Had another very slow morning for our last morning. Had our last big breakfast, then reorganised all our luggage. Checked out about 11:30.
Stu wanted to go to the Qantas Club early, but checkin for our flight wasn't til nearly 4pm. So we went to Hong Kong station and went to the In-Town checkin, where you can do an early checkin and they despatch the bags off to the airport for you. Quite handy!
Hong Kong station
Found a Starbucks for the sweetie to have a coffee. Then, for want of something better to do, we went across to the ifc mall to have a look around. It epitomised what we didn't like about Hong Kong shopping - lots of very fancy, brand name stores selling nothing but high-end fashion, luggage, sunglasses and watches. In other words - boring. In fact most of Hong Kong was like that - super fancy stores with a very limited range of merchandise. At the other end of the scale was the markets with their cheap crap, but really nothing in between. Well not that we saw anyway!
Completely random things you see in Hong Kong malls - live music!
Then we headed off to the airport. Had a bit of a wander around, but most of the stores were as described previously, and very very overpriced for other things. We thought we might pick up some duty free spirits to use up the last of our cash, but when we went to buy them they said no liquids over 100mL - there was apparently a second security check and everything and they wouldn't be allowed.
Rambler Channel, on the way to the airport
Tsing Kwai Highway passing over Kwai Tsing Road
Heading to the airport
So gave up on that idea and went to the Qantas Club. Stu did some work on his website while I read news feeds on my phone and read some of my book (and was thoroughly amused that the TV had on the discovery channel which had an Air Crash Investigations episode :) )
Wine and nibbles in the Qantas club
Eventually it was time for our flight. And sure enough, there was another security check in the middle of the ramp between scanning our boarding passes and getting on the plane. Who knew.
Hong Kong Chek Lap Kok airport
Our plane home - Qantas Boeing 747-400, VH-OEB
The route we took leaving Hong Kong
Dinner on the plane
Dinner on the plane - slow braised pork with cider cream sauce, mashed potatoes and green beans
I watched Phar Lap first up. I first saw this when it came out at the movies. In 1983. I saw it as a double feature with The Man From Snowy River. And I hadn't seen it since! So watched that.
I was going to try and have a sleep, but I have my mother to thank for my inbility to sleep on planes :(
So I watched The Way, Way Back. I quite enjoyed this movie.
Had another attempt at sleep but pretty much failed. Then at 3am Hong Kong time they served breakfast. Urggghhh. Was really not ready for it, and was just starting to get to sleep when the lights turned on :(
Breakfast on the plane
Spent the last hour or so just staring out the window.
Hornsby
Rhodes
Burwood
Look mum I can see your house from here!
Como
Sutherland Shire
Little plane coming in to land next to us
Passed through immigration very quickly using the e-passport thingie. This time I took my glasses off and it worked first go. Of course the speed of going through immigration meant we had to wait ages for our bags. Can't win em all I guess. They've changed the customs declaration cards, and now they're specific about different types of foods, but don't actually care about others. So now you don't have to declare chocolate or confectionery or a lot of processed stuff, they're really only worried about the meat/fish/dairy and the fresh foods. So that's handy to know for next time.
Sat like zombies in Qantas Club in Sydney. My eyes were swimming so couldn't really read my book. Had another good view of the shire on the way over it.
Our final plane home - Qantas Dash 8-400, VH-LQJ
Ikea at Tempe
Rockdale
Hurstville
Ansto, Lucas Heights
Woronora Dam
Lake Illawarra
And finally a taxi home.
So there you have a it. A week in one city. And the more I researched it, the more I found there was to do. So I stopped researching at that point, because a week would be nowhere near enough time!
I had a pretty good time. Would have been better if it wasn't so hot and humid. But we had a couple of great days of weather, and it really only rained once so that wasn't too bad. I've yet to count up how many photos I took!
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