26th of February — All good things must come to an end… time to find my way home!
- The damned snooze button proved too tempting and didn’t haul myself out of bed till 08:30 HKT. Only had about an hour to get wash, ready and all repacked before 卓兒 (Cheuk Yi) was due to come and pick me up with her friend at 10:00 HKT and head to 香港國際機場 (Hong Kong International Airport)
- 卓兒 (Cheuk Yi) arrived on time with her rather unusual friend, as he’s one of the few people in 香港 (Hong Kong) that aren’t stupidly rich, yet still have their own car. Alas it meant he had to be his own chauffeur! Made our journey once again and last time for me this trip, across the 青馬大橋 (Tsing Ma Bridge)… all 1377m of it!
- Once at 香港國際機場 (Hong Kong International Airport), I was completely in awe of the huge arrival and departures hall seeing it in full for the first time, it was then a near painless check-in though I didn’t managed to get window seats once again. :( There was an in-airport Maxims Chinese Restaurant so took the opportunity to have one last 飲茶 (Yum Cha) before I needed to board my flight
- After the food and drink, time was close to 12:30 HKT meaning I had to be off. Said my goodbyes to 卓兒 (Cheuk Yi) and thanked her friend for the two lifts to and from the airport. Once through immigration exiting 香港 (Hong Kong), it was down the escalators and catching the internal train to get me to the West Hall, complete with a WH Smiths! ;)
- Spotted my 747-400 to get me to Frankfurt am Main and taking a look back at the East Hall of Arrivals and Departures. Just thien, I was was greeted by uncle whom was still on duty though took the time to come and wish me a safe journey home. I said I will give them all a phonecall once I’d arrived back in England, if only to give grandmother some piece of mind
- The long-haul flight was rather uneventful though did chat with the gentleman next to me, nothing but politics but he admitted that is very much the case of his native 臺灣 (Taiwan). As conversation went on, it turned out he was travelling with his wife, though as I couldn’t see her, asked where she was and due to the shortage of seats, she was about 6 rows back. Had no rejects regarding his request for a seat swap with his wife and myself and after a bit of musical chairs decided to make good (ab)use of Lufthansa’s FlyNet®, listening to Manderin pop music and blogging from 11 000m above the Earth! ;)
- About 5 hours into the flight, we passed the Himalayas once again. 8 hours later still, we arrived in Frankfurt am Main which was a was a rather cold -12°C and tried to find Gate C06, where I was supposed to board the 737. Once on board, during the pre-takeoff preparations, the poor plane got a good torrent of de-icer! Though given the temperature, it was very likely a good idea! ;)
- The flight back to Birmingham Internation Airport was thankfully trouble-free and just managed to make it out to Birmingham Internation Train Station for the last train home by 5 minutes, though had a little panic as couldn’t get the inter-connecting SkyRail to shut it’s automatic doors and head off! Then it was a short wait for the train home, which did get me back to Northampton exactly on midnight as the timetable said it would!
Arrived home utterly exhausted and just about managed to gather myself to call 香港 (Hong Kong) I’ve arrived back safe and well! Just one day of rest for the wicked (me) before it was time to be straight back at work with little idea how badly the jet-lag will affect me this time round. So that concludes my 3 week journey to 香港 (Hong Kong) and retro-blogged ramblings… till another time I guess! ;)
