5 April 2011
Transiting Hong Kong
So, we are going to be back to photos of airline food, planes, airports, airport lounges and other associated boring things.
My first flight, is a 90 minute flight from Taipei to Hong Kong. There were only 10 people on this plane! A boeing 777 that would hold at least 350 people.
This was again perfectly smooth, even though the pilot suggested there would be turbulence.
The lounge in Taipei was also deserted, once you get through security in the dilapidated terminal 1 (which was fast), its actually quite modern, nice and huge. Jets are leaving every 5 minutes to every last part of China and Japan.
Once I arrived in Hong Kong, I had to go through the transfer point, which is another security screening, theres no frequent flyer wanker line here, so I had to line up with the regular people. This was dramatic as a flight had just arrived from Myanmar and the Phillipines, and both groups of people had an amazing amount of crap in not just their bags but pockets, inside their socks, under their hats, wearing 2 coats each etc etc.
There were quite a few people wearing front and back backpacks, carrying a laptop case, for whatever reason they were all carrying brand new laptops inside that white plastic wrap stuff.
I have a 3 hour wait here in Hong Kong, a nice place to wait indeed. The airport is huge, lots of planes to look at, and I have access to lots of lounges.
So now I will bore you with pictures of that!
This is the view out of my hotel window in Taipei. Its great. You can watch planes take off and land on the runway to the left and right of this photo.
This is the first class lounge in Taipei, there were a few people in the business class lounge but none in first. I found it a bit spooky as there were 3 people looking after me, watching me intently.
Heres my Boeing 777.
And this is how packed the forward economy section was. As far as I could tell there was no one in business class at all.
First lounge stop in Hong Kong, the cabin, I specifically went here because I remembered they had fruit salad, and I thought I should have something healthy before cake.
But then they had chocolate donuts as well, so I had that too.
This isnt a first class lounge, so I best move on and spend some more of Qantas's money (they pay Cathay for each lounge entry).
I walked to the very end of the terminal and took a photo. Why? Because I love airports, and I love to find the end of something. So I was pretty excited.
It was very peaceful down here, a few people were stretched out sleeping, small children were playing with toys on the giant capreted area they had all to themselves.
Seated inside the pier first class lounge. The food in here is superb.
I opted to pick and choose from the buffet selections (they have some set meals available as well). I chose everything with meat in it.
Feeling like a fool in front of a few upper class people who are actually probably more of a snob than myself (Im sure this is hard for some of you to believe), I snuck over to the dessert area and took this photo.
Heres what I had for dessert, I think I was pretty restrained? I could have had 20 chocolates if I wanted, but instead I only had 2!