OK, that's what I thought.

No discounts on the ferries though right?

Does the 1-day card or the Tourist Pass include buses too or just the subway?

Which color are the city buses? There seem to be so many kinds.

There's usually a discount of using any type of Octopus (and the Tourist card is a sub-type) on buses, trains, everything - compared to CASH. You won't want to use cash anyways.

Buses come in all kinds of colors - many have ads. Most of them are double-decker. Keep in mind that there are three operators, and you may see a #1 bus in Kowloon and a #1 bus on HK Island. They are not the same route. The nicest buses in Hong Kong are the golden-colored KMB buses on Kowloon and cross-harbor, with a dark brown strip near the bottom. These buses are super-low-platform, has straight stairs and slightly wider width. State-of-the-art in public buses.

OK, got the 1 ride AE card at Central.

MTR is nice and comfortable, compared to something like the Paris Metro which has old trains which aren't air conditioned. Of course, there are more lines in the Paris Metro.

Took the bus down from the peak, after riding the tram up. Nice and comfortable. Is the Peak Road the only way up other than the tram? I see a nice apt. building up on Mount Austin, with people driving a lot of luxury German and Japanese cars. That road is narrow (buses wait to let each other pass by) and crowded so you wonder about people who pay a lot to live up there.

Looks like I will have to recharge the card if I'm going to take a lot of bus rides. The machines in the MTR stations only take 50 and 100HKD notes. Any other places take smaller denominations (or preferably credit card although looks like the MTR doesn't want credit cards).

You can walk up too

There's only one road between Magazine Gap and the Peak - the Peak Road. But there are two ways to get up to Magazine Gap - Stubbs Road/Peak Road or Magazine Gap road. The big bus (#15 double decker) takes the longer Stubbs Rd/Peak Rd route; but taxis, cars and the green #1 minibus can use the steeper Magazine Gap Road with tight switchbacks straight up from Central.

There are walking paths from all directions too.

Mount Austin Road going up to the Peak Garden is very quiet on most days, and not too crowded on most weekends either. But you went on a holiday.

OK, got to start thinking about getting to the AE station on Friday morning for an 8 AM flight.

I believe the advice was to take a taxi to the Kowloon station from the Sheraton. The AE site says about 24 minutes for the trip to HKG and 12 minute intervals for trains?

So transit time from the station would be about 40 minutes?

Sounds like I should set out no later than 6 AM from the Sheraton, to account for taking the cab to Kowloon station.

Assuming you are going to check in at Kowloon Station then you need to be there a little before 6:30 to do that. That's just slightly early for the first K2 shuttle bus ( http://www.mtr.com.hk/eng/train/ae_compli_e.htm#shuttle ) which probably wouldn't get you there until about 6:40.

I would be in a cab at the Sheraton at 6:10.

Check in at the Kowloon station?

You don't just go through the turnstiles and board the AE train?

christep means doing check-in for your flight! If you're flying to most destinations except non-stop to the US, that's available at the Kowloon or Hong Kong AE stations.

Well I don't have paper tickets, so will they be able to check me in?

When I checked in at SFO, NWA had me scan my passport at these kiosks, which called up the ticket/reservation I had.

As long as your passport doesn't have a picture of Smidgen The Cat instead of yours, you can show up with corn husks written in cuneiform and they'll check you in (provided you aren't on a non-stop to the US, then you are SOL and have to check in at the airport).

They wouldn't check baggage would they?

IOW, I might as well check in and check my one bag at HKG.

Yes, they'll check your bag too. I think you need to get out more often. Spending too much time in the 3rd world country of your residence has blinded you to how interesting and well-run the rest of the world can be.

Who's from the 3rd world?

Anyways, I feel a bit leery about handing someone my bag several miles from the plane.

Bad enough when you check bags and baggage handlers are throwing your expensive luggage and contents around at the airport.

Guess I'll play it by ear Friday morning.