En route to Laos

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I’m starting out with the best of intentions – to write the blog as often as I can. That could turn out to be a hollow promise: it depends how much time I have and what sort of Internet connections I find in Laos. The trip I’m taking is to Laos with Explore, starting and ending in Bangkok, with 17 days on the road. I’m flying to Hong Kong, then back to Bangkok to start the tour. Early in January, I’ll fly back to Qatar on business (sadly not in business) and finally back to the UK around January 12th.

So – the Hong Kong flight. All I can say is, thank goodness that’s over!

Everything considered I was probably lucky to escape yesterday. For a start the flight out of Heathrow was delayed by about 1 hour for the usual reason – “late arrival of the incoming aircraft”. So, an extra hour lounging round Terminal 3, not a good start, but eventually we got away and made it to Helsinki a couple of hours later. There was a fair covering of snow but the Finns are (allegedly) used to dealing with it. Inside the terminal more bad news: the flight to Hong Kong also delayed for an hour or more. The reason they gave was to allow other connecting flights to reach Helsinki before we left. Fair enough I suppose – if I was on one of the other flights, I’d be pretty cheesed off if the Hong Kong flight left without me!

Eventually we boarded, and then sat around for ages waiting for the last couple of passengers to appear. Then another 30 minutes while they de-iced the wings (probably a good idea – it had started snowing again!). Finally we taxied out and 2 minutes later slithered to a halt. The pilot came on to the loudspeaker to tell us, slightly sheepishly, that she couldn’t turn the corner due to the ice and had requested a tractor to tow us to the runway. This whole performance meant it took another hour before we were airborne. Not the best start!

The flight itself was tedious. Just long, and very boring. Over 9 hours in economy, overnight, with little or no sleep. Enough said.

One night in Hong Kong but I only had energy for a quick walk round the block and a ridiculously overpriced dinner in the Hotel restaurant before crashing out for the night.

Saturday morning and after breakfast (ridiculously overpriced – now I know why the room itself was so cheap!) I took a ride on the old trolley bus, then the Peak Tram up to Victoria Peak. As usual, it was packed but the views are spectacular and it’s worth queuing for. I’ll try to put some pics up later if I can.

Now I’m back at the hotel, checked out and waiting to head back to the airport and my flight on to Bangkok. Thankfully it’s only a couple of hours this time!

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