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First came the tannoy announcement that all flights departing from Beijing would not be leaving at their scheduled times due to the bad weather. They then started handing out food (full meals) and blankets, not the kind of things you’d expect for a short delay.
We had no idea how long the electrical storms were forecasted to last, but we couldn’t ask for more than what the airline was already doing; at the beginning anyway!
Time passed and people were getting fidgety, and missed connecting flights raised stress levels and agitation began to set in. We sat back quietly, amusing ourselves whilst watching all this unfold. A revised departure time of 3:30pm came and went, before 6:30pm looked good for take off. However, several flights had been cancelled during the early part of the afternoon and someone at Air China decided that 4 could go into 1, and that’s when the chaos started.
The Chinese culture has no concept of queuing or waiting their turn and soon after the boarding gate opened the plane was packed. No-one had stopped to consider that with four flights into one certain seats would be duplicated, let alone that there would not be enough seats
Legend
I don't care if you're Bruce Lee, you can't stand there! to accommodate everyone. This oversight now meant that there were over fifty people (including ourselves) still waiting to board a plane that had no available seats left. Twenty minutes went by before all those on the aircraft were told to get off and return to the departure lounge. The gate then changed from 18 to 36 (it had been unlucky 13 for our original flight) with a new flight time of 9pm.
Here, tempers reached boiling point and accusations flew as the Air China staff attempted to reason with angry punters. We continued to watch with amusement, it was inconvenient, but had no real effect on us, we would just be missing an evening in Hong Kong. We thought we should do the right thing and call the hostel that was expecting us and inform them of our late arrival. We were justified, we think, in feeling hard done by and a little annoyed when they told us we couldn’t stay there as they close reception at midnight. This is a booking that we’d made several days beforehand and despite our continuing dilemma at the airport, they weren’t prepared to bend their rules to help end our tiring night ahead.
Where did all the trees go?
They paved paradise, and put up a parking lot. Amidst the continuing mayhem (which from the officials point of view was beginning to resemble Custer’s last stand), we discussed our options, eventually settling on an immigrant's style of accommodation for our first night (or what would remain of it) in Hong Kong……sleeping in the airport!
A bigger plane was eventually summoned and we were at last headed skywards at 11pm, a delay of ten hours.
A free shuttle bus had been arranged for all the passengers on our flight due to the cock-up, but when we declined the offer due to our lack of accommodation, staff were sympathetic with our plight and even insisted on calling the hostel themselves. The result unfortunately was the same, and their subsequent suggestion annoyed us a bit. They said why didn’t we take advantage of the free shuttle bus and then sit in McDonalds for four hours until our hostel opened its reception again. I replied that we didn’t want to sit in McDonalds for four minutes let alone four hours!! I mean, we didn’t want to spend any more time in the airport either, but wandering the streets of Hong Kong tired, at 3am, with our full packs on, looking for
accommodation was even less of an inviting prospect.
We were awoken by the noise of people retrieving their bags from the carousel we’d slept next to. We livened up our senses with a smoothie before jumping on a bus to Kowloon (downtown Hong Kong).
Hong Kong is completely westernised, and is so different to what we’ve experienced over the past three months. All signs are in English as well as Chinese, and getting around is easy. To call this place overdeveloped would be an understatement and the construction looks set to continue with yet more land being reclaimed from the sea to become the platform for another skyscraper. Here, touts have been replaced by Indian shop owners who stand on the street pretending that they haven’t seen you until you’re at arms length before asking in a whisper, not if you want drugs, which by their very demeanour is what you’d expect, but if you want a tailored suit or a ’scabby’ (fake) watch; it’s quite strange. I think tailored suits might be illegal here??
We took the Star Ferry across the water form Kowloon to Hong Kong Island where we made our way to the top
of Victoria Peak, which offers great views of the harbour. Whist up there we had a bite to eat at the Bubba Gump Restaurant, well, “stupid is, as stupid does”
Those skyscrapers I spoke of earlier, as well as many other buildings, are introduced by a lady over a loud speaker just before 8pm every night. This is prior to the world’s biggest sound and light show, where the illuminated office blocks and such like on both sides of the water become the stars of the harbour stage as lasers pierce the night sky and neon lights flicker on and off in time to music. It’s quite a spectacle and we made a point of watching the 15 minute free show every night during our three night stay.
Other than this we've indulged ourselves in relaxing, western food and Premiership football highlights on large plasmas and also notched up a respectable second place in another pub quiz as a team of two. Our Asia stint had come to an end, and our sanity was now officially in rehab.
Flying from Hong Kong, our original itinerary meant we would sit in Sydney airport for twelve hours before leaving for
the States. However, we’ve decided that this would be criminal, so we’ve rescheduled for a six day stopover in our city of choice, you could call it our post Asia treat.
During this time, we’ll spend lazy days in chic cafes, whilst reflecting on our Asian shenanigans and sipping lattes (yes, I am a poet), or strolling through the Botanic Gardens reminiscing about New Year celebrations and admiring the Opera House and Harbour Bridge. Between all this we’ll be concentrating on our plans and making arrangements for our Southwest assault on the USA. There will be a blog for continuity, but don’t expect much because we don’t plan to do much, maybe just a few random pictures……..
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