Trip to Hong Kong, Macau and South Korea - Feb 4th 2010

Up at 10 to 4. Miky and I both didn't feel well. Rang the taxi company at 4 o'clock and they said that no cabs were available. Unbelievable! It was snowing outside. Ju-min took The Boy and I and most of the luggage. She only had a small car and couldn't fit Miky in and the plan was to return. Unfortunately, even though it was only 11kms away and 70-80 km/h zones most of the lights were red. Ju-min ended up calling another taxi company. No time for me to say goodbye and thank you properly either as she went back for Miky. About 10 minutes later Miky turned up and Ju-min arrived shortly after. The second taxi company came through. Our bus was almost full which I was quite surprised about because I think the last time I caught that bus I was one of only two passengers. Although I may have taken the more expensive bus that was 10 minutes later. We departed Daejeon at 4:45.

Uneventful bus trip, and I wasn't able to get much sleep, but we arrived at Incheon International Airport 30 minutes early. Bonus. I had been worried that the weather was vastly different to my last visit to Korea and that it would certainly take longer. Checked in very quickly. Miky bought some medicine for my stomach. I should have thrown up in the toilet instead.

When it came time to go through immigration Miky was in a hurry and went ahead. Well, guess who had to take his shoes off after telling security that he was heading to Perth, before being allowed to go through the scanner? I also had to open The Boy's carry on luggage which had to be manually inspected. Gosh, must have been something to do with the beard. Ok, the immigration guy didn't hassle me.

Miky wanted to spend what was left over of our Korean money on magazines. Another little tradition that we seem to follow. Arrived at the gate with enough time to spare. Once on board the captain announced that the wings would have to be de-iced and this would delay us by 15 minutes. By this time I had a terrible headache and wasn't comfortable sitting. If I was in the air I would be able to recline my seat for a bit more comfort. It was a 45 minutes delay before we departed. As you can imagine I was not feeling well at all. And with a head wind to our stopover at Taipei en route to Hong Kong, where we would only have an hour and a half to catch the next plane we weren't going to make up much time. The Boeing 777 is not nearly as comfy as the Airbus. If it was my choice I wouldn't be flying on it.

Bit of ice on the wings.

De-icing the wings

At Taipei they did a head count of passengers before anyone who was staying on board could use the toilets. We weren't allowed off the plane either. All of the cabin staff could only come up with 11 people. A further count revealed someone was already in the toilet. The Boy wasn't feeling well and was sitting on the floor. It took nearly five minutes before they realised that he was on board and that all of the passengers were accounted for. Ground staff could then come on and clean the plane.

About 30 minutes later all of the passengers were on board and The Boy said, "Dad, I don't feel well." I left it at that. When he then said, "Dad, I feel like I'm going to throw up," I knew that he meant it. Just gave me enough time to grab a sick bag and open it. He managed to half fill it. We were just about to leave the terminal when Miky had to deposit it in the toilet bin. The stewardess didn't want to touch it. The Boy felt a bit better after that.

Son of Scarface

Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport - looks a bit drab

Get a load of the size of the Dreamlifter

Last view of Taiwan

Upon arrival at HKIA we had 1 hour and 10 minutes until departure of our next flight. As we had purchased different tickets for the flights from Seoul to HK and HK to Perth they weren't going to wait for us if we were late. Although, as a precaution I had booked our luggage all the way through.

Had to go through security again, painful experience, even though we were transferring passengers. Arrived at the gate some 15 minutes before the final boarding call. There was even another baggage check just prior to boarding the plane.

Gosh, I hate babies and children on planes. And I hate parents that don't control children who are old enough to be controlled. Noisy, screaming, yelling and annoying bloody kids. The whole seven and a half bloody hours. Now, I'm not a murderer, but I can go close on a plane with kids that are bothersome. Don't forget that I wasn't feeling crash hot and as a result I didn't eat much nor watch movies. Reached the terminal in Perth at 10:45pm.

No problems at immigration - unloaded the uneaten breakfast items in the quarantine bin in the arrival area, but we lost a powdered coffee cream to Customs as it was a dairy product which can't be brought into the country. The Boy's wooden sword was broken but the bow and arrow set survived. Oh well, can probably fix that. At least no other foodstuffs or wooden products were seized.

Grabbed some money from an ATM to pay for a taxi as we had changed all of our Aussie money in Korea and we were home less than 45 minutes after reaching the terminal gate. Unreal. Something finally went right with the travel. Truly a return journey not to forget in a hurry.