We had a horrendous trip Thursday but all is well now. We arrived at the Shantou airport at 7:30 a.m. and left for Hong Kong on schedule at 9:20 a.m. But then we had to hold over HK cause of "adverse weather conditions", a Typhoon Warning 1 and finally had to turn back to Shantou. Then we had to wait in the airport with one delay after another. Then at 2 p.m. they tell us that the flight will take off at 10 !!!!! Almost everyone left to find other ways to get to where they were headed. This did not look good for the rest of us since the airline couldn't guarantee the 10 o'clock flight would actually take off.
Unbelievably, Don and I went through a similar thing last year around this time. We were heading for Beijing but ended up waiting 12 hours at the airport. It makes things ten times worse when the airline can't or won't tell people what's going on AND we don't understand the announcements. Thankfully, this time we met some very nice fellow passengers who speak Mandarin and English! Thanks to our angel Amy, we found out that the airline was arranging to take us to a hotel to rest and feed us dinner. With a few more misadventures and more delays along the way, we finally left Shantou for good at 9 p.m. - ahead of schedule :)
We eventually arrived at the hotel here in HK at 11 p.m. The flight to HK was only supposed to be 40 minutes but after a 12 hour delay, we arrived exhausted and relieved.
We have been enjoying lazy days here at the hotel. There is a great East / West buffet here that we are thoroughly enjoying for breakfast. There is lots of napping and a bit of shopping for me since the hotel is attached to an outlet mall. Lucky for Don, the stores are mostly high end so I'm only window shopping. Besides, we have no room in our luggage for anything big or heavy. We are almost at the weight limit now but I could always make a few of Don's things disappear :)
We are leaving tomorrow to head back to Ottawa. We have decided to return for the short term. Don't know what's in the future yet but will definitely be job hunting. Back to "real" life???
C u soon!
J xoxo
