Day 5: Travel Day - Jakarta to Hong Kong
Nau mai
Yesterday we traveled from Jakarta to Hong Kong.
My internal alarm clock woke me at 4am giving me precisely the amount of time I needed to prepare myself for a 4:30am lobby call. I showered and dressed in a brand new set of clothes, stowed my toothbrush in my pocket and headed downstairs to face the day.
The airport was pleasantly quiet at 5am and we enjoyed the huge, calm space. Impressively they had managed to grow full sized trees behind the check-in counters.
We were flying with Cathay Pacific, an airline of the One World Axis, and they process baggage differently to our friends in the Star Alliance. They spent a long time carefully weighing and precisely measuring each piece of baggage and then slowly processing the data through their computer system to create a personalised price for our overweight penalty.
We completed check in with just enough time to grab a hot meal before our boarding time. We sat at a cafe in the middle of the concourse called Djournal Gate, and I ordered myself a meal called Mie Tek Tek, stir fried noodles with chicken and vegetables, served with a string of crispy prawn crackers.
Annie shows how it is done, rapidly moving to an empty row and asserting herself across the space.
I slept powerfully sitting perfectly upright in my seat as our aircraft flew north, crossing the South China Sea and arriving off China’s southern coastline for an early afternoon descent into Hong Kong. After a long wait in the baggage area our equipment came out onto the oversize belt and we were processed through customs and released into the open world.
I’m submitting this next photograph to you in the same form it was presented to me as I do not dare to fuck with Liz’s art. In this situation we are loading our equipment into the vehicle that has been sent to transport us to the city. It is a very large tour bus, fifty seats or so.
The drive from the airport on Chep Lap Kok Island into the city is a very beautiful one, a showcase of Hong Kong’s rugged offshore islands, and a fine advertisement for modern bridges and ports. As we crossed one magnificent piece of engineering, the 1,377 metre Tsing Ma Suspension Bridge, we were offered a fine view of the Ting Kau Bridge, a cable stayed structure of 1,177 metres with a 475 metre longest span. Dark green forests shrouded and wrapped themselves around the unruly hills that made up this winding coastline and clusters of tall apartment building stood in stark contrast looking out across the many bays and headlands.
There are 384 stay cables on this bridge - that’s 64 times as many as a regular six stringed guitar!
Our bus dropped us at the hotel right in the centre of the city. The building interior was incredibly stylish, vintage wood paneling, marble, mirrors, and patterned carpets. A large bank of elevators is arranged in a wide row on one side of the building so they all look out across the busy Nathan Road as they ascend.
I was starting to feel pretty sick by this point of the day. I had a fever and went straight to bed at 4pm. My bandmates brought me panadol and Pocari Sweat to keep me alive. The details from the evening are unknown to me. I can surmise that everyone went out to dinner and had a lovely walk around the streets, perhaps taking in some late night markets and enjoying the discovery of a new and exciting snack.
Tristan did my washing and folded it beautifully and for this I am awarding him a point.
For innovative photography I am awarding Liz a point.
Here are the other submissions for today. Congratulations to all who scored.
