Hong Kong

Overnight in Hong Kong

There is something about a 1AM departure that makes me revolt, especially after two flights earlier in the day. Fortunately, I found out that CX opens a lot of extra First Class inventory for awards 2-3 day before travel. I really wanted a daytime HKG departure, but it was not available when we originally booked. But once in Phuket, everything opened up and we had the option of changing to either CX flight on any of three consecutive days. So we decided to cut Phuket by a day, overnight in HKG, take the daytime CX flight and get home at 10AM.

Mrs. SFO had never been outside HKG so I wanted to introduce her to Hong Kong. While not a great hotel, I picked the Intercontinental for the views and Alain Ducasse. Our Intercontinental limo picked us up around 6PM and we were at the hotel a half hour later. Yes the rooms are crappy, but the view and location make it. Not to mention the availability of Fox News, thrilling Mrs. SFO who had suffered from 9 days of withdrawal from "Fair and Balanced".

After our fabulous September dinner at Jules Verne, Mrs. SFO wanted to try Spoon. It was sensational. Fabulous service and a window table with a front row view of the light show. Although almost everyone had a window seat as I would guess less than 15% of the tables were occupied. It can't be the food that is keeping people away, so I suspect that the sky high prices are the culprit. My foie gras was amazing as was the tenderloin. Princess had an wonderful market green salad and melt-in-her-mouth rack of lamb. Spoon has an impressive wine by the glass (or 1/3 liter carafe) list featuring excellent French, California and Australian wines.

It was a beautiful +20C evening and after dinner, we walked the waterfront before heading over to the Peninsula and a drink at Felix.