Smile is the Name of the Man! Love you Dad!

Smile is the name of the man

Who made us his life’s ever green

Held our hands as we learnt to walk

Smiled at every word as we learned to talk

Giggled us all over to see us smile

Ran behind us in our every small mile

Endearingly spent all his precious time

To cheer us, support us and love us

As a Dad, he gave us all his love

Walked beside us every day then and now

As one winter morning snatched him away

Brutally spoiling our nest’s happy days

He still smiled on us from the sky above

Showing us his blessings and love

One Star followed us everywhere we go

Spreading his divine will with glow

I can see his smiles running behind us

As we take every step towards his dreams

The dreams that he dreamt for us

The dreams that would not let us sleep

Love you Dad, always in our hearts

You will live with eternal peace within us

Never missed you Dad, for you blessed

All the time in all our ups and downs to rise

Truly and endearingly guiding us

With your divine will and grace!

Travelling Via Hongkong and having Transit time..... Read this!

I would like to share my experience of visitng Hongkong during our journey to India....for this would be useful for those who are planning their stop over flights in HongKong. 

Minimum Time Needed:  

If you have minimum of 4-5 hours between your flights in Hongkong then it is advisable to use the transit visa and visit the City of Great Infrastructure.

Transit Visa Details:

Get refreshed after the first flight, and then go to the Immigration Counter, Fill up the form, and in the place asking for local address in HongKong you can fill up saying that you are in Transit and mention your next flight details.   The immigration officer will check your passport and give you visa anywhere between 1 day to 14 days for tourism.   We had no questions asked and got a 2 week tourist visa.  You dont need a visa before entering the country and it is usually on Arrival for close to 200 countries including for Indian Nationals.

Currency Exchange:

The airport has a foreign exchange western union where you can get your foriegn exchange converted to HKD.  Please note that you can only sell your Indian Currency, but unfortunately you cannot buy Indian Rupee in most of the airports across the world and this hurts.

Local Tourist Packages

Go to the HongKong Airport Customer Service Area and go to the Counter B12 where you get a HongKong Tourism Development driven tourist packages.   If you have more than 5 hours, you can choose from the various tourist sightseeing options they have and also can check in other counters with other tourist and hoteliers who can provide much customized packages.  

The transit package provides you a bus taking you across the HongKong and leaves you back in the downtown area where you can do plenty of shopping and roaming around and then take the Airport Express from the IFC Mall and come back to Airport well in time for your next flight

Food & Rest Areas

You can get all types of food, including Asian, Continental and Mediterrian cusinies.  If you want to eat in a good place, you have plenty of hotels inside the IFC Mall and if you want to have an economy food options, you can have in the World Wide Plaza area, but it will be very crowded and not so hygenic.  

You have paid rest areas in the Airport and also small hotels all over HongKong.

Take the exiting Ferry from HongKong to Macau...

We had an amazing experience and awestuck with the kind of infrastructure that this small country built after its Independence in 1997...There is lot to learn from visits to such small but sophisticated countries within Asia....Happy Travelling!