Day 130 - up up and away

I watched some more wonderful news pleasantries as I packed my bags. Checked out and left my stuff at reception. I met Peter in Starbucks half and hour later and we decided to have breakfast in the good old reliable Macky Ds. Delicious :) We spent the next couple of hours in Starbucks online. We found Aidan had left a message on Facebook and himself and Eoghan had arrived in Hong Kong. We kept missing each other online. I went off in search of them in the two Irish bars and Chungking Mansion. No luck. Back online half an hour later we found Aidan online again. He told us Eoghan was just after checking into the room I had had the previous night. I went off and met the very sweaty and smelly Eoghan. Told him where we were and left him to it. An hour later the four of us were all together in Starbucks sharing all our stories and adventures. We headed off a couple of hours later to the night market I had found the evening before. We picked up a collection of t-shirts and shorts. Haggling of course for the best price. Afterwards I brought the boys to Ireland's Potato for some of their delicious chips. With time running short we jumped into a cab and got dropped at Chungking. With some of the usual procrastination myself and Eoghan hugged the boys and ran pumping sweat to the metro.

Three trains and 40 mins later we walked through the entrance of the airport. Of course we were the last people to check-in. As they went through the process a problem arose. Eoghan's Visa had not being issued. Australian Visa can be applied for, by Europeans, online and normally take less than a day to be processed. I had got mine for free and in less than 6 hours on the Australian government site. Eoghan had used a different service that charged €30 and had taken a day. The lady could not find any listing for his name. We checked his email on my Asus and found his application had gone through with an incorrect spelling. The nice lady assured us it would be okay and they would make an application online there and then. Next thing we bumped into an Irish guy called Graham that we had met in the hostel in Beijing. He was on his way home after a year of travelling. We headed outside for a smoke while we waited for the Visa Application to go through.

The visa was granted by the time we walked back into the airport. We said our goodbyes to Graham and thanked the helpful airport staff and started our jog to our gate. It all went very smoothly going through all the baggage checks and before we new it we were boarding a nice big 737. We had separate seating and I was placed in the centre aisle with a nice elderly lady on one side and two middle aged ladies on the other. A brochure style flight itinerary was handed out. It gave two meals options and showed when complimentary food and drinks were available throughout the flight. Shortly after we sat down the giant bird took off oh so gently. With little effort this massive vehicle containing over 500 people was up up and away. The flight was very pleasant. The food was exceptional. The entertainment screen had numerous movies, a wide selection of games, radio channels and even an Australian news channel available. I was delighted with the entertainment options and got straight into watching the new Indiana Jones movie. It was actually okay after hearing such bad remarks about it. My beef dinner was served and some lovely white wine. I devoured it all and was still hungry. I asked for a second serving and got the fish dish next. I feel off to sleep an hour or two later.