For the first time in the past 5 years, I didn't book my flight directly with the airline, but with booking.com together with my hotels.
Big mistake, because booking contracts the flights out to what can only be described as the bottom of the barrel in terms of OTA's (Online Travel Agents). About a week before departure I got an email telling me my return flight got cancelled and if I wanted to accept the alternative provided.
It was a bit more cumbersome, and instead of a Cathay Pacific flight, it was a Swiss. Not really comparable, but at least I would have gotten home.
Now I think they managed to forget to actually notify the airline about the confirmation, because I didn't get new tickets issued and on the day of departure I got a message telling me the airline could not provide a return flight and I could only accept a refund of the money.
This was about two hours before boarding, so fun times indeed.
I "resolved" the issue myself by booking return tickets and am now in a fight with the OTA to get my money back. If all else fails it'll be a chargeback on the credit card, I mean what else am I paying for otherwise.
Anyway, the part of the flight they did manage to actually get me tickets for was pretty good, in both cases the middle seat was empty, so lots of legroom and I slept most of the 11 hours from Frankfurt to Hong Kong.
I arrived in Hong Kong at around seven in the morning and took it easy getting out of the airport. First some coffee, money, sim-card etc. And I took the bus instead of the train, which took about half an hour extra as well.
This meant arriving at the hotel around 10:00 in the morning, and not expecting anything I proceeded to check in. All the people in front of me were sent away until later in the afternoon, because their rooms weren't available yet. But somehow mine was.
This was great, because I really dreaded the thought of spending 5 more hours without a bed to lay down for a bit.
After a shower and a nap, I explored the neighbourhood and had beef brisket and flat noodles for dinner.
A little while later I made another lap through the neighbourhood to see it in the dark.
A lot of classic Hong Kong neon has disappeared, but there are still a few pockets left, and it looks amazing.
Now it's time for another shower and a good nights rest.
