Black Friday, Indeed
Tracking travel data is part of my job, and I’ll admit that I’ve been selfishly happy over all the statistics about Americans staying home or close to home during the holidays. Fewer hordes are always a good thing. I’m not scared of our nation’s floundering financial state, I just want to get the hell out of the country for a few weeks. Especially now that vague terror threats are aimed at NYC’s subways.
But as it stands, it looks like half of my vacation is a bust, and it has nothing to do with Thanksgiving traffic or our tanking economy. I’m honestly not sure what will happen tomorrow morning when I depart JFK for Hong Kong, Bangkok being my ultimate destination. If the airports in Bangkok are still closed, Friday night, 16 hours later am I just stuck in Hong Kong? I don’t even want to begin thinking of how I’m going to get money back on the three hotels in Thailand I’ve already paid for (that all stipulate that cancellations less than two days before reservation are eligible for zero refund. And no, I don’t have travel insurance, as I’ve been asked multiple times today—I never gave any thought to such a thing).
I don’t want to spend a whole two weeks in Hong Kong, it’s likeable, but not that likeable. I’ve scoured for cheap (or even not so cheap) flights to either Singapore or Kuala Lumpur. If need be we can scramble and put together a new itinerary, but seriously, everything in the immediate future is booked and the available tickets are close to $900, ridiculous for such a short flight.
I was really counting on cheap prescription drugs and a haircut at Toni & Guy, but more importantly, my detailed eating list may not be realized and that breaks my heart. As much as I like Chinese food, I like Thai more. And I learned my lesson trying to eat Thai food in spice-averse Hong Kong last time I was there. You’re better off in NYC.
Wherever I may be the next two weeks, I won’t likely post much if anything. I never do on vacation. But I have the feeling I may Twitter a bit. As much as I like to loathe the service, it’s growing on me rapidly. There, I said it, Twitter is fun.