Getting ready this morning went so quickly. The cats were
determined to get me out of bed at my normal time of 5.30am, as they were
apparently starving. I guess that feed 12 hours ago was long gone from their
memories. There were lots of last minute things I needed to get done as Andrew
was also going to be away, spending the next week working on Thursday Island.
Before we’d even left for the airport, I got a bit
teary. I knew it was going to
happen. Tassie (our older cat) had
hidden under the bed early in the morning so I think she knew I was
leaving. I didn’t get a chance to give
her a big cuddle before I left. This
made me a little bit more teary. I’m a
sook when it comes to my furkids; they’ve come with us everywhere we’ve moved
to, whatever the cost. Smudge (the young, small devil cat) was all over my bag,
climbing and putting her claws in, so she got a big smooch goodbye hug and kiss
from her mum.
It was time to go.
Andrew and I hopped in the car and off we went to the International
Airport. I wished we didn’t live so
close, it only takes 7 minutes or so to get there so I was full of excitement
and nerves and felt the time went so quickly.
Andrew pulled up to the drop off area at the airport and we
got out of the car. As soon as he had my
suitcase out of the back of the car, I was in tears. As much as I love my independent
nature and will to travel, I love him too and was sad to know it would be a
little while until we saw each other again. It was cute; I stood up on the
gutter and we were nearly the same height so I gave him a big hug and kiss
goodbye and wiped my runny nose on his t-shirt. I’m not sure whether he noticed
but I hope by now he’s washed it!
Check in was relatively simple and because I was travelling
the whole way with Cathay Pacific, my luggage was checked all the way through
to Heathrow. I wouldn’t see it again
until I was on the other side of the world.
I had Reef Lounge access here at the International terminal.
I wouldn’t say it was worth it, and I’m glad I hadn’t paid for it. The lounge is an ex-Qantas one and is quite
dated. The selection of food on offer
was a few old looking sandwiches and some questionable deli meats and
cheese. The bar however, was well
stocked and I decided that time was about to become very blurred and that a few
pre-flight drinks were not to be scoffed at.
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| Departures board at Cairns International Airport |
Time passed quickly and it was time to board. For those plane nerds like myself, CX146
leaving at 1300 was an Airbus A330-300. I was lucky enough to have been able to
select the exit row seats and was seated next to a Cantonese man from Brisbane
(where the flight originated from). He
was generous enough to have felt the need to marinate himself in durian before
the flight and going by his breath, he’d also indulged in a dog poo sandwich
not too long ago. 7 and a half hours of sitting next to him sleeping with his
head lulling towards me and his mouth wide open gave me plenty of time to work
this all out.
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| CX147 from Cairns to Hong Kong. Airbus A330-300 |
Anyway, enough about Mr Poo Breath. The flight was fairly
uneventful beyond the two little toddlers on the other side of the aisle to me,
who physically screamed the whole way to Hong Kong. Thank goodness for
headphones and a strategically downloaded playlist and a good book.
Hong Kong is one of the most scenic airports to fly into, in
my opinion. If you catch Honkers on a
good day (smog free) you get the most amazing views. The smog wasn’t too bad this time around and
I caught the odd glimpse of a place I’ve had a great holiday in before.
We arrived right on time at 1805 and after going through the
transit lanes, I was inside HKIA. It’s truly a spectacular airport. Even if I didn’t have Qantas Club and Cathay
Lounge access, I would’ve had a multitude of things I could’ve done to kill my
7 and a half hour stop over. The food
court area is incredible in size and offers some of the most incredible
cuisine, I’ve ever seen. Anywhere. After
working out where the new Qantas Club lounge was (last time it was a temporary
one, albeit still awesome). The new
lounge is phenomenal and rivals LAX for quality. The food on offer is Neil Perry inspired and
they also had a full size Teppanyaki bar and during the day they are said to
also offer Dim Sum (Yum Cha for those in Australia) trolleys that go around
offering hot tasty dumpling goodness.
I found a good spot at one of the long tables and grabbed
myself a big bowl of Creamy Zucchini and Parmesan soup. I’m such a sucker for soup. Truly, it is my favourite food. This particular
soup was divine. Steaming hot, and full
of fresh beautiful flavour. After the
third bowl and a couple of Baileys on ice, I was feeling like I was carrying a
food baby and decided to go and rest on one of the lounge leather lounges and
read the paper. I should’ve known; the
minute I have a fully belly of hot soup, I am ready to snooze. I read the UK newspaper (getting up to speed
with what’s doing in the Old Blighty) and looked around and noticed all the
other people in this particular area of the lounge were all spread out and
laying on the lounges, so who was I to be the odd one out. I lay down and an hour later I woke up to one
of the Qantas Club staff members putting a blanket on me! Oops! I was a bit
sheepish then and figured I should get up.
The other thing was, the lounge was closing at 2300 but I had until 0140
until my flight left. I figured I’d hang
in the Qantas Club until 2300 and then mosey on over to one of the many Cathay
lounges and see what they had on offer. I picked the lounge that happened to be
right across from my departure gate, so I could stay there as long as
possible.
I ended up in the Cabin Lounge. Wow.
Nice one, Cathay. This lounge was
uber cool and had some amazing Asian inspired dishes on offer. I wandered about
with my plate of garlic broccoli, vegetarian noodles and some chicken and black
bean and settled on a little privacy pod right in front of the TV showing BBC
World News, as my spot to kill the last few hours before it was time to go.
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| In my little privacy pod, in the Cathay Lounge at Hong Kong airport |
My normal routine of late before a long haul flight is to
spend the last hour walking around the airport and getting the blood pumping;
and that was to be no exception here in Hong Kong. I am always really conscious of DVT after I
got horrible swelling in my hands, legs and feet after a (relatively) short 7
hour flight from Osaka to Cairns once. It was painful enough to warrant me
never long hauling without flight socks and doing a big walk prior to sitting
down for hours on end, now. I’m lucky enough that it’s not happened since, but
I have heard some horror stories about travellers dropping dead in arrivals
halls after getting DVT on a flight! No thanks!
0140 rolled around and it was finally time to get on-board. Thankfully I’m lucky enough to have a nice
Oneworld status which means I don’t have to line up with everyone else and only
those in First class get to board before me, so I can get on, and get that
elusive overhead locker storage spot that seems hard to be sure of having,
nowadays. Once again I had an exit row seat but this time around we were on a
Boeing 777-300ER. My first one! And what
made it more exciting was that it was only a few months ago I stood and watched
this very same model of aircraft being pieced together inside the Boeing
factory at Everett, near Seattle in the USA.
For those plane nerds following along, a Boeing 777-200LR in
2005 set a world record for a non-stop commercial jetliner by flying between
the same points as me, Hong Kong to Heathrow.
However, this record was set by travelling eastbound. Yes. The absolute long, long way round! The flight
lasted nearly 23 hours. Very impressive
when you consider this is a twin-engine jet, not an A380 four-engine
plane. Anyway, for those not into
planes, I’m sorry if you just fell asleep for a second there but I was excited
to tick the ‘Triple Seven’ off my plane bucket list.
I had two guys sitting beside me and before the plane took
off, I’d drifted off to sleep! Totally unlike me, but goes to show how tired I
must have been. I woke up as the plane powered up, and then once we were in the
air, I went straight back to sleep. I
woke up about an hour later and my seat-mate decided he wanted to chat. He was a guy, not much younger than me who I
wrongly assumed was American, after I heard him order a glass of red wine. Once we got chatting he told me he was
actually from Oslo, in Norway. I can honestly say, I’d never met anyone from Norway
before, which was very cool. He
attributed his American sounding accent to the influence of American TV shows
on their English language exposure. He was a really good guy to chat to, and he
told me plenty of cool stories from his travels abroad and wanted to know lots
about the places I’d been. He couldn’t
believe I wasn't eating the meal (I have decided to stop eating airline food
unless I’m absolutely starving, mostly because its pig slop). Because of my
lounge access when I fly, I tend to eat in the lounge where it’s a comfortable
eating environment (not squished up in a plane) and where I can choose a
variety of nicer foods. We chatted for
about an hour and then I needed more sleep and put my hoody over my head, my
earplugs in and off I went. I think all
up on the 13 hour flight I managed to get somewhere between 3 and 4 hours,
which by my standards is not bad. I got
6 once, on the flight from LAX to Brisbane – I felt amazing afterwards,
although there may have been medication involved in that one J
The rest of the flight was uneventful and we made the
landing at Heathrow. Hooray! I was so
incredibly excited! I have for years put off this trip for a number of reasons,
ranging from the sheer cost, the time off required and also because I was
physically too big to fly such a long distance without fear of my health being
at risk. Not anymore… I was in the UK!
I dread the whole customs and immigration crud and after 28
hours of travelling I was prepared for an LAX-style line up however, I was
pleasantly surprised. I was through
Border Control, Customs and had my bags 20 minutes after the plane landed. Nowhere on the planet (so far) has offered me
that quick an entry! It puts Cairns International to shame, where you wait 45
minutes alone for your bags to come off the plane!
I’d used Qantas to book a transfer arrival pick up and there
was the man waiting for me with my name on a sign (I felt famous!). He was about 90 in the shade but seemed quite
sweet, not letting me drag my own bag. I’d booked a ‘shared arrival’ transfer
which generally means a van with about 5 other people and you all go around
being dropped off to your accommodation, but not this time. It was just me. We got to the car and it was a brand spanking
new Mercedes. Hello! Talk about a nice way to be welcomed into the
UK.
My accommodation was in the Kensington/Bayswater area and it’s
not really that far from Heathrow. I
spent the whole time alternating between lovingly gazing out the window at what
was probably a boring scene, and chatting to the driver, pinching myself that I
was actually in the UK! As we drove through London, I was completely
mesmerised. It was exactly as I imagined
and had seen on TV. Thanks, UKTV and all
those other channels on TV that bombard us with British television.
I arrived at my hotel and got checked in after minor issue
where my fried and tired brain could not for the life of me remember my PIN to
my card (granted, it’s not my every day one, it’s my travel one loaded with
currency for the country/countries I’m visiting). Crisis averted and PIN recovered, I got to my
room which by London standards wasn’t too bad.
Expensive but suitable.
I decided I wasn’t really that tired, so grabbed my bag and
went for a walk to get something to eat and drink and had a look around the Bayswater
area before finding a supermarket and grabbing a few things. I headed back to the room where I ate my
goodies and had a much anticipated shower. I cannot handle more than 24 hours
without a shower at home, and travelling is no different. I could make a fortune if I could work out
how to refine the oil from my scalp/hair and sell it to the highest
bidder. Although I think the Saudis might
off me, as after a day it’s pretty full on! J After a shower I felt completely wide awake
and decided a walk was definitely in order and headed out to nearby Kensington
Gardens (basically across the road from my hotel) and Kensington Palace. I spent ages at the Duck Pond enjoying watching
the model boats being raced and all the little kids feeding and squealing with
joy at the swans, geese and other water birds whose opinions of said kids was
relative to the amount of bread they had in their hands.
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| Me, outside Kensington Palace |
By now I was starting to feel a bit tired and headed back to
the hotel for what I told myself would be a 2 hour sleep at the maximum. Well, nearly 6 hours later I woke up in the
dark thinking it was late at night, however it was only 6pm. Ahh, yes, just like in Tasmania… the sun sets
nice and early making me freak out and think I’ve missed dinner. I really
struggled to wake up, and my body kept telling me to stay in bed and doze. I realised it was not a great idea and got up
and went for a walk and grabbed a bite to eat for dinner before coming back and
relaxing in front of the TV before going to sleep. I did wake up that first night during the
night, which was expected but at about 3am I took a sleeping tablet and drifted
off into a nice deep sleep until 6.30am just before the sun (well the grey
light) peeked at me through the window.
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