Introduction
Seattle to San Jose
San Jose
San Jose to Narita
Narita to Hong Kong
Hong Kong Part 1
Hong Kong Part 2
Hong Kong Part 3
Hong Kong to Narita
Narita to Seattle
Conclusion
Wednesday 5th June 2013
It was going to be an early morning today. Trying to get myself back to reality meant a work out before the flight at least and that meant I had to make sacrifices. I couldn’t sleep all to well, not sure why so a bit earlier than I had planned (even with the workout) I tried to head outside for a run. I figured if I couldn’t get up to speed I would hit up the ATM close by to get rid of the last of my HKD off my card. Fail on both counts as the ATM kept spitting back my card and I couldn’t run even to the end of the driveway of the hotel without pain. So that meant it was back to the hotel gym again. 10km ride complete, some burpees and some push ups and I was all good.
I decided to test out a little facet that the hotel had mentioned the night before. The rooms were apparently sound proof and with an amazing stereo, it was worth a try. The rooms at the hotel are all controlled by an android based system by 3 tablets, a billion small tablets mounted around the room and they all controlled every little feature you could think of. The stereo was linked into the sound system in the bathroom as well and the two systems were indepedant of each other. One in the bedroom and one in the bathroom. So you could have Trance in the living room and news in the bathroom, all at once.
While getting myself dressed and packing things up quickly, I had cranked the sound in the living room on some Trance from last.fm in Amsterdaam and then had the same running in the bathroom (though the bathroom was a few seconds later than the main bedroom). The sound…incredible! I pity the room next door 😉
I made sure my bag was packed and then I headed down to the lobby a few minutes before my ride to the airport was due to go. I checked out and waited a few minutes, using the last remants of the hotel WiFi before all 3 of us were ready to go (Nao, Jason & myself) and we headed outside to the driveway to get moving again. One last bit of Peninsula Hospitality though, it was off to the airport in the Phantom!
This time it was a different one to the first so I am now 2 down and 12 to go on that list 😉 The ride was awesome, I tweeted a few times, got a couple of photos but most of all I relaxed into the journey. I was starving though as I did not have time to grab breakfast thanks to the gym not opening till 6am and our departure time of 730. O well! Pretty soon we were dropped off at the hotel and another Peninsula staff member was waiting for us as we pulled up. He took our suitcases (although this time the distance was extremely short from the driveway to check in) and I was in the Business class queue.
The line just did not move and eventually I was beckoned over to the Economy queue. They had me filling in paperwork with my address for some reason as they thought I needed an ESTA and even with my assurances I did not, they still made me fill it out. I did as instructed and after having to head over to the ticketing desk to grab a ticket wallet (since it was a bit easier to carry the mountains of boarding passes etc that way), it was off to immigration. I saw a currency exchange and tried to fix up my HKD issue, still no deal they would not do it and the ATM line was huge. So it was immigration time.
We had about an hour till boarding and at Hong Kong airport that isn’t much time really. The airport is just so freaking huge! We cleared security and immigration and as I was hungry and rushed, I was getting into old habits. Rushed and Hungry mal means frustrated and little things cause me to get a bit shitty. I took it out on Jason a little bit as he had no idea where to go (but neither did I for certain things) my job right then was to find an ATM and sort the money situation out. So I said I would meet him at the lounge and I would be there as soon as I could.
I really wanted to check out the Thai Lounge but we were invited to the United Lounge but these were way out in the middle of the pier, where as right then I was just past immigration in the main concourse. So I went in search of an ATM, but again, giant line. So I figured I would give the hunt a bit of an easier time and go out to the middle of the pier since I was wasting time wandering around trying to find one. I hot footed it to the train and out we sped to the middle of the pier.
Once off the train and moving as fast as I could back to the concourse, I went off in search of an ATM again and this time as I passed the lounges I made a mental note of where to go and then out of no where I found the atm. Money issue resolved, next stop currency exchange. I got that done and as I stepped away from the currency exchange I found Jason, wandering about having no idea where he was or where he was going. So we went off to the Thai Lounge which was funnily enough directly above where we stood. Good enough for me!
I was still pretty shirty as again the time was running out quickly and I just wanted to sort things out as I had stuff everywhere in pockets after immigration and security and I wanted to get myself sorted, and get some breakfast, and I still needed to tweet and do other things. I wanted to make sure I wasn’t going to get my ass handed to me for not doing things I should of been. the Thai lounge was nice, though small. The food offerings were not as extensive as the hotel buffet or as other lounges, but much better than what the United Club probably had to offer.
I grabbed some toast and a banana and some raisins and tried to get some breakfast into me along with some water. I figured the easiest thing to do at that moment was to just get what I could into my system and try and relax on the flight. Stuff emails or whatever, deal with that when you next get a chance. So I got what food I could into my system as quickly as possible and we headed off to the gate which was a good 5-10 minute walk away.
The gate wasn’t all that busy but people were already lining up and within 5 minutes we had to join the lines or it would be days before we could get onboard. It was into the lines we went and had to wait there to make sure we could get onboard in a timely fashion. The boarding time came and went. In the line we stood and I soon figured out why my phone was having issues. The Hong Kong sim was out of money!! woops! Thank god for free airport wifi.
All Nippon Airways – NH912 (Operated by Air Japan)
Hong Kong to Tokyo Narita
0940-1500
Boeing 767-300ER (JA619A)
Business Class – Seat 2K
Boarding: 0919 (Gate 30)
Push Back: 0942
Take Off Roll: 1010 (Runway 07R)
Top of Descent: 1430
Touch Down: 1455 (Runway 16R)
Shut Down: 1500 (Gate: Bus)
Boarding was eventually called and we were let loose into the 767. The flight boarded pretty quickly and even though we were 10 minutes late boarding the flight pushed back on time. In that mean time I had settled into my seat and tried sorting out a lot of my stuff for the flight, taken a few photos and just generally spread out. The crew on this flight though were absolutely stunning. every single one of them was as beautiful as the next! This was going to be a good flight!
Funny thing was, even though they were beautiful, the crew were unique. I was not allowed to have my bag under the seat in front, instead it had to be safely secured on the seat next to me. As though it was a diplomatic pouch or something it was safely seat belted into the seat next to me. Whatever! Before leaving we had to have our meal orders taken as they said that there would be turbulence for the first hour or so of the flight and the last hour, so to make things quicker they would do the ordering on the ground. So I ordered the Western meal (it was catered out of Hong Kong so go with a western option over the japanese) and asked if I could have it about 2 hours prior to landing.
We taxiied out of Hong Kong Airport and it took quite a long time to taxi all the way to the far side of the airport, but that is always a treat in foreign lands. Lots of things to spot and take photos of (after the crew tell me to turn off my camera that is). We passed a number of different A330s and 777s from Cathay, Dragaonair, Hong Kong Airlines and United. But then there was the rare stuff as well. Hong Kong Trader was getting some work done, Cebu Paicifc had a A320 following us. There was an SEAIR A319 in the queue and again I missed out an opportunity to get Aerflot.
Eventually it became our turn to hit the runway and we lined up and waited for clearance (it felt like an eternity) but we eventually rotated into the sky right past the freight ramp and unfortunately I missed a good shot of a KLM Cargo. Can’t have everything. This time I had forgone my usual idea of getting the A side and instead gone for the K side of the aircraft. #FAIL! We had a departure directly over the city and had I been on my usual side I would of had a spectacular view of the city (mainly Kowloon) and the clouds were not covering that portion. Damn.
It wasn’t all that bumpy on the way out, but there was definitely a few different bumps about during the flight. I got stuck into my book, since the IFE was pretty limited and nothing was going to be of interest to me. As the drink service finally started I was informed that I should eat now as they can’t guarantee they can serve me later on at all. Whatever! I did as I was told and decided to try and get as much work done before the meal showed up and then continue working afterwards.
Drinks and snack mix were served first and it always seems like the towel and mountains of trash sit there on these flights as they just never get collected. So while I had my snack mix, I was listening to my ipod and tuning things out as we went along. The meal was served and the as the way down it was a one tray affair, but I took my time in eating it this time. I wanted to get through it, but I also didn’t want to ruin the meal by scarfing it down. It was a nice meal but not all that interesting really. Maybe I should of gone the Japanese meal! Sucks to be me!
With the meal packed up (I kept the dessert for later) and the tray was collected. The rest of the flight was seemingly spent with me having my head into my laptop writing away on the trip report to get as much of it done as possible, getting the occasional message from Jason who was further back or just looking out the window. The funniest moment though on the whole flight came when the Captain came on for his announcement. He was HILARIOUS. No idea where he was from, what he had been doing or anything like that but to be honest, he was funny++
We cruised a long and without even realizing it, we were almost at time for descent. I got a drink of some water and they had the little tubs of ice cream (though this time smaller than the ones out of japan) and it was funny that the ice cream tasted 100% awesome no matter the size of the tub. Just as I finished that up, we were about an hour or so from descent so began the slow packing up as ANA announce their descent 45 minutes prior giving people plenty of time to get things stowed.
We got the 45 minute warning and a few minutes after that I had everything of mine stashed away and ready for the arrival into Tokyo. The flight had gone by smoothly and there wasn’t much to do at all after that. I had a bit of a read through my book and enjoyed the sights as we descended. It is flights like this that go smoothly that calm me back down and I enjoy them. The rushing about between flights never helps!
We came into Narita over the runway I was hoping for. We were approaching right in front of the Hilton I had stayed at the last time I was in Japan and within mere seconds of passing it, we were wheels down on the ground and I heard something that other people would’ve hated to hear “You will be bussed to the Arrivals section of the airport”. w00t! Bus gate!!! Always good news for an Avgeek. Unless you’re in a hurry, or don’t like busses. What it meant for me was the ability to get up close and personal to some good unique aircraft.
Once we were pulled up, the crew had to wait till the steps were in Position before opening the door. It wasn’t as humid in Tokyo but it was nice and warm at 27C. Perfect!!! I was probably heading back to coldness so I would rather enjoy it while I could. I was off the aircraft and down the steps soon after the doors were open. Bring on the goodies!!
