Wed 7 March
Today we were flying to Hanoi with Vietnam airlines. We weren't going to make the same mistakes with the escalators and luggage that we'd made coming out! We'd checked out where the lifts were on a previous trip through causeway bay and headed to the correct entrance. It made life so much easier!
At the change over at Central we again used the lifts to move to the airport express line. One of the really nice things about flying out of Hong Kong is that you can check in your luggage in the middle of town before boarding the train to the airport. It means that if you want to spend some time shopping or exploring you can unencumbered with luggage and then go straight to security when you are ready for your flight.so that's what we did.
At the airport we first went to customer services and cashed in our Octopus cards. Jono had gone into his $50 buffer slightly, mine was just in credit. As the money comes back as cash and we no longer needed $ we just changed them for Vietnamese dong before going through security and heading for the lounge.
Sky team lounge was nice and quiet. One of the differences in the Asian lounges to western ones is the mainly savoury food. Very little in the way of desserts. Dessert is not really a thing in Asia (massive generalisation here of course). There was actually a chef cooking individual meals for people. Jono had a wonton soup cooked for him. I went for the salads.
The flight was slightly delayed by about 30 minutes. Its a 321 and slightly old fashioned. The seats were mechanically adjusted so the footrest didn't come up as much as I would have liked and there wasn't a tv screen, business pack or entertainment. Having said that, the seats were comfy and it was only an hour and 45 minute flight.
We were expecting a light refreshment to be served but what we got felt like a full meal. Orange juice or water served as soon as we were on board and then the meal once we were airborne. The food was delicious. Definitely 5 star food. Neither of us could finish it, this was our third meal of the day and it was only two thirty!
Our bags were already on the carousel as we cleared immigration even though we had been able to use sky priority channels. It felt weird drawing out millions of dong from the cash machine yet it was only worth £100. There are of course a range of options to get from the airport. The cheapest has to be the number 86 bus. Leave the airport building turn left and then cross the taxi lane, there is a bus stop sign saying 86. We missed it at first as when we had asked, tourist information had just said turn left. Doing this does take you to a bus station but for the 90 bus which is just a local one. We back tracked and found the right place. It goes every 25 minutes and has a place for luggage. It cost 30 000 dong for the one hour journey, that's less than a pound each and the conductor understands English. Our hotel (Hilton Opera) is not a regular stop but the bus dropped us right outside, we just let the conductor know where we were going and they let us off where we needed to be. He also helped with the luggage.
By the time we had booked in it was 17:30 and we had booked a street food walking tour to start at 18:00 with the free walking tours which use university students training to be in the tourist industry as guides. Unfortunately our guide did not show and although we were offered another one by the company when we contacted them it would have been 19:00 before we would have set off which was a 22:00 finish time. Far too late as we had an early start the next morning, our body clocks thought it was an hour later and to be honest neither of us was remotely hungry.
Instead we explored the hotel and went for a swim in the pool, a relax in the jacuzzi and a sauna. The hotel delivered a welcome gift of a platter of fruit which made the perfect light supper before bed.
At the airport we first went to customer services and cashed in our Octopus cards. Jono had gone into his $50 buffer slightly, mine was just in credit. As the money comes back as cash and we no longer needed $ we just changed them for Vietnamese dong before going through security and heading for the lounge.
Sky team lounge was nice and quiet. One of the differences in the Asian lounges to western ones is the mainly savoury food. Very little in the way of desserts. Dessert is not really a thing in Asia (massive generalisation here of course). There was actually a chef cooking individual meals for people. Jono had a wonton soup cooked for him. I went for the salads.
The flight was slightly delayed by about 30 minutes. Its a 321 and slightly old fashioned. The seats were mechanically adjusted so the footrest didn't come up as much as I would have liked and there wasn't a tv screen, business pack or entertainment. Having said that, the seats were comfy and it was only an hour and 45 minute flight.
We were expecting a light refreshment to be served but what we got felt like a full meal. Orange juice or water served as soon as we were on board and then the meal once we were airborne. The food was delicious. Definitely 5 star food. Neither of us could finish it, this was our third meal of the day and it was only two thirty!
 |
| my seafood meal preordered |
 |
| legroom was ok but definitely tighter than our other flights |
Our bags were already on the carousel as we cleared immigration even though we had been able to use sky priority channels. It felt weird drawing out millions of dong from the cash machine yet it was only worth £100. There are of course a range of options to get from the airport. The cheapest has to be the number 86 bus. Leave the airport building turn left and then cross the taxi lane, there is a bus stop sign saying 86. We missed it at first as when we had asked, tourist information had just said turn left. Doing this does take you to a bus station but for the 90 bus which is just a local one. We back tracked and found the right place. It goes every 25 minutes and has a place for luggage. It cost 30 000 dong for the one hour journey, that's less than a pound each and the conductor understands English. Our hotel (Hilton Opera) is not a regular stop but the bus dropped us right outside, we just let the conductor know where we were going and they let us off where we needed to be. He also helped with the luggage.
 |
| on the 86 bus |
By the time we had booked in it was 17:30 and we had booked a street food walking tour to start at 18:00 with the free walking tours which use university students training to be in the tourist industry as guides. Unfortunately our guide did not show and although we were offered another one by the company when we contacted them it would have been 19:00 before we would have set off which was a 22:00 finish time. Far too late as we had an early start the next morning, our body clocks thought it was an hour later and to be honest neither of us was remotely hungry.
Instead we explored the hotel and went for a swim in the pool, a relax in the jacuzzi and a sauna. The hotel delivered a welcome gift of a platter of fruit which made the perfect light supper before bed.
 |
| hotel pool |
 |
| jacuzzi to ourselves |
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