Hong Kong Airport Transfer

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  Hong Kong, China
Monday, September 1, 2008

We have been rapidly reminded of the joy of airports and long flights - at least in economy class. But we are safely in Hong Kong airport with another couple of hours to wait till our onwards FinnAir flight to Helsinki leaves - and there is free wifi which is a nice touch.

Cathay's check-in at Sydney airport seemed very inefficient though to be fair some of our fellow passengers did seem to have a hell of a lot of luggage to check in and more than one was madly rearranging their luggage at the check-in counter. And Cathay certainly prioritised the Business Class check-in with two counters serving them as well as two serving the economy class.

The flight was almost fully booked and we had not tried to get long leg seats - a mistake I have learned from (I should have remembered from the last long flight 14 years ago!), though they may not have been available anyway. The seat was cramped, I had two alternate leg positions to vary between all night. Neither Kerry or I felt as if we slept much but both of us noted times when the other was asleep so we must have got some. On the plus side there were a large number of babies and young children on the flight and they slept beautifully. And the food was good.

We arrived in HK and flew in over the islands and water into the new airport while it was still mainly dark. By the time we had queued for the security check transition to the Departure Lounge the morning (initially grey but now fairly fine) had emerged and we were able to see the huge airport in all of its glory.

Kerry at work in empty terminal

It is somewhat larger than Sydney airport!

That's it from me. Here is Kerry's contribution from a message she emailed me a moment ago...

Hong Kong Airport, very early, having had almost no sleep.

Also I`m using a fold out keyboard & my PDA, balanced on my lap. The keyboard has various keys in wrong places - so I can`t find the usual apostrophe & @ is over on the right - so there will be bound to be lots of typos.

Well it was one of our worst flights. Cathay Pacific were amazingly slow checking us all in, 40 mins for us & the queue ahead - which wasn`t a long queue.

The flight was very full & lots of kids. Actuallly the kids didn`t bother us, but Cathay`s decision to fit in as many seats as possible did. I don`t know how David fitted in  because I barely did, and when the woman in front lent back the seat  was pressed on my knees. I couldn't access my tray unless her seat was fully upright. We were right near the back of the plane & sound on the little personal TVs didn't work.

We were very tired so David was thinking about  sleeping & missing the meal, but in the end as he couldn't sleep we both ate some & then tried again to sleep. Maybe I had half an hour or an hour - I felt like I was monitoring the time on the little screen in front & it wasn't going very fast, but at one stage I found  my hand had gone to sleep, so probably I had too. The seat was hard & with the seat in front  pressing against me - well it was uncomfortable. Emirates pride themselves on more space even in economy & I think even Qantas is better than this. Worth considering in future.

David said he'd forgotten  about the benefits of requesting a seat near the emergency exit. He intends asking is there any chance of changing our allocated seat on Finnair for the next flight, but there is no staff at the gate yet.

However - enough grumbles. We have about 3.5 hours on the ground in HK (having arrived half an hour late). We wandered & queued & wandered for a while but now are at the gates. We`re near a number of duty free shops but they were all shut. Actually now it`s 7 am local time maybe some will start to open.

I was wondering how we were going to pass the time, but was excited to find a free WiFi network. David went for a walk but is now sitting beside me with his laptop connected & well - you can see what I`m doing. David is currently downloading emails but he said he doesn`t think he can send via Outlook.

It still doesn't really feel real that we`re away.

I think I`ll try to send this now in case there are any problems. Also I want to take a photo of the islands & planes surrounding the big glass room we`re in.

Love from Kerry

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FinnAir plane has arrived	Beijing 2008 Paralympics sign	David waiting at Hong Kong terminal	Hong Kong airport

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