What a long day....

Hi Everyone...

After a long few days I'm now sitting in my hotel room in Kowloon overlooking Hong Kong island drinking an icey cold can of Coke.... From my room I have a view of the harbour and Hong Kong Island. As you can see from the picture to the left it was really steamy here today so I couldn't see too much! Now at midnight local time it is much clearer and I can see heaps of lights... its quite an eye opening.

I'll write more about Hong Kong later but for now I just wanted to give a brief discription of my flight... I woke up at 7am yesterday morning and grabbed Charlie to give her one last cuddle (Charlie is my cat for those that don't know). I then got up, did a bit more housework and played a bit more with Charlie. At 8.30 mum came past to pick me up and we were at the airport at 9.00am just before the big rush. I got called up to the "First Class" counter and said seeing as I was there I thought I'd ask if there was any chance for an upgrade to first? Unfortunately I was informed that the flight was full and all seating had been already allocated. Thankfully I got a great window seat.

As the flight was going via Melbourne to pick up more passengers we had a short hop before the main part of the trip. The flight was just over 12 and a half hours all up but if you include traveling time, customs and waiting for the plane/busses it was a very long day.... 18 hours all up. It was an interesting trip, I sat next to an older lady who "was going to complain to her travel agent about going via Melb" amongst other things... She was a bit of a complainer. It was interesting though sitting in the waiting rooms... one image that sticks in my mind is one girl with tears running as she read what looked to be a letter from some friends that also came with a photo album. I couldn't help but look through the room and wonder what some of the other 101 stories of the people in that room would be.

The food was great.... but I had to chuckle when I saw that a Cornish Pasty was an option for dinner (having spent a lot of time in Kadina, part of S.A.'s Cornish region). We also had a great Flight attendent who sounded very Australian when he spoke English...

For those that haven't been to Hong Kongs new airport try to get there if you ever can... its an amazing place. The Airport is so large that the have installed an automatic train system that ferrys passengers from the furtherest gates back into the baggage and customs area. The baggage department itself was huge... I'm sorry to say but the baggage hall alone puts my home town airport of Adelaide to shame.

I spent most of the trip from the airport to my motel with my jaw droped.... I just couldn't believe what I was seeing.... so many tall appartment blocks, so many lights... and that was just over near the airport... when I got closer to the centre of Hong Kong my jaw just droped even more. I have taken quite a few pictures that I will try upload sometime.

After such a long day I just crashed when I got in to my Hotel room... I really wanted a shower but I just couldn't stand up. I have however had 3 showers today though due to the humidity... today was 32 degrees with 80% humidity at around 3 this afternoon. I have been drinking heaps but due to the amount of walking I did today I still felt a bit dizzy at times so I took it easy this evening....

Well I will leave it at that for now... I will write more about today and my impressions of Hong Kong tommorow as right now... I just want to sleep!

I trust every one is well...