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Flying visit to Hong Kong? Here are some of our suggested must-sees to fit in:

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When Hong Kong (meaning fragrant flower) ceased to be a British Colony in 1997, everyone thought the city would languish. Nothing could be further from the truth. Hong Kong is frenetic with energy and activity, new high rises continue to erected, especially in Kowloon, and commerce and industry is blossoming. The city, jam-packed with seven million people, is distinctly divided into four sections: Kowloon - the place to go for retail therapy, especially the street markets, Hong Kong Island, the New Territories and the Outlying Islands. It would be difficult to fit it all in in the same trip, but here are some suggested top places to visit or do:

1 The Peak Tower
This is undoubtedly Hong Kong’s number one tourist hot spot and gives you an instant orientation of the city below. Get there in 7 minutes by cable car and at the summit 396 metres high, is the city’s most unusual wok shaped building The Peak Tower. Viewing terraces on different levels of the tower offer magnificent views over Hong Kong and Kowloon.
www.thepeak.com.hk

2 Statue Square
This is Hong Kong’s administrative centre, an amalgamation of contemporary architecture with some spectacular designs. Check out the Bank of China Tower.

3 Happy Valley Races
Happy Valley is the horse racing playground of the locals.
www.hkjockeyclub.com

4 Star Ferry
For a great contrast take the Star Ferry across the water. It is a great way to cross the water between Hong Kong and Kowloon.
www.starferry.com.hk

5 Temple Street Night Market
An atmospheric night market where you can haggle all the way to Yau Ma Tei. Get there after 7pm.

6 Heritage Museum
This is a must-see museum full of splendid high-tech audio-visual displays telling all about the region’s heritage and natural history.
www.heritagemuseum.gov.hk

7 Big Buddha and Po Lin Monastery
The seated Big Buddha is quite an extraordinary landmark seen from miles around. Its located in the middle of Lantau island and faces the monastery.

8 Cheung Chau Island
Probably one of the prettiest islands around Hong Kong. Accessible by half hourly ferries.

9 Stanley
For a dip into colonial history this old fort is perfect. It is also very peaceful and a great diversion from the madding crowds.

10 Tai Long Wan Coastline
Mix your city break with time out on the beach. Some of the finest are along this coastline.

FURTHER READING:

20 July 2007

Comments

Gary Holmes, Phuket Thailand

CATHAY PACIFIC RIPPING OFF GOLFERS

Fellow golfers, beware of Cathay Pacific “ripping off “golfers as this story below is quite ridiculous.

I recently returned from London to Phuket with Cathay Pacific and was charged 228 pounds for 6 kg excess baggage on my golf clubs and I was not very happy. It was the same golf clubs I traveled with on my outward journey from Phuket to London for FREE!!!!!!!!!!!

This "penny pinching" for 6 kgs overweight, when you compare the total weight of the plane,fuel etc., and the excessive cost of 38 pounds per kilo does the reputation of Cathay Pacific no favours whatsoever! (The Excess baggage company based at Heathrow will send the same golf clubs from London to Phuket for 5 pounds per kg!).

Only one other airline has attempted to do this to me in 7 years. Thai airways charged me 10,000 baht in Dec 2001 for my golf clubs from Bangkok to London. It took 10 months and 5 letters, and an embarassing article in the Phuket Gazette (with a threat of a further embarrassing article in the Daily Telegraph) before they refunded.

Gary Holmes

I then sent a copy of my Cathay letter to my 4 Cathay Pacific clients on the Island. This was the reply from one of them:

“Hi Gary

Excess baggage is one of the more underhanded money making scams employed by airlines.For most airlines the baggage allowance is 20kg, but you can usually get away with 25kg before they slug you. To soften the blow they will generally give you the first 5kg over your allowance as a “gesture of goodwill”. After that, each kg is charged at 1% of the full FIRST CLASS airfare. If no-one’s seeing you off at the airport they’ve got you by the balls as you can’t send your excess stuff back home with anyone. What really gets up my nose is that it’s usually some poor junior check-in girl who has to deal with the passenger going ballistic at these absurd charges. Also, most people are so irate that they don’t realise that there’s probably very little in their luggage that is worth paying the charge for. They’d be better off throwing out old jeans, T shirts, toiletries etc that are valued at less than the US$70/kg being demanded.
To give you some idea of what it actually costs the airline to transport your excess baggage we have a rule of thumb for the cost of transporting extra fuel. To carry one extra tonne of fuel for one hour in an Airbus 330/340 costs about 30kg (40 litres) of fuel. So, to carry one tonne from Europe to Asia on a say 12 hour flight will cost 480 litres of fuel, or about 4.8 litres/kg. Jet fuel is just over US$1/litre, so it costs the airline about US$6 in fuel to carry one kg from Europe to Asia. The rest of the charge is just opportunistic profit”.

You will see then, that I should have been charged $36 and not $456 (228 pounds), which is a rip off of $420!!

YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED, FELLOW GOLFERS!

11 November, 2008

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