decided to go ahead and take the next step – so we have begun the gathering of documentation needed for the K-1. I will file the paperwork just as soon as we get everything gathered and I look it over and check it 3 or 4 times!!   I plan on making a trip to Xiamen to visit her in late January/early February as this coincides with her winter break at work – it is going to be a long 5 months!!!

A second trip is definitely a smart move.  See how the rest of her family treats you.  Yeah, it'll be a loooong 5 months!

Thanks for posting your trip report.  It brought back a lot of good memories.