Ok, so this picture was technically taken in Vancouver. Shh.
I think I’m officially the furthest away from home I’ve ever been. Wait, how far away from Vancouver is Munich? Hmm. I’ll have to figure that out. Oh well, give me another day, and I’ll definitely be the furthest away from home that I’ve ever been…
We landed in Hong Kong at …7:45pm local time (aka, 4:45am Vancouver time). Strangely, I’m not tired, although I am starving. Also, remind me not to eat things that are basically milk products with a bit of milk product on the side. I just LOVE spending the last three hours of a 13 hour flight with agonizing cramps. That’s my favorite!
I am mildly miffed at the guy who was sitting next to me who was, at the very beginning of the flight, told “Oh, there are plenty of empty seats at the back if you want to move.” And then he didn’t. Gah. It’s possible he didn’t understand her, but … damnit all to hell. I could have used that extra seat. You know how the windows don’t quite line up with the seats? This meant I couldn’t really lean against the wall like I was hoping. Alas.
Still, not a bad flight. I have a bad case of wanting to remember every second of it, from the crappy pasta I was stuck with for lunch, to the quite yummy chicken & rice I had for dinner, to watching “Shrek 3″, “Aladdin” and “Monsters Inc”. To coming into Hong Kong and thinking “Well, if I didn’t know any better, I’d say the stars were BELOW us…” and being completely unable to identify the hundreds (thousands?) of little lights coming out of the black… too far apart to be civilization, and weren’t we over the water anyway? Ah, right — they’re boats. Cool.
There was a lightening storm somewhere over… um … oh hell, I have no idea. Anyway. Seemed to be only a km or so away from us, and was quite neat to watch. I think I got video of it, although I’m not sure how well it will show up.
While taxiing to the gate, I saw an Air Canada plane — I’m pretty sure it was the AC flight to Hong Kong that left an hour before mine. It was nice to see it, like greeting an old friend from home. Considering how completely out of place I feel — I’m not 100% sure it’s the furthest away I’ve been, but it sure is the furthest away culturally — it was kind of nice.
Hong Kong airport is huge. It’s a lot more like a Gigantic Mall than an airport. I have another 3 and a half hours to kill, and I can’t even go to my gate and hang around there because they haven’t assigned my flight a gate yet. Hrm. But I’m liking these free internet kiosks… now if only it would let me connect to gmail. I don’t even mind having to stand — I just sat for 13 hours… standing is good.
Except, I’m hungry, and I could have sworn I saw a Starbucks sign a while back. I may have to hunt that down. And find out what gate I’m at. Plz can have gate?
Next stop… Johannesburg. Hopefully I can find some internet there, too.