Tag Archives: Hong Kong

Forgetfulness, sloth, and other sources of screw ups conspire to delay a trip

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MMO standing in front of Rush passport doorThis is what happens when your passport expires even one day, or in my case 20 days before a trip. Karen discovered this lapse the night before our trip to Hong Kong. I pouted and immediately had thoughts of abandoning all hope. Karen, the bull, got online and found a solution to the problem.

By the time we finished all the arrangements it was 11 pm. So, we got up a 4 am to drive down to NYC. Mighty few people on the Taconic at that hour.

I spent the day in Manhattan starting at 7:15 am here at Rush Passport, a very efficient though also very expensive service. Lightened of $520 ($350 for the service and $170 for the State Dept.) we left Manhattan.

Karen and I then had breakfast at a diner in Bayonne NJ before dropping her at Newark Airport. She went ahead to Hong Kong.

I went to Harlem and had a nap at Andrea’s house. No one there but the cat. An hour’s snooze and I was off to one of my regular stops whenever I can at the 42nd St. library. this always includes a visit to the Reading RoomRose Reading Rm 42nd St. NYPL - borrowed w/o permission on the top floor.

By 5 pm I had my new passport. I will leave for Hong Kong on Monday.

I tried hard to think up a scenario to blame Karen or anyone beside me for this gaff. But I have so far failed.

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Hong Kong – escalators

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Escalators in Kowloon Tong Station Hong Kong

Escalators in Kowloon Tong Station Hong Kong

This is one of series of postings flowing from our trip to Hong Kong and Vietnam between December 15, 2008 and January 7, 2009.

During my visit over the last three weeks in Hong Kong I was on more escalators than in my entire existence. This reflects the well known verticality of both the natural and built environment there. It also shows the city’s interest in maintaining foot traffic as a viable mode of mobility. Even in the more remote parts of the city, pedestrian travel is aided by sidewalks, elevated walkways, and everywhere a web of pedestrian friendly access connected everywhere by escalators.

Compared with the chronic outages of service on the MBTA escalators, I never came across a single escalator that was out of service.

A final little reminder of the more typical lack of reliability of public escalators I experience in the US came on our return at Newark. After clearing customs we rounded a corner to see an escalator to carry us upstairs to catch our connecting flight to Boston. Sure enough, this escalator, a “Schindler” was emitting a loud clanking sound. We had seen plenty of Schindlers as well as Otis escalators in Hong Kong. None greeted us with such dramatic evidence of imminent failure.


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