Big Ol Jet Airliner

If you remember that old Steve Miller Band song originally, you're old!! Maybe just into oldies! That song was playing in my mind for a while on the trip over to Hong Kong. It's been great to come twice now (last time was 2004), but it hasn't gotten any closer. I hear from time to time that the world is now smaller (a reference to its global nature) but if you get on a plane it doesn't feel closer. 

We awoke in Atlanta at 7am Monday morning to be at the airport by 8. Even though the flight wasn't until 11:20am. International flights require you to be checked in 2 hours in advance. We knew this airport and traffic would be heavy for Monday morning so we allowed 3 hours. 

The flight got underway at 11:20 and headed west over St Louis and the Dakotas, over Victoria British Columbia toward Alaska. We "peaked" over the Bering Sea at Alaska and started down over the edge of Russia, over Japan then a right turn over to Seoul, South Korea. That's 15 hours in the air non-stop, fortunately. After a 4 hour layover in a really first class airport, we boarded a Korean Airline flight (best airline I have ever flown on) to Hong Kong. Our trip in 2004 was Korean Air all the way. The flight attendants on Delta should take some lessons from their Sky Partner!! We arrived at 11:30 pm HK time on Tuesday (12 hours ahead of EST). If you count it up, that's 30 hours since we got up in Atlanta Monday. Needless to say, we were whipped and ready for bed. 

We are staying on Victoria Harbour in the Kowloon section of Hong Kong with a room overlooking the beautiful harbour. Pat has been our tour guide on all our trips and again hit a home run. This harbour is one of the busiest in the world with tour ships as well as local fishing vessels and container ships headed to points all over the world. They have a boardwalk that we spent time on yesterday as we walked around getting our bearings. 

We were still feeling the effects of jet lag as well as the heat and humidity that rivals New Orleans and Charleston. We caught the shuttle and did some shopping as well as just walking around taking in the city. We had to take a long nap in the afternoon and then came in pretty early. Tomorrow will include a trip to Hong Kong Disney that opened after we left in 2004 and more shopping. 

Of course we are watching the Olympics but not like our friends at home. We realized pretty quickly that all the coverage on NBC makes sure you see all of the Americans doing well. They really don't care to cover all of the Americans here, choosing instead to cover such exciting sports as ping pong since Chinese are doing well there. Its hard for them to avoid Phelps but not much else. Yesterday in a shopping area we saw a crowd gathered like at home in a tv store on a college football Saturday. When we walked up to see what was on it was a Chinese female ping pong match from the Olympics. Hilarious!