I am considering career options, wondering if you know people who work in HKG but leave families in SIN and commute back during the weekend, etc. I am worried about the pollution situation in HKG and thats why.

A few thoughts...

1. For some miraculous reasons - well, I think mostly wind directions - air quality during the last 2 months in HK is actually very good. Best in about 6-7 years. Of course, can't say what it will be a week from now.

2. HKG-SIN is almost 1,600 miles. Schedule time close to 4 hours each way. And only about 14 non-stops, spread over 4 airlines - SQ 7, CX 6, 3K (Jetstar) 2, UA 1. It's not really the same as New York to Chicago or Atlanta, or even Dallas.

3. I don't know what you do in Hong Kong, but can you really get out early enough in Hong Kong every Friday to catch the last flight to SIN (SQ, at 8:15p)? If not, you'll wait until 8am Saturday morning, and arrive almost noon.

There's also no red-eye on this route, so last flight to get back from SIN is at 7:30p (SQ). Meaning you'll have about 31 hours total in Singapore only.

In short - if you are already SIN based, perhaps this would be something to consider in the short term - and not because of the air pollution!. If not, frankly, this is simply ridiculous.

I commuted between HK and Bangkok for about a year (2-3 weekends a month) and whilst it was do-able, it could still be tiring. I did the trip again this weekend. Out on the Friday night 2210 flight, got home around 0030. Left home yesterday 1630 for the 1840 flight and back in my HK home by midnight.

BKK is a good hour nearer HK than SIN and I don't think I could easily do it.

Decided this time that the family will move up to HK for a year and we'll see how it goes, whilst keeping our BKK house for weekend breaks once a month or so. I am concerned about the pollution although it has been better of late.

thanks everyone for insights. appreciate it. i personally like to live in singapore, but work wise HK is more suited to my job profile. Hence the thought. Having lived in Orange County and commuted to NYC for a while, my thoughts were primarily that its the same distance, airport commute is a breeze on both sides, although a little time consuming in HK, etc. However it appears that the lack of frequent flights kills the thought.

The topic is commuting between Singapore and Hong Kong for work. The Original Poster had specific concerns about pollution, and the experiences of other posters regarding flight times, distance, etc. are useful.

However, the subject of this thread is not SARS and it is not Avian Flu (and comments about Indonesia are even further off-topic!). Of course members have lived through difficult times, and these issues sometimes come up even when not asked for by a person posing a question. So my asking folks to refrain from posting such off-topic things is not to minimize the experiences folks have had ... just to ask that those experiences be channeled into the places where they will be the most help to other members.

I've cleaned up ~ 5 replies. Any more discussion, please keep on-topic.

Thank you.
Gay
aka gleff
Senior moderator

What makes you think the pollution in HKG is worse than BKK?

13 years' experience in HK would be the short answer!

Our BKK house is in the northern suburbs, well away from the downtown smog (which can of course be awful).

You don't have to go far away from the sprawl to find clean air in BKK. Thanks to the factories over the border in China, when it's bad in HK, it's (generally) bad whether you're in Kam Tin or Stanley.

We seem to have been fairly lucky over the last month or so. Long may it last...