I recently had to fly back to the US on short notice to attend a family funeral. With limited funds and a narrow window to book, one advantage of living in Phuket is the abundance of cross-Pacific flight deals on offer, year round, that depending on the time of year, can even work out cheaper and more convenient than flying out of Bangkok.
This would be my second trip in just over two years back home to Denver (DEN) from Phuket (HKT). The first time, in December 2012, when I’d brought my Thai family back for the holidays, Korean Air yielded the best deal via Seoul (ICN) and Los Angelas (LAX), at about B42,000 each.
For this solo trip, the best deal I could find was from Cathay Pacific, also via LAX.
Having booked just a day before travel, the round-trip economy fair turned out to be B49,000 all in, but entailed long overnight layovers at the airline’s hub, Hong Kong (HKG), both legs. On the outgoing trip, I landed in HKG by about 11pm, exhausted and unmotivated to take advantage of the transit, instead opting to lounge around the airport all night, killing much time on the internet via the fast and free WiFi connection. The complementary USB and power outlet charging stations were really handy, though many of them were disconnected.
I ended up sleeping through much of the layover, sprawled out on three vacant airport bench seats, soothed and sedated by the classical music playing all night in the transit terminal.
As for highlights on my trip back to the “Mile High” city, I’ll save that story for another day.
On my return to Asia last week, I landed in HKG about 7pm, which allowed for a better window to check out the city. If anything, I wanted to see the if the downtown skyline still had the same charm I recall from the last time I was there in 2002.
The airport is located some 33 kilomtres from the heart of the iconic, harbour front skyscraper heart, and the quickest way into town is by the high speed train, which takes about 20 minutes one way.
It only runs until around midnight, and starts again around dawn. Considering my limited funds, I figured three hours would be more than enough, giving me plenty of time to make like Cinderella and get back to the security of the airport before midnight.
Same day round-trip train ticket costs HK$100, or about B400. If I missed the last train, then I’d have to wait until the early morning to get another train which would cost another $100, and then I’d be stuck in the chilly city all night with nothing to do and little to no money to do it.
Just as I’d remembered in 2002, the train ride was lightning swift; there’s only two stops – Tsing Yi and Kowloon stations – before the terminal stop at Central Station, in the heart of Hong Kong proper. From there, you can easily connect to the Mass Transit Railway (MTR) to swiftly get to other parts of the city, but that would just be one more expense I didn’t need.
So, I set out from the station, set snug under a dull shopping complex at the base of International Finance Centre, the tallest building on HK island at 412 metres. The building was still under construction when I was here last and is now an integral part of the HK skyline, along with the iconic Central Plaza (374 M) and Bank of China (367M) buildings.
I walked around, heading towards Victoria Harbour, where some carnival was taking place.
It should be noted that the tallest skyscraper in the city is not on HK island, but on the opposite bay in West Kowloon. At 484M high, the International Commerce Centre is the world’s 8th largest building.
At Central Piers, I tried to snap a few pics of the towering light spectacle that is the ICC across the bay, but visibility wasn’t on my side so I just strolled around absorbing the sights and lights of Central HK. If you’ve got the time, I’d recommend going up to Victoria Point, with a great vantage point looking down on the city, or even crossing over to Kowloon, for a full water-front skyline vista of downtown.
Most of the pedestrians walking around, were clearly tourists, taking selfies with the fantastically illuminated skyscrapers in the background. Every other person had a selfie stick. And while I would never be caught dead with one of those, it was only fitting that I jumped on the selfie bandwagon and snapped at least one selfie.
And that was that, stopped at 7-11 for a sandwich before boarding my train back to the airport.
Next time, I’ll have to spend a few days here with the family to enjoy it more.