Quite Possibly the World's Greatest Skyline

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For my trip to Singapore in 2011, I used AA AAdvantage miles to redeem a Business Class ticket to Singapore on Cathay Pacific. This itinerary had me transiting through Hong Kong twice - the first one was an early morning 5am through 10am transit and the second was an evening 5pm through 11pm layover.

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First Transit - July 12th, 2011

I arrived into a very quiet Hong Kong airport at 5am after a 16-hour flight from JFK. After clearing immigration, I waited for the first train into the city departing 6am. The train ride into central took about 20mins and I wandered into a city that was barely awake. I've always been a fan of HK's skyline, so I headed out on the covered walkway towards the star Ferry terminal. The Star Ferry was operating, and so I stepped onto the next one and admired the HK skyline under a threateningly dark sky.

The ride to Kowloon took only a few minutes. Disembarking, I found that few places were open; even the newspaper seller was still sorting out her papers. I eventually found an outlet of a chain (I can't remember the name) serving breakfast items where I ordered a decent dim sum set.

As it was humid and rain was threatening, I took the Star Ferry back to Central and headed back to the airport, arriving at 8.30am. This gave me enough time for a refreshing shower in the lounge and a quick bowl of noodles from their noodle bar before my flight back to Singapore.

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Second Transit - July 28th, 2011

I arrived into Hong Kong just before 5pm. My goal for this layover was to take the tram up to The Peak for sunset. Once again, I took the train from the airport to Central, and from there walked to the terminus for the tram. As I approached the tram, I was dismayed to see the line snaking around the corner. Augh! Even if I did get onto the train, I would have had to deal with hordes of noisy tourists. So, I made my way back to Central and decided to do the Star Ferry again, but this time I would see the lights coming on. Getting onto the now-familiar Star Ferry, I made my way to Kowloon and enjoyed the light show from the viewing platform before heading back to the airport for a shower in the lounge prior to my redeye flight back to the US.

At that time, I only had one friend that I knew of in HK, and he wasn't in town while I was there. Soon after this trip, I reconnected with several old friends via Facebook and found that three of them had moved to HK. If only I knew; I could have had dinner with them and seen the sights from the viewpoint of a resident.

Ah well. Maybe next time.

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