Hong Kong/Philippines 2008

Day 1: Phoenix to Hong Kong

Wednesday, Feb. 20, 2008. Arizona.

With three hours of sleep, I got up at 4 a.m. to make our flight to Los Angeles at 8:30. The last two weeks had been stressful; we would be gone for at least 18 days, and I was managing a broken landscape irrigation controller, worrying about our pets, preparing travel documents, making last-minute hotel reservations, handling an unexpected snafu with my homeowners insurance policy, and packing enough clothes for 3 weeks of anything from swimming in the ocean to hiking to attending my brother's wedding.

When all was said and done, as always, it came down to this: packing the last of my toiletries 5 minutes before my luggage is hauled off to the car.

Billy would be gone for two and a half weeks (and I an additional week), and I had asked Sam, a good friend of mine, to house sit. I've known him for many years, and having a trusted friend watch over our pets was the only thing that kept me from going wacko. This was a vacation? The stress was driving me nuts!

We packed our luggage in our vehicle and left the house at 6:30. As we checked in for our flight to LAX, I realized with horror that I had left my green card at home. It took me a few seconds to realize that I only needed it to get back into the US, and could have Billy "overnight" it to me in the Philippines via Fedex once he got back home. But I couldn't believe I had forgotten my green card. I felt vulnerable for hours afterwards, wondering if I hadn't left anything else that was vitally important.

It was drizzling when we got to L.A. We deplaned from our Delta ExpressJet and walked to the International terminal in the rain. With some forethought and much luck, Delta and our next airline, Cathay Pacific, had a baggage agreement, and we were able to check our luggage through to Hong Kong.

We boarded our Cathay Pacific 747-700 aircraft, and it was soooooo comfortable. With years of accumulated travel tips and the help of such web sites as seatguru.com, I had reserved some special seats towards the back of the plane. Not a lot of people know this, but on Cathay's 747-700s, in rows 66 to 68 by the windows, there are only two seats per window row instead of three. This is because the body of the aircraft tapers and becomes narrower. Sooo, Billy had about a foot of room between his elbow and the window, and we had that row to ourselves!

This aircraft also had leather seats, and little bendable "wings" on the headrests to cradle your head if you slept.

But the most awesome thing was what was right in front of me: an INDIVIDUAL, INTERACTIVE multimedia entertainment system with a remote control that not only had your normal DVD remote buttons on one side, but also a small QWERTY keyboard and Playstation controller buttons on the other!

I immediately started to play several rounds of trivia (look for my high scores in seat 66C, hehe), and in between naps on this 15-hour flight to Hong Kong, watched "Eastern Promises" with Viggo Mortensen (I give it 4 out of 5 stars), and "Into The Wild", based on a book written by superb writer-alpine climber Jon Krakauer (4.5 out of 5).

I also had the option of listening to "radio" stations with various Asian selections, or an amazing selection of CDs, or watching select episodes of popular TV shows, or viewing travel and airport information on various destinations serviced by Cathay Pacific.

Needless to say, though sitting in an airline seat for most of 15 hours is never pleasant, there was tons of entertainment available that it wasn't bad at all.

The highlight of this flight had nothing to do with all this though. Our route took us from Los Angeles and, if you can picture this with me, made an arc above the Pacific Ocean, taking us over Alaska, then over the southern part of Siberia, then down a smooth curve to southeast Asia. We were asked to keep our windows shut virtually the entire time, but knowing we were over this icy terrain (again, thanks to our interactive multimedia system), we took a peek out the window, and what a sight met our eyes: white, undulating landscapes as far as we could see, immense ice fields, in various elevations, sometimes right on the edge of the ocean, with humongous pieces drifting in the gray-blue sea. It was eerily beautiful and lonesome at the same time. My heart was pounding. I now have one more destination on my life list: the frozen lands of Siberia.

Hours later, Hong Kong came into view, with its excitingly foreign skyline of highrises both commercial and residential. We landed, deplaned, picked up our luggage and proceeded to look for a ride. It was around 7:30 p.m. Thursday local time.

With the help of the airport's extremely proficient customer service ladies (who spoke great English, thank goodness!) we took the Airport Express train (140 HKD for a group of two) to Kowloon Station, then took a free shuttle to our hotel, the Harbour Plaza Hong Kong, located in an area of Kowloon known as Whampoa Garden.

The train ride was supercool and lasted 21 minutes; the shuttle bus ride was easy; and the Harbour Plaza HK was fabulous. We walked into our room at around 9 p.m. Hong Kong time, which was 6 a.m. Arizona time -- almost 24 hours after we had left home.

I missed my dogs.

My family was not arriving until Saturday, which meant Friday was a day to discover Hong Kong and go visit the Tian Tan Buddha.

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Next: Day 2 - Hong Kong: Riding the cable cars to the Tian Tan Buddha, figuring out the Hong Kong subway, and discovering Whampoa Garden -- on my own!

We Lost An Officer Today

Officer Nick Erfle, 33, died in the line of duty. He was killed while trying to arrest a man on the street.

While he was being taken into custody, the suspect drew a gun and fired at Officer Erfle, and then at his partner. Erfle was shot in the head. The suspect then took off, hijacking a car and taking the driver hostage.

Erfle was pronounced dead shortly after being taken to a nearby hospital.

An hour later, the suspect's car was boxed in by three unmarked police vehicles. Still holding a gun to the hostage's head, the bastard was shot through the window and killed.

We lost another good guy. He leaves behind a wife and two sons.

So this is what it's like to be altitude-sick, part 3

With shallow, labored breaths, I hopped from rock to rock and paused. Longs Peak towered over us, its 14,000-foot summit hidden beneath a thick veil of gray clouds. Its size and proximity were imposing and awesome -- three thousand feet of sheer vertical rock right in our faces!

I had a mere two minutes to appreciate all I’d traveled here to see, because those gray clouds above us opened up, and a steady downpour began. The dozen or so people who were up there with us all started to head down. Billy was worried about the boulders becoming slippery in the rain, so we unfortunately had to descend.

Big fat raindrops fell on us as we crossed the tundra. All of a sudden, we heard the rumble of thunder. It sounded close -- this afternoon's storm was on its way. We were only half a mile from the tree line, yet we quickened our pace, as thunder continued to roll every few minutes. Finally we reached the safety of the trees, and shared a feeling of relief. But we never stopped walking, with two miles to go before we reached the trail head.

Although altitude sickness is supposed to get better with descent, I started to feel woozy hiking down through the forest. I was walking, concentrating on maintaining my footing on the wet trail, when I suddenly drifted out of consciousness for a split-second while still on my feet.

It scared me. Half a second of my life had disappeared while I was fully conscious. I was still trying to comprehend what had occurred, when it happened again! I told Billy, and he had me sit down to rest. I ate some trail mix. As I spun around to talk to him, the whole forest spun around with me. Now I had vertigo, too.

After several minutes, I got up and we plodded on, raindrops still falling through the trees. And as if things couldn't get worse, I ran out of water. For the first time ever, and not even on a desert hike! I shared Billy’s water until we got back to the car, 8.4 miles (13.5 km) and six and a half hours after we left the trailhead.

That was harsh, I kept saying. We went back to our inn and I rested as Billy took care of our packs. I was nauseated all night and didn’t eat well.

So this is what it’s like to be altitude-sick.

Would this mean I couldn’t summit Mount Ida, at 12,890 feet as I had so hoped to do? I could tell from the topo map that the trail wasn’t so steep, but it was much higher than where I was today. My dream of seeing grand vistas of the Rockies were slowly being crushed by the thin air.

I slept. The next day would be a time for recovery, adjustment, and playing the part of a non-hiking tourist. We would play it by ear.