Hong Kong phone and internet questions
 

I'm going to HK for 4+ days/5 nights over Easter and wasn't planning on taking either a cell phone or my laptop.

I'm really familiar w/ cheap calling cards in Europe - are the same sorts of cards available in HK, and are they a good deal? Any particular vender/carrier better than others?

and - are there internet cafes in convenient areas of Kowloon and Central? If so, what are typical costs?

thanks

Can't tell you about phone cards, as I have no experience with them. I usually check email at Pacific Coffee, though their drinks are not cheap (about same price as Starbucks here).

pacific coffee works very well as a last resort for connectivity, and free with the purchase of drinks.

If you have a tri-band gsm phone, you could just pick up a new SIM card for local calls.

Thanks - I looked them up and there are branches all over. Maybe a silly question - but do they have American and/or British keyboards?

My carrier doesn't support GSM (verizon) and I don't want to deal w/ getting a phone on e-bay, sim cards, etc for just a few days.

Keyboards are very similar to what we here. May be totally identical. I never find it a problem, unlike using the keyboards in Continental Europe. Some keyboards have Chinese strokes labelled on the keys, but you can just ignore them.

i think it's possible to get a tri band or even quad band made in China phone which handles dual sim cards. these aren't expensive.

Sure, it's not expensive even here. I often see unlocked GSM phones for $40-50 from various merchants.

But it's still an expense. I don't know if janisj really needs it.

Anyways, let me tell you what I use. I use onesuite.com's long distance service. Calling US to Hong Kong is $0.02/min, calling Hong Kong to US is $0.059/min. It's so inexpensive that I don't even care to find local phone cards from there.

You can get free internet for the price of a cup of coffee or juice at any Pacific Coffee Company in Hong Kong (go to www.pacificcoffee.com) or at any MIX juice/sandwich place (http://www.mix-world.com/default.asp_. For a list of cybercafés in Hong Kong generally, go to http://cybercafe.com. YOur hotel may also have a terminal in the lobby which you can use.

The Pacific Coffee outlet on the Peak is a GREAT place to stop to check e-mail mail, it has The View and a nice outdoor terrace. It's nice for breakfast, it is generally not crowded. It's right in the Peak Tram building.