We woke up very early (3am) to get a taxi we had reserved the night before to Haneda Airport. Too early for train service we really didn't have much of a choice. Our flight to Hong Kong was departing at 6:20am. The taxi was waiting when we got downstairs after finishing up packing and getting cleaned and dressed. I checked out and we got in the taxi and rode to the airport. I think it took about 45 minutes or so to get there. The taxi cost us about 9700 yen which is about$97. We checked in on the 3rd floor which I thought was an odd level for departures. It required us to take an elevator with the luggage cart. The check in was a touch confused. We had to add a bag and they were very nice and made sure we paid the least rate we'd have to for checked luggage. I appreciated that. The flight was on Hong Kong Express Airlines which is a budget airline that may be an offshoot of Hong Kong Airlines as they were using a Hong Kong Airlines plane. After check in we headed through security then on to immigration and both were quick. At the gate we waited only a little while and we were boarding. They used a general boarding style. There is no fare other than economy class so there was just one boarding group. We got on and did manage to find space in the overhead. The seats were very close together and my knees were almost touching the seat in front of me even without that seat reclined. Still the staff was friendly and nice. They didn't serve free beverages but to be honest, we both slept through almost the entire flight.
We disembarked and had to take a bus to the main terminal area where went through immigration which looked like a terribly long line but moved quickly anyway and it was only a few minutes till we were through. From there we got our checked baggage then walked through customs without any issues. We found our way to the taxi stand and took an urban taxi to the hotel. It cost us $253HK which I think is about $37 or so. We checked into the hotel and our room was ready because we were on the Royal Club Floor as I was last time I was here. We checked in downstairs because upstairs was busy but technically we should have checked in upstairs on the 19th floor where our room 1972 would be. I thought the English name of the guy that checked us in was funny because it said, "Kanny." Anyway Daniela was exhausted and took a nap right away. I got stuff situated then had a coffee and some cookies in the club lounge and started writing blog entries.
We relaxed for a little while then walked into the mall and got oriented. We decided to try to have lunch in the mall and found the Food Opera food court. Inside Daniela got a fresh mango juice then I found a place called Pepper Lunah. There we had pepper beef rice dishes, though we tried to order Daniela a chicken dish they gave us beef anyway. I liked it a lot. The dish was a cast iron plate that was super heated to cook everything. There was a lot of black pepper in the food and it was very spicy. I ate all of mine and most of Daniela's beef as well. After the meal we went shopping briefly at Yata, a supermarket then walked around a little bit more then headed back to the room where we took a real nap this time.
I woke up at about 5 to 5:30 and got cleaned up and called and spoke to Jack then headed over to the Club Lounge and had a beer and some snacks. Don came in a while later and we each had a glass of wine and talked for a while. Daniela stayed asleep and eventually when I got back to the room she had awakened and gotten cleaned up. We ordered room service. I got a burger and she got a salad and we each got a glass of wine but it was not as good as the wine in the lounge. We ate then a little while later I passed out while she was watching some documentaries on TV.
The pictures from Hong Kong day 1 can be found here.
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