As the days move forward, the travel checklist looms larger and larger. On the plus side, this past weekend brought the opportunity to go soaring on another one of Asia's budget airlines and arrive in a locale that I had not been before. The trip did not get off to the most auspicious start when Hong Kong Express sent me a text message moments before arriving at the airport that our flight was delayed 2+ hours. We were already scheduled to arrive in Hong Kong at 11 PM, so this wasn't exactly welcome news. Thankfully, the Penang airport finally put in an acceptable place to kill some time and we nestled into the Kaffa Coffee shop for a cappuccino. On the downside, we realized we were going to need something to eat prior to getting on this flight and the evening of waiting in lines was about to begin. The lesser of multiple evils is the McDonalds in the airport. In this case, fast food meant a 30 minute wait when only 8 people were in front of me. I guess that meant my chicken nuggets were freshly (fingers crossed) made? Either way, it was moderately paced food at the quickest.
The flight did leave a little after 9 as promised and the extra $20 we paid for the additional leg room was looking like a steal. A nap seemed to be in order with the inevitable later arrival and I fully reclined my seat for a change, no one was behind us, and passed out. The sound of the captains voice woke me up a few hours later - turns out the weather that caused our flight to be delayed was still wreaking havoc with the airport, not to mention we were probably pretty low in the pecking order for a landing slot. So we started the time honored tradition of circling an airport, but hey, we at least had the lightning dancing amongst the clouds to entertain us.When we finally did land, safely, it was close to 2 in the morning. Thinking we were going to luck out from an immigration standpoint because we were in the front of the plane, our heads hit our chests when we saw the massive line that everyone was in. We did get a momentary uplift when we spotted the little sister further ahead. Turns out flights from everywhere were delayed so as always, misery loves company. At least our luggage was waiting when we made it through the gauntlet of incoming travelers. What we were not prepared for was the equally long taxi line. The recommendation of the airport was to take alternate transport into the city - thanks, no other options at 2:30 in the morning. Finally, about 40 minutes later, we did settle in for what I hoped was a quick ride when the g forces practically plastered us into the back seat. This guy meant business. Going through the tolls he was using Kareem Abdul Jabbar sky-hooks to get the money to the toll taker. Even better was he somehow managed to continue shifting the car while using the same arm to grab cash and work the gear shift simultaneously. Highly possible he had a third arm. When we did arrive at the hotel it was rather humorous to see people checking in after us that had clearly gotten in taxis before we did, but didn't have a combination of NBA Player and Indy Car Racer as their chauffeur.
Ultimately he probably saved us an extra half hour of sleep and when we checked into our room - quite nice, but quite small, we collapsed into the bed. The alarm clock was going to be ringing in 4 hours and we had a full 24 hours of scrambling around ahead of us. The weekend promised to be eventful if not relaxing.
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