Sunday, February 1, 2009

Day 20 – London to Hong Kong

Goodbye Europe, Hello Asia. Today I am traveling to HK. After my horrible winter traveling experience out of NYC during the holidays (I’m convinced that JFK/LGA are two of the worst airports in the world. Not only are they highly inefficient, old, and dirty but the staff are surely, mean, and abrasive) I was delighted w/ European travel yet again (the first time going in and out of St. Pancras train station in London) by London’s Heathrow Terminal 5. Now, I’ve heard horror stories about Heathrow, but at least terminal five (the international terminal) was amazing. I have never seen so many ticket kiosks ( I would guess well over 50) with an equal number of attendants to check bags. It was breath taking. Then, in the terminal there were numerous customer service desks staffed by 6-8 people (a far cry from the usual one person, if you are lucky in the US). My only quip with Heathrow is no free internet. Otherwise it was great. 

I had a nice and uneventful week to close out my European experience. The weather warmed up a bit and I managed to get in a run every day along the Thames. By the end I was starting to feel comfortable in London, as someone described to me at a party: “London is like Connecticut, it makes sense.” And in the end I could agree. The only real difference is the driving on the wrong side of the roads, the bars closing MUCH earlier (the pubs close around 9pm, and even bars don’t make it much past 11pm), and the total lack of sunlight (London makes Chicago look sunny since it sits in it’s own little kink in the time zones making it so that it is dusk around 3:00 and dark by 4:00pm.)

On the day of my departure Gordon Brown announced an additional £200B stimulus package to buy up toxic assets and help stimulate the economy. Additionally, two more banks were taken over by the government. In terms of business London looks a bit drearier now that the holidays are over. Regent and Oxford Street are empty but the huge sale signs remain. They have taken down all of the Christmas decorations and the whole area feels like a ghost town. There were still plenty of folks in the Pubs, but I doubt any crises could empty those out in London. I think London is pretty much in the same spot we are in the states: They are trying everything they can think of : £200B stimulus, (because the initial £37B stimulus didn’t do anything)  bank takeovers, (they are purchasing and additional 30 or so percent of the royal bank of Scotland to own over 70% of it outright) and historically low interest rates (currently below 2%) – but nothing seems to be having a huge effect (the FTSE is still unmoved).

On the day before Obama’s inauguration the situation here feels very similar to the one I left. 

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