Hong Kong Adventures: Hong Kong Day 44 -- Heading Home

This morning I woke up at 6 (6am Tuesday in HK, 3pm Monday in CA) to finish getting ready and to head down to the airport. We walked over to a bus stop to catch the “airport express” bus. It is a city bus, similar to the others, but it has a bit of extra space for luggage. It also only makes a few stops so it gets there pretty quick. I was planning on taking a cab to the Kowloon MTR station and then take the airport express MTR, but decided that this would be easier. The MTR allows you to check in at the station and they can take your baggage but they also charge for the service. This was the main reason I was thinking of taking the MTR, but Samantha had mentioned the bus, and after looking into it, the bus seemed to be the better option. I am really glad that I took it, there was a nice view of Hong Kong from the bus, I could see the mountains and parts of the city as well as the bay.

The bus stopped right outside the terminal, so I was able to just walk in and go to the counter to check in. I had checked in online last night so all I had to do was drop off the luggage and get my boarding passes. There weren’t too many people at the airport so security was really quick and then I went in to get some breakfast while I waited for the plane. I had some money left on my Octopus card (the card used for all public transportation) so I used that to buy breakfast. I got porridge, shrimp dumplings, and pork pastries. It was only around $7 US for all of that. After eating I headed down to the gate to wait to board the plane. We boarded and then headed to Tokyo, a 4 hour or so flight. The flight from Hong Kong to Tokyo was with ANA and they had TV screens on the back of the seat in front. It had movies, TV shows, music, and a map of where the plane was and a camera from the front of the plane. There was also a video game controller and they had a few games that you could choose from.

We landed in Tokyo, and had to take shuttles to the terminal. Once we got to the terminal we went through security and then were able to head to our gates. I waited in a line for connecting flights, something that I'm not sure I had to do, because once I got to the counter she said that she would reprint the boarding pass. After finishing with that, I stopped by a shop in the airport and picked up a couple of things. I was planning to get some food, but the line took a long time, so I didn't end up having time. We got food on the flight, so it was fine to not get any. The flight from Tokyo to SFO was about 9 hours long and was really smooth. I watched a few movies during the flight, Wreck It Ralph, Admission, and Monsters Inc. Tried to sleep some also, but I wasn't really able to, so I just watched a bunch of movies.

Got to SFO and headed down to customs. Getting through customs was really quick and easy, there were quite a few people, but there were also a lot of agents checking everyone. Went over to baggage claim after customs, and waited for the luggage to come out. There were a lot of bags out, and there were two big flights on the carousel so there were airport employees taking some bags off and putting them on the floor. It took some time for our flight to start coming out, but my bags were pretty early, so it wasn't too long of a wait. Got my bags and then headed out to get picked up.

Mom picked me up, and then we went to see Uncle Brad, Mia, and Reece for a bit on the way home. It was really fun to see them, and I even got a burger that totally hit the spot!! We spent some time there for a while, and I was able to play some games with Mia and Reece. We headed home after a couple of hours in Pacifica. Fresh/raw food and salads aren't very common in Hong Kong, I had 2 salads the whole time, so I was really craving some fresh food, and also some bread. We went to Sweet Tomatoes for dinner, and I definitely got my money's worth. I had 2 big plates of salad, a couple of bowls of soup, some bread and muffins, and also tapioca pudding for dessert. It all totally hit the spot, and tasted so good. We got home and I watched the Giants game for a little while, but I had been awake for a long time so I was having trouble staying awake. I went to bed at 9:30, had been awake for 30 hours, with 17 of that on the airplane or between flights.