Hong Kong in 48 hours

On our way back from Thailand, we had a nice 2-day layover in Hong Kong and were able to go into Kowloon, HongKong Island, go to Victoria’s Peak, ride the Star Ferry, and all great things. 

We landed at the Hong Kong International airport which is built on an island by land reclamation. For the "Extreme Engineering" fans, Hong Kong Airport itself can be an attraction. The huge terminal is an impressive sight. Despite being one of the largest and busiest airport, it was pretty painless to navigate through the terminal building and pass through immigration, baggage claim and customs.

We took the airport express train which zips you from the airport to Kowloon and Hong Kong Island. The station and the ticket counter is inside the airport itself and arguably the most efficient and cost effective way to reach Kowloon or Hong Kong island. From the station there are free shuttles that will take you to all major hotels.




Hong Kong has many sights to see. Since we had less than two days there, we narrowed it down to seeing Victoria Peak and the Victoria Harbor which are must sees. Victoria Peak offers some fabulous views of the Harbor and Kowloon. The Peak Tram takes you to the top of the peak. However be prepared to wait in the long line to board the tram. We went on a weekday but still had to wait over 30 mins to get on it. The ride on tram itself gives you some spectacular view of city skyline. There are many restaurants, shopping and walking trails at the top. We ended up having lunch at one of the tourist trap restaurant and spent couple of hours walking around.The tram on the way back was empty so we could move on either sides of it to checkout the views.

View from Victoria Peak;

We spent rest of the day in and around Hong Kong central, which is where all the banks and other big businesses are. It is also home for the most expensive hotels, restaurants and designer stores. We walked around the the central district admiring the tall buildings. Most of the streets were very crowded especially the streets around Time Square and SoHo. We also took the pedestrian escalator which is the world’s longest escalator system that connects downtown financial district to the mid-levels neighborhood of condominium towers.In the evening we did the Harbour cruise on the Star Ferry. There are plenty of other cruise operators that you can choose from if you like the usual luxury amenities, but Star Ferry is very popular and is one of the icons of Hong Kong. It carries passengers across Victoria Harbor between Kowloon and Hong Kong Island and offers magnificient views of the harbor and city skyline. We got off at Kowloon and walked past the famous Peninsula Hotel. And yeah I was not aware of the world famous restroom on top of the hotel. Apparently the main attraction of the Peninsula Hotel are the restrooms on the top where the urinals line a floor-to-ceiling glass wall viewing the harbour and Hong Kong Island. who knew!

The next day we took a cab to the airport express train station. I was pleasantly suprised that the train station turned out to be just like an airport, it had check-in counters of all major airlines.You basically check-in your bags and collect your boarding passes right there. All we had to do after that is to board the train to the airport. At the airport we directly went through the security and almost had 3 hours until boarding.The Hong Kong airport facilities are amazing with over 40 restaurants,160 retail outlets and free wi-fi. We spent lot of time walking around the shopping area and for awhile I forgot that I was in an airport, it was like wandering in a shopping Mall. And what can I say, there was a "Popeyes" right there, there are hardly any in San Francisco bay area, so I just could not miss the oppurtunity to grab some chicken before heading towards our gate. -

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Day trip to Phi Phi Islands, Thailand

Next day we decided to take a day trip to Phi Phi Island. We were so surprised that actually this hopping island tour from Phuket came with many different kind of packages and varying prices as well. We booked the most economical version of the day trip to Phi Phi Islands via ferry at our hotel. As usual, the package we bought included shuttle transfer from hotel to the pier.  We were ready for the pick-up at 7am. A shuttle van picked us at our hotel on time and there was a fair bit of waiting around for other travelers at other hotels, then it took about  an hour to get to the pier in Phuket.

The ferry to Phi Phi departs at 8:30 am from the pier. The pier was a bit crowded with both tourists as well as locals.I  think there are only 2-3 boats leaving to phi phi every mornings.The ferry goes across Andaman sea to Phi Phi Islands in about 2 hours.   Phi Phi Islands, where they filmed the movie "The Beach" is situated between the large Island of Phuket and the Andaman Sea. 

The island is so small there are no cars, but plenty of young tourists all around.  It's really crowded by the ferry dock and the main street.Getting from the boat to the main street,you have to pass about 20 touts for tours, boat hire, etc. The main street opens out a bit after a hundred meters, and you have a clear view of the Maya bay & beach. Maya Beach is known to be one of the world's most beautiful beaches. I am not really a beach person but It is really a tropical paradise with beautiful strip beach between two limestone cliff islands and has all the hotels, beach bars, restaurants, diving and climbing shops. No wonder its so popular among the adventurous backpackers from all over the world. We had a great time hanging out at the beach and exploring the island. But the heat was still bothering me. Just wished we had an extra day here so that we could enjoy the island in the evening when its much cooler. God, it was so hot that I thought I might fry, no kidding.

Maya Bay @ Phi Phi Islands

Some parts of the Island are just breathtaking, whereas some parts aren't so. The islands are gorgeous with clean beach and breathtaking back-drop, but that's the perception from the boat. Once you get on the islands, then you find all the things you are trying to evade by taking a vacation, meaning noisy crowds, overcrowded restaurants, leaving on a schedule, no relaxation, etc. Still a trip to Phuket is not complete without visiting phi-phi island. So even a cramped day great day trip to the island is worth it with plenty of  adventure. If I go again, I would probably prefer staying on Phi Phi island for a few nights, rather than doing a cruise from Phuket. 

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Phuket and Phang Nga Bay, Thailand

We arrived in Phuket after 15 hours on the plane (or 18 or maybe 20 hours, I have lost count). It was a big mess outside the airport with tons tourists who had just arrived, resort buses & taxis everywhere and very bloody hot !. Luckily Le Meredien (our hotel) had a kiosk at the airport and they helped us to get a cab right away. The Le Meredien resort was really nice, we checked-in and just collapsed for few hours in our room before venturing out to have a quick look at the night life.

Our Hotel staff recommended going to Patong Beach area for the night. Its like a downtown of Phuket island filled with bars/night clubs and restaurants, ofcourse then there is the beach. At night the place completely transforms. The main street with all the bars is blocked off and a party atmosphere takes over with heaps of tourists. I must say it was rather daunting navigating through the crowded street. Every stall owner yells and grabs at you as you walk passed them so we have said 'no thank you' about 5000 times. My god did that get annoying after the 100th time.

Anyways, people come to Phuket for the beaches.Phuket does have rather a lot of very nice stretches of sand.The 3 main tourist beaches of Patong, Karon and Kata are in the southern half of the island. We spent the next day hanging around Karon and Kata beaches. Kata seemed to be more popular with younger people. There were lots of backpacker type accommodation nearby and no shortage of internet cafes.

The next day we went on a day trip to Phang Nga bay.Phang Na bay region is dotted with hundreds of small limestone islands in the archipelago. A trip to Phang Nga Bay is part of many visitors holiday to the Phuket area.

First we went to the James Bond island which is amazing . The island is not really called "James Bond" of course - that's because scenes from the 1974 film 'The Man with the Golden Gun' were shot here. The island is called Khao Ping Gan, named after a leaning rock on the island, and the one that's in all the photos There were lots of tourists and we all had to line up climbing up and down the stairs leading up to the rock. 

James Bond island

On the way to Koh Panyee from James Bond Island we stopped at an island used as a base for kayaking tours. You can kayak through the tunnels and caves of Phang Nga Bay . We went kayaking around inner cores of islands only accessible at low tide due to the caves was a great experience 

Next, we stopped at Panyee village (Koh Panyee). Panyee village took about  30 minutes  from James Bond Island on the longtail boat. It is a floating village and quite an impressive place to look at. It's a maze of houses, paths, elevated walkways, everything built over the water on stilts! Boats everywhere. You can't get anywhere without a boat. But is equally an odd place when you when you think about it. It's what I would call a micro-society. Everything is built raised on wooden stilts, there's no livelihood here except fishing, and you can do that without living in such an odd place.  

Approaching towards Koh Panyee

It also has the tourist side, every day while the tours arrive there are stalls selling souvenirs, necklaces, shirts, shells, sarongs and much more. By the time we left, it was well after 5pm, and as we chugged back in the long tail boat back to the mainland, it was close to sunset.

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Flight to Paris on Air France

I almost always fly United Airlines, so was really excited this time to be booked on an Air France flight to Paris. I had planned to check-in early to try my luck on getting a seat on the emergency exit row, but ended up arriving pretty late at the airport (thanks to the various constructions on 101). If you are on a 10+ hour flight, the biggest benefit of being seated in the emergency exit row is not that the leg room is unlimited, but most importantly you don't have to get up 25 times incase you end up sitting next to someone with a bladder problem.

Upon check-in I asked the airline for an exit row seat. She tried to ignore my request first, but with my never-say-die attitude I shamelessly asked her again just incase she did'nt hear me the first time. She gave me a long stare from head to toe and called someone on the phone. I was'nt sure if I committed some crime by asking an exit row seat, but after few mins she looked up smiled. I knew then I got an aisle seat on exit row. It was 43J . Woohoo!

Flight was on time. I was a bit disappointed that the seats did not have the personal TV screens, which was a bummer, but I did not plan on watching any movies either. I could'nt sleep much during the flight as I had intended to, but the Kiwi lady sitting next to me was nice and we chatted during most of the flight. It was her first visit to Paris so I became her Paris tour guide during the flight. The dinner menu had Champagne listed which was a suprise. I had heard from lot of travellers that Air France's food was not that great, but I felt the food and the service was really good. Maybe its because I have very low expectation being a frequent flier of United Airlines.

After a good 11 hours we touched down in Paris on time. My Hotel was in Montparnasse (left bank), so I went straight to the Air France Bus (Les cars) counter. Air France operates coach services between CDG and Montparnase and will cost you around 20 euros for a round trip which is much convenient than taking the metro/RER. I think this is the most ecconomical way to get from CDG airport to Gare de Lyon or Gare Montparnasse. The Air France coach departs from all the CDG terminals on a regular schedule, so no more carrying your luggages in the airport shuttle to RER station and from there to another Metro line. I did that last time and it was a pain.

Eiffel Tower celebrating the 2007 Rugby World Cup

Anyways since I had been to Paris as a tourist before, I avoided all the tourist stuff this time. On a side note, the Rugby world cup is currently going on in France and the entire country has been gripped by rugby mania. There were giant TV screens set up telecasting games live at most of the public places in Paris. Eiffel tower was decorated with Rugby world cup theme and so were most of the stores in Champs elyeeses. I spent couple of evening watching rugby games on one of the giant TV screen in Notre Dame which was fun.

Well, to end my blog, I tried the same drill (requesting exit row seat) on my return flight to San Francisco and again I got a seat on the exit row. Woohoo twice!

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Eiffel Tower & Paris from the top

Off to Paris  It was the first time in Paris. Weather was a bit gloomy, cold and was snowing intermittently throughout the day. Its December and given that we’d paid relatively little for our air tickets and hotels, we were delighted. And of course, it also meant less crowd everywhere in Paris.

I don’t think there are many monuments that are as famous as the Eiffel Tower. We just walked over from Notre Dame to the Tower along the Seine.

Being there for the first time, it is customary to go to the top, and so we waited. Luckily, the wait wasn't that long. Probably because of the low season and crappy weather. And 20 minutes later, we were at the base elevator, and another 20 minutes, we were at the top of the tower. You get a good view of the city but the top was kind of crowded and you have to “fight” a bit to get a good view. 

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Converting your US currency abroad economically

While introduction of "Euro" has made travelling within Euro zone much easier, exchanging US currency into Foreign currency is still one of the prerequistes (Ofcourse besides having a passport) before planning a trip abroad . If not properly planned, converting your US currency to a foreign currency can be very costly and problematic.

So far rule of thumb has been to charge your credit card as much as possible. Using your credit card does avoid converting a lot of cash, however you cannot use the credit card everywhere. Depending on your card,it may still involve exchange fees, but almost always less than retail exchange rates.

The best deal you can get is by using an ATM card. Using the right ATM card will avoid fees and can get the exact exchange rate. Before blindly using your ATM card, check with your credit union or bank as my experience shows not all fine print is the same!

I have an ATM card from Bank of America which is affliated to the "Global ATM Alliance" and have used at International ATMs listed below without getting charged any sort of transaction/bank fees;

• France - BNP Paribas
• England - Barclays
• Germany - Deutsche Bank
• Australia - Westpac

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Formula1: Canadian GP @ Montreal

Was in Montreal last month to watch the Canadian GP and Wow - Grand Prix weekend in Montreal is a blast! It's certainly not a weekend for the faint-of-heart. This is the weekend when the F1 and its entourage come to Montreal for the Grand Prix du Canada. This entourage consists (allegedly) of hundreds of thousand of F1 crew and tourists along for the party. Many of these tourists are from Europe, where most of the F1 supporters are and they flooded Crescent Street bars .The main party area is the above mentioned Crescent (and Bishop) street. Every single bar or restaurant was packed, the street was closed and there was live music going on. Looked like most of the fun started at late afternoon as the race fans arrive back in town at the end of the day on Fri-Sat-Sun. I walked around downtown and old town in the evenings, there were lot of F1 festivities all over.



Coming back to race itself, the GP takes place at Circuit-Gilles Villeneuve. This circuit is at Parc Jean-Drapeau on Île Notre-Dame island right across downtown Montreal. The island is connected by a metro line and I ended up taking it on both Sat & Sun. It was abit overwhelming when I got off the train seeing crowd of 100,000 people in a single metro station. But taking the metro is defenitely the way to go. I had a general admission ticket, so wandered around the entire park to find various viewing spots. There were tons of F1 stores and kiosks all over the park which was fun to look at inbetween the events. Took a quick walk inside the Honda World, which was just okay. The park is very nice with lots of food, heaps of people walking around and the qualifying/race itself was fun.

If you have never been to an F1 race and always wanted to go to one, then Montreal is probably the easiest and most convenient.

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