On the FlIght to Chicago

My iPad says that it is 4:26 PM on Sunday. The flight display says that we have 10 and 1/2 hours to go on this first leg of our flight home - on the way to Chicago. The logistics of our departure this morning were straight forward (though we had to have our luggage outside the door at 10 pm last night and wake up at 6 am), and our time waiting at the Hong Kong airport was manageable.

We are again in our Premium Economy cocoon having been served an odd lunch with a decent red wine. I now know that I can ring the flight attendant for more cognac! Our final day at sea was relaxing as we cruised by the eastern coast of China (at a safe distance - though I do have a few shots of some cities visible on the coastline.) The seas were smooth for the most part, and the cruise into Hong Kong around 6:00 am Saturday morning was eye popping. I have never seen so many tall buildings all stacked next to each other both up on the hillsides and down close to the water.

We docked at a well-appointed cruise ship terminal (our first - as the other docks were all cargo terminals). In fact after finding your way through the immigration and customs labyrinth, you ended up in a gigantic multi-level indoor mall. This mall was like having all of the high-end fashion, cosmetics, watch, jewelry, and shoe stores on New York’s 5th Ave in one huge glittering space. The white tile floors and brilliantly lit stores were mobbed with Asians most carrying bags with brand names like Rolex, Gucci, Fendi, Chanel, Coach, etc.

Alas our one day in Hong Kong did not go as planned. The entire city was shrouded in fog as we arrived and remained so on our bus tour up and around the narrow, steep, and winding streets - so narrow that when two tour busses approached each other on a curve one or both had to stop so that they could pass without touching. One of the highlights of the tour was to be the view from “the peak,” the highest point in the city. All we saw was dense clouds. The tour was in fact bizarrely structured. At lunch time we waited about 30 minutes on a very crowded dock to board another type of junk boat which took us on a circle tour of the harbor, mostly around shabby house boats of various shapes and large covered trawlers tied up to floating docks. Then instead of stopping at a restaurant for lunch, we were bussed up to “the peak” to spend 30 minutes in another indoor market, where we were advised that we were free to buy our own lunch at Burger King if we were really hungry (it was now about 1:30 pm). We did not, opting to split a ham and cheese croissant from Pacific Coffee.

 It had started to rain hard as we disembarked for the mall, and it continued on and off as we waited in line (mostly outside) for the tram that was to take us back down the hill to meet the bus (the second highlight of the tour). Once inside the tram terminal, having now waited another 30 minutes, the weather went wild, and a fierce thunderstorm rolled in with a downpour, lightening, thunder, and fierce winds. Those still waiting outside were drenched - in fact the wind blew so hard just before we boarded the tram that I feared that those on line would be blown into the terminal and panic would ensue. Anne and I were the last two to make it onto the tram - at the very back - we were standing in the small space between the empty driver station and the partition where the seats began, and this turned out to be a gift from the angel of sanity.

Because as we started our descent down the steep track, the storm raged and the tram stopped. In fact we sat there with high winds, heavy rain, and lightening for 20 minutes. We received no updates on our situation until a tram driver (an expressionless 30-something woman with long black hair and a uniform) made her way up from the front of the tram (there were two cars holding about 35 people each), and flipped switches and turned on the windshield wiper, clearly preparing to take us back up to the starting point. After 10 minutes, we inched forward and stopped again. She was getting calls on a phone at the control station, and we could overhear animated conversations in one of the Asian languages on her walkie talkie, but she said nothing.

At this point I was starting to be convinced that something was seriously wrong and that those in charge were having great difficulty figuring out what to do about it. To my surprise everyone in the tram remained calm - as best as I could tell anyway. After another 15 minutes, Anne and I could see three men in yellow slickers walking toward the tram - one was carrying a chainsaw. They passed us by and still our driver said nothing. The storm had abated, but there were streams of water flowing down the tracks and the rain continued. After another 10 minutes, the tram began a slow ascent back to where we had started.

Now, our bus was waiting for us 40 minutes away at the bottom of the tram station, so when were ordered off the tram, we were advised to go back into the crowded mall where we could visit Burger King again if we wished while we waited 40 minutes for the bus to make it back up to pick us up. Thankfully there was WiFi access in the mall, so I was able to read some interesting articles on the new “socialism” that is emerging in the Democratic Party - with new names like progressive capitalism, democratic capitalism, or social democracy. I liked what I was learning about a possible political solution to the abysmal failures of the current broken capitalism.

 By the time we finally made it back to the ship, it was too late for us to go our our next excursion “Hong Kong by Night,” which was to start with an eight-course dinner featuring my favorite - Peking duck - and a view of the famous laser light show that fills the whole city. So we made clear that we expected a full refund (the excursion was $120 per person - it must have included a big fucking duck!), and retired to our room for a drink, a chance to destress, and some research on a good place in walking distance to have dinner.

 During the ordeal, I was frightened at a few points, very grateful that we were standing in a separate space and not seated or standing in the middle of the crowd, angry at the tour organizers for going ahead with the tram ride when it should have been obvious that a dangerous thunderstorm was coming, pleasantly surprised at the calmness of the crowd on the tram, and sad that our day (and evening) in Hong Kong was a bust. Even if the tram had been able to complete the trip, and even accepting our bad luck on the weather, I thought the tour sucked. (Our tour guide, a 58-year old female Hong Kongian, was obsessed with wealth and power, and went on and on about how well the rich had it and how hard it was for working folks to get by in Hong Kong.) Maybe many of those we saw spending big money in the glitzy mall were not from Hong Kong.

We did manage to salvage the day however. We found a one-star Michelin-rated Asian restaurant, Ye Shangrila (check it out on Google) in the four-star Marco Polo Hong Kong hotel. It was quite a walk through the crowded temple of high end consumption, but the food was the best that we had on the trip (I was able to order an excellent duck dish.) The service was outstanding, and the happy chatter of all the Asians, many in large groups, electrifying. We did receive the excursion refund and had only spent half of it on dinner!

 This has been a long post, so I will follow with some photos and reflections tomorrow.