00:06 John Daub: Welcome to Hong Kong International Airport, or HKIA as it's known. It's a pretty busy place and one of the more beautiful airports. I love this amazing roof they have. It's just one big room and you can see it keeps on going. Past that wall is where you go through security and the gates are on the other side. You can see the golden arches on the other side, right there.

00:32 John Daub: Hi, how you doing? I've been in China here in Hong Kong and Shenzhen for the last few days on a job, and I thought I'd take a minute to show you around this airport. Kanae and I showed you this in January—we took you inside the gate area—but we never showed the entrance before you go through passport control. This I believe is Terminal 1. I haven't been to Terminal 2, I don't know what's different, but it's very easy to get from one to the other. You don't need a skytrain, I don't remember—you might—but you can order on a touchscreen.

01:03 John Daub: Eat in, take out—let's eat in. How would you like to pay, cash? Let's show the menu for like 30 seconds. What do they got? This burger looks weird—look at this, the Cowboy Angus. Large sausage big muffin, a la carte menu, beef—wow, cheesy champignon Angus burger. Prices: 35 for this one, that's a little bit—oh wow, you can choose, gonna do it right. Select the side item, customize it, select quantity—how much is this? Okay, wow, 64 dollars. That's like 7.7 Hong Kong dollars to one US dollar, so about eight dollars. Okay, I'm gonna cancel the order, I'm not hungry. You can pay by cash, credit card, or app—this is really cool.

02:23 John Daub: I've learned that in China—and this is Hong Kong—everybody's using the WeChat app and they pay for everything with it. It's amazing. Everyone's paying with that or Alipay, one of the other Chinese-based apps. You can see this is the drop-off point, the bus going by there. So let's go, take a look around the airport. Wow, so this one is a dim sum restaurant, I believe. Let's look at the menu—it's quite crowded, you have to take a number, and it takes about 30 or 45 minutes to get a seat. Wow, the prices are a lot pricier than McDonald's here. Oh, what is that? That looks really good—a sermon [crisp suckling] pig? This is too high class for me. I thought it was dim sum, I was wrong—the restaurant's too expensive.

04:06 John Daub: Yeah, that restaurant's too expensive for me. Across the way, this is again before security—this one is called Sui Wa Restaurant. Let's see what they got on the menu. People are asked to leave their carts out of the way to get to the restaurant outside, I guess it's okay—no one's gonna take your stuff, or at least you can take your luggage inside. Just a touch menu—let's touch the monitor. Whoops, sorry about that. The price is here, a little more reasonable: pork chop in Swedish [Swiss?] style. I didn't come to Hong Kong to eat Swedish style, but it's kind of interesting. This is more casual fare, I guess. Those monitors for McDonald's are perfectly at the entrance, so we can see the menu here. I think the price is a little more reasonable than the other place—that's the kind of fare you get here.

05:40 John Daub: All right, let's take you downstairs. When I come to Hong Kong, I always take the Airport Express train. You can get a round trip ticket to Kowloon, which is on the tip of the Kowloon Peninsula. I don't know Hong Kong like I do Japan, but I think it's about that—185 Hong Kong dollars, which is about—I gotta convert everything into dollars and yen, it's not that easy. It's about seven Hong Kong dollars to one US dollar—you can do the math, 70, 140—about 22 dollars round trip to get in and out of the city on the express train. There's a Muji store—that reminds me of Japan. And of course, like all international airports, there's a north and south side to it. They're the check-in gates—Terminal 1 check-in. My flight's at 3:15.

07:02 John Daub: Hey everybody, we're back again. We're losing the signal in and out—this is some dead areas inside the airport—but I wanted to take you out towards where the Airport Express train is. When you arrive in Hong Kong Airport, as soon as you leave, it's so easy to get to the express trains and make your way to the city. This is one of the easiest cities in the world to get from the airport to the city center. Looking back at the airport right now—there's a McDonald's that we started with up on the second floor where there's some restaurants. Last time we came to Hong Kong, Kanae and I wanted to eat dim sum and couldn't—that restaurant was under renovation. Now they can do that. One of the interesting things with Hong Kong Airport is they do everything before you even enter—you can see these gates here.

07:53 John Daub: It's really super interesting. There's monitors here that do some sort of recognition—you scan your passport and it does everything before you even enter, and it knows who you are. It's pretty cool, this is the future. I think they're going to have similar technology in Japan for the 2020 Olympics. This is where I checked in at the JAL counter—look at the power of Japan, I love it. In the departure hall, we have Shiseido from Tokyo Ginza right in the center of the airport—that's pretty cool. But gotta tell you, Hong Kong lots of areas don't seem so high-tech, and yet many people have been using digital money and cards longer than in Japan. So me walking around with a gimbal is not unusual in Hong Kong. Recycling—oh, this is a famous bakery. Somebody told me all the baked goods in Hong Kong are really good. Let's check it out—the boxes look nice. I might have to get one to take with me. I'm gonna get free samples.

10:02 John Daub: One thing I discovered is not everybody speaks English. I've had some taxi drivers that just look at me aimlessly. I went on a ride last night coming back from Shenzhen, China—I crossed the border at around 10 p.m. and made my way into Hong Kong. It was quite an adventure—I came by bus. To get from Hong Kong to Shenzhen, that's sort of an interesting episode. I don't think anyone's done too much on this one. You have to make sure you have the visa before you go. When we went to Shenzhen four days ago, we came with two other people who are actors. I came to China to help with the production. The two actors could not get in the bus—they were in the same country, but that day China had decided not to allow people with New Zealand passports and Dutch passports entry at the border. They could do that the day before, but not then. So it's always a good idea to get the visa, especially if you need to beforehand at the embassy or special passport section. A lot of people don't do that, but I think it's really good, especially if you've got business.

11:22 John Daub: So then we walked across the border, walked into China, and a friend picked us up at the border. But it was so easy. I was in Shenzhen in 2001—a different world than today. If you compare it to 18 years ago, there's no comparison. This is the dead zone.

12:21 John Daub: Here's an interactive map of the airport facilities. I think it's touchable—oh wait, hold on, not a touch screen. Interactive facility directions—scan your boarding pass. This is gonna be pretty cool. Here's my boarding pass. Take me there. So I'm at Gate 7—that's pretty cool. Turn right, oh look at this—go through security, that's where we were with the cameras. Walk through there—this is pretty cool. Take the escalator—what? Oh, we're downstairs. Go past duty free, follow that dude, arrive at Gate 7—what? That was awesome. Replay—do it again. Where am I? You are here—go through north security. This is so much fun. We got enough time to go through there. Okay, I better go soon—this is fun, awesome. Go down the escalator to the next level—this is like a video game, but I'm not even doing anything. Go past duty free, keep walking—and there's Gate 7. What? And I did that from scanning my boarding pass. How cool is that?

14:14 John Daub: Well done, Hong Kong International Airport—I'm liking this. So it'll tell you based on your departure card where to check in and then where to go after that, how to get to the gate. I like this a lot. Yeah, I'm from Ohio originally—went to university there. Go Buckeyes. You can also see at first glance, is this Hong Kong? No, that's Sydney. There's Singapore, that's India, this is Singapore as well, Taiwan, Shanghai, Kuala Lumpur. You can tell—is that the Skytree? It's not—confusing. I'm looking at these monuments. Oh, is that the Space Needle in Seattle? Seattle's representing. Statue of Liberty, Capitol Building. For Holland, they have windmills—is there a famous windmill in Holland? There's Notre Dame, a good tribute for what happened. And St. Sophia's Basilica—what's the basilica in Moscow? It's pretty neat. This is the building in London, I believe—it looks similar to the one in Tokyo. The Colosseum—cool. Yeah, Japan's represented down there—that's Tokyo Skytree. Very nice.

16:01 John Daub: I'm always fascinated when I see silhouettes of buildings and monuments in other countries—like, can I figure out where these places are? Most of the time I can. The problem with shopping before security is you have to take everything you buy through security again—that sometimes is a big problem. But they do have electronics stores, food, a bank, pharmacy, luggage store—there's Samsonite if you need a suitcase. It's pretty cool. Victoria's Secret—I'm not sure you'd want to buy a nightgown. You can buy a knife before you go onto the plane—probably before check-in, just saying. It's somewhat weird, but they do sell luggage—they're known for knives. And there's a South Departure Terminal. Terminal 1 is not too big—some buses going by.

17:09 John Daub: I hope that gives you an overview of what to expect when you come to Hong Kong International Airport and decide to stay in Mong Kok. There's no 5G in Japan yet—they've just started to roll it out, but not too many phones using it. I believe Docomo will be the first network to have 5G, and that's the phone I'm using now. I'm on the airport Wi-Fi, which is why it's going in and out. Yeah, this is Hong Kong International Airport—a pretty high-tech, clean place. This is the first remodeled major airport I visited about 10 years ago, and I remember walking through going, wow, this is beautiful. Then the international airport in Mumbai opened, and I said this is way better. You can see the power of India in Mumbai Airport, but Hong Kong will always be special to me. In a way it rivals Singapore, but Changi Airport is so amazing—despite being old and somewhat retro, you can see out the window, that's Hong Kong.

19:03 John Daub: From Hong Kong International Airport to Hong Kong Island or Kowloon, it takes about 25 minutes—the train goes really fast, only two stops: Tsing Yi, Kowloon, and Hong Kong Island. I typically stay on Hong Kong Island, but Kowloon has really good hotels too. There's a new building that houses the Ritz-Carlton in Kowloon—amazing, very modern building. I walked through there—it's all brand new, so beautiful. Hey, Changi glass—hey from the Philippines, how you doing? From here in Hong Kong we fly pretty close to the Philippines—amazing how close. I wish I could jump on a plane to Cebu or Manila—some of the islands would be beautiful.

20:01 John Daub: Cycling in Hong Kong—despite what people think, people do it. I came here about four days ago to go to Shenzhen to help production and direct for the food and beverage industry and production crew. I never work with actors and just ask for things—people wouldn't respond well. But if I shouted, it would move very quickly. So after 20 minutes I learned this and started shouting for everything. The staff—30 of them—would move really fast. It was pretty cool, and the producer was shouting too—I followed his lead. After 20 minutes it became an easy job. Two cameramen, audio guy (not using audio), props guy, makeup guy, runner's assistant—it was all-out production. I'll post pictures on Instagram if you're interested. That's one of the jobs I do on the side—production work for companies or clients I've known a long time. Pretty much mostly YouTube these days, but in the past TV shows on Japanese TV and corporate video production directing. It's a fun job, I usually have a lot of fun.

21:51 John Daub: I don't get a chance to do international jobs as much as I'd like because the show is Only in Japan. But when you travel internationally for work, it is an adventure—you sacrifice not being a tourist. I did not see a lot of Shenzhen, but the last night I hung out with Scotty from Strange Parts. Scotty's got a really good channel—he made his own iPhone from parts in a China market, so cool—that video has 15 or 16 million views, definitely check it out. Scotty made time, came to where I was directing a green screen shoot, hung out for two hours. Then him and a friend, we went out to dinner in the streets of Shenzhen—I think I posted an Instagram story. I started falling in love with Shenzhen. We started eating on the streets—the food and people are really friendly, so safe and good. I was shocked—gotta give credit where due: China is an amazing place. Granted human rights and stuff, but put that aside—it's technologically advanced, blew me away. The infrastructure compared to the US—I can't even compare. China hands down is amazing. As I said once on live stream, give credit where due—they're doing very well. Pretty neat working with the Chinese production crew these last couple days. We were working in a restaurant rented from 7 p.m. to 4 a.m.—I went to bed around 5:30 and woke around 1 after breakfast. Always hard and challenging, but pretty good.

24:06 John Daub: Any questions on Hong Kong Airport? I did a live stream for Patreon supporters this morning—Q&A, they had lots of questions. Many Hong Kongers watching—I hope so, that's pretty cool. I'd love to do a meetup—I still got 30 minutes, don't have to go to the gate yet. Again, this is a really beautiful airport—been through many times, great hub. Cathay Pacific has had better days, but still decent. If you come through to go to Japan, it's not bad—a good place to stay. For a layover with three hours, you can train to Kowloon or Hong Kong Island, see the harbor, train back—30 minutes each way, so need at least two hours. You can do it. How big is the airport? Bigger than Haneda but smaller than Narita (Narita has four terminals, this has two). Bigger than Haneda, smaller than Heathrow—pretty big, on its own island, so express train into city. Very convenient—even taxis take 30-40 minutes. About a four-and-a-half hour flight from Japan. Flew business class here—seat so comfortable I fell asleep, really good experience.

26:19 John Daub: How much is return airfare Hong Kong to Narita? Didn't pay—client did. Not that expensive—depends on airline. Low-cost carrier (LCC) probably $200-250 return, super cheap—depends on time of year. Right now Golden Week in Japan—super expensive, $1200-1500 return. Off-season, ANA return about $550-600, LCC half that. I try to fly national carriers ANA and JAL if I can, but not always cost-effective. Can Kanae come back home? This is a working job—she'd be bored, doesn't speak Chinese, didn't want to sit in hotel while I worked and slept. Wasn't perfect trip for us together, but she's at home working, waiting when I get there.

27:30 John Daub: Can you find a nice view of the city at the airport? There's a dead area—stream might go dead—but at the end of this hall you can see part of Hong Kong. See the end of the hallway? I'll take you over. Been to Hong Kong twice this year—sure I'll be back. Want to go back to Singapore, hit Malaysia—haven't been in years, did nice meetup with viewers. Definitely Indonesia soon, visit viewers. Met a little girl, nine years old from Jakarta—at Narita to leave for Hong Kong, she stopped: "Are you John Daub? Only in Japan?" Yes—who are you? She's from Jakarta, Indonesia, watches the show, subscriber. Wow, awesome—took a selfie. Parents probably in restroom—she ran back, "Have a good trip." Nice story.

29:06 John Daub: That's the JAL first class lounge—well, we do have a kind of view. How do you like that? The city is on the other side—you get an idea we're on an island. Should have started the live stream here. Once again, haven't gone through security—that's the view. The train comes in through there—that's the way to Hong Kong Island, wraps around the bay to the harbor. Beautiful—nice mountains engulfed in clouds. Today the air is really clear in Hong Kong—last few times pollution from China was bad, but today really pretty. Lots of stuff going on down here. Smog can be breathtaking, yeah definitely. But really beautiful day. I'm wearing a mask and jacket—big mistake. Left Tokyo at eight or nine Celsius, chilly—here it's 28, like 82 degrees, summer. Pretty hot—most in shorts, but lots of mosquitoes, don't want to get bit, so wearing more clothes.

31:04 John Daub: There you go—that's Hong Kong, the view we have. Not bad at all. Always love looking at the airport, watching people going on trips, wondering where they're going—I wish I was them. Back in suitcases, boarding pass, security, chillaxing at gate, coffee, waiting for boarding call—usually groups A, B, C. I'm in group what? Class Y means economy, cheap ticket—weird, first half was business class. Got economy business—doesn't make sense, client bought it. If questions, leave in comments below—I hope helpful. These airport run-throughs—traveling more, click like if you want more international airports. This is Hong Kong International Airport—will be back, can't stay away. Hong Kong center of Asia—Japan hopes to be hub, but Hong Kong and Singapore are it. If you come to Hong Kong, see you next time. If you live here, probably meetup next time—we have lots of Hong Kong viewers. Have a nice day, everyone.