Seriously what time is it again?

So, I have officially made it to China - specifically Hong Kong.  It is "hazy" today in Hong Kong which means that you cannot really see your hand in front of your face or like walking into a Vegas casino before people wizened up and stopped (or reduced) smoking indoors.  It is also eleventh million degrees with a humidity percentage of like 99.9%...I think if you could squeeze the hazy air, you could make water.

But I am in Hong Kong!  Holy buckets!

Flights were mostly uneventful getting here. Mostly.  That whole American/US Air combo took a surprise turn this morning at Reagan when they moved my shuttle on American Eagle from gate 34 to gate 35.  Sounds easy right?  Not at 6:00 AM when NO ONE knows that it has moved but my trusty AA app.  Even the gate agents in terminal B did not know the flight had been moved.  See, gate 35 is in terminal C...and the typical shuttle bus that runs between the two terminals does not fire up until 7:30 according to the airport authority.  Now, those of you who know me know I always get to the airport super early if my choice and it worked out exceptionally well when I had to go through security - non TSA Pre Check security because that is also not open that early - at both terminal B and terminal C.  Not super convenient.

THEN, when I got to JFK, I had to transition from terminal 8 to terminal 7 so you guessed it...another security search.  I was an extra secure passenger by the time I reached the Cathay Pacific Lounge.  By this time it was 8:30 AM and I had not eaten anything yet.  I mean, it is hard to get motivated about having breakfast at 2:30 AM when you wake up to head to the airport.   So, following the lead of some of my eventual fellow passengers, I grabbed this:

Yep, that is a ramen bowl and a glass of Sauvingon Blanc eaten with chopsticks.  And it rocked.  I saw these in Seoul as well at the airline lounge so super popular evidently for the asian flights.  My flight was to take off at 10:15 am so around 9 am I decided to head out of the club and to the gate which was just a brief walk away.  Happily they started boarding early which meant I could get on and get all my stuff situated!  Even better, we boarded mid-cabin which meant that I could turn left and not have a ton of people walking by as I tried to get situated.

Let me preface this next image by saying that I have the best bosses in the world who understand and respect the hardship it is to travel on long-haul flights in coach.  Why do I say this?  Because I was able to buy this trip in mostly business class - with the exception of the shorter inter-China flights!  So this is what I walked to as my living space for 16 hours...

Yep, I have already cluttered it up!

People, what you have to understand is that this space is stupid large for an airplane.  And super private!  In my business class cabin, there were only 8 of us in these beauties and there were separating walls.  There were storage nooks and crannies everywhere.  If you look on the counter, you can see my travel pajamas - you heard that right - that I take with me on long-haul flights.  I had two windows, a 15 inch television that worked amazingly well (including showing live feed from the video camera mounted under the plane!)
Two things I learned though...
1. No matter how nice the seats are, they just are too stiff for me to get comfortable enough to really sleep on when fully reclined.
2.  The airline provided nice headphones for me to use during the entire flight but no directions on where to plug in their speciality jack (hint, it is in the cabinet up there next to the chair buttons where the headphones are stored but n the wall nearest the seat and flush with the wall so you cannot see it.)

We stared off with brunch so I started off with a nice champagne to drink:

I really try to limit the amount of alcohol I drink and bulk up on water consummation simply because I am already typically dehydrated so it is magnified 10 fold at 35,000 ft.

During the first half of the flight surprisingly I got 2 hours sleep (drug induced by nyquil so I fully expect to crash while typing this) - so that is 2 out of 8 ours in people.  For my DFW friends, think about the flight to Hawaii and only being halfway done.  Yeah.  Anyway at this time, the cabin crew turned on the mood lighting as all of us in the window seats had pulled our shades down and it was pitch black.  It was time for Dinner:

Bloody Mary - it's what's for dinner

I had to have my obligatory bloody mary and guys - this one was exceptional!  I far outpaced the small cut of beef I had.  I should have just had the prawn appetizer and then the cheese and fruit plate but I thought I would give the entree a try.  Yeah, no.

Anyway, it was back to watching a movie - two only on this flight unlike Seoul where I watched 5-6 on the flight to and from.  I think I listened to just about every type of music they had on board and learned that Hong Kong Pop is not my thing.  I read, and tried to sleep a bit more but no dice.

In the end, it was a great first leg to my trip.  I am in HK (at the Conrad - company hotel plug!) for only really 1 1/2 days and working most of that as is.  But the hotel is lovely and they upgraded me to the executive level which meant I checked in upstairs in the executive lounge.

It is now 4:03 PM which means it is 4:03 AM eastern and I can tell.  I am going to try to push it for another few hours keeping busy and having a bit of room service and then it is lights out for this person.  We get started mid-day tomorrow and then it is off to the races! I will post when I can this week and especially share any unique pictures or experiences I encounter...

Keep Flying Y'all!

Shelley