Waking Up
My flight left at 2pm, requiring me to be at the airport roughly around noon. The morning started off with breakfast with my mom, than we took care of the errands. Post office (mail last minute stuff), Gander Mountain (for a water bottle), my mom's shop (had some IT stuff to do) and off to the airport we were. I checked in the night prior and did not plan on checking bags, so I figured 90 minutes was enough. To my dismay, my ticket was not flagged as a known traveler. As I'd find out at the airport, preferred traveler (TSA Pre) is completely unavailable at ORD's international terminal. To the regular line I go. The good thing was the line was very short, unlike with the other terminals.
Flight
The flight was delayed, but only for 15 minutes. The night earlier I was talking with a friend in Hong Kong and he invited me to stay with him. Initially I planned on staying in a hostel. I ran the location by him and he pushed me to stay with him - apparently the building is known for being...uh, rough. He offered to pick me up at the train station which connects to the airport. So lodging was squared away.
As I mentioned before, the flight was almost 16 hours. I'd leave Chicago at 2pm Monday and arrive in Hong Kong on 8pm on Tuesday. Hong Kong is 13 hours ahead of Chicago - so effectively a day disappears. I had window seats booked for all legs of the flight. Cathay Pacific flies the 777 between Chicago and Bangkok, not the 747 I so very much love. In any case, the flight was comfortable. Or at least as comfortable as a 16 hour flight can be. I saw next to a kid, maybe 15, and his mother had the aisle. They were en route to the Philippines. They were pretty nice, but the kid was coughing a lot and whipped out a bottle of cold medicine half way through the flight. Each seat had an entertainment console filled with recent movies (some still not available on DVD) and TV. The TV had a USB port on it and a unique power outlet that was useless to me. I had also downloaded some movies to my iPad. I made it through one movie and watched some TV (breaking bad). I managed to get about 2-3 hours of sleep, but that was it. I also managed to get some reading in about Hong Kong and Thailand. I picked up an inflatable U shaped travel pillow and it worked quite well for supporting my head when I leaned against the window.
The food was pretty good. We were served several rounds of drinks and a meal. The pasta was pretty tasty. I was sporadically watching the progress of the flight on the moving map. Wonder which direction the flight took to Hong Kong? I thought the flight would either go west or east - I wasn't sure which direction was closer. Well, to my surprise the flight went north. It took me about 30 seconds to remember the world was round and going north over the poles was, I assume, the shortest distance.
All in all, the longest flight out of Chicago really isn't too bad with Cathay Pacific.
I was able to get somewhere between 1.5-3 hours of sleep, roughly right before the flight landed.
Tomorrow
Tomorrow, Tuesday night, would be my first day in Hong Kong. I'd have until late afternoon on Thursday to experience Hong Kong. Since I only had about 48 total hours in Hong Kong, jet lag would have to wait.
My flight left at 2pm, requiring me to be at the airport roughly around noon. The morning started off with breakfast with my mom, than we took care of the errands. Post office (mail last minute stuff), Gander Mountain (for a water bottle), my mom's shop (had some IT stuff to do) and off to the airport we were. I checked in the night prior and did not plan on checking bags, so I figured 90 minutes was enough. To my dismay, my ticket was not flagged as a known traveler. As I'd find out at the airport, preferred traveler (TSA Pre) is completely unavailable at ORD's international terminal. To the regular line I go. The good thing was the line was very short, unlike with the other terminals.
Flight
The flight was delayed, but only for 15 minutes. The night earlier I was talking with a friend in Hong Kong and he invited me to stay with him. Initially I planned on staying in a hostel. I ran the location by him and he pushed me to stay with him - apparently the building is known for being...uh, rough. He offered to pick me up at the train station which connects to the airport. So lodging was squared away.
As I mentioned before, the flight was almost 16 hours. I'd leave Chicago at 2pm Monday and arrive in Hong Kong on 8pm on Tuesday. Hong Kong is 13 hours ahead of Chicago - so effectively a day disappears. I had window seats booked for all legs of the flight. Cathay Pacific flies the 777 between Chicago and Bangkok, not the 747 I so very much love. In any case, the flight was comfortable. Or at least as comfortable as a 16 hour flight can be. I saw next to a kid, maybe 15, and his mother had the aisle. They were en route to the Philippines. They were pretty nice, but the kid was coughing a lot and whipped out a bottle of cold medicine half way through the flight. Each seat had an entertainment console filled with recent movies (some still not available on DVD) and TV. The TV had a USB port on it and a unique power outlet that was useless to me. I had also downloaded some movies to my iPad. I made it through one movie and watched some TV (breaking bad). I managed to get about 2-3 hours of sleep, but that was it. I also managed to get some reading in about Hong Kong and Thailand. I picked up an inflatable U shaped travel pillow and it worked quite well for supporting my head when I leaned against the window.
The food was pretty good. We were served several rounds of drinks and a meal. The pasta was pretty tasty. I was sporadically watching the progress of the flight on the moving map. Wonder which direction the flight took to Hong Kong? I thought the flight would either go west or east - I wasn't sure which direction was closer. Well, to my surprise the flight went north. It took me about 30 seconds to remember the world was round and going north over the poles was, I assume, the shortest distance.
All in all, the longest flight out of Chicago really isn't too bad with Cathay Pacific.
Love the water bottle hook!
Somewhere over Siberia
Tomorrow
Tomorrow, Tuesday night, would be my first day in Hong Kong. I'd have until late afternoon on Thursday to experience Hong Kong. Since I only had about 48 total hours in Hong Kong, jet lag would have to wait.
You didn't seem too eager to be on that 16-hour flight, Chris. At least the airline was overall pretty satisfying and equipped with good food. I'm sure you were thoroughly happy about that. Hahaha! Anyway, I hope the movies you downloaded helped make the flight seem shorter. All the best to you! :)
ReplyDeleteErick Brooks @ Ripple Web