マイク＆サム·ヘッド東！- A journey to Hong Kong & Japan - May 2014 - Day 15 - HOMEWARD BOUND

[soarinfan]

Day 15 - Monday 19th May - Homeward Bound

And so we awoke at the crack of dawn, it was home time. It was about 5am and we had to get ready for the first shuttle of the day because our flight was scheduled for about 9am. It was quite a long winded journey home back south via Hong Kong before heading back to Heathrow, as we were flying Cathay Pacific all the way. The journey to the airport was fairly quick, only about 15 minutes and we were walking into the terminal. Even though we were told the check in opened 3 hours before the first Cathay flight (which as ours and another one), there seemed to be lots of passengers just aimlessly wondering around (including us) trying to find anyone that worked for Cathay Pacific. Finally at about 7:30am an hour late, the troops of Cathay staff emerged and set up shop - we were about 10th in the line to check in and say goodbye to our bags.

Next was security - again very efficient and quick and we were through within a couple of minutes to what seemed like a deserted departure concourse. We headed away from where our gate was meant to be in search of food - honestly there was 1 place to buy food, it was very surreal. This was Narita Airport - the supposed "main" up and coming airport in Tokyo - empty.

We stopped in a small cafe for breakfast and watched all of 1 aircraft pulling onto the stand - all of the aircraft stands were empty! Not used to this working at Heathrow! Sam had a look around the bookshop there and found a book (in English!) by her fave author Clive Cussler which she needed as part of her collection so bought that, then we headed towards the gate where our aircraft was already waiting.

As we were waiting to board, who pulls up onto stand next to us? BA5 from Heathrow! The stupid thing was, this aircraft was actually going to take off about 2 hours after we took off enroute to Hong Kong...yet would get back to Heathrow 4 1/2 hours before us! Nightmare for Sam - fine for me being a bit of an avgeek!

We finally boarded and pushed back from the gate on time, though we ended up sitting on the taxiway just off of the active departing runway for about 25 minutes with the engines chugging away, seemingly waiting for nothing! There was no activity on the runway at the time so was unsure as to what was going on there - however what I did know was that every minute we were sat on the ground at Narita was eating into our already very tight connection time at Hong Kong. I knew Cathay were brilliant with connections but they weren't miracle workers! We soon headed off to the runway and departed, circling around the airfield and heading towards the South West. I filmed the flight and put it on YouTube which can watch by clicking the image below if you wish

We followed a track I had been watching the last few days whilst staying at Tokyo Disney - we actually flew alongside Tokyo Bay and over our Disney Hotel (and Disney itself!) and Tokyo Haneda airport, before heading towards Mount Fuji which was amazing to see from above as it was disappearing into the engine.

The meal soon came around which was a bit like a lunch really (being a morning flight I was expecting breakfast, but with the delay it felt like lunch!) and I opted for the Chicken and Rice. Sam had my Kit Kat which she was delighted was finally the size of her tiny fingers! The flight was over 4.5 hours long so it was quite a trek. To know halfway through our flight that BA was now departing for Heathrow and we were heading in the wrong direction was horrible for Sam who doesn't like flying much!

As we approached Hong Kong the weather started getting a little turbulent, and there was huge CB's (storm clouds) around the Hong Kong area. The flight deck announced there would be a bit of a wait up here as the landings were a bit more spaced out due to the weather - that and we had to be dodging all of these storm clouds (which was just awesome to watch! ). Even whilst we were on final approach, we saw a man walking towards the front of the aircraft with a flight attendant carrying his bags, we wondered what that was about but we would find out later, but not before we finally did make a slightly delayed landing into a fairly sunny Hong Kong.

The Cathay ground staff were waiting at the gate for us to tell us exactly where to go which was very good service for our very tight connection. We of course had to clear security again as with British airports & international connections, before rushing down to the other end of the concourse for our flight... which you guessed it - was delayed! We didn't have to run after all! I had plenty of time to go to the loo and also take a few video and photo shots of our next aircraft.

We boarded after a short wait and ended up sitting next to the guy we saw heading down towards the front of the aircraft on the last flight - an American guy. He explained he said to the crew he had a tight connection and they stuck him in Business Class for landing so he could be first off the aircraft - not a bad deal for the 20 minute approach! Anyway we were soon on our way for a little bumpy departure out of Hong Kong, heading north over mainland China for London. Again, I filmed the flight as I always do, and can be found by clicking the image below;

Our first dinner over China was a pasta dish which I had chosen, complete with some form of tomato sauce, olives and capers which was quite nice. Sam hates olives and capers so not a massively wonderful offering for her - she had the bread roll! Soon after the window blinds were forcibly closed and the cabin put into semi darkness for people to catch some shut eye. I rarely sleep on aircraft but I think I may have got about an hours rest or so. I watched a couple of things on the tv but Russia (as in - where we were over flying) was just taking FOREVER to pass by, even I the avgeek was pulling my hair out. There really is little to see over Russia unfortunately but just land and more land! We were soon served our next meal which was either Sausage & Mash or Sweet & Sour Chicken - I had the Chinese, Sam was delighted with the British food!

We had finally left Russian airspace and was heading over Northern Europe, Denmark and the like so we knew the flight was slowly winding up and we would soon be making our descent into Heathrow. It was quite a nice descent over North London (LAM3A for the avgeek readers!) before making our approach over Windsor onto 09L for arrival into Heathrow around 2030 local time (now 0430 tomorrow our body clock time!).

We pulled up to the stand we had left just over 2 weeks ago, this time up along side a Virgin Atlantic aircraft which was prepping to leave for sunnier climbs. We were off the aircraft fairly quickly and met up with the wonderfully British customer service of the queue director at Passport control, a grumpy woman who just perched on a stool saying "that one" "that one" "that one" every time a desk became free - welcome home ey! We got our bags fairly quickly and transferred back to the Long Stay car park and started the drive back home. I had matchsticks holding my eyes open but it wasn't long before we were both in bed - shattered, but we had had an amazing holiday and some amazing new experiences.

The End!

And thats it folks! Thank you so much for reading my Trip Report. I do hope you enjoyed it. I know it was very strung out but actually it really helped me to bide the time between my next holiday - which at the point of writing this, I am only 11 hours away from OLCI for! Las Vegas! LA and San Francisco (and a little cheeky stop in Dublin!) So you'll have all that to look forward to soon! Thanks again all!

[Guest]

Really enjoyed reading, thanks for sharing! How exciting is your new countdown! Look forward to that trippie, west coast is amazing!

[denthefrog]

Thank you - It was an amazing trip to read to read about.. I look forward to the next one..

[lovedisney89]

Really enjoyed reading this!

Great report, looking forward to your next one

[kevin_cambs_uk]

Brilliant trip, an I am going next year! Thank you
I have loads of questions!

[Dissie]

Brilliant trip report. Thank you for making it a really interesting read. Looking forward to the next one

[AntonyJ]

I have loved this and other trip reports and really want to go..

Apart the cost, the things that hold me back are:

Making a fool of myself / offending by not bowing at the right time, or bowing too much / too little.

The food - while I know it is not all raw fish in Japan I have a very boring pallet and not too much into trying new things, have a fear of getting there and then having to live off McD or KFC!

How busy the parks can get - weekends appear to be a no no when to go, but what if we travel all that way and you walk into 3 hour queues to go on rides. I hope research on quiet times would help here!

[soarinfan]

Thanks for the kind words.

Honestly - your fears were exactly the same as mine. I also had a fear of not being able to understand ANYTHING due to the vast language difference.

Etiquette is something the Japanese take very seriously I have found (in their own country anyway!) which it is important to be aware of - but honestly if you bow incorrectly, they're not stupid. They know you don't know the ins and outs of it all - the best thing is just to copy I found! Lots of short sharp head bows and smiles and thank you seem to suffice most occasions.

As for the food - I found Japanese cuisine amazing. There is still your average western fare spread around Japan so I wouldn't worry too much about having to stick to KFC/McD's - just its not as readily available as over here or the US. Just try things - you'll be plesantly surprised.

As for the parks - its one of those things you just can't really work around. The only thing I would suggest is - don't be skimpy on time. If you can afford 4 or 5 days, then do so - rather than thinking to only go for 1 day per park. Extra time is always a bonus. Unfortunately on the weekends the families come out, and on the weekdays the school parties come out - theres no avoiding it! Just enjoy the difference!

[Bobsledwheels]

Great report- really enjoyed reading this and learnt some great tips to look up for our trip in the next few months!

[Tink75]

Wow, what a great TR - really enjoyed reading it so thank you for posting.

I'd love to go and take the kids but it does seem very expensive for a family of 4! I had thought I might want to do HKDL as well, but actually, I think I'd be happy to skip it (I must be feeling unwell lol!), and concentrate on Japan.

Still a little unsure there is enough to keep the kids entertained - realistically they'd probably be 13 and 10 by the time we could save up to go as we have holidays for the next 2 years planned lol!

Anyway, thanks again, I really did enjoy it!