Xi'an to Hong Kong By Plane and Marco Polo Confusion

by Steve Reiss (Dalmdad Landscape Photography - www.dalmdad.com and https://www.facebook.com/Dalmdad.)

October 29, 2014: Hong Kong: After a gloomy, long and draining, but interesting day in Xi'an and a nice night overlooking the Xi'an bell, the next morning it was time to head to Hong Kong.

View of Xi'an Bell Tower from our Hotel Room

A couple of interesting things were observed on this travel day...

We arrived pretty early at Xi'an airport and had to wait for the airline counter to open.  Ahead of us on line were an older couple, I think from Australia, and they had not filled out their departure cards.  So, we were bumped in front of them.  I am not a big world traveler, but I have learned to always have your arrival and departure cards filled out and ready to be handed in.

We got out boarding passes, made it through security and customs, and headed down to the gate area to wait.  The gate was at ground level as this was an older-style airport where a bus (squeezed to the max with passengers and their bags) takes the passengers out to the plane, which was parked on the tarmac. 

Down in the gate area, it looked like the security guards were having their morning staff meeting as they were all sitting in a corner being lectured by apparently a senior guard.

The Xi'an to HK flight was uneventful, though Joanie was not really happy with the pushing and shoving on the bus, eventhough I have warned here that is just the way it is over here and the pushing and shoving is not considered rude.  I received this very lecture from Raymond when we were in Wuhan and about to push our way off an overfilled Wuhan city bus.

When we arrived in Hong Kong, at customs, we again, wound up behind that Australian couple I mentioned above.  Sure as sh*t, they had again failed to fill out their arrival cards and were pushed to the side so we can continue.  You would think they would have learned the procedure.

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We left the HK terminal and it was far warmer outside in HK than either Xi'an or Beijing.  We grabbed a cab to take us to Tsim Sha Tsui area of Kowloon in HK and specifically the Marco Polo Hotel.  The driver asked us which Marco Polo Hotel we meant, because there are several of them in TST area.  We showed him our confirmation and it read 3 Canton Road, Harbour City, Tsim Sha Tsui, Kowloon.  He pullled away from the curb and the drive across Lantau Island and its huge bridges began with little fan fair.

When we then arrived in TST, the driver again started asking us which Marco Polo Hotel we meant and I kept showing him the address of 3 Canton Road.  Maybe my Mandarin accent (not) confused this Cantonese speaker, but he seemed to not be able to figure out where we were going.  Its not like it was a scam, as he took us right to the 3 Canton Road property; which was our ultimate goal.  We got out and checked in to the hotel. 

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