Less Traveled Path

While in Hong Kong, we had booked a tour to the Guangdong Province with a final destination in Shunde for the weekend.  It was perfect timing because we had planned to visit family there afterwards, except that on the morning of our planned departure, a typhoon bound for Hong Kong shut down all transportation by water including the boat ride to our first tour stop. Our entire tour was cancelled thanks to the typhoon level having escalated from 3 to 8 (out of 10).

The rain and winds were pounding the windows of the flat where I was staying and I couldn’t help but think about the triple storm that hit the Bay Area earlier this year. I tried to stay away from the windows, just in case.

Later in the day, along with my cousin whose work was cancelled thanks to the typhoon, we ventured out on the streets for food.  The once busy Nathan Road was empty without the double decker buses, the hoards of people walking the streets, and the open shops.

I flew to Hong Kong on the Cathay Pacific flight I booked several months earlier on a 747-400 with new seats that were introduced last month, which included individual entertainment screens (no charge) that had plenty of options to keep you preoccupied including video games and seats that reclined in its own shell, plus a push out coat hanger.

According to Cathay’s site, the entertainment on-demand features:

9″ widescreen TV with StudioCX – featuring a rotating library of 100 movies, 350 TV shows, 888 music CDs, 22 radio channels, and entertainment programmes in nine languages.

Though I found the user interface for the entertainment awkward.

Though slightly more uncomfortable compared to the older seats, the new seat design was great because if the person in front of you reclined, the wouldn’t encroach upon your space because the seats slide forward and down. Unfortunately, the front pocket was practically nonexistent (see above), though my friend seems to think they’ve relocated it behind the calf area.  I’ll have to check on my long-haul flight back.

Anyhow, when I arrived at the airport in Hong Kong, there were only 7 days, 13 hours, 36 minutes, and 13 seconds left until the Beijing 2008 Olympics Games.  On the right, is the photo I took last December.  Quite a bit of time has passed.