Australia 2007

Thursday, November 29 – Hong Kong to San Francisco

Today we had planned on sleeping in and getting a later start, as this is going to be a long one. Checkout time at the hotel is noon, and our flight doesn’t leave until 22:35.

We had our breakfast and then went up to the rooftop fitness room and outdoor pool to check out the view of the harbor and take some pictures.

"Harbor Plaza rooftop pool overlooking Victoria Harbor"

"Bob sitting at rooftop terrace on our hotel roof - Harbor Plaza Hong Kong"

Afterward we went back to the room to pack and organize for the flight. I also had the internet until 11:00 so got caught up on the blog from yesterday. It was around noon when we headed downstairs and checked out, and left our luggage at the Concierge desk until the airport shuttle picks us up at 18:15. We took the hotel shuttle to downtown Kowloon, just behind the Peninsula Hotel at Salisbury Road and Nathan Road. Once we were let off, we walked up Hankow Road to Kowloon Park and then back over to Nathan. Nathan Road is very long with retail shops all the way up both sides. The shops at the south end of the street are very high end like Gucci, Dior, etc., but as you get further north, they become almost like markets. We walked all the way to the Ladies Market which is several miles up the road. Ina had seen a couple things she wanted to buy on our first trip to the market, but wasn’t sure of prices until she had looked around a bit. Once we hit the market, we walked up and down the narrow street and found the shops Ina was looking for. We bought a number of “bargain” items and then took a cab back to the Peninsula and the hotel shuttle stop. The shuttle took us back to the Harbor Plaza where we decided to walk around and take a few pictures and have a late lunch.

"Harbor Plaza lobby fountain and staircase"

It was around 16:00 and we weren’t sure when we would be fed on the flight. The route we took to find some lunch was behind a row of large high-rise apartments where we had seen lots of clothes hanging off windows to dry. Ina had been calling this the “Chinese laundry”, and she wanted a picture of one.

"chinese laundry hanging from windows on large hi-rise apartment building"

After getting her pictures we walked to the Outback restaurant, but they didn’t open until 17:00 so walked across the street to Pizza Hut. The menu was different from what we are used to at home, but managed to order a Hawaiian Pizza, which was very good, with nice thick crust. After we ate, we walked back to the hotel and hung around the lobby until around 18:00. They brought our luggage up and we used the washroom to freshen up and change our shirts before the shuttle arrived.

By the time we got on the shuttle, it was dark outside and we drove to the airport through all the Hong Kong night lights. Last night I went on line to do a check-in and get our seats selected for tonight’s flight, so check-in was quite easy. We ended up getting to the airport before the gates opened for our flight, so we wandered around the shops and Ina bought a book to read. Once the gates opened, we walked through in about 10 minutes. After we checked in, we walked down to our gate, which seemed like the farthest gate in the airport. When we got to the gate we hunkered down to wait. The flight was finally boarded and wasn’t full at all. There were lots of empty seats, but Ina and I had picked seats in row 63 where they only had 2 seats on either side of the centre row of 4 seats. We did this because we knew that it was an eleven hour flight and this way we wouldn’t be disturbing anyone else if we got up to walk around or use the restrooms. Because of the lateness of the flight, most people slept between meals anyway. Ina slept a lot of the way and I slept and watched several movies. The selection had already changed to the December lineup, so we had different movies to watch than what was available on our other flights. I watched all three of the Bourne movies.

We finally arrived at San Francisco 11 hours later and right on time. The flight had been bumpy quite a bit during the flight and Ina was not happy about that. She said that she doesn’t want to take a flying vacation for a few years, and suggested she might take the bus home from San Francisco, to which I replied “OK, I’ll see you in about a week!!”. It seemed to take forever to get through customs, although there were only two international flights arriving at that time. Most of the people on our flight had to provide finger prints and have their photos taken, which really slowed things down. When it came our turn, they checked our passports and waved us through. In Hong Kong we had packed only what we needed for the night in SF into a small bag so we could check our main luggage at the airport for the night. With only our backpacks and small bag, we got out to the hotel shuttle area and waited for the hotel shuttle. It was cooler than what we have experience for the past 11 weeks, and we had to rug up a bit. The shuttle came and it took only a few minutes to get to the Comfort Suites Airport, and we got there around 19:00 local time on the 29th, about 3 hours before we left Hong Kong….ha! ha! Ha!

When we checked in, we found that they provided free Wi-Fi access and a free continental breakfast in the morning. After getting settled in, I walked about 3 blocks to a gas station store to get some water, Gatorade, and snacks. I then checked for email messages and watched sports news until turning in around 21:30, ending a long 28 hour day.