A couple of hours in China


Hong Kong is a Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China. Hence I am in a communist country for a couple of hours, though only in the airside area of Hong Kong International Airport. My return journey started at Melbourne airport yesterday night at 2340 Aussie time (9 hours ahead of UK). The flight took nine hours and we got to Hong Kong at 0645 Hong Kong time (7 hours ahead of UK). At 1005, I will be on a thirteen hour flight and get to London at 1600 UK time. It's all rather confusing but I was blessedly free of jet-lag in Australia and the East-West journey is supposed to be better from that point of view.

There was a breakfast served on the aeroplane but it was only a little more appetising than one expects such meals to be. When I get on the next flight we will be served dinner after an hour or so. Therefore I decided on having a hobbit-like second breakfast while waiting at the airport and have just had a delicious bowl of Won Ton soup with shrimp dumplings.

Fortunately I love flying and always look on the journey part of the holiday. The Cathay Pacific staff are very pleasant and it is fascinating to see the people passing through Hong Kong airport which is a hub for the far east.

In Melbourne everyone was apologising to me for the weather which actually got down as far as two degrees celsius in the wee small hours. During the day the winter weather in Melbourne was only about five degrees lower than the summer weather in London, though I see that it may be pleasantly temperate later.

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