Dawn in Hong Kong
The Peninsula Hotel on Holidays
Hong Kong Tram at Chun Yeung Street
Hong Kong Tram at Chun Yeung Street
I managed to find a low-cost ticket to Taiwan for the last New Year’s holiday. However, for this year, the days passed by without finding a good plan. I thought departing on December 31 or January 1 would be best to avoid the year-end peak, but due to my work schedule, I had no choice but to return on January 4. The schedule was a bit tight, but it was too long to laze around at home. I knew I should do something, but I did not know what to do. In other words, I knew that I knew nothing. This may be Knowledge of Ignorance according to Socrates.
After returning from a trip to Uzbekistan in late September of last year, I noticed that All Nippon Airways (ANA) was running a campaign offering award tickets at half of the usual mileage. Since New Year’s holiday was a peak season, I assumed it would be excluded from the campaign, but mainland China routes were actually eligible even during the period. However, I had visited Sichuan in August and was planning to go to Guilin in November. I had a feeling that I should find a place other than mainland China.
That was when Hong Kong came to mind.
That said, the Hong Kong route was excluded from the campaign during the New Year holiday period. However, Guangzhou in Guangdong Province, where is also serves as a gateway to Guilin, is surely in mainland China. Taking a high-speed rail from Guangzhou to Hong Kong takes just over an hour. The award ticket was on the waiting list, but on the campaign’s final day, I decided to take a chance on Guangzhou route.
When I looked into it again afterwards, I found that ANA also flies to Shenzhen, right next to Hong Kong. I remembered that I had taken a high-speed boat from Hong Kong International Airport when I went on a business trip to Shenzhen few years ago, so it was an unexpected airport option. Moreover, the Shenzhen route, operated by Boeing 787, likely had more available seats than the Guangzhou route, which used Boeing 767. Shenzhen may be a better workaround for getting to Hong Kong than Guangzhou. Unfortunately, by the time I realized this, the promotion had already ended an hour before. Since it was just a spur-of-the-moment idea, I suppose that’s all it was.
There was no point in fretting, so I decided to just wait and see what happened.
It is said that good things come to those who wait, but there was no way I could do that. On the next day, I found a way to check the number of people on the award ticket wait lists. According to that, there were only two people on the outbound flight, apparently just my wife and me. The problem was the return flight, which had over 25 people on the waiting list.
I did not think things would go that well, so I decided to buy a ticket to/from Shenzhen while prices were still low. It was about half the price of direct Hong Kong ticket. Since January is the dry season in Hong Kong, I would say I found a real bargain.
In any case, this is the exact opposite of “good things come to those who wait.” In a way, though, it was exactly as I expected.
My last stay in Hong Kong was on my way back from a tough business trip to Shenzhen, so I treated the air ticket as a freebie and stayed at the InterContinental. It was a hotel with a convenient location and stunning views of Hong Kong skyline. This time, I checked a booking site without giving it much thought and found that rates seemed to reflect Hong Kong’s economic slowdown was offsetting the impact of the weak Japanese yen. I decided to stay there.
As expected, the hotel on December 31 was expensive, so booking a flight on New Year’s Day was probably the right call. My flight departed from Terminal 2 at Haneda Airport in Tokyo. There was a temporary “Akafuku” shop in the domestic departure hall, I bought some. Since I love Akafuku sweets, this was a good omen right at the start of the new year.
Although many flights including mine were delayed due to congestion of boarding gates, it did not have a serious impact and arrived at Shenzhen Airport. I entered China at the airport and cross into Hong Kong by land. The itinerary to Hong Kong was set up like a package tour, so I got off designated bus at Tsim Sha Tsui and took an Uber to the InterContinental.
I felt something was off when the car pulled up to the hotel entrance. The front desk where I checked-in also felt different somehow. Once I entered the room, I found it was clearly diffrent. I felt like I would make a mistake right at the start of the new year. Was my feeling of good fortune at Haneda Airport just an illusion?
Digging into my memory, I realized I had previously stayed at the InterContinental Hong Kong, but this hotel was the InterContinental Grand Stanford Hong Kong. Just as I remembered that there were two InterContinental hotels on the Tsim Sha Tsui side of Hong Kong, it was already too late.
For the time being, I went for a walk along the seaside promenade. After walking for a while, I finally found the hotel I initially had thought. It had been rebranded as the Regent Hong Kong, and when I checked later, I found out that the rates had been rebranded as well.
Had I known this, I might have decided not to go to Hong Kong. It was the power of I knew nothing. Although I may be interpreting differently from Socrates, I suppose my theme for this year is the Knowledge of Ignorance.
