If we were meant to stay in one place we’d have roots instead of these damn sore feet… Livonne

Well, the day finally arrived. Almost 10 months after being offered a residency in a majestic chateau in France, we were on our way. I was thrilled when my good friend Cecile said she would come with me on this exciting trip. We have travelled together before when we went to China almost 12 years ago. We’ve done other domestic trips too but this is our second overseas soujourn together. So we are spending two weeks in London, Scotland and Ireland then heading to the residency in France and spending the last few days of the trip in Paris where we will celebrate what would have been my angel daughter’s 40th birthday. Bigger than Ben Hur you say? Of course but deciding to live dangerously, we decided we added a daytrip in amongst it all.

Now, I have always wanted to see Hong Kong. As a young high school student, I signed up for international penpals and got quite a few. Lena from Sweden was my first and thanks to Facebook, we are back in touch again all these years later. I also had two penpals from Hong Kong, Patrick and Philip, both with the same surnames but not related. I will eventually get to Sweden to see Lena and her family again but this time we just had too much happening to be able to fit it in. But as the flight to London changed at Hong Kong anyway, I chose the flight with an eight hour layover so I could at least go take a quick harbour cruise on Victoria Harbour.

So this morning, we were awake by 3am and left home around 4am to get to the Sydney airport. I am so grateful to my son and daughter in law for waking up at stupid o’clock on a Sunday morning to get us there so early. We got to Sydney airport bright and early and went straight to drop our bags off after doing a bit of the luggage shuffle to make sure we were under our luggage limits. After that bit of stress, we went through customs and then had some breakfast while we waited to board. At the appointed time we were ready to take our seats. It was a full flight with Cathay Pacific (hence the Hong Kong leg of the trip) but considering all that we were boarded and settled in no time at all and took off exactly on time, bound for Hong Kong.

I did some research on economy flights to Europe and Cathay seemed to come up trumps in every review or survey, so I went with them. I’m glad I did.. They certainly lived up to their reviews. From the no nonsense efficiency of boarding, to the comfort of the plane and to the food, I was impressed. It seemed that we were in the air moments after boarding though I ‘m sure it was longer. It was a slightly older plane so the headrests didn’t live up to the comfort they spruiked but there was definitely more leg room and other benefits than other airlines I’ve travelled with. We flew out of a misty, miserable Sydney and as soon as we were above the clouds, the sun burned it’s way through the windows and was so hot and blindingly bright that nearly every shutter on the plane came down which meant we travelled in artificial light the whole way to Hong Kong.

Not long after we were in the air, our meals came out. Breakfast included yoghurt, a fruit bowl, juice, coffee/tea, a frittata with egg, bacon, spinach and tomato, a delicious bread roll, still warm, with butter and jam. Way too much for us, but we did a fair job of it anyway. We both settled back to rest a bit and turned the entertainment on. The ads annoyed me until I realised you could skip them. I still think they are unnecessary since they are spruiking the benefits of Cathay that I was already traveling on, so I skipped them everytime.

Having only had 2 hours sleep the night before, I was too tired to concentrate fully on anything that needed brain cells, so I watched Mamma Mia instead. Colin Firth in lycra? Yes please. It doesn’t need brain cells because my heart and hormones deal with every emotion needed lol. I dozed on and off throughout the movie while Cecile read. I called for a few cold drinks throughout the flight and staff were lovely and very attentive. A few hours later, they delivered a packet of diet peanuts out to everyone. Diet peanuts because the packs used up more calories trying to open the damn things than you gained in consumption. Still, they were good and not long afterwards, we had lunch delivered. I had the roast chicken in garlic sauce with mashed potatoes and mixed vegetables. Cecile had the pork dish. All the meals were served with a starter of prawns with potato salad, a bread roll and cheese and crackers. It was absolutely delightful.

We arrived in Hong Kong at approximately 3.15 their time and made our way through customs. We didn’t need a visa to go out for a day trip which was great, so we asked an information kiosk how to get to Victoria Harbour. She gave us a map and told us to take a number A21 bus and get off at Tsim ShaTsui station. So off we went. Remember here, we are two 60 something women that aren’t at peak fitness if we’re being honest with ourselves, and we had just sat for almost 10 hours, so our bodies were feeling a bit sore and sorry for themselves as it was. We finally found our way to the right bus and got on board, tapped our cards to get our ticket. Hong Kong dollars freak me out because everything seems so expensive till you realise that 4HKD is equivalent to 1AUD so it is actually quite cheap. Anyway, we rode the bus for what we thought was an absurdly long time. We were surprised how big Hong Kong actually is. `We both wrongly assumed it was quite small.. So we saw lots of Hong Kong as we bounced around on the bus. Finally after about an hour, the bus terminated and not at the station we were looking for. UH Oh!! The lovely bus driver showed us the way to the station that we had been told to go to. Bonus.

On arriving at the station that would connect us, we thought taking a cab might be easier but they don’t take credit card and we had no HKD on us, so we had to continue with the train idea. We finally found out how to get through with the help of a customer service representative and headed towards the right platform. It was a damn long walk and we were both starting to wilt but we kept going. Upon reaching our destination of East Tsim Sha Tsui we had to walk a fair distance to Tsim Sha Tsui.. We had finally got there but there was another long walk to the Star Ferry and we had to ask the help of people along the way. We eventually made it to the ferry and boarded, ready to have a look around. Before I had time to say Oh look at that, we had reached our destination and then had another long walk to get to Hong Kong station to catch the airport express back for our next flight. By this time it was around 7pm and we were just wrecked. My feet were clad in the shoes I wore for flying, not the walking shoes I had packed so my toes were screaming at me, as were Cecile’s. We boarded the airport express and had a beautiful 24 minutes of being off our feet on a great, clean and fast train back to the airport.

While it would have been quicker if we’d taken that in the first place, we wouldn’t have seen as much of Hong Kong as we did, though we may have been able to take a longer cruise around the harbour. Still we got photos just on sunset and we had seen more than we expected to of Hong Kong. Back at the airport, we slowly limped to our boarding gate and just sat there for over two hours, charging our phones and resting. By the time we boarded, it was almost 11pm but Australian time it wa s 2am next day. Too much for these old chickens. We got into our seats and basically were asleep as soon as the plane was in the air. They came around to deliver bottles of water and menus and we knew nothing of that.

I think we woke up about an hour and a half after taking off when they served a meal. We didn’t really feel like eating but we knew we would be hungry later on if we didn’t. We both wanted the pork dish, but they ran out so I chose the fusilli pasta with lobster sauce and I have to say it was beautiful. Chunks of lobster and prawns throughout, it was really tasty. Again, lots of other stuff served with it and we were certainly filled up. We dozed on and off all night really but by that time, we were both fed up with being cramped in the seat. That is the downside of long distance travel. About an hour before landing this morning, we had a huge breakfast of scrambled eggs, sausage, baked beans, tomatoes and roast potatoes. It was accompanied by yoghurt, fresh fruit, bread roll, jam and juice. More than anyone needed but it was delicious so it was all eaten up.

Breakfast cleared and we were getting ready to land at London Heathrow Airport. Last time I went through there it was pretty confronting to be honest. Customs staff were quite rude and interrogative but this time, with all the digital id’s, we were through without speaking to anyone at all. Easier to get through but I’m not sure how progressive it is safety wise. We sat down to have a cuppa while I prepared to phone the hotel to see if we could get an early check in. But more about that tomorrow… For now, some phone photos as I haven’t downloaded anything from my camera and I need some rest so won’t until later on.

Happy resting…. Livvy xxx