The day didn’t start well. As soon as we hit the expressway at 6.45am or so I knew things weren’t good. Traffic not moving. Inched forward all the way to River Rd. Then we decided to leave the Expressway and find Canterbury Rd. To cut a long story about a long journey short. It took 2 ½ hours to get to the airport. Another 45 minutes or so queuing for check-in. Straight through Immigration and Security, and the plane was boarding! Boarding started at 10.15 – It was 10 before I got through Check-in! There had been an accident in the Airport tunnel. One on General Holmes Drive. One on Stony Creek Rd and King George’s Rd. Plus a five car pile-up coming in from the North on the F3.
Things DID improve. My original seat was a “middle seat”, but they found me an aisle seat. But, in the busy-ness of Wednesday I forgot to pay my mobile recharge. So hopefully M has done that for me. I had various SMSs wishing me a good trip. But I couldn’t reply. But here I am. Flying over Indonesia. All’s well that ends well, I guess.
The two seats beside me are occupied by two small girls travelling to Syria with their Mums and five kids in total. Mums are very young – wearing Muslim veils (and sequinned jeans). The little girl at the window , is very sweet. Tells me she loves to draw and wants to be an artist when she grows up. But Dad won’t let her, she confides. Dad wants her to get a job where she’s earn proper money. Whatever the culture, Dads (and Mums) are the same.
Arrived in Hong Kong about 6pm – old hand now; through Immigration etc. As we came out of Immigration I saw someone holding a sign – “Welcome Delegate KIEREN PERKINS” Must be Olympic stuff. Must be that Kieren Perkins. Shortly after, I saw that it was. He looked pretty ordinary – t-shirt, jeans. Very rounded; very pink face. But I’m not one to talk!
Next day: Spent some time in the Hong Kong Park and visited the Bird Aviary (like the one at London Zoo). Very pretty but the birds seemed a little scarce. It said 600, but it didn’t seem that many. Lovely rainforest setup, though.
The multi-national chains are always prevalent when travelling. Outback Steakhouse last night. Probably again tonight. Starbucks Coffee today. Haagen-Daas ice-cream today. At least we’ve avoided Maccas.
Hong Kong is very humid. Not as hot as last August. But still chafing weather. Still all the hassling re buying copy “handbags, watches” etc. and excellent tailors “make suit, Trousers. Blouse. Whatever you want”.
Here’s some stuff about food: At the Outback Steakhouse we ate Garlic Steak. All options have Aussie names – “Bonzer Soup. Ayers Rock Crab”. It’s not an Australian chain – like all the others it’s American. Starbuck’s coffee – well, they have chocolate to sprinkle over the top, and it’s drinkable. Haagen-Daas – we discovered Bailey’s Ice-cream! Yummy. Yumm-ee!! Then we ordered breakfast room service. Like kids in a lolly shop we ticked cereal, yoghurt, bacon & eggs, hot chocolate, fruit smoothee. Much too much food. And it COST! HK $500 – that’s about A$83 between us. More than the steak at the Outback!
Then off to the Ocean Terminal to join the “Costa Allegra”.
When we got there we were greeted with a very long queue. Once we got through that process we were take out a side door and put onto a bus! The bus took off – away from the Ocean Terminal which conspicuously lacked a Cruise ship, through the streets and then through the tunnel under the harbour and over to the Hong Kong Island side. We ended up out in the boondocks somewhere, miles from anywhere. Just as well no-one had wanted to see us off. Then on to the Allegra, where they collected our passports (I guess so we wouldn’t escape!). Apparently we use our Costa Card and a photocopy of our passport for the shore excursions.
There is a big list of shore excursions. We have to book some pretty quickly as we are in Manila by Monday. But we’ll deal with excursions tomorrow.
