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September 14, 2005
Hong Kong, here I come!
Check in was smooth, no queue what so ever. As I may have bragged to some of you already, my accumulated frequently flier miles with Swiss allowed me to upgrade my Zurich-Hong Kong return tickets to Biz Class. Yipee! After check-in I spent an hour or so in the lounge (tomato soup, two Heinekens) and then headed for my gate, E23. For the first time in my bloody life immediately after boarding the aircraft, the stewardess directed me to the left where my seat (5B) was. Oh, I have arrived! It was an newer Airbus 330 with all those wonderful new toys that make flying almost fun: cameras in the nose for take-off and landing, 10" LCD screen, on-demand video system (my two picks were The Hostageand The Interpretor) and some pretty kick ass Biz class seating.
They guy beside me was a Dutchman who had grown up in Holland and France, worked for Roche in Basel, lived across the boarder in Germany with his German wife, and was on his way to Shanghi for a four day visit. Nice guy, well traveled, amazing language skills and a fellow warm-blooded human being (aka anti-Bush). We also spoke about digestive problems with food while traveling in Asia, malaria drugs, CNN goof ups (like the image going around the net where CNN has labled the Czech Republic as Switzerland) and how dry the air is on aircraft--we were dry coughing in synch for half the 13 hour flight.
Arrival was a breeze too. Only one person ahead of me at the Hong Kong immigration queue (normally it is way longer.) Took the airport express train (HKD180 return) to Hong Kong Island station, and from there I took a taxi (HKD50) to my hotel, the Ibis Hong Kong at North Point (HKD380/night). Thanks to Bogey and Kay for recommending this...good deal, great location. And I was upgraded to a harbor view for free!
Posted by stu at September 14, 2005 10:32 PM
Comments
stu. you are extremely detail orientated. when you get your first case of diarrhea feel free to skip the details... enjoy.
Posted by: alice at September 16, 2005 01:36 AM
Congratulations on having started your journey -
looking forwards to reading more!
Posted by: Greta at September 15, 2005 02:57 AM