I found that most country parks or trails are not that easy to get to unless you know the mini-bus or drive in HK. A hotel will be built near Ting Kok Road1, close to a trail called Pat Sin Len2. Read more...
(Source: The HK Standard)
What a nice story to read today. A Mainlander new to Hong Kong found herself shy of asking for directions especially on buses (this goes for most of us anyway), but she didn't want to be seen as ignorant, often gets lost on the buses. A volunteer program from KMB and Friends of KMB to help newcomers how to use the bus system, check routes online and phone. It really is a good idea.
More info:-
* Kowloon Motor Bus Company
* Friends of KMB
* “FRIENDS OF KMB” won Championship in “2009-2010 Best Corporate Volunteer Service Project Competition”
(Source: The Standard)
Long flights are not normally comfortable at best, but plane passengers on-route to Hong Kong on a BA flight on Tuesday evening were more terrified than uncomfortable. A mistaken announcement that the plane is about to crash while they were over the North Sea. I'd say the cabin crew had some job trying to keep everyone at ease after that erroneous announcement.
Interesting interview with a CNN reporter on her favourite places around HK.
...smell of instant noodles on a long flight to/from HK, as most people on any flight to Far East would experience. I'm being sarcastic, by the way. I hate the smell of instant noodles on an already not-so-comfy 12/14 hours flight.
This will come in handy! Google streetview for Hong Kong. Try it out for yourself.
It would take about 10 hours by air, but as the crow flies from King's Cross to Beijing is an ambitious plan pushed by China along with India. A train that travels nearly 400km/h was unveiled recently in China, linking Wuhan and Guangzhou. The hi-speed rail network will have trains travelling up to 322km/h. It all sounds super-scary fast thought. The Eurostar and the Shinkansen can go to 300'ish km/h. Hmm, those are pretty fast as well, and I've been on the former and you don't normally feel the speed, although would going an extra 100km/h be comfortable on a train?
Yikes, I don't feel so bad getting the train down to Limerick, people in China travel much longer on less than comfy seats, and millions are on the move as well. Read more...
(Source: http://www.irishtimes.com
Dublin airport is changing its boarding gate numbers.
Pier D will convert to a 100 number range
Pier A will be renamed in a 200 number range
Pier B will be in a 300 number range
The new Pier E, which is part of T2 and is due to open in November, will have boarding gates in the 400 range.
And the other thing to be aware, mainly if you are travelling through UK, body scans at Heathrow yesterday. If you are picked for scans and you refuse, then you are not entitled to fly. It was voluntary. Manchester has the scanner as well.
Other EU airports are bringing it in as well, i.e. France and Italy. The article mentions that Schiphol airport has 15 scanners.
Oh whoop-dee-doo, joys of travelling. Holidaying to relax, not if you fly.
Found this site via friend in Facebook, it's a blog called Joyful steps: Hong Kong and has entries on places he visited for food... mmmm... yummy just thinking about it. Lots of pics as well. Handy for those visiting HK and have no clue where to go, or what pressies to get.
Handy, for those travelling Stateside from Shannon airport, full customs and immigration inspection done in Shannon before departing for America.
Read here that the common travel area here and UK will remain. At least there is some good news.
Since I booked British Airways online before, I get the usual spam, this one is very specific. It's a nice one though, because now I miss Hong Kong!
From Indo because I could not find it on the Aer Lingus site.
The new flight timetableMonday-Friday:
Heathrow-Shannon at 6.40 and 19.10.
Shannon-Heathrow at 8.45 and 21.10.
Saturday:
Heathrow-Shannon at 6.40. Shannon-Heathrow at 8.45.
Sunday:
Heathrow-Shannon at 19.10. Shannon-Heathrow at 21.10.
And 1-way ticket prices for EUR19.99.
That's what I heard from Newstalk this morning. I did a quick search, not many news sites picked up on it yet, as the official announcement won't be made till later today according to The Irish Examiner.
There will be 2 daily flights between Shannon and Heathrow. Great news for my family who lives quite near to the airport and use to fly to Heathrow for their connection flight to Hong Kong.
It'll be great news for businesses (who are left) in the mid-west who were badly hit with the cancellation of the service.
Update: Indo - London calling as Aer Lingus prepares for Shannon U-turn
Update: Indo breaking news - Aer Lingus to resume Shannon-Heathrow flights
Good news for now, but for how long until the outsourcing issue is resolved. See reuter's article.
Industrial action will happen from November 24th, and travel agents are advising people not to travel with AerLingus this Christmas (Irish Independent).
It issued the notice of action after management walked out of talks on its plans to make €74m savings by outsourcing and cutbacks. Under the terms of an agreement with the airline, the union cannot take industrial action before November 24.
More:
I'm referring the annoying liquid restrictions at airports, at least it will be lifted. I'll try and update more on this as time goes by.
This certainly will be great news, certainly for people travelling to Asia who normally travels from Shannon via Heathrow to, say, Hong Kong. So a direct route to Beijing from an Irish airport will skip that extra hop in Heathrow and other major airports.
More about this bid here.
Amidst all the gloominess of tax increases from the budget, there is some good news from two large airlines who are reducing the fuel surcharge to reflect the drop in prices of oil.
Lufthansa reduced its fees for domestic and European flights by 11 percent to 24 euros and long-haul flights by 5 percent to 92 euros. The reductions apply to all tickets bought starting Oct. 20 [...]
British Airways said the fee for economy passengers on long-haul flights longer than nine hours will be reduced to 96 pounds (€123) from 109 pounds as of midnight today. World Traveller Plus premium-economy customers will pay 114.50 pounds, a decline of 5.4 percent
(Source: Independent - Two big airlines reduce fuel surcharge on falling oil price)
All the recent news about immigration officials in Dublin airport treating certain visitors to strip searches, detaining them, humiliating them even though the visitors have valid visas. The article today from the Irish Times highlights all the recent incidents and some experiences from various interviews. I'm one of the luckier ones that gets a "how are ya?" and a half-nod. But this is only in recent years, and mainly when I travel back to Dublin airport. No one actually mentioned about other national airports, such as Shannon airport. I'd remember I would get wave passed, but not before I get a discerning look of disapproval. Maybe it's just my imagination, I am very sensitive to any reactions around me in those situations.
Other unpleasant experiences that I remember (not that many, thank goodness):
Recently I was in Seattle, and the immigration took my passport, chatted a little and said "Welcome home!" by accident before changing to "..erm.. United States of America. Enjoy your stay.". That was funny, maybe because I have some American twang in my accent. I think it's most likely that they are use to seeing Asians travelling in and out, and there were alot of Asians working in the airport. Obviously, they did not bat an eyelid in San Francisco.
Any experiences, opinions? Chat about it at the IBC forum.
... are Asian. Guess what? Hong Kong International airport is the top airport according Skytrax after
collecting 8.2 million questionnaires from passengers over a 10-month period last year and this year.
This would be very interesting indeed. For example, my mother normally flies to Hong Kong via London Heathrow from Shannon Airport. Handy for her, as she is only 20 minutes drive from Shannon Airport. Now, Aer Lingus pulled out from flying to Heathrow, plus they are not part of One World, therefore no direct transfer of luggage to HK anymore, so much for ease of travelling. And normally it's the flight prices were the best flying this route, it's all changed now. If these talks work out, this means flying via Dublin, but if it flies direct to the Far East, it'll be much handier. So fingers crossed (it'll be handier for me, for sure!).
... going to Disneyland Hong Kong. Not sure why, since we went to Disney World in Orlando Florida a few years back for Christmas. But here is what Disneyland in HK will be offering for CNY 2008:
Heading off to Hong Kong today, it's nice and sunny and in its mid-20s in Hong Kong today. Sounds good so far (and going to HK is good, yes, I know that), but we will be greeted by rain and temperatures in the mid-teens. The HK government weather site even had a wooly jumper and says "it will be cold". At least it won't be as cold as here. Wahoo... HK here we come! It's like deja-vous, 'cause my hubby and I were in HK this time last year as part of our dropping-over-and-say-hi-to-relatives before heading on to our honeymoon.
UK Department for Transport has approved the re-introduction of allowing passengers to have two carry-ons to some UK airports from 7th Jan 2008.
Amongst the airlines that allow 2 pieces of hand-carry are British Airways and Cathy Pacific.
(You may need to check airlines on their hand-carry policies.)
References:
From RTE News, further confirmation of Dublin Bus strike tomorrow: Dublin commuters face disruption
(From Dublin Bus Homepage)Due to industrial action by bus drivers in Harristown Bus Garage, services operating from this garage will be disrupted on Monday 12th November 2007.The main areas which will be affected are Finglas, Swords, Ballymun, Blanchardstown, Donabate, Portrane, Dunboyne, Littlepace, Tyrrelstown, Damastown, Portmarnock, Kinsealy and Kilmore.
The following routes will have NO service:
4, 13, 13a, 17a, 27b, 33b, 37x, 39x, 39b, 40, 40a, 40b, 40c, 40d, 70x, 83, 102, 105, 127, 129, 142, 230, 237, 238, 239.The following routes will have a LIMITED service:
27x, 37, 38/a, 38c, 39, 41, 41c, 41x, 43, 70/a, 270All other services will operate as normal.
For more information click here or phone 01 8734222 on Sunday 11th November between 12noon and 22.00hrs and on Monday 12th November from 6am.
It's a joke. Homeland security are tightening entries by Irish visitors. So for all those going for a cheap xmas shopping trip to NY, be prepared!
It is now likely to be replaced with a new system called "Electronic Travel Authorisation", much like the controversial "Computer Assisted Passenger Pre-Screening" that was introduced on internal flights in the US two years ago.
If the system were introduced here it could mean that anyone who shares a name with someone imprisoned for IRA or other terror group offences, could be stopped from boarding flights. Thousands of people could be affected.
Now, didn't I say it is crappy now! Hopefully more information will come along about this new security measure.
Interesting read, some funny bits, and some that I know of are true. Good to know the cultural differences. Check it out!.
As you all know the annoyances of buying something for someone at a Duty Free shop outside of EU and getting it confiscated, regardless the fact that the item such as perfume, bottle of liquor was bought in a Duty-Free shop in the first place!
So the good news:
The European Commission said yesterday that it expects to announce this autumn which airports will be exempted from having the goods they sell confiscated.
But the bad news is:
Likely initial contenders are the US, Singapore and Russia.
This is just so stupid, isn't it?
(Read more - Indo: Airport liquid rules to be eased)
Follow on from my last post on the cable car plunge, seems the attraction has been shutdown for now, and the HK tourism board is seeking compensation of HK$1m , now that the promotional material for the attraction is not going ahead. Such a pity, it was really good when I was on it with my hubby. I hope they get this resolved and re-open the ride again.
As you might suspect, newly found rich Chinese are obnoxious, especially if they have got the dough to go touring around the world. And this article from the NT Times point that out loud and clear.
They behave as they would at home — there is a lot of pushing and shoving. Very few speak languages other than Chinese.
You can see the Chinese behaviour when they first descended to HK from Mainland China. Flashing their cash, rolexes, pushing everyone out of the way. Just being rude. And with more and more travelling abroad, I'm afraid this would generalised all Chinese people.
As of Wed 21st March, HK airport is banning liquids that is more than 100ml (like in Europe). Medicine and baby food is exempt.
Read more about it here from The Standard
More information:
If you know where to look, you can get some amazing pictures.
And the sixth one from the top looks like a hand, just like the Buddha's hand from the Journey To The West story.
I would call it "Culture Shock", but the Japanese just takes it one step further, and it's known as Paris syndrome. Why? Because many Japanese (mainly women), would go to Paris with this dream vision of romance in the air, and then shattered by rude Parisiens i.e. waiters. So much so, that they go into some sort of psychiatric shock! And the Japanese embassy gets many calls to repatriate the Japanese tourists. Coming from a country that is ultra-polite, it must be strange for them to encoutered rude people, and it must be extreme in the Paris syndrome's case.
London and Hong Kong are cities that I are cities without heart. People just goes about their business. Dublin is going that direction, being cosmopolitan can have these affects, from what I observe and experienced. But would it be enough to cause you mental anguish, breakdown or even suicidal!?!
But are all Parisiens rude? I have been hearing 50-50, and it's just stereotyping them. I think if you go to any other large cities, you will encounter rude people of some sorts. But maybe because I grew up in the west, and encounter all manners of rude people anyway.
Even though this was a promo for 2006, I saw this today during an ad break on Discovery Channel. It's cheesy alright, and shows all the usual touristy stuff, including Disneyland, Ngong Ping 360 cable car and so on.
Even with a computer glitch that caused delays on Tues, Hong Kong airport is voted the world's best again.
You read right... no frills flight to Hong Kong.
bq.Newcomer Oasis Hong Kong Airlines on Thursday launched the first no-frills long-haul flight from London to Hong Kong for just 75 ($220), excluding taxes.
At least you still get food. Hmm, it can't be worse than BA? *bleurgh
With the recent scare, airlines have now adapted new security measures. So no hand luggage apart from the following in plastic bags:
I wonder if my dad can bring is medicated spray for his heart condition, it's for emergency use only. Probably need a doctor's letter with it or something. But I cannot imagine anyone would like to have their laptops placed in the cargo hold! Imagine all the baggage handlers, chucking the bags all over the place! I'm glad we came back from Stockholm this past Monday, Dublin airport is mad. Mick was carrying a laptop. And we had laptops to/from HK as well 2 months ago. This is pure insane. Imagine your typical business/first class traveller be might annoyed if they cannot carry on any of their equipment, especially their laptop. Boy, long journeys will be so not fun now without my DS or iPod. 
Here are a few airlines that fly to Hong Kong that you should be aware of (although it seems to be exactly the same on what you can and cannot bring into the cabin):
Virgin will be doubling the flights to HK next Autumn. Yay! So much more choice now.
And the HK Science Museum has a mind-boggling exhibition on.
...non-stop! 
On a Boeing 777LR. But that is one long haul flight. I wonder, if they can do that, they should have flights from Shannon/Dublin straight to HK. That would be cool!
Since I don't let comments on my blog anymore (stoopid sp@mmers 
) So you can discuss this at the IBC board.
Follow-on from my post... Came across this article about Chinese tourist group offically visiting Ireland later this month.
Chinese toilet make-overs in Beijing and better late than never! But there are still some public loos in HK that are still hole in the ground. That is why I never go to public loos! Yeah, I'm picky, but I find them so disgusting!
Was searching for some packages, and found the HK Visa site has a cool offer... Offers and promotions to Macau.
Treetypie's friendly reminder aboutMOSQUITOES, and the danger of Dengue fever. Oh boy.
And don't forget my last post about Japanese Encephalitis!!!
And also be aware that this is typhoon season in HK, from HK goverment news site - Four to six typhoons expected this summer. Joy!
Now in the run up to summer, some of us are lucky enough to go to Hong Kong! (Heh). A friend of mine was searching online for hotels, and I found that some hotels are quite reasonably priced! Check out this HK hotel search site (ignoring the fact that the only currency they show is US dollars!).
My mom actually recommends Concourse Hotel, Mongkok (just across from Prince Edward MTR station). Wonder what other hotels locals would recommend for visitors to HK... Just saw the Kowloon Hotel, and it seems reasonable and terribly close to MTRs and other touristy amenities.
The appartment I'll be staying in is at Zone C at the Tai Po Mega Mall And it's the food hall! :) Just found out that that I can get cash with my banklink card at : Shop 126-128, Level 1, Zone B, Tai Po Mega Mall, Tai Po, NT. (I know where that is...) More ATMs around HK - Aoen n/w cash dispensing machines. You would not have guessed that I am heading to HK soon, do you? ;-p