Return to Hong Kong
I haven't been here in over 3 years I think. I am too jetlagged to write in a lucid manner, but here are a few things I wrote down on the plane:
- A/C power on the plane is awesome. I have had my laptop plugged in this entire time and due to foresight on my part, have been doing all of this work on my website while offline. For those wondering I have a local development environment on my netbook, which actually has a really long-lasting battery, but completely unlimited time is always better cause the battery ain't gonna last 16 freakin' hours which is how long this flight is.
- People are disgusting. I don't understand why public toilet seats have to be completely soaked with others' urine. In the airport and on the plane. I mean, if you're a guy who is standing or a girl who is hovering (or some combination thereof) then lift up the seat. Use your foot, I know, I don't want to touch it either. Your shoe is already touching the ground so it's the same difference. When I leave a public bathroom whether I sat or stood, it doesn't look like a garden sprinkler went off in there.
- Babies should be banned on planes, or airlines should have non-baby flights. That said, congratulations on reproducing, you seem to be doing a bang-up job.
- 16 hours is pretty long.
- Those inflatable neck-hugging headrests? You look ridiculous when you walk around the plane with one on.
- Cathay Pacific's in-flight entertainment system television and movie selection is ridiculous. They had many seasons of maybe 20 American shows, plus maybe 50+ movies including new ones in the theater and old, random ones like Tron and 12 Angry Men. That said, they could not give me a bottle of water, though I thought it was funny when she offered two glasses instead.
I left New York at 3pm, on time. Arrived in Hong Kong 7am EST, 7pm local time in HK. Maybe we landed an hour earlier than that actually. Apparently we saved some time due to wind of some kind. All airport logistics on both ends were simple. No lines, no waiting, pretty easy. Upon arrival I took the Airport Express in Hong Kong into the city, a train that is so fast and for which buying fare is so trivial that it is embarrassing we do not have anything remotely comparable in New York. I bought a new Octopus Card, which is an RFID based card that you can use for pretty much all transportation plus in convenience stores and fast food stores. Another thing we don't have. In fact, tons of things make our systems look antiquated.
I forgot how crazy the city was. when I got out to walk from the train station to the subway, it was very humid and the car and human traffic was a little overwhelming. It was nice to see the scenery of downtown Kowloon again. I forced myself to stay awake until about 10:30pm and then fell asleep, making it until 5am which I considered pretty good under the circumstances. When I finally got up, I went to Kowloon Park nearby and jogged. I was actually far from alone, there were a decent number of people out there at 5:30-6 or whatever it was. Also several large groups of old people doing exercises, calisthenics, kung fu and tai ji. They all seem to be in pretty good shape. I did my own taiji in the vicinity. It seems to be that some people stick with the group and follow along, others just sort of are off doing their own thing. The park is pretty full with people doing that. It's quite empty on the sidewalks on that hour by contrast.
I got my cell phone working with a local sim card which is not really noteworthy, but this is the first time I got prepaid data service on my phone. Now i actually have internet on my phone which is as fast or faster than the network I use at home. This enabled me to fire up the brand new soon-to-be-released More Than Salad android app which is working like a charm. I went to a few restaurants but tomorrow I will work in earnest on the Hong Kong section of the site. I did manage to have one great meal at Branto Vegetarian Club, one of my favorite Indian restaurants in the world.
I took a nap this afternoon for about 3-4 hours I guess from which I just woke up. Now I'm going to go to a Couchsurfing meetup in Lan Kuai Fong, the first I've been to in HK. Apparently 40 people rsvp'd. I met a few CSers last time I was in Hong Kong, but there definitely weren't gatherings like that back then, so I'm looking forward to checking it out and socializing a bit, even though my body is all kinds of out of whack. This will also be my first visit on Hong Kong Island in a while since I pretty much stuck to Kowloon. It was pretty foggy today so I'll probably just take the subway though it is tempting to take the Star Ferry across the harbor instead just for the view of the skyline.
Much more to come, hopefully in a less stream-of-consciousness fashion.
- A/C power on the plane is awesome. I have had my laptop plugged in this entire time and due to foresight on my part, have been doing all of this work on my website while offline. For those wondering I have a local development environment on my netbook, which actually has a really long-lasting battery, but completely unlimited time is always better cause the battery ain't gonna last 16 freakin' hours which is how long this flight is.
- People are disgusting. I don't understand why public toilet seats have to be completely soaked with others' urine. In the airport and on the plane. I mean, if you're a guy who is standing or a girl who is hovering (or some combination thereof) then lift up the seat. Use your foot, I know, I don't want to touch it either. Your shoe is already touching the ground so it's the same difference. When I leave a public bathroom whether I sat or stood, it doesn't look like a garden sprinkler went off in there.
- Babies should be banned on planes, or airlines should have non-baby flights. That said, congratulations on reproducing, you seem to be doing a bang-up job.
- 16 hours is pretty long.
- Those inflatable neck-hugging headrests? You look ridiculous when you walk around the plane with one on.
- Cathay Pacific's in-flight entertainment system television and movie selection is ridiculous. They had many seasons of maybe 20 American shows, plus maybe 50+ movies including new ones in the theater and old, random ones like Tron and 12 Angry Men. That said, they could not give me a bottle of water, though I thought it was funny when she offered two glasses instead.
I left New York at 3pm, on time. Arrived in Hong Kong 7am EST, 7pm local time in HK. Maybe we landed an hour earlier than that actually. Apparently we saved some time due to wind of some kind. All airport logistics on both ends were simple. No lines, no waiting, pretty easy. Upon arrival I took the Airport Express in Hong Kong into the city, a train that is so fast and for which buying fare is so trivial that it is embarrassing we do not have anything remotely comparable in New York. I bought a new Octopus Card, which is an RFID based card that you can use for pretty much all transportation plus in convenience stores and fast food stores. Another thing we don't have. In fact, tons of things make our systems look antiquated.
I forgot how crazy the city was. when I got out to walk from the train station to the subway, it was very humid and the car and human traffic was a little overwhelming. It was nice to see the scenery of downtown Kowloon again. I forced myself to stay awake until about 10:30pm and then fell asleep, making it until 5am which I considered pretty good under the circumstances. When I finally got up, I went to Kowloon Park nearby and jogged. I was actually far from alone, there were a decent number of people out there at 5:30-6 or whatever it was. Also several large groups of old people doing exercises, calisthenics, kung fu and tai ji. They all seem to be in pretty good shape. I did my own taiji in the vicinity. It seems to be that some people stick with the group and follow along, others just sort of are off doing their own thing. The park is pretty full with people doing that. It's quite empty on the sidewalks on that hour by contrast.
I got my cell phone working with a local sim card which is not really noteworthy, but this is the first time I got prepaid data service on my phone. Now i actually have internet on my phone which is as fast or faster than the network I use at home. This enabled me to fire up the brand new soon-to-be-released More Than Salad android app which is working like a charm. I went to a few restaurants but tomorrow I will work in earnest on the Hong Kong section of the site. I did manage to have one great meal at Branto Vegetarian Club, one of my favorite Indian restaurants in the world.
I took a nap this afternoon for about 3-4 hours I guess from which I just woke up. Now I'm going to go to a Couchsurfing meetup in Lan Kuai Fong, the first I've been to in HK. Apparently 40 people rsvp'd. I met a few CSers last time I was in Hong Kong, but there definitely weren't gatherings like that back then, so I'm looking forward to checking it out and socializing a bit, even though my body is all kinds of out of whack. This will also be my first visit on Hong Kong Island in a while since I pretty much stuck to Kowloon. It was pretty foggy today so I'll probably just take the subway though it is tempting to take the Star Ferry across the harbor instead just for the view of the skyline.
Much more to come, hopefully in a less stream-of-consciousness fashion.
posted by Dan at 4:07 AM
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