After an uneventful Friday flight from Hanoi to Hong Kong, we arrived at 2 pm (enough time to get to the hotel for Shabbat) and as we had done the time before, we breezed thru immigration, luggage collection and customs and were on the train to Kowloon within 30 minutes of landing. This airport's efficiency is just amazing. When we arrived in Kowloon, we decided to take a cab to the hotel (even tho the shuttle bus is free) to save time. We were in the Shangri La hotel in about ten minutes and began the check in process.
Nachum and Sandy's room was ready, but they said that our room would take another 15 minutes. So they invited us to have free drinks at the bar while we were waiting. In under 15 minutes, two of the customer relations staff approached us with roses and a camera and informed us that they wished to present us with a number of gifts for our anniversary.
Some of you know that our anniversary is in June, but when I had made all the bookings in Asia, I had informed all the hotels that this was a special trip for us; to celebrate 44 years of marriage, bli ayin hora. In both Chiang Mai and here, they gave us room upgrades and gifts for our celebration.
Here they upgraded us to a harbour view room (which was amazing), gave Fran a bouquet of roses, placed a dozen red roses in our room, a box of chocolates, a bottle of champagne, and a number of personalized cards signed by each member of the customer relations staff.
Now, in our room we began to prepare for Shabbat which was beginning at 5:20 pm. Oh, I forgot to mention, that as soon as we got out of the cab, our bellhop, Kim, said to us in Mandarin accented Hebrew, "shalom, mah shelomchem, hurry, Shabbat begins at about 5:30 pm" and Kim was the first of many of the lobby staff who greeted us in Hebrew, jumped to attention to take us to our rooms on Shabbat, opened doors, adjusted lights, reminded us that it was now "shavua tov" and to remember to buy "Chanukah presents and not Christmas presents" when we shop in the local markets. They have really been trained to cater to frum guests in this hotel and it is an easy hotel to stay in for Shabbat in Hong Kong.
At 5:15 we were off on the very short walk (about 100 yards or less) next door to the Wing On Plaza which houses the Heichal Ezra Shul of Rav Meoded. He and his wife came here from Israel 17 years ago and have built a very fine Kehilla of locals and regular visitors. They run a restaurant called Mul Hayam and have a daily minyan, shiurim etc. They are considered the home away from home for many business travellers to Hong Kong and welcome a wide mix of Jews, dati, non dati, chassidic, litvish, Ashkenazi, sefaradi, etc. etc. Everyone is made to feel very welcome. There were about 50 or 60 guests for this Erev Shabbat (a non convention weekend in Hong Kong so a very small crowd) and a few less on Shabbat morning.
They put on an amazing spread of food for both Friday night and Shabbat morning. It is plentiful, lots of salads, different fishes, chicken soup, chicken, schnitzel, roast, etc. etc. and it is delicious.
No charge, just leave an anonymous donation in a sealed envelope before you leave town. One of the regulars (the president), stands up on both Friday night and Shabbat morning and makes an appeal. The Friday Night appeal is simple....would you like to join in sponsoring this week's Shabbat meals with a gift of $500 (us$) and a number of individuals offered their support and then on Shabbat morning a similar appeal of bidding for the aliyot...they went for anywhere between $200 and $600 per Aliyah (a lot less than the last time that we were here which was a convention Shabbat when the aliyot went for a minimum of $1500 per Aliyah).
A lot of the people were regular visitors to Hong Kong who come here a number of times per year for business; 3 or 4 times a year from the USA or Israel or panama, all over the world. They all know the Rav and revere him.
There were two couples who were on their way to the Emunah tour of Thailand, Vietnam and Cambodia which begins on Sunday in Hanoi. We sat with one of the couples and enjoyed meeting them, playing Jewish Geography and sharing some of our experiences in Thailand and Vietnam with them.
The itinerary of Emunah Women is very similar to ours, staying in the same class of hotels, with the addition of a few days in Singapore and in Cambodia....but surprise of surprises, no Halong Bay on their itinerary. What is significant I guess is that the cost of that trip is more than double our cost and their trip is 15 days while ours was 23 days...gee, maybe that is a business idea :-)
In the afternoon, we walked thru downtown Hong Kong and were approached by someone looking for Chabad of Kowloon. We helped him find the place and then some of the men at Chabad asked us to join them to ensure that there would be a minyan, as someone was saying Kaddish. We did and it was good to see another community mainly of Israelis working or doing business here at Chabad. We stayed for Mincha (Nachum davened and I lained), Seudat shlishit, and Maariv/havdala. It is about 5 minutes from the Shangrila hotel.
In the evening, we joined the crowds on the boardwalk for the famous sound and light show which was not as good as it was last time. A bit disappointing. We then took a cab to the Ladies Night Market and did some market shopping. We met a number of other people who were on their way to the Emunah Women trip including old friends of ours who went with us to Russia on an OU mission in 1989. It was good to catch up with old friends.
It is now morning and we are getting ready to go to Shenzhen in mainland China. It is about 30 minutes by train and we will stay there overnight returning to Hong Kong on Monday night. Nachum and Sandy are staying here to explore Hong Kong.
Hope you all had a great Shabbat....
Shavua tov....
Fran and David
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