(click on collage to enlarge photos)

Five AM in the morning we are picked up by our pre-arranged shuttle. Bleary-eyed and slightly comatose, I offer to help load the luggage. No help needed! I crawl into the back seat while Paul and the driver hoist the big'uns into the trunk space. I want to go right back to sleep, but I fight it, figuring there will be time enough for a long nap on the 15 hour flight to Hong Kong - after the 2.5 hour flight to San Francisco!

At the airport, the lines are mercifully short. We rid ourselves of our massive suitcases at check-in, and join the line at security. This too goes fast and fine! Time for a bit of a nosh! I seem to get the urge to eat a huge meal every time I am in an airport - and it is usually breakfast, which I rarely eat at home! What do you make of that?

Finally...boarding time. Our UA flight to San Fran is packed! Two and a bit hours and a pleasant flight later, we're in San Francisco, waiting for our HK connection at 11:55 AM. On time.

We settle in for a nice long ride. Five hours into the trip I've watched 3 movies! Time to sleep.

At 6:45 PM the next day, we land at HK's new airport (photo collage: above), an incredible piece of achitecture - on Lantau Island, and board the Airport Express train to Hong Kong (Victoria Island) Central. This is our first experience with a totally 'user-friendly' airport facility! What a pleasure! From the moment you get off the airplane to the moment you reach Hong Kong, travel is made easy for you. It starts with the free carts, which, by the way, are twice the size of any we have used in North America, and can easily handle our massive pieces of luggage.

It's 4:30 in the morning and we drag ourselves out of bed. We're totally packed - two 50 lb. suitcases and two carry-ons - and by 5:00 AM when our airport shuttle arrives, we are ready to go! Tired, excited, ready to go!

Our United Airlines flight takes us to San Francisco (3 hrs. 59 min.), and from San Francisco (4 hr. lay-over) we board another UA flight (14 hrs. 30 min.) to Hong Kong. ETA-HK is 6:45 PM (with time differences - the following day!).

For our South America cruise in 2007, we flew overnight to Buenos Aires. I think I prefer to spend 8 hours of a 14.5 hour flight sleeping. There's only so much reading, conversing, working, watching movies that one can do in (almost) 15 hours; the rest of the time one is trying to doze, or eating, or drinking. A long daytime flight seems to me much tougher on the body than a long night-time flight. What do you think?

We were, nevertheless, as comfortable as one could possibly be on a 14.5 hour flight, because I 'carried on' all the little comforts - eyepatches, blow-up back pillows and neck supports, earplugs, earphones, blankets. We were even equipped with our own miniature necklace air-purifiers!

So...14.5 hours later - 6:45 PM - we arrive in Hong Kong!

What an airport! Talk about 'people-friendly!'