Monday, September 04, 2006
1 September 2006
This was a very long day....up at 6am to get ready for 7am check in at the airport for a 9am flight Bali to London via Hong Kong. Only worry this morning was I got to the airport with my 20,000RP departure tax - the only local currency I had left - and found out the departure tax was in fact 100,000RP. Quick trip back out through security to an ATM...
Away on time and had a great seat on the plane - first row of economy window with no-one beside me. 5hrs to Hong Kong in the same time zone. Had less than an hour in HK. Filthy, polluted air and even more developed - if that is possible - than when I was there last in 92. I suppose that is 15 years ago....mmm...oh well can't be fab40 and not have some history...
Left HK 3pm for 13 hour flight to London. Same seat again without neighbour. Thank God! Time zone change meant I arrived in London 9pm on 1/9. And true to form took 2hrs to get through Heathrow immigration/customs. Interestingly no-one even stopped us in quarantine or did a security bag check. What a human 'hot pot' coming through the 'alien' gate. Every colour, language, age, dress, culture. And the only impatient ones were the Sith Efricans and the Yanks.
By the time I got to my Hostel next door to St Pauls Cathedral it was 1am. 26hours on the road and boy was I grubby!
This was a very long day....up at 6am to get ready for 7am check in at the airport for a 9am flight Bali to London via Hong Kong. Only worry this morning was I got to the airport with my 20,000RP departure tax - the only local currency I had left - and found out the departure tax was in fact 100,000RP. Quick trip back out through security to an ATM...
Away on time and had a great seat on the plane - first row of economy window with no-one beside me. 5hrs to Hong Kong in the same time zone. Had less than an hour in HK. Filthy, polluted air and even more developed - if that is possible - than when I was there last in 92. I suppose that is 15 years ago....mmm...oh well can't be fab40 and not have some history...
Left HK 3pm for 13 hour flight to London. Same seat again without neighbour. Thank God! Time zone change meant I arrived in London 9pm on 1/9. And true to form took 2hrs to get through Heathrow immigration/customs. Interestingly no-one even stopped us in quarantine or did a security bag check. What a human 'hot pot' coming through the 'alien' gate. Every colour, language, age, dress, culture. And the only impatient ones were the Sith Efricans and the Yanks.
By the time I got to my Hostel next door to St Pauls Cathedral it was 1am. 26hours on the road and boy was I grubby!
# posted by The Essence of Good Taste @ 2:30 PM 
