the Wanchai story

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this is not actually from Hong Kong - but a day or so later from Helsinki. Getting away? - usual panic - all nighter at work, seeing the day arrive and the mist clearing off the harbour was a signal to go home- do not normally see that - from anywhere!. had not really packed and mucked around at home called a cab at 9am - flight at 10.45am so got there only an hour before - but no queue at all at QF which is really unusual - and they ended up switching the HK and Buenos Aires planes (both 747s) so they had to switch spanish food for chinese I guess! so it was 45 mins late leaving- but soem time made up en route so into HK some time after 6pm.

the HK hotel in Wanchai was quite good and room a reasonable size = at the airport it was on the list for hotels but shown as full - so prebooking was good and I did not get there til 7pm or so. the airport train there is just so good for getting to town. I decided to stay in Wanchai on the Island this time (last time on Kowloon) s only really there one day- and did not really venture away from Wanchai at all, just walking around- could have gone up the Peak if I had got myself organised as the weather had cleared - it was a bit rainy in the morning although I did not get to use my umbrella. spent half the afternoon in the Wanchai computer supermarket - and discovered that the Canon flash for my camera was a mere 300AUD equiv - at home 475 is the absolute cheapest price - so decided to buy one, altho not a big fan of flash but it is one of those things you sorta have to have sometimes. I also bought a cheap light tripod for about $20AU (my other one wighs 2.5kg so did not make it into the bag - which only weighed 15,1kgs at checkin which was nice- the wheely pack is about 2kgs heavier than my old brown Lowe, now pensioned off North Africa when the zips gave up the ghost. I decided I really did myself too light on clothes like cotton shirts and bought myself a groovy Vespa Tshirt, & a short sleeved cotton one in a sale which is very nice.

So that was my day in HK - then off at ard 6.30am to get to the airport. the downtown checkin in HK is also so great. I got some bakery type things for brekky at the airport - then actually had to race a bit to get to the gate before it closed at 9.o5 - otherwise they might have left me. Finnair flight was an Airbus 340 - and had a window - with view of the wing mostly. tried to nap mostly on the plane but saw most of the movie Sunshine Cleaning which I did not see at Dendy - and on the Helsinki city snip from a UK TV show the host stayed at my hotel the Klaus K so it must be groovy! got the bus downtown to the rail station from the airport which was 4 euro and took about 35 mins. then wandered around in circles around my hotel - Helsinki is so small the scale of the map was misleading. as I had had 2 meals on the plane decided I did not need another - but rather an early night at 7.40pm. as HK is 5 hrs difference it really was rather late for me!

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Comments

[Bob Davis]

Happy travels
Great to know you are well and spending up large. Keep safe and enjy your trip.

[Brian Straddo]

Tha Huds goes outernational
Ha you cut it fine with your flights n' airport arrivals Huds, be careful you gunna miss a flight sometime soon! Good to hear all is well thus far. Onya, Brian

[Garry]

Vespa T-Shirt
Hi Michael, glad to hear you bought Vespa T-shirt. Happy travelling cheers Garry