As I type this, Laura and I are traveling at over 500 mph, at 37,000 feet, approaching the North Pole, on Cathay Pacific’s flight 841, from JFK to HKG. The moving map shows us with Greenland off the right, and northern Canada off the left with just over 11 hours to go until touchdown in Hong Kong.
Cathay put me in business class, so I have a power port for my computer, and a real comfy chair that reclines into a bed, inside my own little cubby hole. Since we purchased a ticket for Laura, she is in coach. Coach, on international flights, isn’t like coach on domestic flights. A personal T.V., more leg room, and better reclining ability. Still, it isn’t business class. I have offered several times for her to trade me, at least for a little while. She seems to be happy curled up next to the window with the pillow I gave her from my seat. I may still get her up here, at least for a little bit, to see how the other half lives. There is a lady near me with two, yes two, kids with her here in business. They are probably six and eight, are quiet, and well behaved, but I just can’t imagine what it costs to buy tickets in business class for the whole family! I’m here because it’s free, and that’s the only time I’ll see it!
Our trip actually began late Friday night, packing up stuff, frantically trying not to forget anything, but also not pack too much. We finally got to bed about 1:00 am on Saturday morning, saying that if we forgot anything, we’d just buy it once we got to Hong Kong. With two hours of great sleep, we woke up at three, because Laura’s parents were going to take us to the airport at 4:15 am. Wow, that’s early, even if you don’t go to bed at one in the morning!
I got up twenty minutes late on accident (I must have hit my snooze while sleeping) and then proceeded to rush around like a mad man. Her parents arrived early, in case of a flat or closed road, and they patiently waited for us to finish our final packing of toiletries and shutting down the house: the hot water heater, the air conditioning, and so forth.
We headed to the airport and had plenty of time for our early flight to JFK. I grabbed a Starbucks and got on the plane. Cathay paid for my ticket to JFK and we purchased one for Laura. Why did we go so early, especially since we weren’t leaving for Hong Kong until Sunday morning? We originally were going to send Laura on stand-by to NYC, and save the cost of a ticket, but at the last minute, we decided to go ahead and buy one for her. Traveling stand-by is much easier in the morning, before all the delays, cancellations, and problems. I bought my ticket for early so that we’d reach NYC about the same time, but once we bought her ticket too, it was just too early! Oh well, we could nap once in New York.
Looking up from typing, it is strange to see London off the right and Anchorage off the left! Polar flight routes play mind games with me. Special navigational computers are needed to cross over the pole, because regular compass flying and headings don’t work anymore this high up “on top of the world.” When you think about it, it makes sense: At the north pole, every direction is South — so how does one navigate like that? Magically, we will stay on course and arrive in Hong Kong with no troubles.
Once we arrived in New York, we were going to go up town and see Central Park, or at least the Empire State Building, but fatigue got the best of us. Our several hour nap turned into five hours! That worked out best, though, because later in the afternoon, it started to pour down rain, and we wouldn’t have wanted to be caught in that. There was nothing around the hotel because it was in an industrial complex, so we ordered delivery from a local pizza joint. Boy, that was some seriously good food! We got way too much because the portions were so huge. Laura ordered a sandwich on a roll. We thought, for four bucks, it’d be on a bun-like roll. Nope! It was a twelve inch sub! I got spaghetti alfredo that was out of this world, and we got garlic bread and pepperoni pizza. Way too much, but of what we could eat, it was great.
We watched some TV, headed to bed, and got up at six a.m. the next morning, Sunday, to head to JFK. When checking in is when I found out I’d be able to sit in business class and that afforded me a chance to check out the First/Business lounge there in terminal 7. It was very nice, with coffee, juices, liquor, fruit , newspapers, highspeed, large lounge chairs, and so forth. I went in to use the restroom, but headed back out because Laura wasn’t let in. I wanted to just sneak her in, but they scan your ticket — they are serious!
The plane we are flying on is a Boeing 777-300ER. It is painted up with the “Asia’s World City” color scheme and is a gorgeous airplane to behold. The cabin is huge, with seats in coach in a 3-3-3 configuration, and four across in business, with just six seats in first! It seats over 300 in total. There are four versions of the 777 currently in use. The 777-200, the 777-300, the 777-200LR, and the 777-300ER. The older two are the 200 and 300. The 300 is bigger than the 200. The new 200LR has the same fuselage size as the older 200 and the 300ER has the same fuselage size as the older 300. The only big difference is that the 300ER and the 200LR have the same sized wing, which is even bigger than the original 200 and 300. That large wing, that can hold a lot more fuel, plus very efficient engines, makes these airplanes a hot commodity in the airline industry and gives them very long ranges. The 200LR, since it has the same sized wing as the larger 300ER, but is smaller and thus weighs less, is the longest range airplane in the world, and competes directly with Airbus’s A340-500. We are on the larger, 777-300ER, which has no trouble traveling 15 and a half hours from JFK to Hong Kong, non-stop.
We took off on time out of JFK and arrived fifteen minutes late on arrival into Terminal One in Hong Kong. Laura, in her coach seat, was able to sleep some, but I, unfortunately, didn’t sleep a wink. It was a great landing and touchdown in Hong Kong, and clearing customs didn’t take too long. Finding the bus to take us to Cathay City, was a different story. Two people that I talked to and thirty minutes later, we found the bus that would drive us the five minutes it took to head over to the Headland hotel.
The plan was to take a nap and then get up and walk around. We landed at 2:00 p.m. and got to the hotel room about a quarter to four. But, like NYC, we laid down and that was it — we were out! Hopefully, tomorrow will go smoothly, and the time change won’t kill us too much, but we’ll see. All in all, it was a great day, with lots of excitement, adventure, possibilities, and new beginnings ahead of us. We traveled half way around the world and didn’t have a hitch or scratch — that says something about modern air travel. As we were headed toward Hong Kong over Northern China, after having been aloft for 13 hours, I was struck with the idea of just how large this world is. The 8066 miles doesn’t even come close to covering this planet, and yet how many people, villages, cities, and country side did we pass over? It is a great big world, and it is all in His hands. I’m glad that we get to see at least a small part of His world, a half a world away from home, here in Hong Kong.
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