Rajeev's World: Melbourne Ahoy!

Thursday, August 4, 2016

Melbourne Ahoy!

After an exciting, extended round of Plane Spotting at Incheon, thanks to the delay caused by Typhoon Nida, we finally boarded...

And I am flew Cathay Pacific from Incheon to Hong Kong with a short connection on to the Cathay Pacific red-eye flight to Melbourne...

Settling in at Incheon after boarding with some IFE - Hong Kong's newspapers - the South China Morning Post and The Standard...

Hong Kongers got two-days off and Chep Lap Kok was closed due to Typhoon Nida, but the SCMP reports that HK is quickly back on its feet, much in the same way that Mumbai bounced back in no time after the cloudburst in 2005. I can say the energy and vibrancy of cities like Hong Kong and Mumbai is unmatched...

There is no fun being in East Asia without a dose of spicy geopolitics. Recently South Korea deployed the American anti missile THAAD system to protect against attacks from North Korea. China saw that as an infringement of their sovereignty (O really? Is North Korea Chinese territory?) and went on a diplomatic offensive, and initiative was censoring Korean soaps (Descendants of the Sun, included) and K-Pop...

Ouch... that would have pained the Chinese!

I had a short connection at Chep Lap Kok - just under two hours. But we took off from Incheon with a delay of nearly 75 minutes, eating into the connection time. The lovely Cathay stewardesses assured me that due to tailwinds, the flight time into Hong Kong would be shorter by 30 minutes and they would message the ground staff at Chep Lap Kok to accommodate me, if we get late further.

Thankfully, the flight landed in Hong Kong as the stewardess assured me but taxiing to the gate took long. Luckily, she got the ground staff to arrange a fast forward for me as we deplaned. That's classic hospitality, Asian style!

I made it to my gate - Gate 71 just in time - boarding was already half-done. The staff confirmed that my checked-in bags were already loaded! I was amazed by Cathay's efficiency here - they transferred bags within 45 minutes, which is amazing! And I was good to board...

The flight into Melbourne's Tullamarine Airport would take about 10 hours. And for me that is 10 hours of undisturbed sleep and relaxation after weeks of long sleepless nights in Songdo, with no IFE. But for other passengers, it was going to be an interesting night of entertainment on Cathay's IFE!

Plane Spotting as we taxiied. And there is the beauty from Plaisance - Air Mauritius' Airbus A340. And who can forget that lovely flight Neeti and I had on their A340 christened Cardinal from Plaisance to Mumbai way back in October 2005!