Day 12: Business Class

Since our flight to Beijing was at 5:00pm today, and we had been so busy over the last few weeks, Greg and I decided to not do much today, but rather relax before going off to Beijing.  After sleeping “late” (9:30am), I went to breakfast and then Skyped with my mom, who was anxious to hear from me, as I could not Skype from Nepal.  During the call, I got to see my new room, which was completely cleared out, repainted, and refurnished, all within two weeks of my departure.   I guess she was glad to see me go…

Before checking out of the hotel, we did go walk around the city near the hotel.  Much like yesterday, I saw many shops and markets.  Unlike yesterday, there were several food markets, selling fruits, vegetables, and most interestingly, meat, which was hung from stalls in the open air, and cut on demand by the shopkeepers.  It didn’t smell that great around there.

A market in Hong Kong. Need some underwear?

We checked out of the hotel after we got back from our little tour and headed for the airport express train.  Hong Kong has a very efficient and interesting set up for getting to the airport.  Since the airport is several miles outside of the city, and taking a taxi can be expensive and time consuming, they have built an airport express train.  The train stations are in the middle of town, and at the station you can check your baggage and get your boarding passes.  We did this, and then after a fifteen minute train ride, which only had two other stops, we were at the airport.

The girl at the end was taking surveys, and had Greg take one.

The Hong Kong airport is huge.  In fact, Terminal 1, the main terminal, is one of the ten largest buildings in the world.  The check in area alone must be 300 yards wide.  Luckily, we were already checked in, so we headed straight through to security.  Everything in the airport is highly efficient, so we got through both security and immigrations very quickly.  We spent a bit of time looking around the entire mall worth of stores they have, and then spent about an hour in the lounge, surfing the net and getting some food before the flight.

This is just the check in area.

Wing one of three for gates.

When we got to the gate to board the plane, Greg was given a free upgrade to business class.  Being awesome, he offered to switch tickets with me, since I had never flown first or business class.  For the next two and a half hours, I got to be addressed as “Mr. Horrell” and experience comfortable flying.  The seat I was in was awesome, leaning completely back and coming with a footrest.  Furthermore, the food was served on real china and actually edible, which was a very nice bonus.  If I had one of these seats when I flew from Chicago to Delhi, I would have been in heaven.

In Beijing, arrival was smooth, if slow.  We got through immigrations quickly, but had to wait a while for our bags.  Getting a taxi took the longest, as the line was about 100 yards long, and took about an hour to get through.  We finally got a taxi and headed to the hotel.  I haven’t gotten to see the city, as the hotel is a ways outside of the city and it is now time for bed.  I won’t be getting on Facebook on this leg, as it and many other sites are blocked by the Great Firewall of China.  Hopefully they won’t block my blog…  At any rate, tomorrow morning we get up early and head off the the real, physical, Great Wall of China.

It is my understanding that the Beijing airport is even larger than the Hong Kong airport.