The flight with Air Asia was fine. All our reservations about flying long haul
with a low cost airline were unfounded. Yes, there was no entertainment unless
you paid, and yes, if you paid the entertainment was limited, but all in all the
flight wasn’t bad…..in fact, at £100 a pop it was great value. We were lucky
to be able to sleep most of the way so the 12.5 hours did go very quickly.
Plus, curry for breakfast……..welcome to Asia!!

Once in KL we soon found ourselves in The Tune Hotel with our tiny, tiny room.
Funny, when we arrived the lady next door was sat outside trying to make sense
of her luggage and trying desperately to make it fit into the room along with
her husband and small child.

It’s good to be back in Asia……food court ambience of plastic chairs,
fluorescent lighting, echoing sounds and just the general hustle and bustle of
Asia. We both slept well again until about 03.00 a.m. when the jet lag played
its games. No problem, the remains of the bottle of duty free scotch soon sent
us back to sleep until the alarm got us up for the 07.00 a.m. flight to Hong
Kong.

We had checked in on line and so, still very sleepy, we arrived for the flight
with a minimum of time available. Straight upstairs and it wasn’t until we got
to security that we remembered that we had not been to baggage drop. Another
one of those “Oh sh*t” moments! Back down and through passport control “please,
we forgot baggage, is it OK to go back through?” We shot off to baggage drop and
finally got back to security in time but with one of the funniest moments yet.

We chose what looked like the shortest queue. However it soon ground to a halt
as a little Asian guy was sent back through the scanner 4 times before finally
emptying his pockets of all objects. His bag was then opened and the bemused
security guy pulled out a long metal tube followed by a huge plastic container.
It was an industrial strength garden sprayer! The security guy got up and went
across to show his boss what he had found. Eventually he returned to his post,
still grinning, and told the little guy he would have to have his bag checked
in. Now, why would you want to take an industrial sprayer into the cabin?
Answers on a postcard, or suggestions on the message board please.

Four hours later we arrived in Hong Kong and found our way to our hostel. Like
a lot of guesthouses in HK it consists of converted individual apartments spread
within an old crumbling tenement block of 16 storeys. Now, we had heard that HK
has the most expensive real estate in the world, and we had booked a budget room
for £23/night so we had low expectations. Our expectations were met, we had a
double room measuring 2.5 metres square, but it has a bathroom, it is clean, it
has a window (see pic for the view), and thankfully, as we are on the 13th
floor, it has full fire safety equipment.

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We spent the afternoon queuing for our China visas, treated ourselves to an
‘Affluent Tea Set’ (because we are worth it), and finished the day with two
large bowls of noodle soup plus a beer all for 85HKD which is about £7. Pretty
damn cheap for one of the most expensive cities in the world.

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