4 sleeps to Hong Kong

---

Okay, I know that 5.5 days in Hong Kong isn't exactly intrepid travel, but it will keep me going until my next tentatively planned long trip, Bangkok to Bali in December this year. Particularly excited about the flight this time because I am using my long stored-up Northwest airpoints to go business class both ways! It's possible to choose your seats online so I have chosen the downstairs section for the flight to HK and the upstairs section for the flight back, just so I can make the most of the experience. I have actually flown business class before, Sydney to Auckland when I was about 17, and the flight wasn't long enough! Now I get to spend 5 hours each way in business class- can't wait!

The reason for the trip is to attend the Asia Yoga Conference which is being held at that huge convention centre which overlooks Hong Kong harbour. 4 solid days of yoga classes with various well known international teachers, starting at 6.30am each day. A bit pricey but I think it will be a great experience.

With such an early start I need to stay nearby, so will be staying in a 3-star hotel- a far cry from the last time I went to HK in 2000 when I stayed at the equally dodgy building next to Chungking Mansions, the famous budget backpackers' dive in Kowloon on the other side of Hong Kong harbour. The walls were paper thin, there were no windows, there were screaming arguments in Cantonese in the room next to me at midnight- at least I think they were arguments, hard to tell with Cantonese speakers sometimes- and then on the last day there were reporters crawling all over the place because someone had decided to end it all and jumped off an upper floor into the central courtyard.

So anyway I'll be sharing with friends Marie and Yoko from Tokyo- hope the rooms are a decent size because we are adding an extra bed to the room for Yoko.

The Northwest flight arrives pretty late- about 10.30pm so I decided to arrive 2 days early on the 30th (the conference starts on June 1st) so that I don't have to get up really early the morning after arriving. I'll have a chance to do some sight-seeing too- hoping for some decent weather as it rained pretty much non-stop for the entire week I was there back in 2000, apart from about 2 hours of fine weather one afternoon.

Anyone who has been to Hong Kong recently I would welcome any recommendations for places to visit, eat etc...

No photos since I haven't been yet, but I have a nice new camera after my old one didn't survive a run-in with a solid Indian floor in Mysore in March, so they should be good ones!

---