Hello again Hong Kong

When we arrived at the airport for our flight to Hong Kong (after a bus diversion as the train was cancelled for essential track repair works - getting us in the mood for Glasgow already!) we went straight to check in with our luggage. As we had also upgraded on the way back (and had no problems on the way out) we handed over all 66kg of luggage (the extra tinnies to take home seemed to weigh more than we thought) assuming we would have to pay for 4kg (we thought our allowance was 30kg each for the Virgin flight). The check in girl looked astounded at our luggage and told us that we only had an allowance of 23kg and that we would have to pay $20 for each kg over (so about $400).

We were obviously not taking this without some kind of fight so we asked to see the supervisor who we assured that we had been advised that we had a 30kg allowance from one of the representatives in the UK and quoted one of the names we had from our calls from Hong Kong after my name fiasco on the way out. Not seeming to get very far with this, I suggested some sort of compromise on the basis that we have clearly been misled?! and that we obviously had no money left after travelling around Australia (G didn’t think this angle would work but I had noticed that the supervisor hadn’t looked at our tickets so didn’t know we could afford to upgrade). The supervisor seemed to realise we were not going to give him an easy ride and compromised on $150 and went off to write our receipt - you had to check in your bags and then go to the supervisor to pay before being issued with your boarding passes. Not quite finished with him, I went back after checking in to pay the excess baggage and told him that if the excess were reduced to $120 we could afford to pay by cash and would not have to pay by credit card. The supervisor was clearly pleased by this and set off to re-write the receipt but when we opened our wallet all we had was $100 notes (oops) so I quickly ran to Starbucks and bought a bottle of water and slipped G a $20 note to pay with. After paying, the supervisor printed off our boarding passes and his face was a picture when he saw we were upgraded so we quickly grabbed the passes, thanked him and trotted off for a well deserved tinnie! All in all, we cant really complain as we got away with paying excess baggage from Sydney to Melbourne and from Hobart to Sydney when we expected to have to pay (and we misread our allowance and really only should have had 25kg each way!).

The flight was uneventful and we both managed a little nap before landing into HK at 10pm (1am Australia time). We cleared passport control and picked our bags up in no time and were in the hotel (connected to the airport) by 10.30pm!! - pretty impressive. We headed to the bar for a couple of drink before heading for bed.

Next morning, we checked out and left our luggage with concierge before catching a cab to Disneyland HK. This was really cool and just looked like a mini version of Paris. We trotted in and met some characters before heading off on a couple of the rides. We then walked around the attractions before coming across Space Mountain, the scariest ride in the park. After some discussion, we decided that as Big Thunder Mountain was our favourite ride in Paris, how different can this be - one of the most stupid decisions of the holiday! After getting nearer the front, the signs detailing that you should not go on if you have breathing difficulties, heart conditions etc etc should have been a clue and as soon as I got in the seat (at the front to make it worse) I knew this was a bad idea. As we entered complete darkness, we seemed to go up and up and up - G at this point took great delight in singing what goes up must come down!! All of a sudden, bright lights came on like stars and we flew through them at huge huge speed. I had to shut my eyes and just hold on (the picture you see of yourself when you got off really was classic!) - G loved it - I am never going on anything like it again!

After this (and a small sit down for me to recover) we headed to see the Lion King show. This was absolutely fab - even better than the actual show in the west end I would say, and then we headed to the Disneyland Hotel just outside the park for a final lunch time tinnie. We then headed back in and looked around Fantasyland and the castle before the main parade. We had a fab view on the corner for this - it was so unlike Europe - everyone was squashed into the shade side as they didn’t want to be in the sun so we had the pick of the points to stand!

We then went to a Disney show and a 3D show which is really cool as you do think things are coming out at you before going on the Buzz Lightyear ride where you shoot things as you go round. G was very upset that I was the sharpest shooter!

We then headed back towards the main gate and watched the fireworks display at 7pm before catching a cab back to the airport hotel. We went for a swim and a shower at the hotel and grabbed some dinner in the restaurant before heading across to the airport to check in for our flight to LHR and then back home to Glasgow and simba...

---

---