Transiting through Hong Kong

Reason # 1317 why "Hong Kong is Da Bombdedest". The overall idea with HK is that you get Asian goodies with Western infrastructure at prices in-between the two. Here's a great example... I get in from my 14 hour flight and head to one of the "pay lounges". Sure, if I were to have been flying Business Class I'd get it for free...but I flew coach. What I want is a shower. Simple enough: US$11. However...I got talked in to the "combination" pacakge for $33. What did I get for $33? I got the $11 shower, for one, so that really means what did I get for the marginal $22 I spent? Well. I got two hours of Internet. That would have cost me another $11 from PCCW (using my own notebook). That gets me down to $11. What did I get for that? Well....they have a mini restaurant and everything is complimentary. Yep...noodles, dim sum, drinks, etc. They also have a private lounge with big cushy leather chairs, etc. So far it sounds pretty good, as a decent lunch in the airport would cost you $15 or so. But wait, there's more! I also got a 15 minute seated massage: Head, neck, shoulders, back. That massage a la carte would have been $20 or so. So there you have it. Come to Hong Kong and should you find yourself with a long layover at the airport, plunk down $33 and get a massage, take a nice hot shower, have a good hot lunch, kick back in a plush leather chair in a private lounge, and Internet to your heart's content. Now if they'd only quickly dry clean and press your clothes while you walked around in a robe. Next year, perhaps!

So Skype has been working like a dream. What is it? It's a computer program and Internet service that allow you to make "phone" calls from PC to PC, telephone to PC (skypein) and PC to telephone skypeout). I have all the services and it's been amazing. While at the lounge, I used SkypeOut to call Cliff. I paid around 3 cents a minute. There was no noticible lag and the sound quality was great on both ends. We talked for about 10 minutes and there were no drop-outs. Later, my friend Michael IMd me when he saw me online and I invited him to call my SkypeIn number (510 962 4442) and see how that worked. It worked great! We talked for 10 minutes also and the sound quality was fantastic. I paid $30 or so for a YEAR of SkypeIn. I got my own voicemail with it, too, no extra charge. SkypeIn is great. Imagine, someone calls Oakland and the "phone" (my PC) rings in Hong Kong...or Bangkok...or wherever I happen to be in the world. This service is fantastic and I feel like it's going to give me a lot of freedom in terms of where I end up "working".