[MartynSinclair]

@woodpecker – as a visitor, one piece of advice if you booked your hotels separately and they are flexible, (i.e. you can cancel them) re check the price of the hotel or an alternative. Hotel prices have come right down – and re booking can in some circumstances bring a nice saving (as I found out)…. 🙂

[Woodpecker]

Martyn,

That is excellent advice for anyone planning to visit HKG in the near future.

I apologize for giving the wrong impression in my earlier post. I am a permanent resident here in HKG for the last twenty five years and being on Ground Zero, I only wanted to reassure Robert Stevenson on his dilemma whether to go ahead with his trip at the end of this month.

May I also take this opportunity to thank you on your excellent & useful inputs on this forum for the last several years, especially your posts on carry on cabin baggage.

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MartynSinclair

[cwoodward]

Hong Kong is frankly a rather miserable place to be at the moment.
All major events cancelled, empty streets, empty shopping malls, coldish (for Hong Kong) very grey weather for the past few weeks.

Yesterday was my birthday and the family took me to the Mandarin Grill, a favorite for over 40 years, for dinner.

At the hotel entrance we were greeted by a young lady who took our temperature. The lobby was all but empty and once to the 1st floor so was the grill. No one in the bar area of empty tables with only 2 other window tables occupied, all a little depressing.

The most disappointing thing however was that the service was slow and tepid and the food the worse that I have ever had at the grill.

I have always found it rather odd that when restaurants have few customers the service is invariably slow and poor as the staff tend chat among themselves and presumably as in this in this case I suspect that the senior chefs go on holiday or perhaps to another group hotel.

Probably overall this is not a good time to come to Hong Kong for a holiday and perhaps best to postpone for a couple of months when by most indications this will all be over.

Hong Kong for business travel is up and running and any virus danger very minor but still not the most up-beat place to be at the moment.

[simeoncox]

“We are just about to discover just how many PRC-sourced components and sub-assemblies go into finished goods – because there is going to be a several month hiatus across much of the Chinese economy if my HK-based friend is anything to go by.”

I love this sort of proxy data. It helps inform my future purchase choices.

[Robert Stevenson]

LH are showing no signs of offering any flexibility, so it seems our choice will be either to travel of lose our fares. They are non-flexible. Any suggestions? Appreciate the feedback, the description of HK at the moment does not surprise me.

[MartynSinclair]

[quote quote=990221]LH are showing no signs of offering any flexibility, so it seems our choice will be either to travel of lose our fares. They are non-flexible. Any suggestions? Appreciate the feedback, the description of HK at the moment does not surprise me.[/quote]

What I would do if I held a ticket, but for whatever reason didn’t want to go to the destination – depending on what you are after – look at the map and use HKG as a transit point and find somewhere else to enjoy within a 2 hour flight time of HKG.

I accept this virus is spreading, but I am sure there is somewhere within 2 hours of HKG that is not being hit as severely. Shame to lose the tickets/holiday…

[stevescoots]

[postquote quote=990115][/postquote]

Unfortunately correct, as a contract manufacturer where there is an inherent lack of flexibility to change suppliers this is going to impact heavily. I am in my Vietnam factory right now and whilst attendance wise everything is ok many of the component level parts come out of China from both AVL suppliers and my own factory there. I am already seeing supply problems 2 months ahead with decomits from suppliers. Some of our parts should then go to factories in Europe and the US who in turn will start to get hit with line downs in Q2. In my industry I foresee earnings down across the board right up to Q3 not just from delayed supply but increased costs as the supply chain suffers increased labour costs trying to entice people back to work and ramp volumes to try and catch up We also project the loss of many SME’s , the backbone of the economy , as they do not have the reserves to weather the storm. If I was a gambling man I would be looking at companies who are cash healthy right now but operate in generally low margin markets as they can ride it out and scoop up whats left in business as the others already reeling from the trade war shut up shop. The signs are all very similar to 2008/9.

I transited through HKG on Tuesday and have never seen the airport so quiet . My LHR to HKG CX was probably only 40% capacity , the HKG to SGN was no more than 30 people on the entire flight. What dis surprise me considering Vn stopped all HK flights for 24 hours 10 days ago (in a fit of random stupidity) was when I landed no temperature check, no questions about my travel history. On the plus side I was first off, the bird and not a single person apart from immigration in the hall. Out the door at gate 17 and at the luggage hall in 5 minutes. The usual massed crowd outside was not to be seen, just a handful of hotel cars waiting for people. The economic impact across Asia, not just the PRC and SAR is going to be huge. CX has already changed my travel plans on the 28th so expecting further change

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canucklad, Tom Otley

[IanFromHKG]

The government has just announced that they will be extending their work-from-home for civil servants for another week. Many private firms are likely to follow suit.

Separately, suggestions for nice places to go within a short hop – Thailand is the most obvious thought. Although there have been cases in Bangkok and Phuket, there seems to be much less panic in both places. Koh Samui (where we are heading next weekend) has no cases and is a delightful island. The Cathay Dragon times aren’t great but Bangkok Airways, which has a very respectable short-haul business class (2-2 configuration, big recliner seats, great service, they even have amenity kits on a sub-3 hour flight!) flies direct between HKG and USM twice a day with convenient timings.

[cwoodward]

I echo Ians thoughts. Samui is a great spot where we go a couple of times a year and Mrs C and I are going in 10 days time for a long weekend.
Bangkok Airways code-share with Cathay on the route but it is always cheaper to book with Bangkok Airways than with Cathay.

The Business class is something of a pleasant time warp as the aircraft are not in the first flush of youth with most acquired from Air Berlin some years back but it is comfortable in J with good service but expensive for the short trip because they own the airport and allow almost no competition with even Thai not allowed in these days. They are the only choice from HK.

I have learned to always book the rental car online before leaving as the airport rentals are something of a lottery if busy with prices being hiked it seem at random to whatever is believed that the customer will pay…the later in the day the higher the price seems to be the way it goes with little adherence to published pricing. I have used Europcar for some time now and found them to be good with no hidden extras.

[TupeloKid]

I would come anyway. Hong Kong is still Hong Kong, and the end of the month is still two weeks away.

[Tom Otley]

It also isn’t helping that the schools are all closed until mid-March.

Obviously there are people who have domestic help, but for those who don’t, having children at home for two months makes it difficult to return to work.

[canucklad]

I’ll add, that today the IRB are expected to announce the postponement of the 7’s until October. And although I’m not heading for the 7’s I’d say that’s a good barometer of the current situation. For me, it’s keeping my fingers crossed and hoping that the measures taken so far in HK, will stabilise the virus .
And as long as the Beijing authorities don’t make a bad dogmatic decision to make things worse I’ll be enjoying a cold bottle of Tsing Tao in the DB plaza next month

[stevescoots]

[postquote quote=990286][/postquote]

And as long as the Beijing authorities don’t make a bad dogmatic decision to make things worse

good luck with that one……

[cwoodward]

HK7s = 16-18 October. Existing April tickets honored of course.
Normally a good time of year in HK with the searing ultra humid summer heat having abated somewhat.

[canucklad]

[quote quote=990431]good luck with that one……[/quote]

I chose the word dogmatic after a bit of thought transference….
Imagine sitting in the Imperial Palace contemplating your next steps , and without due regard for the general wellbeing of your charges

In recent years Beijing has regressed back into a classic Mao dynastic inward looking suspicious regime.
And It occurs to me that HK with its historic western outlook , even more so than Taiwan is becoming a boil that they need to lance.

HK’s current economic woes must be a godsend to the party big wigs. How better to de-westernize a city than afflicting it with a plague that extinguishes those pesky young folks dreams of living in a free society, and at the same time subtlety discouraging foreigners from infecting the populace with their liberal outward values (even Trump Americans) by visiting.

The current situation at Cathay could almost be seen as a metaphor for the whole of the SAR !

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stevescoots

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