I woke before 0500 after nearly 7h sleep. I was on the pavement at 0530 walking towards the station and got there a little before it opened. I got the first train to the airport, the 0600 one, and arrived at 0640. Security and immigration was a breeze today and I was having in the lounge in no time.
The Cathay Pacific 777-300 wasn’t very full. I could have got on very easily on standby but I got a very cheap redemption ticket. One can never tell! We left promptly, unlike their previous flight parked next door, which only left about 15 minutes before us.
The flight was short at 1h10 despite the 1h50 scheduled time. It was such luxury to be on a 777 with 9 seats across as they’re often 10 across now. The recline-by-sliding-forward hard-shell seats that I had heard of were actually very comfortable. But I guess if the pitch had been less generous, it would have been a different story, as one loses legroom when reclined. The seats, though old, looked expensive with airbags.
Onboard breakfast consisted of a wrap filled with egg, chicken and dried tomatoes. It was very nicely presented with a box drink and a cookie in a brown paper bag.
Bagged breakfast onboard.
I took the A21 bus to Chung King Mansion. It was less than an hour till the official check-in for the guest house and I decided that rather than go up to leave my bag and come out again for lunch, I should eat first.
But it was a public holiday (replaces China’s and Hong Kong’s national day yesterday). The place was swarming with locals and mainland Chinese and every eatery was full. In the heat and carrying my pack, I didn’t feel like looking any further. I returned to Chung King Mansion and ate at an Indian hole-in-the-wall place. Two vegetarian curries, rice and a tea.
My lunch at Chungking Mansion.
There was only 15 minutes left till official check-in so I queued for the lift to my floor. I waited outside the reception as the check-in times were “strictly” from 1330. But the receptionist saw me through their spy camera and let me in anyway.
After a very brief rest, I ventured out into the heat and the crowd and took the Star Ferry to Wan Chai where I had my standard massage. 1.5x 45 mins, making 65 mins for HKD170.
I returned by Star Ferry to Kowloon and walked to Harbour City. Oh, the humanity! I connected to the wifi to ask my friend Alice if she wanted to cancel in view of the horrendous crowds. There was an hour left till our meeting time. But she messaged saying that she was had already arrived.
We met up and killed some time wandering before having dinner at M&C Duck with his other half, Kam who was also an Inflight Service Manager at Cathay. It was a lovely dinner of Peking Duck with side dishes of sprouts, tasty ribs, chicken-and-cucumber salad in sesame sauce. Their specialty here is a stack of duck skin, jelly and cucumber on a pringle. Divine mix of flavours and texture! And finally, I shared a dessert with Alice of warm partially curdled almond milk.
What a way to end a short visit to Hong Kong. Certainly short but sweet.