Monday, November 4, 2013

I Spy (TV Series) - Robert Culp (1965) - Kai Tak Airport, Kowloon City

Certainly a welcome blast from the past. I always enjoy looking at old pictures of Kai Tak airport because, despite the fact that I flew in and out of it on several occasions, I have only very vague memories of the place. Anyway, this sequence of screen grabs starts off looking over at Prince Edward Road East and the easternmost buildings in Kowloon City before the car we are following pulls into the car park and then stops in front of the terminal building.

Note the circular booth and the flyover the car passes under, and then take a look at this Govt Archive photo taken a round the same time and it will give you a bit of context as to where it all was.


As I mentioned my memories, despite being fairly recent ('95, '96 and early '98) are sketchy, I just remember the square columns inside the terminal building (you'll see them in a minute), the escalator going up to the viewing cafe place and the bank of telephones at the top and of course the long straight area where all the gates were. I even remember the name of a bloke I started talking to there once (where are you now Gable Merrick?) and even almost missing my plane once because the gate only opened about 5 minutes before departure and I was too busy wandering around with my pals taking snaps (now lost, I suspect). It's very disconcerting when you are running along a very busy terminal building and someone comes up to you and uses your own name to tell you to hurry (yes, I was the last person to board...).

Anyway, here are a few more pictures of Robert Culp inside the building.

3 comments:

gweilo8888 said...

Man, I miss Kai Tak. No multi-story car park, bus / taxi ranks, etc. there yet, and I think the terminal building later got taller and doubled in length. (There was a slight incline between the two sections of building, capped by a disassociate metal ramp, if I remember correctly. There was also a staff canteen on the roof with superb food, and a few good places for plane spotting.

Phil said...

blimey! you have a much better memory than me (note to self: eat more fish oil)...

gweilo8888 said...

Hah -- my Dad worked at the airport, and my life somewhat revolved around it. (It was within walking distance of my school, and I spent a fair bit of my free time there, as I loved travel and wanted to be a pilot at the time.)

Hence I absorbed a lot of detail, and much of it remains. :-)

BTW, "disassociate" was my spellchecker going mad. Should've read "diamond-plate", just now noticed it.

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