[prasadka]

Hi
After our thrilling ride to the Coimbatore airport, Checkin was a
breeze. I reached Bangalore airport, and at first attempt the security
would not recognize the ticket in the PDA- he said he wanted a printout.
The bloke at the ticket office for Dragon air was kind enough to print
my itinerary- it was an ugly dot matrix printout, and I was actually
surprised to see the security being happy, looking at a printout, than
the bar code and other details in my boarding pass on my PDA.

Now I go in and realise that the checkin counter for my half past two
flight is not open and settle with my laptop, browsing, and a cup of
tea. The counter opens at half past ten. I check in, collect my "actual
boarding pass", clear security and sit in the restaurant, settling in
for a pasta and coke.

After the dinner, I go to my gate, doze off and await boarding
announcement. Right, after boarding the aircraft, the pilot announces, "
The flight will take five hours and we will be flying over Rangoon and
Shanghai, before landing at HK. The weather forecast at HK is err..
typhoon, but the idea is to complete the first five hours, and then we
will have plenty of options". The movies shown in dragon air were all
boring, which helped, because I could sleep peacefully. I am woken up by
the crew for breakfast, cant remember what I ate, but it tasted like
masala dosa and idlies. I now know it is morning, flight announcements
for landing etc., I am out in under ten minutes at the immigration
counter, where I hand in my pass port. The gentleman at the counter
welcomed me to HK and stamped a 14 day stay as a visitor in my PP.

I go to the foreign exchange, change forex, the kind chinese bloke,
though incomprehendible, explained the options that were available, and
managed to sell a airport express ticket to me, (return HK 180$). The
ticket also included a transfer to the hotel from the central
trainstation.

After checking into the hotel, I had a quick shower, and was off to
work. The work place is only about a five minute walk from the hotel. I
came out for lunch, found an Indian restaurant doing a buffet lunch, for
88$ HK, which I thought was great, hogged on err.. rice, dal, potato
curry, rotis, yoghurt and gulab jamuns, before coming back to work, half
asleep.

A few points to note:
1. HK remarkably resembles England. If one were to be blindfolded and
brought to HK, barring the weather and the chinese alphabet in
signposts, there would be little or no difference between HK and any
other British city
2. HK is a vertical city. My hotel room is in the
fifteenth floor of the hotel. Actually I was on the eighteenth, but
because I wanted a no smoking floor, they moved me to the fifteenth.
3. While coming back from lunch, in my blazer and tie, I was caught in
the middle of heavy rains (remember- err..typhoon). A curious looking
Chinese gentleman offered to ferry me in his umbrella to my office. He laughed aloud as he left and told me " I love English".. I wonder why?
4. I have seen all sorts of cars in HK, starting from Mitsu to benz to
Mazda to jaguar. The toyota seems most popular here, atleast amongst the cabbies.

Many Thanks,
Prasad

[14000rpm]

Mate, this thread is incomplete without pix. so , please make it a photo blog. there are lotsa people who read only the travelogues.
look ahead for a good travelogue.

[prasadka]

Hi

Thanks for the reply. I haven't had time for the pics yet.. I will start them soon.

Thanks
Prasad

[pulsar56]

Is it already over? And, Where are the pictures?

[mobike008]

A blink and you will miss travelogue.

My dear friend, add a bit more description, use correct punctuation,para break etc and include lot of pictures to tell your story completely

[jealousdiamond]

Any Pics coming , Travelog without pics

[ambivalent_98]

Prasad , HK is a really nice place and lots of photos are possible. I mean probably you could start off with Bangalore airport / Dragonair itself. Please try to upload at least few photos to have a "travelogue".

[Fordmanchau]

This small travelogue is very small. Can we have pictures ,we really would not mind seeing hongkong

[prasadka]

Hi

thanks for the comments. I know the pics are due. Just that I have been busy with some meetings. i will upload them as soon as possible.

Regards
Prasad

[Bumblebee86]

prasadka, if you dont mind, i would like to put some pics up here, just to keep the viewers entertained until you come up with your photos. Although it aint much, these were taken on road from Shenzhen (China) to Hongkong airport!!

Shenzhen


interior of the Toyota Alphard we took to travel


another fellow Alphard!!


The border between Hk and China


a whole lot of Alphards!! these are the most preferred ride by travellers moving into both HK and China


The sheer size!!!


crawling towards the line





Hong Kong beyond the waters!!

[Bumblebee86]

The Hong Kong which everyone talks about


too bad, couldn't enjoy in there





There's our ride taxi-ing

[Bhargava_sr]

Seems to be many Alphards in HK, Nice Pics