19th December 2005 - Bound for Hong Kong
It was a good 13 years since I have been to Hong Kong , and it was with no surprise that I woke up excitedly at 7.30 a.m. this morning. I briefly washed up , and slipped on my standard A/F garb. I awoke Papakins and we were speeding down the PIE towards Changi Airport to check-in for the 11.00am CX 736 flight to Hong Kong. I booked myself via ZUJI ( to which CT says was a very stupid decision ..yeah yeah ) so i didn't have the option of an online check-in.
Row 8 was relatively crowded with holiday makers and lots of street trash heading for a cheap break to Hong Kong. One of the Cathay ground staff whisked me off past a group of 15 travellers to the Business Class counter for check-in. I apologised for being just an Economy Class passenger, but the lady smiled and got me the last window seat 33A for the flight. I was somewhat reminded by her that it was not a very good seat. I had breakfast at McDonald's by the D gate area , and proceeded for boarding. I exchanged some courtesy SMSes to Lil' and CT , and learned that CT mistook his SQ flight time for 11.35 when it was 11.00! Jeepers .. after all those reminders I gave him..
I settled in 33A , to which I realised there was no window because it was one of those seats overlying the wing. My neighbour was a Canadian Chinese heading to Toronto , prim and proper a la member of the divine ya-ya sisterhood. The service on CX was proper but nothing to shout about. Meal was salmon pasta - plain and unimaginative. I watched Dukes of Hazzards on the PTV , and was soooo tickled by Jessica Simpson as Daisy Duke shaking her ass to get her bum-like cousins out of trouble. Obviously the divaesque Chinaman in front of me didn't appreciate my mad cow laughter at Jessica Simpson , and periodically turned around to give me the Chua Lai Cheng stare. As usual a couple of well-groomed young guys in the opposite row K were giving me those knowing looks -- I could feel their eyes tracked on me right from the time I bumped into them in Changi Airport to the time I walked from my seat to the lavatory , and it ain't "persecutory delusions" ...Weird .. it's not as if I am Tyra Banks or something .. Moreover Tyra will never find herself in the CX economy cabin in the capacity of "America's Next Top Tribal Native" feat. King Kong. The CX girls were nice to me only after I wanted to buy something from Inflight Sales -- ma-ma-material girls. The CX cabin crew were nice but they couldn't speak English well.
We glided to a smooth landing at Chep Lap Kok Airport. Walked past a couple of JAL stewardesses based in Hong Kong speaking Cantonese towards the Aerotrain that would bring me to the Arrival Hall. I claimed my luggage after waiting for a few years ,
and waited for CT and Lil's flights to arrive. There was a nice big projection screen outside to see the arriving passengers. Their flights arrived shortly after , and we soon queued up to claim our Airport Octopus Cards. I soon realised I was as underdressed as Jenna Jameson , when I saw all the CX crew coming up ,elegantly decked in velvet downcoats. It was winter in HK , and I was sheer unprepared in just a B.U.M. jacket.
The speedy Airport Express train brought us from the Arrival Hall B of the airport to downtown Hong Kong in 28 odd minutes flat. Good deal considering the outrageous price of Kuala Lumpur's train ... We were booked for 4 nights in Wang Fat hostel , a highly recommended hostel in the heart of Causeway Bay. Trudging through traffic and the bustling MTR crowd, we found ourselves out of the Airport Express station , out of exit E of Causeway Bay Station. A pair of smartly dressed HK police officers gave us directions to Paterson Street from the junction of the road -- the neat thing was that certain parts of the road were closed off to traffic and made purely for pedestrian traffic. People were thronging the streets clad in fashionista garb , their velvet coats swaying with the cold winter wind.
A situation arose in Wang Fat hostel. I met the Chinese receptionist whom I would address as "Ah Long" : he explained that the 10% deposit I paid through hostelworld.com was going to be forfeited because I had changed my booking from a single roomer to a triple roomer. It was really strange because I had always assumed the 10% deposit was going to the hotel from hostelworld.com -- it never occured to me that it was some form of royalty to the website as the booking surcharges were charged separately from the deposit. Anyway, Ah Long and I agreed that in future all bookings should be made direct to the hostel , rather than letting these "lao wai" earn $$ that should have rightfully been with these Chinese people.
A genial lady showed us to our room. It was kind of small with a double bed and a single bed. Obviously Lil conveniently threw herself onto the single bed while the two of us snuggled up in the double bed. The double bed was really really small, and all we had was a small dressing table with a mirror that separated these two beds. There was a little TV on top of the wardrobe. Otherwise the room was immaculately done -- the bedsheets were pulled tight and pristine , clean towels were stacked neatly by the side of the bed. It was a real bargain for just SGD30 per person in the middle of peak Christmas season.
Row 8 was relatively crowded with holiday makers and lots of street trash heading for a cheap break to Hong Kong. One of the Cathay ground staff whisked me off past a group of 15 travellers to the Business Class counter for check-in. I apologised for being just an Economy Class passenger, but the lady smiled and got me the last window seat 33A for the flight. I was somewhat reminded by her that it was not a very good seat. I had breakfast at McDonald's by the D gate area , and proceeded for boarding. I exchanged some courtesy SMSes to Lil' and CT , and learned that CT mistook his SQ flight time for 11.35 when it was 11.00! Jeepers .. after all those reminders I gave him..
I settled in 33A , to which I realised there was no window because it was one of those seats overlying the wing. My neighbour was a Canadian Chinese heading to Toronto , prim and proper a la member of the divine ya-ya sisterhood. The service on CX was proper but nothing to shout about. Meal was salmon pasta - plain and unimaginative. I watched Dukes of Hazzards on the PTV , and was soooo tickled by Jessica Simpson as Daisy Duke shaking her ass to get her bum-like cousins out of trouble. Obviously the divaesque Chinaman in front of me didn't appreciate my mad cow laughter at Jessica Simpson , and periodically turned around to give me the Chua Lai Cheng stare. As usual a couple of well-groomed young guys in the opposite row K were giving me those knowing looks -- I could feel their eyes tracked on me right from the time I bumped into them in Changi Airport to the time I walked from my seat to the lavatory , and it ain't "persecutory delusions" ...Weird .. it's not as if I am Tyra Banks or something .. Moreover Tyra will never find herself in the CX economy cabin in the capacity of "America's Next Top Tribal Native" feat. King Kong. The CX girls were nice to me only after I wanted to buy something from Inflight Sales -- ma-ma-material girls. The CX cabin crew were nice but they couldn't speak English well.
We glided to a smooth landing at Chep Lap Kok Airport. Walked past a couple of JAL stewardesses based in Hong Kong speaking Cantonese towards the Aerotrain that would bring me to the Arrival Hall. I claimed my luggage after waiting for a few years ,
and waited for CT and Lil's flights to arrive. There was a nice big projection screen outside to see the arriving passengers. Their flights arrived shortly after , and we soon queued up to claim our Airport Octopus Cards. I soon realised I was as underdressed as Jenna Jameson , when I saw all the CX crew coming up ,elegantly decked in velvet downcoats. It was winter in HK , and I was sheer unprepared in just a B.U.M. jacket.The speedy Airport Express train brought us from the Arrival Hall B of the airport to downtown Hong Kong in 28 odd minutes flat. Good deal considering the outrageous price of Kuala Lumpur's train ... We were booked for 4 nights in Wang Fat hostel , a highly recommended hostel in the heart of Causeway Bay. Trudging through traffic and the bustling MTR crowd, we found ourselves out of the Airport Express station , out of exit E of Causeway Bay Station. A pair of smartly dressed HK police officers gave us directions to Paterson Street from the junction of the road -- the neat thing was that certain parts of the road were closed off to traffic and made purely for pedestrian traffic. People were thronging the streets clad in fashionista garb , their velvet coats swaying with the cold winter wind.
A situation arose in Wang Fat hostel. I met the Chinese receptionist whom I would address as "Ah Long" : he explained that the 10% deposit I paid through hostelworld.com was going to be forfeited because I had changed my booking from a single roomer to a triple roomer. It was really strange because I had always assumed the 10% deposit was going to the hotel from hostelworld.com -- it never occured to me that it was some form of royalty to the website as the booking surcharges were charged separately from the deposit. Anyway, Ah Long and I agreed that in future all bookings should be made direct to the hostel , rather than letting these "lao wai" earn $$ that should have rightfully been with these Chinese people.
A genial lady showed us to our room. It was kind of small with a double bed and a single bed. Obviously Lil conveniently threw herself onto the single bed while the two of us snuggled up in the double bed. The double bed was really really small, and all we had was a small dressing table with a mirror that separated these two beds. There was a little TV on top of the wardrobe. Otherwise the room was immaculately done -- the bedsheets were pulled tight and pristine , clean towels were stacked neatly by the side of the bed. It was a real bargain for just SGD30 per person in the middle of peak Christmas season.
posted by James Huang at 7:55 AM
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