Day 0: Flying on Friday the 13th!

  Dubai, United Arab Emirates
Friday, April 13, 2007

Chapter 1: Nice ICE, nice try!


Unlike last time when I departed for Barcelona, there was no thrill in the lounge in the HK International Airport (HKIA) at all, no CNN good or bad news about Egypt (perhaps there had been so many bad news before that maybe it was now time for it to keep quiet for a while) This time I went to the Plaza Premium Lounge on the far side of the terminal (near gate 40), and this time it really looked and felt like a normal lounge, i.e. you could actually relax and rest in a lounge instead of feeling like the departure lounge of a plane that had been delayed for 20 hours.


For once there is actually tranquility inside a lounge

Talking about the terminal, Emirates Airline was one of the "lucky" few to have the privilege to use the new Terminal 2 (T2) of HKIA. (but first of all, you have to get off on the right (literally!) side of the Airport Express before you could reach the T2)


See, you have to get off on the RIGHT side of the train or else you will have to do some serious walking! (or wait for the next train)

So this Friday the 13th had nothing special and the next thing I knew I was on board the Emirates Airline Boeing 777 to Dubai International airport. A word must be said about this 777-300ER. The seats were relatively more spacious, the ceiling looked higher (once the lights were turned off, you could see tiny lights on the ceilings mimicking the stars of the sky ... cool! They called this mood lighting!) and the crew uniforms were relatively more eye-catching, (actually "interesting" was probably a more appropriate word in this context) and the ICE (Information, Communication and Entertainment) system worked very well, especially on the video on demand... There were more than hundreds of movies and I practically spent the starry, starry night doing the movie marathon until my arrival in Dubai... (i.e. I was too busy to sleep for the whole night!)


Left: Emirates Airline's Boeing 777-300ER, equipped with one of the world's most powerful jet engines GE90-115B.
Right: The crew welcomes you with their traditional red berets and veils. Notice the veil is only worn on one side. (Maybe used for swiping their sweats?)


Left: The inside of the 777 is spacious and looks roomy with the high ceiling. The seats are better designed with the large(r) LCD, remote and folded table all at the front, saving precious space on the sides.
Right: ICE - Information, Communication and Entertainment. All VOD (Video on demand) with tons of movies. Time to catch up those I missed before!




Mood lighting - Once the cabin is dimmed, the ceiling shows all the light spots emulating the starry nights, supposed to make you sleep better with sweet dreams.. er.. but everyone was just too busy with the movies...

At the end, nothing bad happened on friday the 13th, but little did I know that bad luck also had time zone difference, and it already caught up with me on the next day ... and to make the matter worse the friday 13th black cat caught up with me in the middle of the desert and that was another story to be told...