Hong Kong 2010 Day 1

251210 1039 local time (GMT +8)
9V-SWG over the South China Sea

Merry Christmas to all, and this is the first time I'm spending Christmas in the sky.

Woke up early this morning at 5:30, then woke Jinjun up (he was staying overnight at my place). Had a quick breakfast and did some last minute packing, then made for Changi Airport.

We met Calvin there, and I saw his parents for the first time. We also ran into Hafiz and chatted a while, before bidding him farewell and clearing immigration.

For once we actually had a bit of time after clearing customs, so we relaxed and took a leisurely walk to A12, where we found a beautiful 777-312ER, 9V-SWG waiting for us.

We boarded and took our seats. Sadly it was impossible for us to get 3 seats together, but we made do with 50A, where I am now, 50B and 35A. I feel quite bad for Calvin though, maybe I should swap with him later?

Takeoff was a bit late at 0846, but the plane made up for the lateness with a typical GE90 start up and takeoff, in short, a tremendous surge of power befitting the most powerful turbofans in the world. We had brunch soon after, I took the char siew noodles while Jinjun had the omelette. The noodles were good, if a little dry, and I enjoyed them. I'm disappointed with the IFE though, two of my staple programs for SQ, Merry Widow and Top Gear, are gone. Oh well, I've always got my own. As is tradition on flights, I'm listening to the Yagisawa trilogy. The difference this time is that now two of the three feature yours truly, and I appreciate having played them.

Just an hour or so out from Hong Kong now, really fast flight.

1405 local time (GMT +8)
Hong Kong International Airport, China

Finally, we've arrived. Landed early at 1155 and taxied over to gate 21, passing by many interesting airliners in the process, and some less so (i.e a Tiger Airways A320).

We did some spotting, then headed for lunch at the good old T2 food court. After dropping our bags off at the lockers and enjoying a good Japanese lunch (pity they ran out of Calpis though), we left the airport by bus. We're now on the way to our favourite MTR station, Tung Chung. Why do I feel a strong sense of Deja vu

2300 local time (GMT +8)
Hong Kong, China

It sure is nice to see all these familiar places again. Basically what we did was go to Citygate so that Jinjun could buy shoes, then head back to the airport to camp. We decided to camp at our old camping ground near the end of the airport. Once there we also realised that we were wearing the same clothes we did on the first day of the first trip. Really Deja vu here.

Eventually the others showed up, and we caught an airport express and a cab to the Rai Lei, where we ran into Yanlong. Dinner was at a KFC, then we walked around for a bit, visiting a Fortress and buying some cool mango drinks and XO conch, before calling it a night.

My memories of the place are still crystal clear... It's good to be back.


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