Sarah back with your blogging reading. Not much to report though. Alan may not even have a comment to make.
We did very little this morning other than sit around the hotel before we checked out at 11.30am and made our way to the airport. It took about 40 minutes and cost a whopping HK$240 (about A$30) which was a lot less than the 2 minute ride we had from the port terminal to the hotel.
Check in was easy as there was no one there but, unfortunately, she still couldn’t put us seated together.
Lunch we went to the Spaghetti House inside the airport terminal which was really good.
The plane was late taking off due to it’s late arrival in. When we got on there was someone sitting in my seat and someone sitting in Alan’s seat but as they all knew each other, we let them stay put and we were able to then sit together; Alan in the middle and me on the aisle.
We hadn’t appreciated that we would actually get fed on the flight. It came in a cute little box with two tiny sandwiches, a packet of really spicy peanuts, a chicken salad, a small cake and a water. Plus we got another drink. Really really impressed with the food.
We arrived only 5 minutes late after leaving 30 minutes late which was great. Everyone on the plane went to the toilets which meant we walked straight up to immigration and were through before the hoards arrived. However, then they descended on the baggage claim, not caring who they ran into or whether they blocked the passage to leave. We thought they were bad on the plane, unable to obey any regulations like putting your seat up, turning off electrical equipment and remaining seated when the seatbelt sign was on. In fact, as soon as it would go on, half a dozen people would get up. We couldn’t count either, how many people kept walking past the curtain into business class, only to be turned around again.
Our tour guide we had booked for pick up, our tour tomorrow and dropping back to the airport tomorrow, was about 3 minutes late to pick us up but that was okay.
She walked us to the van and driver. Seems like they have never used this van before because no one could work out how to use the seatbelts in the back. There will be some changes of seats tomorrow to make sure we have working seatbelts, especially the way our driver drives and everyone else drives. It is truly frightening. The drivers here are just as bad, or maybe worse, than in Vietnam. I’m sure there are road rules here, but absolutely nobody obeys them.
The pollution is bad, really brown and really thick. You could even see it in the airport terminal. Thankfully, we are here only one night and tomorrow we will see the glorious Terracotta Warriors; something I’ve wanted to see forever. The pollution really is unbelievable. I don’t know if maybe it was just extra bad today, we’ll see how it is tomorrow. I’ve been to San Pedro in California, reputedly the most polluted city in the world, and this place blows it out of the water.
The hotel is the Grand Mercure and is on Renmin Square which is bordered by two other hotels. Thank god for that, as no one wanted to leave the area on our own. Way too dangerous on the roads. We have no clue if we’re in a safe area of the city either, so a late night stroll probably wouldn’t be a wonderful idea. After so much lunch and plane food, we ended up with room service tonight. The hotel upgraded us to a King Room each so, for the first time since this trip, we have a room to ourselves. As much as we love Dad, it is nice to have a bit of space. The bed is huge and I’m looking forward to stretching out after being in a single bed for the past 3 weeks. We’ve actually got 2 double beds put together to form one super duper king size bed. So much room!
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