Today is the first entry of our diary of a trip to the tropics from February 23 to April 16, 2006. We will be visiting Hong Kong and the Philippines.

Day 1 and 2

Didi Ananda Krsnapriya took us to PDX at 5 am to catch our flight from Portland to San Francisco and then to Hong Kong. We spent most of our time sleeping on the plane. There were five movies shown, but we managed to see only the first two as we were quite tired. The food was okay —- Asian vegan.

We arrived in Hong Kong 7 pm, 2/24, after a 14-hour flight from San Francisco. After going through immigration and customs, we changed some money and boarded a double-decker to Kowloon. We found lodging at the Dragon Inn on the third floor of Chung King Mansions (a high-rise right downtown). We got a very tiny room about 6’x8’ complete with tv and its own bath. We were delighted to find an open spot between the rooms and the hotel’s office and were able to get wifi connection.

After settling down, we took a walk along Nathan Road to find something to eat. We didn’t find any fruits, but found samosas and a quart of Vitasoy, a chocolate flavored soy milk. Much later we found out that it contains dairy! Very disappointing.

It seems that Hong Kong hardly sleeps. Many shops are open until 11 pm or midnight.