22 — Sunday, May 7, 1995 - North Shore News

travel
- talk

HONG KONG: : For connois-
- seurs of good hotels this is
the place to come, and in
style, for the sleek Regent
picks up at the airport with
Daimlers, the elegant

- Mandarin uses Mercedes’,
and the grand Peninsula

» Hotel, it with the new tower
and outrageous Felix restau-
-rant'on top, has.the world’s
~Jargest fleet of Rolis-Royces,
all green, new and shiny.

:. Everyone else stays where they:
can, although anything affordable
“is hardly worth writing home

: about. “

The hot “polloi used to make
jokes about the YMCA, which has -
“a great location next door to the

“Peninsula but Cost a fraction of the

. price. But nothing ever stays the

; same for long in Hong Kong, and

.-now.the Y.has been upgraded so ,
«that the lobby looks like any other
hotel and the front desk manager

“wears a black jacket and striped.

"pants similar to the staff at the

$500-a-night: Peninsula.

The price, of course, has taken a .
jump, so that ‘dormitory rooms are: Ye

“$35 and a double is $160.That's . .
why we-were staying with friends,

-. Experience the. -
world without”

paying the earth!” f

» Where else can
- you. enjoy
~ Spectacular

- Spring Skiing

_and World Class.

Golf in

the same day?
Packages

starting

$105; OO + tax.

per person
THE

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a weal

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and nor were we alone.

They had a house guest who
knew her way around the kitchen
so well that she may have been a
lodger. One doesn't ask. The
woman has a good job that takes
her all over Asia, tut she can't pos-
sibly afford a place on her own
even though she makes a good
salary ina place where there is
work for everybody.

One day the South China
Morning Post had 138 big pages of
display job ads.

People who have flats rent them
out when they go on leave, The
first time | stayed in Hong Kong |
rented a “leave flat” for a month,
and anyone thinking of an extended

_-visit here should consider this

option. Check the South China

* Morning Post, available at many
‘Vancouver news outlets, for rental.

Qur guide on a visit to Lantau
Island was one of the lucky ones.
He has his own flat, all 600 sq. ft. .
of it, high in'a tower, which he

‘bought 10 years ago. Today it is

worth more than $500,000, enough
surely to get started in Canada. Yes,
it would be a wonderful place to
raise his children, but he has heard
there is no work, The same goes
for Australia.

We peer through the low cloud
and try to see the site of the new

' Hong Kong airport, but in vain.

The guide has no option; he will
“stay and make the best of Hong
Kong after 1997. when control

, teverts to the Beijing government.

In the meantime, construction .

_.. proceeds on the airport and any-_

thing else but hotels, which don’t

'. fit into Hong Kong’s amortization

“rule of the thumb: getting your
money back'in five years..,

Sure the Peninsula has a new
“tower, but half of it is office space,
cunningly accessed from‘an
- entrance at the rear.:And the Hilton’
cis about to come down to be

ERANGL SM NAR SANS AMICI Rb ES Ra

Photo submitted

HONG KONG is short of space, and inexpensive hotels.

replaced by an office tower and
shops. So things won't be getting
any easier what with a tight supply
of rooms and an iacreasing number
of tourists, for there will undoubt-
edly be many who'll want to see
Hong Kong before the big day.

A good start would be
Vancouver-based tour operators

_ such as Canadian Holidays, which

offers flight and five-night hotel

- packages starting at $2,055. If you

can stretch to it Business Class
returns the favor with the longest

_legroom for the money.

For travellers on a budget the
best rooms at a modest price that
we could track down were at the
Panda Hotel at Tsuen Wan, right at
the end of the Kowloon side of the
Mass Transit Railway, and here it’s
still over. $100. Chungking
Mansions on Nathan Road, a
favorite of the Old China hands,
has accommodation for as little as
$40, but it’s not a place a visiting
fireman would choose, if you get
the drift.

The local tourism people have a.
desk at the airport, and very helpful
they are too, as a Vancouver jour-

nalist discovered. She was sent to a

place that cost just $60. it was

around Nathan Road, nothing. ,
. fancy, but it was a room, The =.
. name? Booth Lodge, operated by

the Salvation Amy. |

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