After some experiences at Mumbai International Airport (we paid 7 CHF for a 50 meters luggage-transportation; security check was not worth the name; lounge was dark with some broken lights, providing a “disco” feeling 🙂 ), we had a nice overnight flight with JetAirways: Business Class seats in fishbone configuration: full flat seats and good service.
In Hong Kong we stayed at Holiday Inn Express (Causeway Bay): small, but OK, rooms, centrally located and service as expected. Hong Kong was our last chance to get a visa for Australia (well, to get Rene a tourist visa, as Michelle was granted hers already during our stay in India), as we planned almost everything for 123 days of travelling round the world, but had overseen the requirement to apply for an online visa for “down under”…thanks to the support and effort by the Australian embassy in Hong Kong, we got the visa 48 hrs before departure to Sydney.
Hong Kong was a very positive experience: clean, organized, reasonably priced (e.g. least expensive Apple products in the world, but still not at the bargain level) and full of sights. Despite the fact, that we will be back in HK for another 5 days, Michelle managed to organize “Complete Hong Kong by foot in 2 days” 🙂 … we did The Park, The Peak, The Botanical Gardens, The Star Ferry, Kowloon and China Town. We also created a new version of dumplings, when Michelle dropped hers into the tea cup, trying to manage the little slimy wonton with chop sticks.
We left HK by China Eastern Airlines, flying to Sydney via Shanghai. Again, surprisingly positive: good service, Western and Chinese style food selection and almost flat lie seats (inflight entertainment system offered an excellent choice) for our 10.5 hrs overnight flight. We almost managed to leave on time in Shanghai, despite the fact, that 3 A330 planes (= 1’000 passengers) got boarded at the same time through the same gate: “organized chaos”!
…Sydney, here we come!
Pics of the day (in addition to our video, we posted few days back):
Round the World 2012 / 2013 