1st August The big travel day.

After a 4am rush through the house making sure all was unplugged and neat (so we would not be dis appointed by our house after the holiday), we drove down though the bitter cold to airport parking and then by kamikaze bus drive to the airport.

It was great for the boys to see how the customs worked (just like on TV). We poked about the duty free for a while before boarding.

What ever reservations we had about flying were not settled any when we were welcomed on board the plane by Captain Jack Daniels. Apart from that present fright (Cathay pacific attendants always wish you a present fright by the way), the flight to Hong Kong was really smooth and uneventful. The boys enjoyed the food and movies and thought it was great that you could press the attendant button and just ask for a coke... a coke... for free!

Clouds coming into Hong Kong.

Landing in Hong Kong was great, on the new strip built on reclaimed land that we saw a docco on once. What we didn't realize was that upon landing, we had 10 minutes to find the gate for our connecting flight. The doors opened and the humidity hit us and we ran! A muddled conversation with an attendant about which gate, then down escalators, up more, down long corridors, all the time only vaguely confidant we were actually running in the right direction. Time was running out, then we had to queue for a luggage scan, then I got beeped and scanned to the side, then we ran down stairs thinking we would be at the gate but instead, had to catch an electric tram. It arrived in under a minute and, boy, was it fast. We almost fell over with the acceleration.

We reached gate 33 only to see it was empty and had a Korean flight listed. Panic, but short lived as we realized our flight had a gate had changed and it was only the next gate. The whole thing was like a scene out of “Race around the world.”

A dam over Hong Kong.

We got on the flight, all overheated and red like lobsters, fanning ourselves with the emergency exit cards. Another 5 hours and we were in Nagara airport. It was late. We looked for a train but the service had closed and all that was left was a bloody expensive taxi, or a cheaper bus followed by a cheaper taxi ride to the room. The bus took ages and we were stuck in stop start traffic for a long time. Lights passed outside in the dark revealing little of the surroundings, they might have been towers or power lines or lights perched on steep hills. Russell, you would be pleased o know Sakura was playing :).

After about 90 minutes of travel through the dark. We were deposited in a deserted bus terminal where a few taxis waited. None of them could accommodate the five of us so we were forced to take two and hope they knew where we were going. Sharon managed her first line of Japanese and asked how much but was bamboozled but the fluent Japanese answer. So after double the fare, Sharon was taken to the wrong hotel with Ash and Chris and Brad and I waited at the lobby. Eventually Sharron's taxi found its way to us and we paid them and went inside... to find... this was the wrong hotel and Sharron's taxi driver by chance, had it right. (the prince tower hotel VS the prince Sakura hotel). Shit. So we had to lug our suitcases across several blocks to the right hotel. It was now 1:30 am

We got our rooms and found the boys and us separated by 5 floors. We certainly didn't want that and negotiated finally to get, if not adjoining rooms, then at least rooms on the same floor. We got inside, and all pretty much passed out.

The view from our room.

 

Morning and Japanese TV is funny. Swivel sweeper ads remade in Japanese.

Everyone's mad keen on washing their bums here.

End day one.