Malaysia Journal

September 22,2004

And for some reason a 11PM red-eye flight to Vancouver seemed to be awfully full, for a flight that lands at 2AM. It seems like a lot of people got off and there were a few empty seats on the leg from Vancouver to Hong Kong. Since I’m in the bulkhead exit row, I do have the extra legroom, but it’s also next to the bathroom, and there’s an odd stench coming from it already. For the entire 15 hours I don’t even say a word to the man sitting next to me.

What happend to Tuesday? I survive the flight, watching a lot more movies… over and over. Idiotic, the dubbing on Shrek 2 is in Japanese. I was hoping to watch it in Cantonese. I avoid both Troy, and Harry Potter.

We land in Hong Kong. I stumble off the plane. Exhausted, I start to wander around the terminal. I haven’t been in Hong Kong in ten years. Perhaps I should have stayed all day and explored the city. Oh well, there simply seems to be a reassurance to getting off the plane after 20+ hours. I’ve got about an hour to wander around the airport. I no longer have a pass to the lounge, so I have to entertain myself some other way. I look at the typical mall, with name brand luxury goods, duty free stores and a cafeteria. I reach into my bag and pull out a couple of 10 year old bills, mumble “wan dan jook” at one of the snack stands, hand over HK$40, and hope that I got what I expected. I look around a bit and it’s reassuring. Yet it’s still like sitting in a big airport, and I overpaid for a bowl of porridge.

I’ve only taken one other flight on Cathay Pacific. An ironic flight from Fukuoka to Taipei. I remembered it being okay, and quite empty. The trans pacific flight didn’t live up to it. But the HK-KL portion was different, it was pretty empty. So I take up two seats.

I look at the meal, and for some reason even though served in the same plastic ware that they’d served my last, for some reason on this flight it seems better. Asian vegetarian. This time the meal looks quite appealing. Siu-mai, and har gaw. Wow, I’ve never had asian vegetarian , usually there’s pork, shrimp or both in dumplings like that. Not quite gyoza, but I should have had my camera to take a picture of it. Perhaps because this one was prepared in Hong Kong.

We’ll just have to see what KL is like.

September 21,2004