I didn't think the first day would be very eventful, but it became a bit more stressful than I hoped so maybe there's a story in it.
I had to get up at 4:30am for an early flight to Hong Kong and then on to Beijing with Cathay Pacific, to arrive at 8:30pm. The first flight was nine hours which I was worried about, given the various back and leg pains I get on long flights, but surprisingly this was the most comfortable I can remember being in recent years. The Cathay Pacific economy class was quite good too:
I had a ninety minute changeover in Hong Kong, so I just found the gate and went straight there. Strangely the gate was deserted, but I didn't think much of it at the time. When nobody had still turned up for a while I had another look at the departure board - the gate hadn't changed but my flight was the only one without anything in the "status" column - such as "on time", "delayed", "boarding" etc.
As the time for the flight got closer I was getting a little worried, so I grabbed a Cathay Pacific woman from another gate and asked what was going on. She searched through her computer and initially said instead of 5:00pm it would be 5:30am - what !? I asked her to double check that, and another woman got involved, who assured me that I would be getting out of there today, however I had to go over to their help desk to find out more. The help desk was miles away, about a fifteen minute walk to the other end of the airport - not a great layout in Hong Kong.
When I got to the help desk there was a bit of chaos and I was eventually told there are delays in the China airspace for some reason unrelated to weather, but I got on a flight a half hour later at 5:30pm. I have no idea why my cancelled flight was still showing up on the board, it was all really badly managed, but I was just happy to be getting out of there with only a half hour delay...
The boarding was a bit delayed so it was more like a 6:00pm flight, only as soon as everyone was seated we were told we'd be stuck on the runway for an hour...which then became ninety minutes. I was now a bit concerned that:
We finally got going, but also due to the plane change I didn't get a vegetarian meal, so I just had to eat around some fish, but everything else was edible. Once we landed I had to get some currency changed over which took forever, even though it was only like $50 worth of Malaysian and New Zealand currency. By the time I found the airport bus and train stations they had both closed down for the night some time ago, so I went and got some more money from the ATM for the taxi trip I hoped I would never need to take.
I jumped into the taxi queue which wasn't too long, and the attendants directed me to an empty taxi. I showed the driver the hotel address and a map with some directions from the closest train station, but the guy just looked blankly at it. I called not one but two attendants over to help out, but none of them seemed to be understanding much. I gave up with this taxi guy and said I'd wait for another one. The second taxi guy was no better, and the attendants were quite non-committal about helping out either, they kept getting distracted and wandering off and I had to keep calling them back over. Eventually a taxi from the third batch of cars had a driver that, the attendants assured me, knew where he was going despite not speaking any English either. So I decided to give it a try and jumped in, turning on my Galaxy tablet and hoping to get a GPS signal to follow along the ride. It took a while but the GPS acquired a location, and with the offline map of Beijing I had downloaded I was able to follow along and see we were going in the right direction and making the correct turns.
After about half an hour I made it to the hotel, the taxi costing about $15, arriving at about 12:30am local time or 2:30am Australian time - a very long day.
First thoughts about the hotel:
I had to get up at 4:30am for an early flight to Hong Kong and then on to Beijing with Cathay Pacific, to arrive at 8:30pm. The first flight was nine hours which I was worried about, given the various back and leg pains I get on long flights, but surprisingly this was the most comfortable I can remember being in recent years. The Cathay Pacific economy class was quite good too:
- Breakfast was alright - a cheese omellete
- Lunch was good - a vegetarian pasta and ice cream bar
- It did take a very long time to clear the meals though
- Particularly since I got my vegetarian "lacto ovo" meal earlier than everyone else
- Heaps of entertainment options - new movies and full seasons of TV shows
- I watched Million Dollar Arm, 6 out of 10
- I also watched the first season of The Office UK just to pass the time
I had a ninety minute changeover in Hong Kong, so I just found the gate and went straight there. Strangely the gate was deserted, but I didn't think much of it at the time. When nobody had still turned up for a while I had another look at the departure board - the gate hadn't changed but my flight was the only one without anything in the "status" column - such as "on time", "delayed", "boarding" etc.
As the time for the flight got closer I was getting a little worried, so I grabbed a Cathay Pacific woman from another gate and asked what was going on. She searched through her computer and initially said instead of 5:00pm it would be 5:30am - what !? I asked her to double check that, and another woman got involved, who assured me that I would be getting out of there today, however I had to go over to their help desk to find out more. The help desk was miles away, about a fifteen minute walk to the other end of the airport - not a great layout in Hong Kong.
When I got to the help desk there was a bit of chaos and I was eventually told there are delays in the China airspace for some reason unrelated to weather, but I got on a flight a half hour later at 5:30pm. I have no idea why my cancelled flight was still showing up on the board, it was all really badly managed, but I was just happy to be getting out of there with only a half hour delay...
The boarding was a bit delayed so it was more like a 6:00pm flight, only as soon as everyone was seated we were told we'd be stuck on the runway for an hour...which then became ninety minutes. I was now a bit concerned that:
- All of my plans for public transport from Beijing airport would be ruined
- With this late plane change, would my luggage turn up at the end ?
We finally got going, but also due to the plane change I didn't get a vegetarian meal, so I just had to eat around some fish, but everything else was edible. Once we landed I had to get some currency changed over which took forever, even though it was only like $50 worth of Malaysian and New Zealand currency. By the time I found the airport bus and train stations they had both closed down for the night some time ago, so I went and got some more money from the ATM for the taxi trip I hoped I would never need to take.
I jumped into the taxi queue which wasn't too long, and the attendants directed me to an empty taxi. I showed the driver the hotel address and a map with some directions from the closest train station, but the guy just looked blankly at it. I called not one but two attendants over to help out, but none of them seemed to be understanding much. I gave up with this taxi guy and said I'd wait for another one. The second taxi guy was no better, and the attendants were quite non-committal about helping out either, they kept getting distracted and wandering off and I had to keep calling them back over. Eventually a taxi from the third batch of cars had a driver that, the attendants assured me, knew where he was going despite not speaking any English either. So I decided to give it a try and jumped in, turning on my Galaxy tablet and hoping to get a GPS signal to follow along the ride. It took a while but the GPS acquired a location, and with the offline map of Beijing I had downloaded I was able to follow along and see we were going in the right direction and making the correct turns.
After about half an hour I made it to the hotel, the taxi costing about $15, arriving at about 12:30am local time or 2:30am Australian time - a very long day.
First thoughts about the hotel:
- Pretty spacious room
- No fridge
- Analog ticking clock - who wants one of those in a bedroom !?
- Didn't notice any supermarket or fast food towards the end of the taxi ride
- The pillow marked "soft" is like a bag of cement, the one marked "firm" is wanted for questioning in a series of homicides
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