HK day 0.5: Where were we?

So, there we were in Dubai, hotel voucher in hand, wandering through the expansive airport trying to figure out what time and day it was and what time and day our bodies thought it was.  [It was 1000 on Thursday 22 May, but our bodies thought it was 0200 on Thursday.]

Dubai's airport is enormous and beautiful.  The whole place is like a marble palace inside, and very, very quiet.  We did manage to wander our way to the proper desk to hand someone our voucher.  The nice man told us a shuttle would arrive for us shortly to take us to the hotel, where we should show our voucher again to get our room and credit for a 3 minute international phone call.  Kind of sounds like jail?  As John Mulaney would say, "ooooookay."  So we waited, and the shuttle arrived and drove us to the hotel.  

I'm not sure what the technical differences between a hotel and a motel are, but this one was a shack-y hotel at best.  I gave it 2 stars.  It was clearly a dumping place for all cattle class passengers of Emirates flights, as all the staff were prepared for our situation.  They even had a person handing out flyers for 2 hour tours of Dubai, leaving every other hour (not a bad idea, really).  We checked in at 1050, I know, because the breakfast buffet was closing in 10 minutes.  We took our newly procured vouchers to the dining hall style buffet area and enjoyed a slightly better breakfast than what we'd had on the plane.  Ten minutes later, we asked about getting wifi, and traded our 3 minute phone call for 24 hours of wifi (for 2 devices, even!).

Ok, ok so apparently they got 3 stars from somebody

Our room was... minimalist 80s style, containing 2 slightly larger than twin beds (apparently, they weren't sure if we were a couple or not).  Contrary to what our Emirates greeter had told us about the hotel providing all the "hygiene products we might need, like towels and toothbrushes," there were exactly 4 towels, one of which was a bath mat, and 2 shower caps.  No soap, let alone toothbrushes.  And, because we'd checked our 12kg small suitcase, we didn't have any of the "just in case" things I always pack, and so infrequently need.  We both wanted a shower, but that wasn't going to be too useful without soap of any kind, nor clean clothes to put on afterwards.  Plus, given 13 hours to hang out in Dubai, we didn't think we should sit in our hotel/motel room.  But, it was 95F+ outside.

 

Cleverly, we rallied our thinking powers and asked the Google what was nearby.  Google's response: The Dubai Mall, one of the world's largest shopping malls.  The fourth person we asked in the lobby told us it would cost 50 dirham(s?) to get a taxi to the mall.  The man in the business center (which was a corner of the cafe) who also handled currency exchange could not exchange our HKD for AED (dirhams), so we found our way across the atrium (which had a beautiful pool... too bad we didn't have bathing suits!) to find an ATM.

About an hour later, we walked into The Dubai Mall and were greeted by glorious air conditioning (yet not too cold!) and a dinosaur skeleton.  Apparently, the diplodocidus was found in 2008 in the US and brought to be displayed in Dubai.  We decided to set ourselves the goal of finding soap, shampoo, and clean socks and underwear at the very least.

Four hours later, more tired than we realized, we'd each procured new outfits (including the aforementioned socks and underwear), a bottle of baby shampoo, and 2 little, plastic travel bottles.  In search of a taxi stand, we were approached by a man asking if we needed a taxi.  Oh, how perfect - yes! we do need a taxi.  Please take us to our hotel.  45 minutes and 4 obvious u-turns later, we were at the hotel with the "cabbie" charging us 170AED.  T pushed back, but I was tired and got out to go exchange more money.  Walking into the hotel, the guy who got us the first taxi asked how it went and I quickly explained I needed more cash as I walked by him into the business center.  One of the bell boys followed and asked what was going on, so I explained.  He thought the cabbie's behaviour was outrageous and told me to go back out and ask for a bill or receipt or something to stall while he went to get a security person.  After stalling for about 2 minutes, during which the fare went down to 120AED, the bell boy came out himself, apparently unable to find back up and spoke to the driver for us.  So, lesson learned - even 3 star hotel/motels can have pluses.

Following this ridiculousness, we finally got our glorious shower with all purpose baby shampoo and a much needed 4 hour nap.

We woke up in time to use our vouchers at the dinner buffet.  It was a very tasty buffet, with a good effort at pleasing as many people as possible.  As we ate, we observed our fellow diners.  Of particular interest was an older gentleman, sitting alone.  Shortly after he sat down, a woman asked to sit with him, clearly a stranger.  He accepted and the two had a nice conversation getting to know each other.  [We weren't intentionally eavesdropping at first, the woman was speaking loudly so the man could hear her.]  As we were finishing up, the old man's grandson appeared and the three of them had dessert together.  It was such a nice thing to see how kind these perfect strangers were to one another.

After finishing our own dessert, T and I decided to head to the airport early.  Our flight wasn't until 0330, but we weren't interested in hanging out in our hotel room.  So we turned in our key and were told to have a seat for 10 minutes until someone came to tell us the shuttle to the airport had arrived.  After about 20 minutes, we decided nobody was going to tell us anything, so we went outside.  A shuttle had just arrived with a new load of displaced passengers, but we were told this one would be leaving empty, a shuttle bound for the airport would arrive in 10 minutes, please have a seat and wait.  Not willing to do that again, we waited outside, and amazingly enough, about 15 minutes later, a shuttle did arrive and took us to the airport.

Once at the airport, we breezed through security - only had to remove my laptop from my bag, but we got to keep our clothing on.  We headed straight for the Marhaba Business Class Lounge and used our Lounge Club passes (courtesy of Chase) to enjoy the next 3 hours in relative quiet, with unlimited tea, a selection of dinner-esque foods and accompaniments and free wifi.

Our second flight was closer to our expectations of what an Emirates flight would be like.  Aboard one of their newest Airbus A380s, just the fact that everything was cleaner, newer, and shinier helped the situation.  Also, there seemed to be only one child and she was sitting far enough away from us (or was well behaved enough) that we didn't hear her until we landed - making exclamations of excitement whilst returning to her seat from the lavatory.  [Side note: why are all airplane bathrooms called lavatories?]  The food was better this time around, though we didn't get two full meals, but instead had a "light bite" snack of a sandwich and blackberry muffin and breakfast.  Everyone had the same light bite, but the breakfast options were cheese omelet or chicken congee.  T had the omelet, I had the congee.  We were both pleased with our choices.

Being about half the length of our first flight helped a lot, too.  We still didn't sleep much, maybe an hour total, because we still didn't know what time our bodies thought it should be.  The night-day effects are pretty convincing!

Upon arrival in HKG, passport control was quite speedy, and we made our way to baggage claim.  To our pleasant surprise, both our bags turned up!  The little one (new for this trip) arrived looking about 5 years old, but they were both there, intact and that's all that really matters!  Finding the greeting desk for the Langham Place was pretty simple also, just following the signs.  We waited perhaps another half hour for our shuttle, having just missed the previous one, and were ready to start our Hong Kong adventure!

Next time: First foray into Hong Kong!

HK Day 0: Hello from one of the safest cities on the planet!

Yep, we're in Dubai, but we’re heading to Hong Kong.  [According to expatarrivals.com, the laws here are so strict, there is very little crime; 0% according to thecrazyfacts.com.] 

Courtesy of Mom's Car Service (includes semi-hot breakfast, but non-partially drunk drinks are extra), T and I arrived at Dulles around 0930 (that's am) on Wednesday (we think that was... yesterday).  After taking a minute to locate the Emirates check-in desk (at the back of the "regular" airline desks), we were somewhat displeased to see that every human in the airport was attempting to check in for our flight.  Not only was everyone trying to check in for our flight, but they were also each attempting to bring every item they have ever encountered in life, packaged in individual plastic grocery bags, haphazardly packed into enormous duffel bags.  Surprisingly, each bag was overweight by 800kilos and thus incurred overweight baggage fees, which also surprisingly, nobody felt they should have to pay.  EDIT to add: I had read the baggage rules which allow one carry-on per person, so we packed one large suitcase to check and one small suitcase to be T's carry-on.  Unfortunately, I didn't read the weight limit on the carry-ons: 7kg.  So when we got up to the check-in counter, the woman told us we'd have to check both.  I quickly removed a bag of toiletries and Todd's messenger bag from the small suitcase, figuring that's all we'd need on the plane...

Having survived the check-in process (mental note: next time, check-in online, 48hrs in advance), we breezed through security, without having to remove any of our clothing or items from our bags (!) and made our way to the gate.  Amazingly, we got there with about 10 minutes to spare, which was good because again, we rejoined every other human in the airport in the queue to board.  We filled our water bottle at this clever station, and made our way on board.

Once on board, we were pleased to find our seats, nearly on the tail of the plane, next to a very small (adult) girl who took up almost half her seat.  No getting squished in the middle – hooray!  Plus, the personal space was perhaps 6 square inches larger than on other airlines.  Soon after, the pilot told us that the baggage transport belt was broken (too many overweight bags??) and needed possibly 30 minutes to be fixed, so if we wanted to get off now, we could.  Apparently there’s a law saying that if passengers are trapped on a plane for more than 30 minutes, the airline has to offer to let them not fly that day.  Is this for people who are scared and feel like take-off delays are bad omens?  Anyway, we managed to get underway about 45 minutes later, not bad.  We enjoyed a nice hot towel just before take off along with a menu detailing the delicious culinary choices for our 13hr journey.  Getting excited for our adventure yet??

The clever day-night-day transitions, as on many long-haul flights were supported by a starry night sky effect with tiny fairy lights on the ceiling and sunset and sunrise lights.  Around Sunset, we were served our first meal, called lunch on the menu, but dinner by the cart labels and flight staff – at least we weren’t the only ones confused about time.  I enjoyed a vegetarian, Indian/North African meal of Dhal and some kind of mushroom masala – delicious!  T was hoping for the garden herbed chicken, but being amongst the lowliest of travellers, they were out by the time they reached us, so he had the lamb instead.  He says it was very good.

The plan was to sleep as much as possible on this first flight so that we could stay up for the second, 7hr flight to be on track for Hong Kong time.  Unfortunately, the 3-year-old boy sitting behind us with the Worst Mother on the Planet (WMP) had other plans.  There was whining, fake crying, semi-screaming and WMP’s exclamations about Dora every 3 minutes.  Instead of sleeping, T and I occupied ourselves and plugged our ears by enjoying some of the vast collection of tv shows and movies on board.  In the middle of the “night” we were served individual pizzas, which were actually really delicious.  Plus, once an hour or so, the flight staff came by with trays of juice and water cups to keep us hydrated and going to the bathroom to stretch our legs.  [Note: except for tiny girl sitting next to me – who ate almost nothing and didn’t get up once!]

By Sunrise, we were starting to feel the time… 0200 to us by then.  But, the smells of breakfast plus the sunrise lights were keeping us going.  Somehow, the people 2 rows ahead of us were served breakfast almost and hour before us.  By the time we were served, we were only an hour from Dubai.  Of course, by then, none of the regular breakfast options were available, so we were offered either the children’s meal (pancakes) or the Indian vegetarian meal.  Luckily, the extras included fresh fruit salad and croissants, so we didn’t go completely hungry.  Also, T got the vegetarian meal, which he says was good.

The deplaning process was surprisingly speedy with all the people on board.  T and I were met at the end of the sky bridge by an Emirates ground staffer who informed us that there was no way we could make our connection, so she had vouchers for us to be taken to a nearby hotel, including meal vouchers.  Kind of stunned and more tired than we realized at the time, we barely grasped what she said and ended up having to run to catch her up 5 minutes later to ask her to tell us basically everything again.  With better comprehension (I’d say 80%) the second time around, we walked away and figured out that it was 1000 here in Dubai, and Thursday.

Next time: 17 hours in Dubai, 4 hours’ sleep!