Landed After a 13 Hour Flight

Hehehe … knew you guys will try to guess where I was going to. Very interesting guesses!

The 13 hour flight was not too bad. I was so dead tired, I slept pretty much all the way there. Love the flight. Cathay Pacific (along with Singapore Airlines) is one of the best airlines according to my books.

I like their new entertainment system where they have 100 movies on demand. I managed to watch The King’s Speech, a show I missed when it was showing in the theatres. Then I watched 10 minutes of three other movies … fell asleep after just 10 minutes. In a way it is good I could sleep and so time passes faster.

IMG_1498

The flight landed at just after 6:30 AM in the morning. Can you guess where this airport is? Tall mountains in the background with super tall apartment buildings too.

Well … 

IMG_1496

… what about this one above. Can you recognize it too? I think some of you can recognize this airport. Let’s see who is the first one who get the right guess!

It’s the Hong Kong International Airport. Gosh, I hate this airport, it is so big and there is a serious lack of a people mover. They only have moving walkways.

Anyway, let me tell you a bit more about the flight.

IMG_1493

Like I said, I love the entertainment system. Besides the movies and TV shows, they have playable games too. Good thing they have Soduku because I like to spend my travelling time playing that.

It is a Boeing 777. They have a few other cool features on the system. One of them is showing the flight path in 3D. What I like a lot too is that they have a camera at the underside of the plane that you can see the land below it.

The one I am most happy with is that they have ab electrical outlet for every seat. Yeah, that helps if I wanted to do some work on the plane.

IMG_1465

For that 13 hours red eye flight, they serve two meals: a supper and a breakfast.

Hey tell me, is there a reason why flights from Vancouver to east Asia always start at ungodly hour? I am sure there is a logical explanation for it.

Anyway, the above is the supper.

IMG_1474

Awful, unappetizing looking salmon. It tastes OK. I wasn’t hungry because I just had congee with Suanne and so I ate about half the salmon and left the rest as it is.

IMG_1470IMG_1467

I felt the prawn in the salad did not taste fresh. It shouldn’t be like that as airline food has strict quality control. One of the prawns tasted stale and so I left the whole thing alone.

IMG_1480IMG_1476

At least the chocolate ice cream and the cookies saved the day.

IMG_1485

The breakfast was much better. There was a flaky croissant and some fresh cut fruits too.

IMG_1486

The congee was quite OK. Not quite like the one I had in Jubilant hours before.

Oh anyway … I gotta go again … they just announced the boarding.

Hehehe … all your guesses are wrong. My destination is NOT Hong Kong. Let me tell you too that it is not Singapore and it is not Taipei. Definitely not Hyderabad.

Anyone want to make more guesses? I won’t be surprised if no one will guess correctly. 🙂

This Post Has 33 Comments

  1. David

    Guangzhou…? and how did you manage to get Haagen Daz 🙁 I went on a flight in December(x-mas time) and i didnt get ice cream 🙁

    1. Ben

      Nope, not Guangzhou. I think not many people will guess right.

  2. Eric

    There’s actually a people mover (like a subway train) underground, but I guess your gate wasn’t far enough. As for reason why flights from Vancouver to east Asia always starts at ungodly hour: very simple. Because you get to arrive Hong Kong at 7am, and ready to start your business/work day. Alternatively you can choose the 2pm flight that leaves Vancouver, and arrive Hong Kong by 6/7pm.

  3. Eric

    Would your final destination be Chongqing…or…Bangkok?

    1. Ben

      Hi Eric: Now … Chingqing would be a place I would consider a culinary destination. But nope, not Chongqing, neither Bangkok. Ben

    2. Eric

      Manila or Ho Chi Minh? I’m starting to like this game 🙂

      1. Ben

        Hehehe … there is a reason why I say you will unlikely guess correctly. The “problem” was the stopover in Hong Kong which will make you not guess the place. 🙂 Ben

  4. Christine

    I was thinking Shanghai…..

    1. Ben

      Christine: Why did you think Shanghai? Ben

  5. Christine

    I just think that when I think culinary in Asia, I usually think HK or Shanghai, especially since its pretty big in Vancouver/Richmond, there’s practically some sort of Shanghainese restaurant around every corner. In addition, I think in terms of business, it is one of China’s main business centers (besides Beijing), but in terms of food, I don’t think Beijing, so I thought Shanghai

    1. Christine

      Sorry for the grammar…..11:30pm is not the ideal time to write a post with good grammar in it

  6. Eat. Travel. Eat!

    Actually I like the awkward flight hours, it’s very easy to adjust for me anyway to the new time zone like how Eric explained it. 🙂

    CX economy seafood choices are not very tasty, being slightly fishy usually in my past experience. I like to stick with the Asian choice for dinner (since it is CX after all) and the American choice usually for breakfast since it’s usually more filling.

    Guesses: Malaysia, India, Macau (but that’s not a plane flight away, only helicopter!)

  7. Lia

    I love Cathay Pacific mostly because I really like their ice cream bars. 🙂 They seem to serve the same meals over and over again….. I had that congee set 2 years ago.

    My guess is……Australia?

  8. LotusRapper

    I’m gonna guess Ben’s headed to India. Kolkata (nee Calcutta) or Mumbai.

  9. DD

    I would say… since u have a long history of transferring flights at weird locations when going on a business trip…. i’d say u would be going backwards and heading to Australia??

  10. DD

    oops… didnt read the post above mine…. so i’ll change my guess to new zealand then XD

  11. Po

    England. I traveled on CP before and they do England-HKG-wherever flights.

  12. zienpiggie

    I can’t help to contribute a guess. Dubai!!

  13. Eric

    If it’s a culinary tour, I’d say my hometown Penang. 😀

  14. Pinoy Gourmet

    No Brainer,Hong Kong Airport on Lantau Island,The backgound of high rises and high rises is a dead giveaway.There are advantages to having worked in the travel industry in the past

  15. Poecilia

    Hong Kong!!

  16. Pinoy Gourmet

    To the other readers Manila,Guangzhou,Dubai etc do not have Mountains in the background.Manila is distinct because of the squatter colonies around the airport as well as the small dinky terminal.Dubai has the desert,Guangzhou has the fields around it.Auckland is a small terminal without hundreds of gates ditto for Sydney.Another giveaway were the signs in Chinese in the terminal

  17. Pinoy Gourmet

    oops,Final destination,My Bad.Malaysia is my guess followed by somewhere in India like Bangladore or Chenai.

  18. BeefChowFun

    I don’t think it’s an east Asian or southeast Asian destination based on the fact that you ate comfort food before leaving Vancouver. I would guess Russia.

  19. Jean

    So congee for breakfast on Cathay Airlines. Wonder if it’s a regular breakfast thing for their flights. I’ll let my partner know –he’s flying out for the lst time to Taiwan (well to Asia for lst time) in a month.

    1. TimeToChow

      You partner will probably be flying Air China(which is based in Taiwan). Dont remember, but i dont think they have congee on their menu.

      1. Jean

        I think it’s Cathay Pacific. He looked into Air China.

  20. TimeToChow

    Where is the world is Ben? And,
    where in the world is Ben going to?
    A food mecca..?? So ur in HKG now but wont say where you are headed next. Only clue is that it is a food meeca. And it prob a destination that has to do with your work in the airport. Next destination could be anywhere, HKG is such a hub. Hmmmm…. Hard to put all the pieces together. So many places already suggested. But many have direct flight from YVR, so why stopover in HKG. Destinations mentioned with no direct flight are Singapore, HCMH, KL, errr Macau.
    There is a direct flight o India via Air China which takes a day in a plane!!
    Air Canada flies direct to Australia.

    I give up, I am looking forward to see what you will be eating!!! 😀

    CX does serve congee on their flight for breakfast. As does Philippines airline(IIRC to Las Vegas) though the topping’s are different. At least that was the case many years ago. I’ve made humongous batches of the gruel that they serve on the flights aeons ago. The use the same congee base and top it with the requirements of the flights.

  21. Chaozu

    I’m thinking Indonesia? 😛

  22. Oliver

    Singapore!

  23. HM

    My guess: Jakarta

    1. HM

      I meant your destination is Jakarta, or isn’t it?? Hmmm….perhaps it could be Melbourne…

  24. Peter

    Has anyone guessed Shanghai?

Leave a Reply