Steve wrote the following during the 23 hours of flight time we endured.
January 23, 2009
It was great meeting both Seona and Tom. We picked them up at the airport last night and we had a great visit. We got everything {I think} squared away, I don’t think we forgot anything {hahaha}. Tom, Seona and Kandace took us to the airport today and wished us off. Amazingly cool to finally be on our way, the girls were beyond happy when the engines went to full power and we left Canada for a year. All the hard work, grief and stress of packing and getting the house ready for Tom and Seona now just fading into a distant memory.
Well, it is now 4:00 pm pacific time. We have been in the air for almost 1 hour. The flight has been great so far, kids are happy; had a snack, watched some TV, what could be better? What could go wrong??? Books, movies, video games, I mean really what could happen in the next 13 hours???? At the present time, we have 2 seats by a window {row 45 and the other 3 seats are in row 41. The kids are constantly changing seats and have taken 498 trips to the bathroom. I am trying to figure out why people want/need to have a window seat but the second that the plane takes off, they close the blind. These same boneheads that then sleep the majority of the flight! Would they sit in the center section? NO, they have to sit by the window – a closed window none the less, so the rest of us are stuck in a cigar tube waiting for the light! In all honesty, the flight was very good, Cathay Pacific is c’est magnifique! The service, food, videos and the way that they treated the girls was amazing. I would definitely recommend Cathay Pacific to all that fly! The girls were great for the whole 14 hours. They had some sleep – Rhiannon was the only one that slept for more than 2 hours; as for the other 2 they played on their DS’s watched TV and watched out the window.
We were off the plane and through customs in Hong Kong by 9:15. A very efficient and pleasant adventure. The next part, not so much. Holy snapping banana peels batman! The taxi ride from hell! Who knew that you could travel 110 km/h weaving through traffic with the lines on the road a mere suggestion – I am glad I was in the backseat and could close my eyes! Hong Kong is amazing, nothing but high-rises and bright lights. It is amazing cool to see all the old buildings right beside a brand new 30 stories + high-rise. I am beyond impressed with how polite, friendly and helpful that everyone is. They take extra care to be as helpful as possible. Amazing how many people in Hong Kong speak fluent English. It sure makes Canada look bad when it comes to how we treat and deal with visitors from a foreign country.
I took Kennedy for a walk, it was 10:45 pm Saturday in Hong Kong {6:45 am? Vancouver}, what an incredible sight to see! The allies and streets were alive, small little hole-in-the-wall restaurants {is it a restaurant when it only seats 2?}. Chinatown in Vancouver has nothing on Hong Kong. Kennedy was absolutely flabbergasted to see the sights, the food, smells and atmosphere. Through it all, there was almost 0 garbage, everything was so clean! Numerous people stopped and talked to us, what an amazing adventure. Even though Kennedy only slept for ~2 hours on the plane and she was up for ~20 hours it was amazing to see how well she handled the flight and Hong Kong.
This morning was great. Up at 6:00 a very pleasant and relaxing taxi ride to the airport. Check in was easy, had breakfast at the airport, which is like a mall and a very high end mall at that. We saw a necklace and earrings that could be purchased for the bargain basement price of only 400 000 HK {almost $100000.00 Canadian!} Our 12 hours in Hong Kong were over, back on the plane for 91/2 hours.
We landed in Melbourne at 9:30 only to endure great lengthy customs procedures. We can guarantee that there is probably not much that gets past them. A lot of people in front of us had to take EVERYTHING out of their suitcases and carry-ons. I was saying silent prayers that they would see the exhaustion on my face and those of my 3 lovely children. When it was our turn (after an hour of waiting) the customs lady asked if I had any food. I showed her the crackers and goldfish I brought along and she said "OK, go on through". Thank you kind customs lady! I love you.
We went through the gates and there was Seona's parents with a warm welcome for us. I felt like Dorothy from the Wizard of Oz. You know, the part when she wakes up at the end and she's just so glad to be home. We didn't see any witches along the way but it was one rrreeeeaaaallllly long adventure.
Kennedy fainting from the heat....
