Landing in Hong Kong – Arriving at the W Kowloon

Our flight from London arrived at Hong Kong Airport (Changai) right on time. At the suggestion of world traveler Brad Beecher, we huffed and puffed and pushed to get to the immigration counter ahead of the pack (thank you Brad!). A short wait in line and we were in country and off to get our bags. 60 seconds later we were on our way to the train with bags in hand. (Dulles, please take note).

Speaking of massive fails at Dulles, the Hong Kong Airport built a high speed train inside the airport (not connected, actually inside!). Imagine the Metro at National or the L at O’Hare, but situated at baggage claim and you have a piece of the picture. Now imagine the transit system is the length of 5 or 6 L or Metro trains (not cars, entire trains) and you are getting warmer. Now make that hypothetical transit system a high speed train (not “high speed” the way Acela is high speed, but really high speed – by Asian standards) and you have the entire picture. Karen had done her research and determined that the Octopus Card (think “MetroCard”) was useful on virtually all transit systems: trains, boats, trams and funiculars. You’ll see later what a key decision it was to buy those cards up front. 15 minutes after boarding the train we arrived at Kowloon station – location of the W Hotel Hong Kong and our home for the next four days.
 

View from the center train; there is another half train the other direction

View from the high speed train winging us to Kowloon Station

We’ll post on the W Hotel (Karen's connections score us a suite!) and the mall culture of Hong Kong in a little bit. For now, dear reader, know that we were tired. Our flight departed London at 8:55pm on January 4 and Landed in Hong Kong at 4:30pm January 5. And as you know from an earlier post, Karen had not yet slept. We checked in and grabbed a bite to eat in a little Japanese restaurant near the hotel and headed to bed. We were asleep in the Westin Bed (seriously, best bed EVER!) before 11pm.