On our way in a different direction
Departure day arrived!
You might recall that I had worked out that laundry could be a bit of problem in Hong Kong and that I had planned to take much more clothes than I would normally take on holiday. Despite that, I still managed to pack our clothes into two suitcases. The dark blue bag contained clothes for Disney (the first 3 4 days) and the red bag holds our clothes for Hong Kong. The carry-ons completed our luggage for this trip.
We had a 3 pm flight out, which meant that we could have a leisurely early morning without too much rushing. We would only need to swing by on-route to the airport to pick up my parents.
Thankfully, the morning panned out as planned and despite having four additional bags to add to our luggage, everything fitted into the boot or trunk of the car.
And because we were so early, we even beat the Qantas ground staff to the counter. They were not yet opened for check-in when we arrived. That left us time for lunch. My parents were intent on eating Asian, but I convinced them otherwise. This was my lunch
.
I didnt know it at the time, but it was to be my last focaccia and roast beef for the next fortnight. In hindsight, it was a good thing that I made everyone eat something similar than head to the noodle bar.
Check in was a breeze as I had checked us all in on-line last night. So, it really was just to check the bags and then head in past security and immigration. We had plenty of time to look at the duty-free, which as ever seemed expensive to me.
Our plane
.
was on time but it was a full flight.
What would we do without in-flight entertainment (and not necessarily of the electronic kind)?
The flight, despite being uneventful, was interesting. The caravan of life on-board gave me hours of entertainment.
There was a party of 9 on-board
and they were joyously
loud. Entertaining at times and nothing that a headset couldnt fix. We were to see them at the
Disneyland Resort and I was really glad that they had rooms in the opposite direction to where our rooms were.
The babys cry
A man hitting on a girl, spent the majority of the flight standing over her chair
.with his bahookie in my face! Headsets could not fix this at all!
Another man, not aging well, stands up and exposes his builders crack and hair to half the passengers. What is it about aging males and their need to fit into jeans two sizes too small for them?
And always
.the constant ebb and flow of 15 or so passengers
unable to sit still.
Where would we be without in-flight entertainment?
Our flight path took us straight up the middle of Australia, near Uluru, past Darwin, over the Timor Sea, slightly left of Manila and then straight through to Hong Kong. It was very uneventful and thankfully took about 8.5 hours to complete; much less than the estimated 9.5 hours listed.
I missed seeing the Pacific Ocean but this was the start of a different adventure.
A train took us from our gate/terminal to the main complex. It was most efficient and seems to run a service every 3 minutes, even at 9 pm at night.
I was impressed by the cleanliness.
It took us about an hour to clear immigration in Hong Kong airport. The (relatively new) Hong Kong airport is located on Lantau Island, where Disney is. Based on my research, I had figured the best way for us to get to the Disney resort was by taxi. My only concern was whether we would fit in one taxi or whether we would need two. I asked at the information desk and the kind man assured me that all 5 of us would fit.
And so it was
the 5 of us and all our bags piled into one taxi and made our way to the Disney resort; all of 10 minutes away. I was too tired to take a picture that night but in order to secure our bags, the driver used bungy rope to hold the trunk/boot door down.
For those interested, there are about two or three different coloured taxis in Hong Kong. The one servicing Lantau Island is green.
The cost for the ride ended up at HK$126. Roughly $18 for the 5 of us.
We were now at Disney!
)
Fatt Chans of that happening!
