Enter the Dragon

I returned to Hong Kong on an 8AM flight from Bangkok.  I got the ticket from Bangkok to Johannesburg with miles and they had to book me on two flights with a 36-hour layover in Hong kong.  I was excited to fly Cathay Pacific for the first time, an award winning airline and sometimes considered the best in the world.  All I can say is that it was great being on a "real" airline again after all those dreadful Air Asia flights.  Now I was getting coffee and a meal for free (!!!), and had an entire aisle to myself to take a nice long nap.  And towards the end of the flight, the guy in the row ahead started to chat me up and was really interesting.  (I keep thinking I should make a blog just about all the interesting people I meet on airplanes).  He was a Swiss watch importer who was on his way to Hong Kong to pick up some watches and take them to Japan four hours later!!  I told him about living in Buenos Aires, and my dream of living half/half in Buenos Aires and Seville (Spain) at some point in the future.  He pulled up a video on his iPhone of a very talented flamenco dancer.  "This is my mother." (!!!) I got so distracted by our chat that I walked off the plane without going to the overhead compartment for my mini-guitar and 'gifts' bag.  Five minutes later on the way to customs I remembered and had to run back for them!  

My French friend Caroline works in Hong Kong with her husband and I had missed them by a few days in November when I stopped there at the beginning of the trip.  A few weeks ago when I was in Myanmar, I remembered the layover and I emailed Caro again.  She told me that she would be in Hong Kong at the same time!  I only realized much later that I would be visiting over the Chinese New Year's Eve and Day. 

Having grown up in San Francisco, I thought I already knew how to say 'Happy New Year' in Chinese- 'Kung Hei Fat Choi'.  Then I did some research and discovered that it actually means "Congratulations Prosperous Become Wealthy", or more colloquially, "Good luck, may fortune come your way."  Good fortune had already come my way, in the form of two New Years this year!!  My favorite holiday happened all over again, and when I boarded the plane everyone was wishing each other Happy New Year... Year of the Dragon, 2012, leap year, double start; can it get any better??

I took the train to the taxi to the apartment of my friend Tyler, who so graciously hosted me once more.  Back in the Northern Hemisphere it was very cold!  I expected it to be a mad house but it was like a ghost town.  It was like a big American city on Christmas- a few shops open, but a very few.  Chinese New Year is known as the "biggest human migration in the world" and most people had gone home to spend it with their families.  But I got to spend it with Caro and her hubby!!!  

We ate dinner together with a view of the parade and the city skyline from the windows.  I lamented how I would have to miss the fireworks show the following evening so that I didn't miss my plane to Johannesburg.  There wouldn't be enough time to go from town to Tyler's to the train to the airport from the hour that the fireworks ended to the hour that I was supposed to check in.  Then Caro's husband informed me that it would in fact be possible!!  I had avoided checking in and dropping my bag at the airline desks of the Central underground station, for fear that the I would not re-meet my belongings on the other side, but he assured me that he had done it 15+ times and his luggage always made it through.  "It's the most efficient airport in the world!"  So I was to drop my bag at the station and collect my boarding pass around 4PM, then have dinner with Caro and her hubby and watch the fireworks from their warm and well-positioned hotel room.  And that is exactly what we did.  

This is where fireworks were invented!!

The perfect end to an amazing trip in Asia

KUNG HEI FAT CHOY!!  HAPPY YEAR OF THE DRAGON!!!

And now... to South Africa.