notzac's Asian Destination - a weekend to remember!

[notzac]

One TR as promised:

I was looking for somewhere a little international to celebrate a milestone - Prague was my first choice, but my impressions of what it would cost were apparently seriously out of whack with reality. Sweet Jebus that place is expensive! Fearing for my bank balance, I settled on Hong Kong - Asia's World City and my first ever international destination at somewhere around 16 months old, so it was somehow appropriate that I go back to from whence the travel addiction came…

Planning began in earnest somewhere around December last year. I made the decision to buy the plane tickets on points - I'd been saving them for a RTW in J, but that can wait for another time. Travelling in style was definitely in order, so I started looking for F redemptions to HKG. At that stage, QF29 MEL/HKG still had reasonable availability in F .. figuring I had a reasonable chance of getting the flights I wanted, I started researching hotels. Sadly the W Hotel wanted way too much of the folding stuff, so that will have to be an experience for another time - however their being too expensive may have been somewhat of a silver lining, as it put me on to the Mira Hotel. All the reviews I was able to find rated the property as being pretty decent, and my travel agent noted that there was a decent special through Qantas Holidays.... sold!

By the time I got back around to booking flights, of course, F availability was gone. There was J, and 16A was most definitely available on my chosen flight - one online booking and 60000 points later, I get to finally travel upper deck on a 744!

Or so I thought. You see, QF decided that they weren't going to sell F on my flight after all, and seat 1A for J points sounded like a v good idea to me.. while I was organising to swap seats, a v friendly QF premium desk staffer found me a J redemption on CX coming back through ADL on the day I wanted - I was originally going to fly QF back until I found out what the departure time was scheduled to be; going to the airport at my least favourite time of day (and almost certainly accessorised with a monster hangover) sounded like a Bad Idea Indeed.

So. Fast forward a few months, past all the boring bits (mostly related to co-ordinating a bunch of family and friends to come along for the ride - I pity travel agents, I really do), and we're ready to go .. flatmate + me + sister + sisters boyfriend all booked on party flight QF29 up to HKG!

We decided that booking a car out to the airport would be in-keeping with the theme of the evening; a Mercedes Benz with an only slightly obnoxious driver turned up to ferry us out .. however in no time at all, we were all at the F check-in area and ready to go. The check in agent was able to find a couple spa treatments for us, with the gotcha that one of them was starting in 5 minutes..! After bags were dumped, flatmate bolted for C&I to make it in time. Those of us left behind took a more leisurely stroll up to the always wonderful concierge staff at the FLounge; we "were expected", and congratulations were offered for the upcoming celebrations as well!

 

[notzac]

So. On to the restaurant area, and in no time a fresh bottle of the Taittinger Brut NV was opened, glasses were filled and menus distributed. I've probably already typed far too much, so I'll let the pictures do some of the talking:

Entree of three tomato salad with buffalo mozzarella

Main of field mushroom and pea risotto
(presentation not so hot, but boy did it taste good)

Surprise fruit platter - "compliments of the kitchen"

Dessert of passionfruit curd tart
(w/ dessert wine to match, a Botrytis Semillon IIRC)
​

Next up - notes on my first flight in "First"!

 

[djfuzz]

Happy birthday! Awesome pics, and hope you enjoyed the upper deck.

One of your fellow travelers was also WP right? Or were you able guest three?

 

[Bundy Bear]

Happy birthday! Awesome pics, and hope you enjoyed the upper deck.

One of your fellow travelers was also WP right? Or were you able guest three?

The flatmate is WP and an AFF member. I will let either of them to say who it is.

Great report so far, especially when it involves a bit of Flounging.

 

[bossreggie]

Next up - notes on my first flight in "First"!

Oooo Notzac...... I HATE these TR's... I'm so jealous. I can't seem to write anything interesting in mine. Hurry up with the rest of it!!

Shaun

 

[Grooba]

Great read so far.
Keep going.... KEEP GOING!

 

[albatross710]

I am jealous and he hasn't even got on the aircraft yet.

 

[Keith009]

Niiiice pics!

 

[notzac]

Being only too aware that I was not entitled to a First seat based on the fare purchased, I was quite anxious in the days leading up to the flight .. to the point of checking that my seat reservation and aircraft type hadn't changed multiple times every day, though I'd deny doing so to anyone else...

Fortunately for me, there was no change to the operating metal or seat allocation. At around 10:30 with massages completed and possibly too much good food and champagne consumed :!:, we all rolled down the escalator from the lounge and off to the gate area, ready to board...:

[size=+1]QF29 MEL/HKG[/size]
Date: 19/05/2010
Metal: B744 (unsure of rego)
Seat: 1A

Being invited to turn left at the aircraft door never loses its novelty.. I was welcomed on board and pointed to my seat; first impression was that of a lovely cozy cabin with ultra ultra plush carpeting and perhaps a little too much woodgrain for my taste. I was already aware of the limitations of OHB space for 1A and 1K, so I'd packed a smaller bag that fortunately neatly fit under the ottoman.

Once I removed the mountain of blankets, pillows, amenity kits, headphones and got myself arranged in the ultra comfy seat, a FA came by to enquire if I was thirsty. Thirsty? Try parched! The view from my seat once suitable liquid refreshments had been arranged:

I'd previously read that 1A and 1K can seem claustrophobic due to the curvature of the plane, but it was perfectly fine by me. You can't see any of the other pax, so the level of privacy is sensational. The seat and cabin both seem a little dated now, but you can definitely tell that it's the First cabin of a properly good airline - so it somehow doesn't matter so much.

When looking out the window from 1A, you're almost looking forwards - taking off was slightly odd as I could see the runway vanishing under me through the window. We made it to the business end of the runway mostly on time and take off was relatively smooth, up to cruising altitude where more food and importantly - even more booze awaited!

Sadly, this is where things went downhill. Being a vego I'd ordered a SPML, which is a coughshoot at the best of times on QF:

Supper of dry, gluggy fettucine and new potatoes with something that could be napoli sauce if you squinted really hard, a "Neil Perry special" salad and a stale bread roll with unspreadable butter​

Perhaps not quite how the menu would put it, though that's certainly what it should have read. The wine was at least drinkable (an Aussie Riesling IIRC), but the rest was plain awful. I'd already eaten too much food anyway, so I had the tray taken away - fortunately, dessert number 2 was a significant improvement:

Dessert of vanilla bean and coffee ice cream with coffee crunch (not sure how else you'd describe it), accompanied by fresh Grinders coffee​

After dessert I felt that more champagne was in order, despite having already well and truly reached an "advanced state of refreshment".. after finishing a glass I put the seat in to bed mode and was asleep in almost no time at all.

I woke up just before brekkie feeling mightily refreshed and pleasantly un-hungover ... unfortunately, I always forget to order enough to eat, so this is all that came out:

Breakfast of juice, Grinders coffee and croissant with jam​

I wasn't hugely hungry in any case, but an extra round of coffee was definitely in order (and perhaps a breakfast champagne or two )! Descending in to HKG took us through a massive storm front - you know you're in for a rough ride when the PIC gets on the tannoy and instructs everyone in no uncertain terms to take their seats immediately! It wasn't the worst turbulence I've been in, but it was certainly up there .. the weirdest part of it all was hearing the heavy rain against the nose of the plane; it sounded similar to being under a tin roof in a big storm.

Soon enough we'd descended below the storm for a fairly smooth landing (again with seeing the runway approaching through the window), and made it to the terminal slightly ahead of schedule. We walked ... and walked and walked ... to the baggage claim area, which took a little while to get going but saw all of our bags come out at the same time, in the first few minutes after baggage started being delivered to the carousel. Priority baggage that actually works!

Customs and immigration was quick and painless, then a short wander to the taxi queue for a ride to the Mira Hotel in Tsim Sha Tsui.

Overall thoughts? Love the seat, but it's definitely showing its' age. The silence in the cabin is lovely -- quite similar to the forward J cabin (and presumably the F cabin) in the A380. Ground service at MEL was excellent as always. In-air service was good, but lacked the warmth and down-to-earth friendliness that I've previously experienced on QF. Catering was a serious disappointment.

Up next - first impressions of the hotel!

 

[MelUser]

Thoroughly enjoyed your report so far!

 

[anat0l]

Now I see what you were fed on-board, I'm not too surprised why you were disappointed!

Potatoes with fettuccine? Come on..... I've had some good vegetarian pastas before, however, so not sure why QF could screw up this one (not enough veggies)...

The fish I had on my flight to HKG (in A330-300 J) seems much better. (But of course that's not vegetarian).

I really think QF should copy other airlines, and have at least one vegetarian option on the menu which is a standard choice (i.e. you do not need to order it specially). OK there aren't a lot of other airlines that do this, but there are those that do...

Then again, it was rather just supper. At least you had MEL T2 FL to fill you up. BNE I lounges don't feature a lot (and otherwise you have to pay for pretty average food in the terminal).

Apart from that, great TR so far. Keep it rollin'!

 

[notzac]

So, after a long time between drinks - the next installment!

Seeing as there were 4 of us -- 2 of whom had had almost no sleep on the flight and all of whom had mostly run out of happy, we wandered over to the taxi rank and got two taxis in to TST. Sure, the MTR would have been cheaper but no one was in the mood (though for future trips I'll certainly be making the effort).. I didn't actually realise that the airport was a fair distance from the city, so I was surprised at the length of time the cab took.

We all piled out at the Mira Hotel and walked in to the marvelously air-conditioned and dimly-lit foyer. First impressions count for a bit, and I was definitely impressed! Attempts to check-in failed, but that's hardly surprising at 7 in the morning. The desk agent offered an upgrade to a suite that he could check in straight away, but at AUD100 extra a night .. pass.

Sister + boyfriend wandered up the road to see if they could check in to their hotel; flatmate and myself stayed to soak up the aircon and wait for friends to come down and fetch us (they'd checked in a few days prior). We were up in their room shortly thereafter, enjoying breakfast G+Ts and I got to open a birthday present early (everyone was under strict "no presents" instructions, but that got ignored by a few):

Hello.. ​

A few drinks and catching up later, drama ensues when I get a message from my sister's boyfriend to contact them urgently - and of course, I can't. Neither of them are answering their phone and I couldn't find them at their hotel or anywhere in the area. I finally found them back in the foyer of the Mira Hotel just as we were going for breakfast; of course, they'd both forgotten to activate roaming and I'd already swapped to my HK SIM - so no one could call anyone else. Fun! It turned out that they couldn't check in either, so they'd decided to try to find us instead.

After a leisurely buffet breakfast (which was yum!), sister + boyfriend went to try checking in again and we went back to our friends room to get sorted. They were going for a suit fitting, so I decided to join them to get measured up as well. After walking past at least 9000 touts on Nathan Road, we finally made it to the tailors shop and I went through the process of selecting materials, choosing suit styles and getting first measurements. Actually quite a fun process! Back to the hotel and now able to check in .. first impressions of my own room:

​

V nice furnishings and layout! The room looked out on to Kowloon Park - I was a little concerned at how much light was coming in to the room, but the curtains put paid to that quite effectively. The bathroom (not really pictured above - you can sort of see it in the second photo) consisted of shower with both waterfall and regular showerhead, separate bath and button operated blinds for privacy while in the bathroom (the only thing otherwise separating it from the rest of the room was a glass wall). Reasonable selection of amenities; the bottles are never big enough but that's nothing unique. King bed = very comfy, Egg chair was also comfy and is a genuine article..! Loads of other gizmos and gadgets -- lights in the room can be set to various moods, flatscreen TV came with a Sony VIAO media centre thingy that also allowed Interwebs browsing. Oh, and the wireless was both fast and free

Moar coming soon!

 

[QF029]

Moar coming soon!

it must be a big next installment!

 

[notzac]

Yeah .. I got no excuses for this one. I'm particularly good at forgetting to finish TRs it seems...

 

[Princess Fiona]

Missed this when you first posted.
A great read and photos

 

[drron]

Yeah .. I got no excuses for this one. I'm particularly good at forgetting to finish TRs it seems...

It was just a very looooong weekend.We understand.

 

[QF029]

Missed this when you first posted.
A great read and photos

I agree. It was a good read (while it lasted).

 

[notzac]

I agree. It was a good read (while it lasted).

A quick summary of the return flight - I came back with CX in J; a lovely flight, fabulous service and seemingly unending champagne .. I [-]passed out[/-] closed my eyes for a little shut eye after dinner service and woke just as the cabin crew were preparing for descent in to ADL. I found out the hard way just how unpleasant the stop in ADL is; you're in a glass box for 90 minutes with no refreshments or anything of any kind until it's time to re-board for the trip over to MEL. I'll be making a point of not taking that flight again :-/

I'll be repeating the journey in just a few weeks, though no QF for me this time - all on CX (on direct flights, thankyou very much!) I'll also be staying at Hotel ICON (Tsim Sha Tsui New Business Design Hotel - Hotel ICON), which looks like several different kinds of awesome. Can't wait!

 

[notzac]

Here's a couple photos:

[size=-2]

Entrance to The Wing

PDB! I forget what they were pouring, but it wasn't that memorable..

The view from my 'coffin'

Din-din .. fairly plain, but perfectly edible

Just about to board at ADL on the way back to MEL
[/size]​