Off to SE Asia once again:
As I finely get on my way I'm reminded of the skipper who never makes way from port, awaiting the right conditions to sail off. I've been making these trips to SE Asia for years but as my age increases the harder it gets to leave the comforts of home. In thinking about this I came to better understand the hold a familiar place can have as with the harbor locked sailor. So after many excuses and false starts, the time had come to just get on with it or surrender to endless afternoons of Oprah. Never an Oprah fan I pushed into the crowded summer travel season. Gave up on waiting for air fare deals, tossed my fate to a travel agent and had her book me a ticket to Saigon with an open return. Convinced friends in Saigon to help in finding me a new place to rent a room in the city center, district 1. They came through again, a dandy little guest house, offering me a nice sized room at a reasonable price with a 24/7 dsl Internet connection, cable TV, frig, balcony and best of all my laundry (even iron my boxers) done.

My son Ian drove me out to the Sacramento airport to catch a United Express/Skywest, 45 minute flight to San Francisco. Some might scoff at the extravagance of flying such a short distance but beats the heck out of driving the traffic chocked Hwy 80. Anyway, I couldn't talk anyone into driving me to San Francisco International so really didn't have much of a choice. Of note - their was the bummer of a 6 hour wait at San Francisco for the Cathy flight to Hong Kong.


Once my Cathay flight arrived at Hong Kong International their was another bummer of a layover of 7 hours before heading on to Saigon. What do you do with long lay overs? San Francisco was a no brainier, eat dinner, watch people and let the adrenalin carry me along but on arrival in Hong Kong I needed a bit more. 13 plus hours in a plane even if you did as I did and finagled an upgrade to business, will suck the adrenalin out the best day dreamers.

At 7:30, armed with my visa application, completed on the plane, I easily pass through immigrations and customs, that is after an interminable wait in one of those lines that seem to snake on and on for ever. I quickly located the Left Luggage and checked my carry on. For reference its located to your right after entering the terminal from customs and the going rate for a single piece of luggage is $50.00 (hk) for up to 24 hours. Then walk across the terminal lobby and ante up $90.00 HK dollars for my train ticket and waited to board the next Airport Express Train to Kowloon, trains leave every 12 minutes or something like that, so its a short wait even if you just missed a train. An important point for us brain dead, marathon travelers using the train is a true no brainier. They only go in two directions, one to downtown Hong Kong and other direction back, making only three stops on the way from the airport - Tsing Yi, Kowloon and downtown Hong Kong, which is about about 20 minutes and the reverse to return. They are very modern, high tech and high speed trains, offering a very peaceful ride. With even a quite car where no cell phones are allowed, and all are squeaky clean with loads of room and comfy seats to watch the country side pass by.