3650 days
ten years ago this month i arrived in hong kong.
each time i sat squirming in my seat, throwing my book and papers into my bag, thrilled at the thought of being with and near magnificent charles, i never failed to appreciate the stunning landing at kai tak airport. it was like being dropped out of a sky, turning a very quick corner and landing on a very thin strip of concrete. it was amazing.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cQqAxp6qtxs a short blurb but a good one, taken from the street.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oIbZqXqiQoI the bbc look at the kai tak phenomenon…it does sound like they’re playing a video game though!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=McNU5b2-7bc longer, but shows a bit more of the city
even if you don’t click on attachments, please click on the first link…this is why hong kong kai tak airport was so internationally known!
kai tak closed in 1998. and although everyone agrees that hong kong international airport is a great efficient airport (except for the taxi drivers, who miss the fares to the airport and hate the airport express trains), it lacks kai tak’s statement. the plane dropped you in kai tak, and somehow had room for you. sort of like hong kong. even today, 10 years later, people still talk fondly about kai tak, and the views into people’s living rooms, and the angles it provided.
the views into people’s living rooms…for me it provided me the opportunity to view my own living room, and to make my own living..the one i had always wanted with the person i had always wanted…i just hadn’t known it (and really, over the years it would take me several times to realise this).
so as i sit back and celebrate a decade of life in hong kong and becoming the tess i always wanted to be, i look back on kai tak, where tess entered, and stayed.
