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| Breakfast of Champions! |
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| James on a Plane! |
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| What a cockpit! |
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| They need toys like this at Pearson... |
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| Make way for Captain James! |
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| HKIA - looking out for our safety... |
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| "No smoking! But if you do and you happen to catch on fire, go here." |
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| HK International Airport |
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| That phone is too cute! |
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| A cool hanger at HKIA (I think...) |
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| GLaDOS was nowhere to be found... |
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| The Concourse at HKIA |
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| Look who we found! |
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| Mountains are always more exciting when it's foggy out... |
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| Huh? We have to wait HOW long?! |
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| Squishy pillow thing is squishy! |
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| Is this our plane? |
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| Why, yes it is! |
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| James thought breakfast on the plane was okay... |
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| I'm not sure I want this... |
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| Look at your ipod? Why? |
Okay...Asia is a little is a little further than we thought it was. Whoever said that this is a “small world” has obviously never traveled from Toronto to Indonesia. That was a really long trip. And Cathy Pacific did an excellent job keeping us relatively comfortable. For the flight over to HK we managed to snag seats by the emergency door, meaning we actually had some leg room, so that was a plus. And the food was relatively good, for airplane food.
We made friends with the guy sitting next to us (a good thing to do when you’re going to be sitting next to them for the next 15 ½ hours) – a fellow Torontonian who has been teaching in Kuala Lumpor for a number of years. He gave us a few ideas of where to go in Bali, saying that it was one of his favourite places to visit.
Now, it was a fifteen-and-a-half hour flight, so suffice to say, nothing really interesting there, so we’ll just skip on ahead.
We arrived at Hong Kong International Airport around 5:30 am Saturday morning (or 5:30 pm Friday evening, Toronto time). What an amazing airport! It’s absolutely massive! The concourse is full of high-end shops (didn’t get something for the Mrs. on your last business trip? Just hit up the Chanel or the Burberry at the airport...). The food court was pretty cool too! We had a breakfast of Brisket Soup and Congee with a couple cans of Asahi beer (hey! Don’t judge! It was 5:30 pm back home!), it truly was the breakfast of champions.
So after five hours of hanging around the architectural marvel that is the HKIA, we boarded our plane for the last leg of the journey. And now, I’ll let James tell the rest of the story...
We had quite a mix of people with us this time. Most of the people on this flight were from Germany, Austria, and wherever Europe... a few Japanese tourists. Unlike the 15 hour flight, this was packed with no less than 3 different sets of screaming children. And some tourist guide who kept encroaching on Lisa’s space as he slept. But we new it was worth it 4 short hours later when we finally saw mountains breaking the clouds – we had arrived!
Densapar airport is functional. There was a line to buy the visa, and a very long line to go through customs. It wasn’t exciting at all. Outside, we were greeted by our contact from Panarama Tours, who had my Name on a paper. I felt kind of important. However the sign said “Mr/s James Barton Fischer” not sure how the “/s” got in there.
Nusa Dua is a little dirtier than expected. There were quite a few street kids hanging out at intersections, all about 5 or 6 years old, selling something or other. Large areas between buildings were just piles of rubble and debris. There doesn’t seem to be much in the way of road maintenance, or sanity as there are no lanes and everyone just goes wherever, but its collective insanity as everyone merges in and no one gets killed. Everyone honks, but not as a warning to others, but to let you know they’re there. Not a place I would like to drive in EVER!
Scooters, and small vans/trucks make up most of the vehicles seen. I only saw one sports car and it was a Mitsubishi Evo 3 hiding in a back lot. There is certainly a tuner crowd here as people trick out their little Dihatsu trucks with rims and all sorts of things.
We got to the hotel about 5 pm local time, filled out the paper work, and went to our room and crashed hard. We only had the intention of sleeping for an hour or two. We only were disturbed once, by the hotel giving us a very nice piece of cake to celebrate our honeymoon. We didn’t take a photo because we were half asleep, but it was very tasty. When it was gone, we fell back asleep and slept right through until morning.
