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An easy and comfortable flight to get us started. I think Cathay Pacific have done this a few times before because it seemed that we were on board and heading for the runway in a snap. We had great seats - a little twosome with a window seat (lucky me...Mac took the aisle).
A great dinner; a glass of wine; a soft drink and dessert; a quick flick through the movie channels; a few stitches added to the craft project all combined with watching the miles disappear with the on board flight tracker and it was soon sleep time. Well for me anyway. @WJ Mac of course was the last TV off and he probably had 4 minutes of shut eye before the sun was breaking on the horizon and the cabin lights were flicked on at 5 am local time.
I have to admit that I purloined the plastic cutlery....it was safely stuffed in my bag because I was thinking that a knife and fork might save me the chopstick embarrassment in the coming weeks.
Who would have thought that Hong Kong airport was so large. Our trek was from our arrival point at Gate 19 to the departure point at Gate 36. It was necessary to go through a "health check" point and another security check. We thought we were close....but needed to go up to level 6, then down two levels on the escalators to a TRAIN station. Okay, admitting it - we were momentarily confused, but found it. This airport was enormous!
And then on to Beijing. Another window seat twosome - we swapped views this time and another breakfast. A few quick snoozes and a bit more craft and the three hours just disappeared. A rough, rattle trap landing saw us in line for immigration processing...a long wait..but we were eventually through.....and very close!
Less of a surprise this time - but again we had to do the train thing to access our baggage. The highlight was that there was a movie star on our carriage ...the young Chinese girls next to us were so excited they explained in broken English that he was the Chinese movie star Jaycee Chan (Jackie Chan's son). He had his entourage with him and they were doing their filming....had no success trying to photo bomb but we did snap a shot in the distance.
The highlight of the day was being met at the Beijing airport by our friendly China Holidays guide - Vivienne. We certainly missed her and thought we were high and dry. Mac decided to go back for a second run of the departure lounge and eventually spotted Vivienne holding a sign for JOHN and JOY and made the connection that, that coincidence was us! Ha ha, those middle names get you every time.
What a delight a "guided" experience is -we had a driver AND Vivienne - totally the way to go! Mind you, poor Vivienne said she would have lost her job if she hadn't found us! Ouch, we might have to take the integrity of the guide a little more seriously.
We spent the afternoon having a wander around downtown Beijing, trying to stay awake! Lots of people, bikes, cars and dust in a run down precinct with very few "foreigners" so we definitely knew we were in China!
We enjoyed an early dinner tonight at the Ariva...a charming selection of delectable Chinese tasting dishes...yum yum. We were keen to finish up the day and have a good night's sleep ready for a big day with Howard tomorrow.
Friday's pedometer reading: 12 602
Saturday's pedometer reading: 12 384
Temperature Beijing: 15 C
Dinner: Chinese taster plates ARIVA
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