And we're off!

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Blog entry has been backdated.

It was kinda rushed for the preparation of the entire trip. Thanks to my last exam which ended on 1st, I started packing two nights before and rushing everywhere to change currency to HK dollars and RMBs.

Armed with leftover maps of HK, Shenzhen and a well-worned Lonely Planet book titled 'Hong Kong & Macau' by Steve Fallon, circa 2002 freshly borrowed out from the library.

I intended to travel *light*, which entailed packing some shirts, a few pants. Had an intention not to have any check-in luggage on board, heard budget airlines handle check-in baggage like shoppers in a large sale - throwing about luggages/suitcases.

Well, it was about 2.30pm in the afternoon in sunny Singapore, and cleared Customs and smoothly proceeded to the waiting lounge where a gleaming, greyish silver jet from Jetstar Asia was waiting on the tarmac. (Rather, we were waiting for the airplane staff to ready themselves to receive passengers =P)

As expected, the plane was kinda small...new but small. Just barely had enough leg room and little option to recline...I wanted to, but not at the expense of affecting the passenger behind me. The upside was that the condition of the jet was new...sterotyped cynics would have expected budget airline planes to be rickety and poorly-maintained. But no, just as the gleaming exterior of the silvery grey plane, the interiors are also gleaming and had the newly minted smell.

* * * * *

It was a 3.5 hr flight there, and there was some slight delay, couldn't really hear what the pilot was mumbling over the Public Address (PA) system.

Side note: Whoops! Sorry no photos, airport security doesn't allow any photography in airport premises. Similarly, airplanes do not allow any operation of digital/electronic equipment on board when the plane is taking off and too lazy to whip out my camera in my bag when the plane was cruising.

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