Daniele Somenzi's Hong Kong

Hong Kong The Finnair A340, brand new from the factory, takes us from Helsinki to Hong Kong, where Donato had never been, I once before. The airport is beautiful; the previous one was in the city and planes landed a few metres from the skyscrapers, the pilots even had to take a landing course to be able to land at Kai Tak. Now that airport is closed and they built one by creating an island from nothing, as the Japanese also did at Osaka; Chek Lap Kok airport is stunning.

We opt for the bus rather than the train to the centre, so the driver drops us right a few metres from the hotel we've chosen. A very run-down hotel in a building; the room is a double on the 4th floor, but there are three of us, so we draw lots to choose who has to sleep on the mattress on the floor that night. But the important thing is that there's a shower and toilets and that nobody makes useless noise during the night; oh, I forgot, there's also the all-important air conditioning, given the humidity outside.

The next day a stroll among a thousand skyscrapers, and if I say a thousand I'm not exaggerating, here in Kowloon; we eat in a little Chinese restaurant on the go and for a few Hong Kong dollars.

There's quite a bit of traffic on the streets, but mostly taxis and buses; here the metro is very efficient, we take it too, and discover that mobiles work underground as well. A cruise ship is departing; the scenery the passengers see as they leave the bay is spectacular; only in New York can you see something similar. Even though here there are at least three times as many skyscrapers.

Donato and Luca are amazed at how much life flows: helicopters, boats, planes in the sky, only submarines are missing, and to tell the truth who knows if there really aren't any. Coming down a staircase of a shopping centre we notice that the vertical part under each step has a television, which from a distance looks like one whole thing. Also another television on top of a skyscraper keeps advertising; I've never seen one so big, let's say twice the screen of a cinema.

From here also leave some red motor catamarans with a capacity of about 200 passengers for nearby Macau, a former Portuguese colony, now passed to China, exactly like here in Hong Kong. But it has kept a special statute; here many are rich, in fact you see Mercedes, Audis and other luxury cars around.

In the evening we return to the bay, where there's a show. Many skyscrapers light up with multicoloured neon and launch beams of light into the sky, that can be seen from the moon. The heat means we're all in very light clothes. Some boats serve as restaurants as they pass through the bay; a little further on a great port welcomes hundreds of container ships; after Singapore's, it's the largest in the world, then come Shanghai and Rotterdam.

Donato buys a couple of watches at a good price, he takes advantage. Luca instead gets a modern camera, I only some spare videotapes, I already have the camcorder. Here there are some tourist tours to do, the visit to the floating village or the view from the hill from an even higher position than the tallest skyscraper.

To return to the airport in the evening we take the bus again, which being double-decker, like those in London, gives us a nicer view, even though there's nothing beautiful about being in the middle of the traffic, at least for me who loves nature.

The Jetstar flight to Singapore arrives in the dark.

bye