Stranded in Hong Kong

Heathrow
It's always nice to arrive in London. The british accent feels very familiar, and so does the exaggerated politeness, and even driving on the left. I immediately enter into saying 'sorry' whenever standing in someone's way, or almost bumping into someone. It's also very easy to slip into the british accent, and british sayings that you wouldn't use otherwise. The transfer at Heathrow was painless, and I even had time for a triangle sandwich and some Walker's Salt & Vinegar crisps!

Cathay
The 12h flight to Hong Kong was serviced by Cathay Pacific. The plane was a fairly old, but proven in combat, Boeing 747. I was surprised to notice that the quality of the in-flight entertainment has risen considerably since I last made a similar trip. No more two or three channels, two or three films per channel crap, with a lot of dead time in between. No, Cathay's plane sported full-featured on-demand entertainment, containing at least 50 movies (of which a considerable amount were watcheable; I had to pick and choose!) and a few episodes each of some of the larger TV shows. The best thing: whenever I got too tired to continue watching, I could just pause the movie for an hour or two while catching some well deserved sleep. So, about the movies; The Day the Earth Stood Still pretty much sucked, but Jennifer Connelly is always enjoyable. Slumdog Millionaire was a lot better than I had hoped, especially in the beginning, before it turns into a happy-ending-romantic movie. There was also a large selection of Asian movies, from which I selected the Hong Kong made The Beast Stalker, which I can also recommend.

Hong Kong
So, Cathay was nice, and served noodles as a snack, but they arrived in Hong Kong 30m late, and I had only 1h5m to transfer. I didn't have much chance of making the connecting flight to Kota Kinabalu, so I'm currently a little stranded. I say 'a little', because I've already been rerouted to another flight, while I enjoy the relative coolnes of Hong Kong International Airport - if you can consider 23C and about 80% humidity (indoors) cool. As a small reimbursement for my inconvenience, I was offered a shop voucher, which I immediately spent on ramen and japanese dumplings. I'm amazed at how something which, at an airport nonetheless, costs about the same as a swedish lunch, takes about 2 minutes to prepare and tastes wonderfully. Why do we not have noodle restaurants in Sweden? Very uncivilized.

Hong Kong airport feels very civilized, in that everyone speeks english, and quite well at that. Judging by my brief encounter, it feels a little like lightweight Tokyo. In essence, you can get excellent ramen, while not having to use sign language.

To Kota Kinabalu
I'll remain here for another 5h or so, and then I should again be safely on my way to Kota Kinabalu. Hopefully there will still be some cheap hotel rooms available when I arrive. I had planned on spending this time sleeping, since it's now about 4am in Sweden, but I guess I'll get to sleep eventually. When I get back, if none the sooner.

Update
I lay down on a double seated couch, thinking I'll never be able to fall asleep like this. My balance told me everything was rocking, like when you've spent too much time on a boat. However, thanks to my cheap ass MP3 player and noise-blocking earphones, I managed to catch an hour's power nap. Waking up, my head was spinning, like when you wake up after having fallen asleep on the sofa after a long day, and and you wonder what just happened. In any case, I'm now checked in for Kota Kinabalu at 15.30 Hong Kong time, arriving at my destination at 18.30. Hopefully, the temperature has cooled down 'til then. Thinking about what to do with the rest of my time at HKG, I wonder if I shouldn't maybe see if I can find some more nice food... :)