One of my favorite stops on Project Pacific Circle was Hong Kong. I’ve never been somewhere with such a high density over such a large area; the number of high-rises is almost impossible to believe.

Simply taking it all in is much of the fun on a quick visit, so I wanted to share a few tips from my time on the ground so you can make the most of your time in the city:

“You want a beer?” he asks, already on his way to fetch one. It’s about 10:15AM in Hong Kong when a cold can of Carlsberg is slipped into my hand; the man I’m speaking with begins to pull books of swatches down from the shelf.

To get here, I first took a shuttle from my hotel to the hotel, The Peninsula, globally renowned and famous for its fleet of Rolls Royces, all painted a certain deep shade of green named in honor of the hotel that operates them as transport for its guests.

I walked north up Nathan Road, perhaps the busiest of the tourist streets in the Tsim Sha Tsui district of Kowloon. I passed thousands of mingling locals and tourists. I saw a boy no more than four years old drop his pants to pee on the side of a shop while the shop’s owner looked on, disinterested. I escaped from a dozen barking salesmen trying fervently to earn my business, employing variations on, “Hey, buddy,” intoned with varying levels of conspiracy. I took a right at an unremarkable yellow sign and made my way down a shabby hallway to a store not much bigger than my hotel room.

Every bit of the store’s walls not hidden by shelving is plastered with hundreds of pictures, nearly all autographed with a personal message, from a cavalcade of world leaders and celebrities. George, George W, and Jeb Bush are all here. So is Bill Clinton, and Hillary. Angela Merkel, Prince Charles, Ronald Reagan, Tony Blair, Michael Jackson, David Bowie, Venus Williams, Richard Gere: all here.

Some of the most immediately recognizable men appear in just an undershirt, carefully holding in place a pair of partially constructed pants. Others appear at events and banquets in full regalia. Nearly all of them appear with one of three men, all of Indian heritage, always with a grin and often with measuring tape in hand. Every autograph is addressed simply to Sam, followed by a note: “Thanks for the suit!”

Sam’s Through The Years

The website for Sam’s Tailor proudly touts:

In the mental map of the American not-so-world traveler, Sydney and Hong Kong might not seem close, exactly, but certainly closer than, say, Los Angeles and Fiji. When traveling via Bangkok, however, the trip from Sydney to Hong Kong ends up being about 200 miles longer. That meant spending 9 hours and 20 minutes on the first leg of the trip, then another 2 hours and 45 minutes completing the journey after a layover of a few hours in Bangkok.

I was in for a full day of flying, but that meant an excellent opportunity to test Thai Airways Business Class on both a long-haul and a short-haul flight.

United’s Best Award Route

One of the best values for United miles is on a route not serviced by United at all. Tucked away in the airline’s award chart is a truly outstanding deal for flights like from Australia or New Zealand to South Asia, which includes Hong Kong and Macau, but not China at large. Business Class flights cost just 30,000 miles.

Compare that to the 57,500 miles required per Business Class seat from the US to Europe, or the 65,000 miles United would charge to go from Los Angeles to Fiji on a flight of similar length, and it becomes clear that this is a tremendous bargain.

United’s award rules are also extraordinarily flexible in this region. In my initial itinerary, I planned not to go directly from Sydney to Hong Kong via Bangkok, but to instead fly from Sydney to Bangkok to Phuket, spend a night in Phuket, then continue on from Phuket back through Bangkok on to Hong Kong. Believe it or not, the exact same 25,000 miles would’ve covered that award flight!

Stops of less than 24 hours en route don’t count as a stopover, making them fair game on even one-way awards like this one, and United’s booking engine somehow decided it had no issue with a totally illogical “connection” in Phuket. I was sad to lose this extra night when my schedule shifted on the back end of the trip, but it proved just how flexible United’s award options can be if you get creative.

Cutting It Close

If my train from Sydney had been delayed by a few more minutes, this flight might not have happened at all.