It has been a long day (20 hours in 2 planes) ! I am sitting in a luxurious room at the Kowloon Shangri-la Hotel in Hong Kong. Hong Kong is a group of islands off the southern coast of China, and one of the islands is named Kowloon. The plane arrived after 5 PM and I got to the hotel at 6:30. Some hot Chamomile tea was brought in while I was waiting for my luggage. I can't wait to take a shower and I am sipping some tea while I write this note to you. I am in Hong Kong to get my visa for China and meet with the Simplex Asia office salespeople. They will soon start ordering their Fire Alarm systems from Tianjin, China where I will be on Wednesday for 3 weeks. The window of the hotel overlooks a busy street with tall buildings much like any city. The other side of the hotel overlooks Kowloon Bay and the buildings of Hong Kong island. It is a 20 minutes ferry ride across the bay or you take the expressway bridge by car. It was a very good trip. The plane took off from Boston late at 7:30AM because of cargo that was being loaded. We were given breakfast (I had belgian waffles with strawberries, with sausage and fresh fruit.) By then I was so tired, I fell asleep for about 2 hours (small seats, uncomfortable position). When I woke up we had already passed Chicago and the great lakes, and you could see the endless fields of Oklahoma. I took some photos when we passed Cheyenne, Wyoming but the film was not advancing right. I o pened the camera (I borrowed Tim's) to find that the film was put in wrong (to wind the wrong way) and it was not winding at all. So I fixed it and started again. I had also missed taking the Great Salt Lake. Then came the Rockies and snow covered peaks in Colorado. It was beautiful but far away and I took photos. We were 6 miles up and everything was so small that you could not see the natural beauty. When we crossed the Sierra Nevada, the dry, bleak landscape suddenly changed to green and we started our d escent into San Francisco. The trip took 6 1/2 hours. I guess I expected San Francisco to be bigger than it was, but it was pretty and clean looking surrounding the bay. We had to wait 20 minutes to get to the terminal and get off, so I didn't have much time to get to the next plane. The plane to Hong Kong was a 747 with the second story of windows, and that is where I sat, 4th seat from the front at the window. There are 40 seats up there (2 on each side of the aisle). It was the quietest ride I had ever had since the engines were all on the wings, and I was way up front. When we took off, it was nothing but ocean even though we were less than 200 miles away from the Alaska coast. This flight took 13 1/2 hours, and even though the seats were on the "second floor", the seats were not co mfortable to sleep in - they were actually the same as the flight from Boston. British Air was MUCH better!! The food, however was pure gourmet! There was 2 choices of entree, "filet mignon complemented by a bacon balsamic vinaigrette, presented with a stir fried medley of asparagus, Shiitake mushrooms, red peppers and snow peas, and Bulghur Wheat Timbale accented by cherries", and "Sauteed breast of chicken enhanced by a Salsa prepared with Tomatillo, Serrano peppers, fresh oranges and grapefruit accompani ed by green beans with sauteed leeks and creamy potato and onion pie (like a quiche)". They really feed you well! About an hour from landing, we passed the island of Taiwan (I took a photo) and then we turned West and started our descent to Hong Kong. It was curious to think about what was happening while we flew. We were traveling like the sun, rising in the east and everywhere we went, it was almost always the same time until we crossed the international date line when it became the next day (Sunday). Since the time in Hong Kong (and China where I will be) is 12 hours different, I did not have to change my watch. I got some good photos of Hong Kong as we came in. There are many apartment buildings of poor people here mixed with the new modern skyscrapers. The apartment buildings have a drab color and all the plumbing is on the outside (ugly). It is like New York or Boston in the city, very busy with lots of cars trucks and taxis. The Next morning I took a taxi to the office. It was a 10 minute ride and cost me 40 Hong Kong dollars (about $5 US). The office was in a 3 tower structure, very mordern with each tower having 24 floors and a restaurant downstairs. The offi ce was on the top floor. The conference room where we met had a beautiful view of the city. After our meetings, we went downstairs and had a typical Chinese lunch in the restaurant with different dishes and chop sticks. I had to struggle a little but it was part of the adventure! Back at the hotel I found out from my associate, Marie who had gone shopping, that the prices in the stores were high - and all the products were American ! I had heard at the office that there were streets in Hong Kong for local products: one for men and one for women, but I didn't have time to go there. I was tired from all the traveling, so I went to the restaurant with a view of the harbor and had a good Italian dinner.