A word of warning, all of the pictures will be ones that I took with my iPod. The better pictures will be posted on Facebook like always.
We travelled to Asia with our good friend, Bernie, who will become Aunt B later in the journey, but that is another story. The whole purpose of the trip was to see Meagan in Busan, South Korea, My brother-in-law, Geoff Thompson, who had originally considered going said that if one was to travel that far, they might as well see China, too. And so, the seed was planted.
We have done several Princess Cruises but in the end it really is just a very expensive bus. In 2009, we added days at the beginning of a Mediterranean cruise in Barcelona, and at the end in Rome, and in 2011, we added five days at the end of a cruise through the Panama Canal and explored the Pacific Coast. That made me a travel expert, or at least someone smart enough to use a travel agent. I started with AAA but the person I worked with changed or left. Sound familiar Zach Fisher?? So, we called another friend, Donna Dobbins, and started to hammer out the details, and there were lots of details. I didn't want a tour that took me places where I had to sit through a sales pitch disguised as a demonstration of how a Persian rug is made. In the end, I think it came out the way I wanted, and Donna made sure that that happened.
Air travel is just not glamorous. Although almost every flight was what we had booked, they weren't always ideal. Our first flight was from CLE to SFO, a journey of 2,160 miles. Just practicing for what was to come. We were up at 2 AM and off to get Bernie by 3:15. Heather took us to Hopkins and we were there by four, two hours before departure. A shame that the people who work at the airport weren't there yet.
The flight was smooth and relatively short at five hours. This picture is from that flight.
Arriving at SFO and finding the next gate was easy and we passed time in the United Lounge, a room that was saved only by free wi-fi. Things like announcing that your plane was getting ready to board did not happen.
Boarding a plane brings out the best in some and the worst in others. Our flight was delayed about twenty minutes for an unspecified mechanical problem, and despite announcements in English and Chinese, passengers continued to push toward a closed gate. Passengers with way too much 'carry-on' baggage took up way too much bin space and just shoved their crap in on top of what was already there. One gentleman, who was calm and serene during the flight, managed to piss off the attendants during boarding and deplaning.
Once everything was stowed, we sat on the runway to let Air Force One take off. I have no problem with that as the president, in this case Mr. Obama, has a tough job, and there are plenty of nuts out there. At roughly 2:10 PM, our scheduled 1:09 departure took off for Hong Kong, and we were in the air.
Fourteen hours in the middle seat of the middle section of a Boeing 747 is a long time. A very long time. But it passed with a few cat naps and the newest version of Spiderman and a Fun With Flags rerun of The Big Bang Theory.
Hong Kong is the largest airport I have ever seen. Everything functioned smoothly and we were through Customs and Immigration in no time. Our bags were the last off and mine had been searched in America. This would not be the last time for that, either.
We booked everything in advance. That meant transfers and all that stuff. While I can read a map, I wasn't leaving getting anywhere on time to chance. What I didn't realize then but certainly do now is that airports are quite often over an hour from metropolitan centers and Hong Kong was no different. The hotel was reached easily and somewhere, the 8th of October had become the 9th and three very tired travelers called it quits knowing that there was an early pick up for an all day tour of Macau.
Oh, yeah. In Asia, in many hotels if you don't put the room key in this device, you have no lights.
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