Visiting the neighbours

This seems like a good time to be blogging about somewhere other than Thailand. So now for something completely different.

My trip to Hong Kong started with a delayed Air Asia flight from Ubon. We were only given three pieces of information by the Air Asia staff at Ubon airport: firstly, that the flight was delayed, secondly, that they did not know when the plane would arrive in Ubon to take us to Bangkok, and thirdly, that the delay was caused in Malaysia. I had heard these last two excuses at least twice before when I had been there to meet relatives off a flight from Bangkok. Always, the fault lay in Malaysia. This was possibly true, because the plane which flies from Bangkok to Ubon has previously come from Kuala Lumpur to Bangkok although these are two separate flights and if you booked through from KL to Ubon you would have to collect your baggage before checking it in again so it can be loaded onto the same plane. Strangely, the plane I was due to take turned up while counter staff were still telling us they didn't know when it would arrive.

In other respects, these Air Asia counter staff were very helpful to me because it soon became apparent that I would miss my connecting flight on Emirates to Hong Kong. So they got their staff in Bangkok to alert Emirates that I would miss my flight and Emirates sent back a message saying they would put me on stand-by for the following day. When I got to Bangkok  I thought Air Asia would pay for my overnight stay, but I was told that they would have if the flight had been just another four minutes late. Naturally, I concluded that their timing was better than at first it seemed.

This was a couple of years ago now, but who said this was a topical news blog. Air Asia seem to have become more reliable in the meantime.

Blaming Malaysia for the lateness of a flight to Ubon reminded me of a train journey I once took from Exeter, in south-west England, to Glasgow. Glasgow, by the way, is in a part of the United Kingdom called Scotland. For most of the journey announcements on the train were made in a voice that was clearly marked Made in England. But somewhere along the line, another voice took over, so when the announcement that the train "is now crossing the border into Scotland" was made, it was in a strong Scots accent. Announcements such as "The next station stop will be Birmingham New Street" were greeted with bored indifference by the passengers, but when we were told that we were entering Scotland the announcement was greeted by universal cheers, only a few of them ironic.

More was to come. Just before the train pulled into Glasgow Central the same Scots voice apologised for the lateness of the service but pointed out that "this was due to a delay caused in England." This time, not everyone cheered, but those that did made a lot of noise. A few of us jeered, but in a rather self-conscious, sheepish, very English way. Or maybe we were just afraid of reprisals.

And so back to Hong Kong. These were my Pic of the Day for the week 17 May - 23 May.

The first shot was taken at Wong Tai Sin, a Taoist temple that is very popular with Thai tourists visiting Hong Kong. There were several groups of Thais there when I visited.

The second was taken in a Mahayana Buddhist temple. From a Thai perspective, the two nuns (if that is what they are) mark a significant difference from a Thai Theravadan temple. I notice that they are wearing shoes, and it doesn't look as if they shave their heads once a month.

The flower shop was somewhere in Kowloon, and the floating fish market was at Sai Kung, where there are also loads of restaurants all serving really fresh sea-food. It was a grey, misty and rainy day when I visited as you can see from the sixth picture.

The last shot tells you what I was really there for: the HK 7s. And though it has appeared in one of my previous blogs, there is a bonus shot of my two grandsons, Kim and Ben, who had played for Discovery Bay Pirates in the mini rugby on the Friday morning of a great weekend of rugby.

Click on the photos to enlarge them. And please preview my Pic of the Day for this coming week by going to thetab at the top of this page.

         

       

 
 
 
  
   
 

Comments

[Mike]

Lawrence I enjoyed that. At least I can start the day with a smile.

HK is a great place, I have only been once and just for 3 days but I found the place magical. Sitting on the waterfront, just strolling around or exploring the island made our stay very enjoyable.

[Martyn]

Lawrence I've never been to Hong Kong but it's one place I hope to see sometime, hopefully with Wilai.

Looking at your pics I just had to enlarge the bottom left one to see exactly what it was about. I could see fish, but seafood as well, quite a catch. I assume the chap in the photo above caught them himself.

The Glasgow train trip. I'd have been cheering on the return leg as we crossed the border back into England.

[Lawrence]

Mike, thanks for your comment. I liked HK a lot, too, but strangely it was the food that disappointed me. I ate at several different places, cheapo to quite expensive, but found the Cantonese food very greasy.

Martyn, thanks for yur comment, too. I do recommend HK, but a word of warning: Thais love it for the shopping opportunities.
Cheering on the return leg? If you had been on the same train as me you would have been the only one cheering. Now why would that be? Maybe we are just less demonstrative.

[Boonsong]

Hello Lawrence

Another interesting post and more great pictures. Thanks for this.

Thanks too for your comment left on my blog. You were right about "James". I've since corrected my mistake. Thanks for pointing it out to me.

All the best, B