Travel Travesties and Another Hong Kong Typhoon

In September 2007, I arrived in Hong Kong on a rainy windy night, which I was told was the recent aftermath of a passing typhoon. Fast forward almost two years exactly to find me waiting in the same Kowloon station taxi line, being told that taxis were scarce because of the typhoon. This time, the typhoon was to arrive that night and early into the next morning.

Setting out from St. Louis, my original itinerary had me getting a flight to HK in Chicago, then catching a ferry directly from the HK airport over to Macau, where I am working for two weeks.

(Stories that I care not go into more detail on regarding this flight: Getting lambasted at by an uppity United agent for checking in to my flight only a half hour early. Guy, I may have done this travel thingy a time or two...in the end that not mattering because...getting into HK 24 hours later than expected due to fog in Chicago, but getting to spend the extra day with relatives and my new nephew, not bad. The movie system malfunctioning on the 15 hour flight, leading to hours of silent contemplation, I suppose that's not bad either. Shortly after take off, the lady next to me put on a large skull cap and a big breathing mask. Then she decided to sleep and put on the blindfold, now only a small patch of her upper neck was dangerously exposed to the open air. Not bad at all actually, I laughed at her to pass the time.)

After arriving Monday night HK time, I may have made a rookie mistake which in the end didn't matter, as I passed through the terminal exit which I was told by an untrustworthy tour operator that once out, I couldn't go back in to get the ferry.

Said untrustworthy operator tried to sell me an ~$85 taxi ride to the HK city ferry terminal, no thanks, I opted for the $10 train connection. When I got the ferry terminal, I find out that all ferries are canceled during a T8 typhoon indicator, which was the current state. My only option was to get a hotel room for the night and hope service resumed Tuesday morning, so I could get to Macau where I was expected for some meetings.

Being pretty jet lagged, I slept mostly off and on through the night, also waking to the wind and horizontal rain from the passing storm. I watched several billboards get shredded during the course of the night as well as some nicely flooded streets. I had been up for a couple hours already when I went down to the ferry at 6am to try and get on 7am ferry. No luck, still T8 outside. Back down there at 8:30, nope, 10, nope. Finally around 10:30, the TV channel devoted to posting the current typhoon level told me we had gone down to a T3. I ran down and got a ticket on the very next ferry, 11:30am.

The ride was rough when we got out into the open sea past Lantau Island and the airport. I saw several older Chinese women make their way to the back of the boat with tissues over the mouths. Sick. I was busy laughing my ass off to a Louis C.K. album I had just downloaded.

I finally arrived in Macau, got a quick cab to the Venetian and made it in time for the start of our afternoon session. Exactly 1.5 days late, 1 for Chicago fog + .5 for Typhoon Koppu. Estimated door to door travel hours including a 24 hour delay: 72 hours, what? That can't be right. I need a beer.

And what's the news out of St. Louis today? Massive flight route cuts, fewer direct flights, more transfers through Chicago's O'Delay airport. Why in the hell is getting to other places seem to be getting so much harder?