Day 19 – Hanoi to Hong Kong

January 12th 2009

Our final few hours in Vietnam pass uneventfully, the driver is early – again – and apart from an odd wait lasting a few minutes while they “check the room”, I did contemplate putting the safety deposit box in my rucksack but fortunately decided against it or else I would've been rumbled, we cut through the morning rush hour traffic to the airport.

Hanoi International terminal is pretty standard although there seems to be a lot of building work going on in the waiting area which does make it all a bit scruffy. Efficient checkin, back to no queues, and we pass through immigration and security with minimal fuss, really does go to show you not to believe half of what you read on the internet (this blog of course is simply copied from a guidebook), I was expecting some sort of drama at some point passing through these borders but nothing of the sort. Yes, the immigration and security officers are grim faced, but that's pretty standard worldwide and I don't for a minute believe these people are cutting corners anywhere either, details are taken meticulously and security appears to be just as tight.

After some very nice beef and pasta on the plane, oh and another last Vietnamese beer, we touch down at Hong Kong's new (to me) airport 25 minutes early. The airport is vast, quite a shock compared to where we've been travelling previously and the first indication that we're in a totally different kind of crazy – the “temperature control station” which from the front is a group of about 10 completely bored looking girls staring at screens. It's only when you get to the other side and look back that you see they're watching thermal images of everyone walking through – if you've got a fever they'll spot it and you're off to quarantine. I suppose it's sort of reassuring but still crazy.

Queuing for immigration is a bit of a chore, the queues are of US proportions and there are very few staff working the desks, but we're British so queuing is what we do best. When we finally pass through to get our transfer things do start to get a bit weird. Previously all transfers have been by private car so you just get used to it. Here we're going to be on a coach it seems, but only after we've been passed around a bit between staff, told to stand with fellow travellers (we had all been happily sitting) and wait for about 10 minutes like naughty schoolchildren and then walk through the airport for what seems like miles – it's perhaps 150 yards – till we're diverted off to an array of coaches. It's not much different to a package holiday transfer I suppose, just seems a bit odd the way we're being handled.

The transfer itself is only notable in that our first drop off is at Disneyland Hong Kong – which from the car park appears to be almost empty, good time to go I suppose! We continue along what is in effect a bridge that runs for miles all the way from the airport to Kowloon and Sarah gets her first glimpse of Hong Kong itself, it's a bit hazy but still an impressive sight even at distance. I can tell that a number of newer, and even more massive, buildings have been built since I was last here, it's all incredible and you immediately lose all sense of perspective.

Our hotel, The Langham Place, is just incredible from the word go. Kowloon side, which is relatively low rise in comparison to Hong Kong, our hotel is 42 storeys high, has a taller office block right next to it and is simply nowhere near the size of buildings further away. This is the sort of place where blocks of flats – and there are hundreds of them – are getting on for Beetham Tower size. Would be quite easy to write a complete blog entry on this hotel, but suffice to say if I could afford to see out our 180 day visa here while staying here, I don't think we'd be coming home till the summer! The only downer is the lack of free wifi here. Like most western hotels they choose to make you pay which I find somewhat ridiculous when they should be getting themselves a reputation as somewhere that facilitates good business not taxes it. Updates will therefore be very difficult to post.

Having watched our hotel orientation video and come to terms with being able to look out of the window without screaming – we're on the 20th floor – we head out to hit Hong Kong for the first time.

A combination of walking and the MTR (Mass Transit Railway, Hong Kong's underground) we end up at Central to find somewhere to eat. Selecting a place which is basically for locals I begin to have my doubts as we're shown up a narrow staircase into a tiny back room with about 5 tables and a scattering of stools to sit on, but the food is great. It comes in the when it's ready style that is so Asian, this time our soup is the last thing on the table, and that does make you rush a bit to ensure it doesn't all go cold, but that said my braised pork rib in spicy red rice sauce is without doubt the tastiest Chinese main course I've ever eaten.

We then hit a couple of bars in Soho just to finish off the evening. After 1 drink in the first bar the plan is to move on for 1 more. This falls apart however when we take our seats at Bulldogs just as the complete 90 minutes re-run of Manchester United's 3-0 battering of Chelsea comes on the screen. Oh well, fortunately they take credit cards as the booze is very expensive here, and we're back to pints too which my body certainly has forgotten existed.

We do finally get back to the hotel shortly after midnight, shattered, it's been a long but excellent day.