Making the Trip to Hong Kong

The story of my adventure getting to Hong Kong seems like the logical place to begin. I hope our KFEQ listeners and readers will enjoy these postings...I feel like it will be a way to stay connected to folks back home while I'm gone. Please feel free to post comments using the link below. When I post, I'll use the time and date in Hong Kong instead of the Central Time Zone. Hopefully, this will help you follow along with what's taking place here, 14 hours ahead of time back home.

Beth and the kids took me to the airport on Saturday morning for the beginning of this trip. It just seemed like a waste to park a car for 9 days and pay the fee, plus I really wanted to see them up until I needed to check in. You'd figure as much as I have traveled that the 'good-byes' would come easier through the years; they don't. I was glad the kids and Beth were there. It sure wasn't any easier to leave, but it was nice to have them there as long as they were. I was missing them from the moment I walked down the walkway to board the plane and look forward to seeing them when I get back next week.


My first leg of the trip was a short flight from KCI to Detroit on Northwest Airlines, and while we were running behind schedule by a few minutes, I knew there would be enough time to make the transfer to the next flight. I rested on this leg, as I was planning on staying up as much as possible the next 19 hours of flight time. It would be 10:30pm Sunday night before my feet were to hit the ground in Hong Kong. There were no problems along the way, and once on the ground at Detroit, my departure gate was only 2 gates away. I made a swing to the airport bookstore to pick up something to read and made my way back to the gate. It was surprising to see the waiting area empty, as it was only 1:15 and the plane wasn't due to take off until 1:42. This worked out good, as it gave me some extra time on my feet and I didn't have to wait in line to check in.

I boarded the plane, found room for my laptop bag in the overhead compartment and settled in. The flight from Detroit to Tokyo was running really late; we pulled back from the gate at 2:38...remember, the flight was supposed to take off at 1:42. Needless to say, I was a little anxious about making the transfer in Tokyo, knowing that it would take some time to get off the plane (I was in row 55) and find the gate, etc.

The flight path took off towards the Northwest, into Canada and cut through the center of Alaska from the southeast to the northwest. I had an aisle seat and they closed the windows shortly after take-off, so I wouldn't have been able to see much anyway. For the most part, the flight was good..a few rough spots here and there when we had to fasten our seatbelts, but nothing that would make a person "white knuckle" by any means.

The majority of the passengers, naturally, were of Asian decent. I'm not that good at distinguishing between Japanese or Chinese, but there was a noticeable difference in the variety of people on board. Seated next to me was a couple from China. They spoke little English other than 'Thank You' and 'Please.' We communicated as much as we could, but our conversations were limited to smiles, nodding heads and the use of numbers. Their main concern (written on a note from someone they brought with them) seemed to be which gate they would go to in Tokyo to make their transfer, as it wasn't listed on their boarding pass like it had been for them in Detroit. I tried my best to explain I would find out for them; they also asked our stewardess, who assured them she would help. The flight had an interpreter who spoke both English and Japanese, and eventually, she found a gate number for them. They were a pleasant couple to be seated with and their cheery attitude made the ride more enjoyable.

There were several rounds of drink service (cranberry juice or water for me, please), so it was easy to stay hydrated. The meals on the plane were delicious! I don't know how they can cook up so much ahead of time, re-heat it on the plane in little dishes and get it out to passengers as easily as they do. Our first meal consisted of a salad, a combination of rice, green peppers and beef with gravy, a dinner roll and brownie. Just about the time I felt like I was getting hungry again, here they came around with a cold-cut ham sandwich. Once again, as we were into the last few hours of the flight, I could smell the ovens fired up; this time, it was an omelet, potatoes, fruit and juice. They fed us well on that 13 hour flight!

I slept a little along the way. My gameplan was to stay up as much as possible so I'd be ready to go to bed when I got in to Hong Kong. I picked up 2 books at the airport in Detroit with the goal of reading 1 on the way over and the other on the way back. The movies were poor, so I didn't waste a lot of time watching them. I would have watched 'The Polar Express', but there were enough people moving around that I couldn't always see it, so I passed on it as well.

I should mention at this point that my 'travel partner' is fellow farm broadcaster Mike Hergert from the Red River Farm Network in Grand Forks, North Dakota. Mike has attended the last 2 rounds of WTO negotiations, so this is old hat for him. We tried to book the same flights together, but there was a considerable difference in price between my fare going through Detroit and his through Minneapolis that I decided we'd it would best to try and meet up en route. It appeared our schedules would put us in Tokyo about 10 minutes apart and that we'd be on the same flight to Hong Kong.

We arrived in Tokyo just a 10 minutes off schedule, but it did take time to get off the plane, then get through the security check-point and then to find the plane. I quickly looked for Mike while walking from one gate to the other, but never spotted him. I arrived at the gate to the flight to Hong Kong in time to catch the shuttle...I figure I was actually outside in Tokyo for a total of 30 seconds going from the shuttle bus onto the second plane.

Once on the plane, I looked again for Mike. We thought we would be on the same flight together from Tokyo to Hong Kong. I could remember his itinery reading 'Cathay Pacific' for his connection from Tokyo to Hong Kong, but he'd been told it was a partner airline of Northwest's and that Northwest didn't fly from Tokyo to Hong Kong. It soon became obvious that he wasn't on this flight, that Cathay Pacific was a seperate airline. I asked for him to be paged (the plane held more than 400 people) to be sure. No luck. We'd have to try and make connections in Hong Kong at the airport.

After being on the other plane a little more than 12 1/2 hours (we made up some time) and on so quickly hopping back on to this one, I was hopeful this next five hour flight would go quickly. Time did seem to pass more quickly. We flew down the coast of Japan all the way south. There was no end to the site of city lights below. The amount of "countryside" in Japan surely doesn't amount to much. I'm anxious to get back home and look at the satellite picture map taken from space at night time to see if there's much of Japan that's not lit up. I read a little on the book, slept for under 30 minutes, and then it was time for "dinner" again. This was the same meal as on our first leg--beef with rice, etc. Now here's something interesting I noticed. This time, the food service was done through Tokyo, Japan. Remember, Japan has banned US beef, so this had to be either Australian or Brazilian beef (or from somewhere else, not the US). No doubt about it...this was NOT American Beef. The flavor was poor and reminded me of something other than beef! Another reminder for me that we would probably be seeing some changes in diet over the next few days.

I finished all 486 pages of David Baldacci's 'Split Second' and started in on the sequal, 'Hour Game.' I would have watched the movie, 'The Fantastic Four,' but I could hardly hear the thing through the headsets and the stewardesses were making their rounds selling duty-free items. They must get paid commission on that stuff, because they turned from cabin stewards to sale people in a flash. The young woman sitting next to me bought mascara (I think it cost $32 HKG, around $8 US) and then was modeling a bracelet. She had a hard time getting it on and off, so the reach across me was necessary. My eyes were extremely sore, so I decided to rest a little more, knowing it probably wouldn't be that hard to go to bed now once in Hong Kong. I tossed for the next 45 minutes, catching myself slumping over toward the little Japanese or Asian woman sitting next to me a few times and fighting an aching tailbone. I was really looking forward to getting on the ground in Hong Kong now.

We landed at Hong Kong about 10 minutes ahead of schedule, then toured the airport in the plane from one side to the other for at least 10 minutes. This airport is comparable in size to Chicago or New York...probably even bigger. I began to pray that Hergert and I would find each other...the size of this place was enormous! Once at the gate, it didn't take long to get off the plane. As I walked up the walkway from the plane and into the terminal, I began to scan for Hergert. No sign of him here. I'd have to see if I couldn't track him down...maybe page him.

As I walked down the hall then, it dawned on me that Hong Kong is comparable in size to New York City (I think there are 6.8 million people here). I cleared the area where they scan everyone's body temperature with a thermal camera (I guess they're checking to see if you're sick, I don't know) and then head towards customs. On the way, I saw the board displaying which bag claim went with each flight. I was on claim 4; Hergert would be at either Claim 5, 9 or 13. Customs was split two ways; one for baggage claims 1-7, the other for 8-14. I wasn't sure if the two connected or not, so I decided not to go through customs yet. I was pretty sure that my flight was supposed to get in 10 minutes before Hergert's. I scanned the crowd in the customs line looking for him, moved to the other customs area and did the same, then decided to camp by the thermal camera area and wait for him. It was 10:20pm; I decided I'd give him until 10:45, then go onto customs and look for him at the baggage claim.

I kept watching the flight boards to make sure there weren't any other baggage claim areas for incoming flight from Tokyo...still 5, 9 or 13. In the meantime, I spotted a "Reception" area for WTO guests. Maybe I should check there. If I did, I risked not seeing him come down the hall. I waited, watched the crowd, made up stories about people in my mind as they walked by. There were a variety of people; very few Americans, or even Caucasians for that matter, who were coming through. The number of people lightened up and before long, here came a familiar face. I waved, but he didn't see me. If I'd been thinking, at this point in time I should have hidden around the corner and come up behind him offering him a pot of tea. But I was so glad to see him that all I could do was wait. Once again, God hears our prayers! Apparently, Hergert was glad to see me as he had been worried about not meeting up since we missed each other in Tokyo. He said he'd been praying, too.

We headed to the WTO Reception area and were given a complimentary bus pass to our hotel, along with a goodie bag of WTO welcome material. They had a special area for us to go through customs, so that helped with that process since there wasn't any line. Visas aren't needed in Hong Kong unless you're staying more than 14 days. The WTO stamp on our passport actually allows us to stay 90 days...

We walked to baggage claim and wouldn't you know it, there were my 2 bags coming down the belt. I grabbed a baggage cart, headed to claim 13 to catch back up with Mike and found his bag almost as quickly. Our WTO guest badges stood out, so we were escorted to the shuttle buses and given a warm welcome.

The ride to the hotel took about 30 minutes. We stopped at 4 other hotels before getting to ours. I was exhausted, starting to feel nauseated by the movement of the bus and was ready to get into a bed.