First Hop

The most stressful part of getting to Hong Kong turned out to be getting from our home to Newark airport. We scheduled our cab for 12:45, which we thought was enough time to get to our 3pm flight. However, Manhattan traffic was murder, and we were slowed by a pharmacy stop (meds for us and the kids, just in case), and we got to the check-in at 2pm. Where a kindly gate agent said, "you're going to Hong Kong? Hurry! Hong Kong boarding is closed!" as we were dawdling over repacking before checkin. It turned out that we were supposed to have gotten to EWR two hours before the flight. I hadn't noticed this in the fine print anywhere.

In the boarding area, Christine and Paul, who are also adopting a baby girl and are part of our group from Alliance for Children, identified us and introduced themselves. I'm sure we'll have lots of time to get to know them in the coming couple of weeks.

Then, when we got on the plane, because we'd missed the check-in, our seats were released, so Joyce and I started off with 40KL (window and middle) and Linda started in 40C (port aisle). A polite question to a flight attendant, along with a panicked call to our travel agent, all turned out OK: the flight attendant checked the system, saw that we'd bought an extra empty seat, and was able to get us 40JKL, and to relocate the gentleman originally in 40J. Then, the man sitting across the aisle was willing to swap with Linda, so she got 40F, and we all ended up together, with space, as we had planned.

The flight itself was fine (as far as any 15-hour plane flight can be), with surprisingly good airplane food, including dim sum for the last "breakfast" and Haagen-Daazs vanilla for "lunch". I snapped a few fun photos out the window. The first is a view of the North Pole. Or at least it would be, if we could see 385 miles off the starboard side of the plane. The second is of a gigantic snowbound river in Siberia, just after we made landfall. It's bigger than the Hudson, and I'm used to seeing the Hudson and takeoff/landing height, while we flew over this river at cruising altitude of around 37,000 feet. I haven't yet had a chance to look this one up, but from the size of its delta in the in-flight navigation system, I'll bet it drains half of Siberia. The map claimed we were northwest of the Verkhoyanskiy mountains at the time.




















After landing in Hong Kong, we headed to the Hong Kong Airport's Regal Hotel, which is very nice. We swam in the pool. We ate a very tasty Chinese dinner (whole yellow fish in brown sauce, crispy duck with tea leaves, sauteed eggplant with garlic, and some pork dumplings) in the Dragon hotel.

To close, here's a sign from the hotel's lobby:
















This morning, we're hoping to brunch in Hong Kong. Then this afternoon we fly to Nanning, where the organized tour begins.

Joyce adds: And for you real estate voyeurs: no, it wasn't our idea to close on the new apartment on the same day we left for China, and yes, it did manage to happen. So we will be working on renovations when we come back and sometime in the fall we will get rid of that tedious six-block walk every time we want to go to the Museum of Natural History.