Well the big day finally arrived yesterday morning. The culmination of all the Breakfast “research”. I gave my friend Yena all the options with one Extra one, another recommendation for something new to try that apparently has the best Biscuits & Gravy. Yena had no real idea what that was, so we went with it. Something a little bit different right? Hudson is down in the Georgetown area of Seattle which is near the Port/Boeing Field area. Pretty much its all industrial and it is fairly basic. Absolutely dive bar location and in the middle of no where, bring it on! Funnily enough its located next door to a Haunted House.

From Labor Day 2013
From Labor Day 2013

We took a seat at the Bar (not a counter, a real bar) and the menu was left for us and some water. The Menu was fairly basic really, but there was a good range of Booze options. This is more a bar than a restaurant so that is understandable.

From Labor Day 2013
From Labor Day 2013
From Labor Day 2013

I took the biscuits & Gravy and a side of hash while Yena went with something that was just crazy++ a Monte Cristo sandwhich made with French toast! Seriously! Sounded pretty awesome. Food was quick and I was barely into my first cup of coffee when it came out (ps they use Umbria coffee, so the coffee is gooooood).

From Labor Day 2013
From Labor Day 2013

The food was good, the biscuits were light and fluffy and the gravy was nice (though it has been a while since I have had country gravy). Prices were really reasonable and the portions not overly huge but not tiny tiny rip off. I would say that it was a good score.

Was it the best breakfast in Seattle? Probably not… however the reason I was there wasn’t all about the food, but the company. Keeping alive a tradition that the two of us have had for many years. The Brunch buddies were back in action and I made the agreement (and hopefully Yena will continue it as well) that I will keep having brunches out even if it is on my own. Going to keep trying to find the best Breakfast/Brunch in Seattle.. even if I have to do it on my own… without my buddy.

This may be the final Breakfast Chronicle before the big day when my friend Yena comes to visit.  With my Birthday last week and add on Fiona’s visit, how can I not want to go somewhere special for a Sunday Brunch before the baseball.  A while back I had asked for recommendations on twitter where to go.  The first thing that my usual source came back with was Barrio and purely based on one dish.  Pork Belly Benedict.  So I figured that with a chance to impress and a special occasion, it fitted perfectly.  The wierdest thing to start with though was that I made the reservations (as it was recommended I do so for a Sunday morning in case) via Twitter.  Pretty easy and the process was painless, if not a little bit weird.  In the end we really didn’t need one as the place was pretty quiet when we got there, but hey, doesn’t really matter.

Barrio is in Capitol Hill and just around the corner from Skillet, but a few one way streets through me off and were almost late after having to try and find a park.  The place was quiet and I already knew what I wanted to ordering for me was no issue.   The menu was pretty good, albeit wierd to be in a modern Mexican restaurant for breakfast.  The coffee is Caffe Vita so that is always a good thing. But this should give you an idea of the decor:

From Fiona's Visit

But I know you all want to see the one thing that everyone else does…. the goodies

From Fiona's Visit

That is the Pork Belly Benedict and it was AMAZING.  I wanted to lick the plate it was that good.  I could of inhaled it if it wasn’t trying to savour every bite.  My friend Dan’s Burrito looked good as well:

From Fiona's Visit

3 of the 5 people though had the benedict and all loved it!  The French toast that my friend Fiona had looked pretty good as well.  All in all a great meal!  I was so tempted to steal the coffee cups they were nice and big.

From Fiona's Visit

They even gave me some churros as a birthday gift

From Fiona's Visit

But the best thing of the morning… getting to spend time with my Friend’s, although they are more like my Yankee Family..

From Fiona's Visit

It has been a while since I last got out and enjoyed a good breakfast and my friends Shawna & Dan decided to make sure that I experienced the best Banana pancakes in Seattle. So this saturday morning it was off to West Seattle, not only for my first time at Circa, but also my first time heading over the West Seattle bridge and into West Seattle itself, so this post kind of shows both.

From Seattle Life 2013
From Seattle Life 2013

So Circa is a little place, unassuming from the outside in the middle of just a residential neighbourhood. Funnily enough it is just walking distance from Shawna’s apartment so that’s where Dan & I parked and walked up to meet her there. It wasn’t as busy as it could have been but it was earlyish for a Saturday morning. I didn’t have to even look at the menu as it was quite simple what I was getting but the menu is pretty good. Good choice of Savoury, good choice of sweet but not overwhelming. Prices are good to.

From Seattle Life 2013

Shawna & Dan both went with scrambles and they looked good, not to big and heavy looking like a lot of places I have been to. The pancakes looked good. They were average size, came with 2 strips of bacon, some butter and 2 eggs (not in the photo). Now the banana pancakes don’t come with the usual maple syrup, they come with a very dark brown “Pecan Praline syrup”. It looks good, and it wasn’t as sweet as I expected it to be. What sat in front of me was a good plate of food. Not to big and definately tasted pretty damn good. The last banana pancakes I ate were really big and heavy, these were just the right size and had way more banana flavour. The bacon tasted good but imo needed to be a little bit more crispier.

From Seattle Life 2013

Overall I think these had to be the best Pancakes I have had in Seattle, they definately got it right and I don’t think it is the kid of place that has a big following online, it felt more like a small neighborhood place that is out of the way and more “hole in the wall”. I did convince Dan & Shawna to hopefully join me at Maltby Cafe for my birthday, it won’t be a huge big thing but I have a craving for a cinnamon roll.

From Seattle Life 2013

After a good breakfast (and much discussion of if that really classified as a biscuit or not), Dan & Shawna took me on a little tour of west Seattle. A drive along Alki Beach (no parks on the side unfortunately) and part of me saying to myself “I must come down here another time with the bike and go for a ride” and then to a few lookouts that overlook Seattle so that I could get a few photos. Much fun!

From Seattle Life 2013
From Seattle Life 2013

Last year on the 4th July I was in LA, spotting for the a full day for the first time and doing my first US Based trip. Well this year, since I had spent most of the last weeks of May/June travelling and would be spending the end of July/Beginning of August away, I figured it was better to just kick it at home and see what happens.

With no invites from friends for any parties and to be honest, was dying for a chance to just stay at home for once. That’s what I did. I took the opportunity to explore more of my own city. I took the bike down to the Burke Gilman trail early in the morning and took a nice almost 10 mile ride. It was nice to watch the city wake up by the water and not knowing where I was going was a bit of the fun. I just kept riding till I hit like 8km and then turned around and came on back.

After that I came home, did my laps in the pool since I have found that if I do it in the morning at 9am when the pool opens up, it’s usually empty and there are no children around. I was pretty angry on Tuesday when there was so many kids in the pool I couldn’t even get a single lap in without hassles. So the bliss of an empty pool at 9 in the morning was just amazing.

After a quick breakfast it was time to begin some fun (for me at least). A recipe had been teasing me for quite some time. To give you an idea of what kind of cake, heres a shot of me prepping the cake batters:

From Seattle Life 2013

And here they are prior to going into the oven

From Seattle Life 2013

Yes it’s a rainbow layer cake. An amazing cake that is 6 tiers tall, each a different colour. When frosted with a bright white frosting it lets the colours stand out brilliantly. The cake and frostings itself was nothing special. It was the assembly and the striking nature of the colours etc that make this cake a challenge and worth the effort. I played with Instagram Video a bit and uploaded it to youtube as well:

The cake turned out brilliantly and the guys at work were super impressed by it.. to be honest, I just loved seeing their reactions as only one of the staff knew what I was doing and she was super psyched to see it all come to light.

From Seattle Life 2013

I also took the cherries that I had picked last weekend and made my first attempt at jam. Mind you it was a messy effort but it was well worth it. I made a whole heap of jam and I tasted it today for the first time. It is not super sweet, it’s sugar free (used honey instead to help with the gelling) and what sweetness comes from the cherries themselves. Just the way I like it. Although on the day I wasn’t quite sure how it would turn out but i am quite happy with it.

From Seattle Life 2013
From Seattle Life 2013
From Seattle Life 2013

I finished off the day by working on a heap of photos in the backlog and just generally bumming around. I tried NOT to do to much work remotely from home but I did do a bit to make sure that I had a manageable Friday.

A quiet day, way better than my quiet attempt at a Saturday… but thats a different kettle of fish.

I wanted to get out and see more of Washington State this year, well I have done just a little bit of that. Last Sunday my friends Dan & Shawna invited me along on a little adventure they wanted to go on. I happily said yes and although I apparently lost the coin toss to drive, Dan was the chaeuffer for the day. I was the “navigator” although that function was actually performed by the GPS. I just took photos and watched the scenery pass me by!.

Our adventure was out over the Cascade Mountain range, out east to the Yakima Valley to go cherry picking. It is the cherry season and they are super super cheap compared to back home in Aus. After an early morning start, a quick breakfast it was time to hit the road out east on I90 for my first time over Snoqualmie Pass. The pass thankfully had not a glimpse of snow (though some of the mountains around here still do) and on the other side we made a brief roadstop at a Gas Station for some coffee and a bathroom break and then it was time to let Dan loose on “Canyon Road” so he can enjoy himself.

From Seattle Life 2013
From Seattle Life 2013

Canyon Road was twisty, windy and full of nice smooth bends, tight turns and lots of fun. I can see why Dan wanted to drive it and I think i got duped on the coin toss for this one reason 😉 But I will let him take the win, cause it sure was a lot of fun. Even got a nice giggle out of a guy on a motorbike in front of us.

From Seattle Life 2013

Once into the Yakima valley we headed to a little town called Naches where we went cherry picking at “Thompsons Farm” and it was so cheap. $1.50 a pound to get out in the sun, enjoy some time with my friends, eat… i mean pick some cherries and think to myself just what I can do with them. We really had no idea what we were doing really so kind of went through testing a bunch and if they tasted good, picking them from there.

From Seattle Life 2013
From Seattle Life 2013
From Seattle Life 2013
From Seattle Life 2013

We got a pretty good haul and all three of us were set back less than $17 for all of our cherries. A true bargain. I picked up a good heap of Bing to turn into some Jam and some Rainier cherries to snack on and also share with my coworkers. It was certainly worth it. As you can see our haul was fairly decent and for what we paid it was a steal. Add on the “samples” that we had and it was a good mornings work if you ask me.

From Seattle Life 2013

We headed out of Naches, made a brief stop at the farms market in town to take a look and headed into Yakima for some lunch. Shawna grew up in the area so she was determined to let me experience a true icon of the area, Miners. This place has that old school American burger joint written all over it and the food was good. The burgers were HUGE! and the fries were ok. The curly fries and Tater Tots (aka potato gems) were better than my fries but the show was stolen by my shake. A Peanut Butter Snickers Shake that had a fantastic ratio of goodies in the bottom of it. At the start it was so thick I couldn’t even get any of it into the straw, I had to let it melt a little. Wasn’t so bad though, got to enjoy the sunshine, friends and a fantastic lunch. What more could you want?

From Seattle Life 2013
From Seattle Life 2013
From Seattle Life 2013
From Seattle Life 2013

After lunch we hit up a few wineries to visit and I spent some time walking one of the vineyards taking photos (which I have barely even looked at mind you) and then we headed home. Traffic over the pass looked bad, so a quick decision after some checking (thank you traffic apps) we headed home the longer way via Leavenworth. This was my first introduction to Washington State’s own little piece of Bavaria. Dear god in heaven had I been consuming something? It was Bavaria everywhere!!! Every single place in town had the signs to show it! It was truely crazy. We spent some time stretching our legs after a number of hours in the car and I was enjoying the high temps (it was around the low 30s at this point).

From Seattle Life 2013
From Seattle Life 2013
From Seattle Life 2013
From Seattle Life 2013

Before long we were back on the road, this time on US 2 up and over Stevens Pass (the highest point I have now been in Washington State) before we were back down, through Snohomish county back to my house.

From Seattle Life 2013

I had an amazing day. It was long, almost 12 hours but I would not take it back or complain at all. Pretty soon I need to get back out there and explore some more of the state. This time I get to drive but where to next? Pumpkin picking will begin in September/October so looking forward to that (though I won’t be around much of october). The snow will pick up though so that will make things interesting. Maybe head out further to at least Moses Lake, to get me some touch and go shots of all the Boeing jets using the Grant County Airport for training? Who knows, but if my friends ask me to go somewhere again. I won’t say no. They were fantastic guides, so to Dan & Shawna I say thanks for making this tourist feel a little bit more at home!

Introduction
Seattle to San Jose
San Jose
San Jose to Narita
Narita to Hong Kong
Hong Kong Part 1
Hong Kong Part 2
Hong Kong Part 3
Hong Kong to Narita
Narita to Seattle
Conclusion

                                                                                                                                                                   

The trip is all done and dusted. It was a total blast. I would have to say probably one of my best trips to date. It wasn’t about visiting friends or family or anything like that. It was the experiences that made this trip unique. Flying Business Class with ANA was great and I totally enjoyed it, but the once in a lifetime experiences made this journey amazing. I doubt I will ever have something as special again.

Let’s break down the journey for a bit of a summation:

Southwest: It’s good for what it is. It gets you from A to B, effectively and efficiently. The service was ok, the seats were ok. The free seating was a bit different but I can manage that. All in all I can’t really complain.

Fairfield Inn & Suites San Jose Airport: Pretty nice hotel for what I paid for it ($44+tax). For a quick overnight stop it fulfilled all my usual requirements in an airport hotel. Shuttle on site, clean, comfortable, non hotel food options close by, a good gym (or somewhere to run). The breakfast at the hotel, though lacking decent fruit options, was pretty good. The renovations they had been through made it spick and span and I did like it. I would definitely return!

All Nippon Airways: I won’t break down each invidiual flight but I will just say outright, they still are great. I last flew them back in 2011, when I flew around the world. I flew them from London to Narita and that flight was fantastic. I still think they are a fantastic airline. The service I received on my flights was great (albeit at times with a language barrier) and the food was good. The Japanese meals are still only really all that good out of Japan (and my contact at ANA agrees with this point) so that is one thing to be mindful of for those lovers of Japanese cuisine.

The Seats are good. I really did like the new “Business Cradle” seat for short duration flights and the “Business Staggered” is good, albeit felt a little bit smaller on the 787 vs the 777. The older business though still comfortable, was definitely a product that would be eventually phased out (hopefully). The 787 is not a scary aircraft and you can feel the differences with the cabin environment after you step off the 787 and get onto a different aircraft, it is not till then that all the changes are noticeable. I would not hesitate in any way to fly on a 787.

Peninsula Hotel Hong Kong: Wow… just WOW! What a hotel. I don’t know if I could ever afford to stay there on my own dime, but this experience showed that they are worth the money in my opinion. The service, the food, the room, everything was just downright perfect. Nothing was ever to much for the staff and the service levels represented that. All the fun we had at the hotel with the Dim Sum class, the spa treatments, the heli ride etc were amazing and it was a great second visit to Hong Kong for me. I wondered to myself just what I would do in Hong Kong a second time around originally, I am glad I didn’t have to decide because I don’t think I would of done some of these things but they were fun and I had a blast.

After travelling 14,303 miles on this trip, it is good to be back to earth, back to reality, but now comes the daunting task of writing up all the articles and then the even scarier thought. Can I top this trip?

Map of my journey on the ANA Ambassador Trip

Map of my journey on the ANA Ambassador Trip

ANA Ambassador

Introduction
Seattle to San Jose
San Jose
San Jose to Narita
Narita to Hong Kong
Hong Kong Part 1
Hong Kong Part 2
Hong Kong Part 3
Hong Kong to Narita
Narita to Seattle
Conclusion

                                                                                                                                                                   

Getting down the steps at Narita Airport heading towards the bus allowed the best views of the aircraft around us and also meant that I was technically touching Japanese soil again! This time though I would sadly not get to stay and there was no 787 in my future. *sigh* I did what any true Avgeek would do and I jumped onboard the bus with my camera out and tried to get as many photos as I could!

From ANA Ambassador
From ANA Ambassador

The bus soon got way to crowded… way way way to crowded and after a little while it finally started to move on our mini ramp tour past the cargo gates where we pulled up, towards the Skyteam Pier at Terminal 2, where we would be dropped off just around the central point. Before getting off I noticed a special livery at the other end of the Terminal with a brief glimpse of a flower on an Aircraft and figuring that makes it something worth getting a photo of. I had one mission during my brief layover in Narita. Kit Kats! So this time my frankness towards others wasn’t because I was hungry it was because I wanted to get as much done as possible and get it over and done with quickly! I was in search of Wasabi kit kats but the first hurdle was security.

From ANA Ambassador
From ANA Ambassador
From ANA Ambassador
From ANA Ambassador

Seurity was excrutiatingly slow and Nao who had been behind us in the security queue had actually beat us to the exit. Dammit!!! They did the dumbest things and asked the silliest questions that made no sense and they repeated them over and over again for some reason. Meh whatever!

Once we were through security and on the other side of the glass barrier my first job was to secure my belongings safely (which I did) and then it was to get the WiFi going on my phone. But I did need to find out where I was going though at some stage. This was possible as there were banks of monitors directly outside the entrance and the funny thing was that as soon as we got to the monitor it flicked to Japanese from english for a bit. DOH! Once we got our gate info it was off in search of Kit Kats but what did we see first. Hello Kitty!!

From ANA Ambassador

One of the Eva Airways A330s that is painted in the Hello Kitty livery was just pushing back out of the terminal as we got there. Lots of photos and a couple of tweets later and I was hitting up the duty free shops trying to find the kit kats I wanted. Most of the places only had 3 flavours. Matcha, Sakura & Strawberry (these were the predicted flavours that I had been told) though I was adamant there would be wasabi somewhere. The majority of stores were only selling boxes of 10 for 1500 Yen all of the same flavour but I didn’t want that. I didn’t even really want 10 packets either. So I sucked it up and got on with the hunt. There was plenty of places to shop at.

From ANA Ambassador
From ANA Ambassador
From ANA Ambassador

I tried asking at a couple of them to see if they knew of anyone who might have it and I did get a tip off which was entirely accurate. Awesome! So with some kit kats in hand I was still hunting Wasabi flavoured and I had plenty of time to be able to find them but it meant I could not dawdle so I was walking as fast as I could through the terminal with all my gear. I managed to cover almost the entirety of the Star Alliance side of Terminal but by the end of the search I was wasabi kit kat empty but still had enough to keep most people happy. With a good portion of Yen leftover I could even get a couple of models from the flight home!

From ANA Ambassador

I left the search and head over to the Lounge but went to the wrong one first (though they did have a giant 787 in Star Alliance livery at the door) and headed back over to the lounge closest to the gates I needed to be at.

From ANA Ambassador

The lounge was pumping as it was the same time as we landed last time with the US bound flights departing, flights coming in from all over Asia so it was tough to find a seat. I was also trying to get one of two things for my flight. Either a seat in rows 1 or 2 or a blocked seat next to me. After getting nowhere with one staff member I gave up and headed elsewhere but she was there to block me off at the pass so that didn’t happen but I was assured the seat next to mine was blocked. So that was at least something.

From ANA Ambassador

I didn’t do to much in the lounge other than scarf down the cookies and the sushi the same as last time and just before I was about to walk out the lounge i was in the middle of grabbing a yoghurt (thinking I had time to eat it… I didn’t) and I hear a “What the hell are you doing here”. It was one of the fellow travellers who had flown out from SJC on the 787 with us and he had been staying in Tokyo for what was the same time as we were in Hong Kong. It was funny because out of the Avgeeks who went over to Tokyo, he was the only one going back on the same flight. All of us were returning on different flights. Nao was off to Los Angeles, Jason to New York and me home to Seattle. I bid my farewells and wished him a safe flight and scurried back to my gear before heading off to the gate to try my luck again at a seat.

From ANA Ambassador
From ANA Ambassador

All Nippon Airways – NH1078
Tokyo Narita to Seattle Tacoma
1725-1055
Boeing 777-300ER (JA781A)
Business Class: Seat 3A

Boarding: 1658 (Gate 51)
Push Back: 1732
Take Off Roll: 1800 (Runway 16R)
Top of Descent: 1000
Touch Down: 1018 (Runway 34L)
Shut Down: 1027 (Gate S11)

I was sweet out of luck and this time they explained that the seats in Rows 1 and 2 on this aircraft are only for the very top tier elites of ANA Mileage Club and if you are not one of them then you don’t sit anywhere there at all. So if there are none on the flight, then no one sits there. As soon as I was told this I was ushered into the queue and I was first in line! Score. Boarding was called after the Special assistance people were pre boarded. The boarding gate was pretty empty so I had a feeling this flight was going to be fairly light on people. Which would be interesting at least.

From ANA Ambassador
From ANA Ambassador

I was escorted to board by one of the cuter gate staff and soon was thanked for flying ANA and pointed in the direction of the aircraft. I was first onboard and when I got to my seat I could see the First class seats just the other side of the curtain. I figured one last chance to get a seat up there and asked the cabin crew who said they would see and come back to me. They couldn’t do it so it was my seat that I was stuck in. What I did not realise up till now was that in the mini cabin I was in of 2 rows of Business there was only a total of 2 of us!

From ANA Ambassador
From ANA Ambassador
From ANA Ambassador
From ANA Ambassador
From ANA Ambassador
From ANA Ambassador

Loads were super light and again we boarded quickly but pushed back way late. It’s funny the way this seems to happen but in places like Narita and Hong Kong the schedules are super padded because of the taxi time on the ground because the airports are just so huge! By the time we pushed back I was hoping that the special scheme I had seen just before leaving the lounge was still going to be there and thankfully it was. I had scored another special on this trip! It was the ANA panda! I managed to get a nice picture out of the dozen I took as we were taxied backwards out of the horseshoe area we were in.

From ANA Ambassador
From ANA Ambassador
From ANA Ambassador
From ANA Ambassador
From ANA Ambassador

By the time we had finally got underway I was starting to get tired but was happily snapping away at all the good stuff we passed, again missing an aeroflot but the best few shots were as we got closer to the runway. There was a JAL 787 in line for take off (probably heading to either Singapore or Boston) and it was fun timing the Beacon as usual (still possible even with my little camera) and a nice long line of ANA behind us (missed the shot of the ANA Dash 8).

From ANA Ambassador
From ANA Ambassador
From ANA Ambassador
From ANA Ambassador
From ANA Ambassador
From ANA Ambassador
From ANA Ambassador

When it was our turn for take off the roar of the GE90s was great and we were airborne much earlier than I expected to be and within 10 minutes we were well out of Japanese waters. Past Narita and climbing to cruise altitude. There was so many crew on this flight so little amount of people that I felt like I had a first class service anyway! I deferred my meal for a couple of hours and had a chat with one of the crew about Kit Kats while I was sorting stuff out and then got stuck into some work.

From ANA Ambassador
From ANA Ambassador
From ANA Ambassador
From ANA Ambassador

This is where this flight gets super boring. All I did was either work or eat. Nothing eventful was happening as most of the other passengers ate as soon as they could and tried to get to sleep. I never sleep anyway and considering we would be touching down around 10 or 11 it meant I might as well just suck it up and stay awake. The flight time looked much shorter than it should have been (probably due to tail winds) and the time flew by.

From ANA Ambassador
From ANA Ambassador
From ANA Ambassador

I was fawned over by the staff even before my meal service as I was offered drinks and snacks constantly. they were always there to make sure I was looked over. So although this was the older business seat, I still had phenomenal service! I couldn’t believe the luck I was having. Almost a private cabin with staff waiting on me hand and foot.

From ANA Ambassador

I had pushed back my dinner till around 8pm Japan time and then figured I would wind down my work about 15 minutes before that, borrow some pyjamas and then sit back and relax for my meal and then get back to work after that. Just before the meal the duty free was offered and I used up all the remaining Yen I had from my leftover HKD and had to throw in 1 USD to get what I wanted. So be it!

From ANA Ambassador
From ANA Ambassador
From ANA Ambassador
From ANA Ambassador
From ANA Ambassador
From ANA Ambassador

Dinner was served!!! This was the meal I had really been looking forward to. I had never flown ANA long haul out of Japan till now. I had flown into Japan and flown short haul out of Japan but never the longer US flights departing. I was reassured that the Japanese meal out of Narita was the option so that is what I went with! All I can say is WOW! I had no real idea what order to eat it all in. All I know is that it was damn tasty!

From ANA Ambassador
From ANA Ambassador

I ate the meal in the lonely cabin as it was darkened by then so people could sleep. Stuff it! The Amouse Bouche was tasty, the starters all amazing and the main just freaking good. I had never really enjoyed eel till now! if I could get it like that at home, I would take it! I was going to enjoy this flight as after this weekend it is into training mode, trying to get my leg fixed and back to running full speed again!

From ANA Ambassador
From ANA Ambassador
From ANA Ambassador
From ANA Ambassador
From ANA Ambassador
From ANA Ambassador
From ANA Ambassador
From ANA Ambassador

Cheese and fruit came before dessert and the parfaits they serve out of Japan are indeed yummy. The fresh coffee I was served with it was followed by several cups and I was fully satisfied. The meal had gone so well I didn’t realise the movie I was watching was almost over and I just went back to working and watched the time roll by. The trip report getting more and more finished the longer the time went on. I got up a couple of times to keep myself awake and to grab a drink from the mini bar set up they had, but other than that I worked in silence.

From ANA Ambassador
From ANA Ambassador

As we started to track past the Alaskan coast way off in the distance the crew I think were getting a little bored as they came up to me to check on me a few times just in case I needed anything. Awfully nice of them! With such an empty flight they probably wanted something to do. I figured I would eat my pre arrival meal about 2 hours or so out as they shut it all off about 90 minutes out. I was going to skip the meals they had on offer and instead go for 2 of the snacks Ramen and the “cheese burger” just to see what they are like.

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From ANA Ambassador
From ANA Ambassador
From ANA Ambassador

First up though I would get my stuff sorted out as I had what looked like a trail of destruction at my seat and to pack away the laptop as I had been working on it by then for almost 6 hours! With my mess all cleaned up and out of the way, I asked for the ramen which was a signature item from a very famous outlet in Japan. It came out pretty soon after and damn was it good! I loved it! Though the bowl was not that big it was perfect snack size and had it been a much longer flight, It would have been perfect for a mid flight snack.

From ANA Ambassador
From ANA Ambassador

The burger though… hrmmmm. The bacon was floppy (best way to describe it), the bun though was perfectly soft and a good snack size burger. It looked so much like you would expect a fast food burger to look. The kicker that made it unique was that it was served with Tartare Sauce. Yep I made sure to try it in case it was a Japanese thing and it wasn’t half bad. Almost like Mayo but that little bit of extra tang. Kind of made it pretty tasty!

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From ANA Ambassador
From ANA Ambassador
From ANA Ambassador

Soon after this I started to watch the world go by and read my book a bit. One of the crew came around to offer me something else from the menu and I gave in and ordered some ice cream! What the hell! It was rock solid so I let it sit there and melt as much as possible. The ice cream did eventually melt enough that I could try and eat it.

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As we started to get closer to that hour time frame and I needed to put my ear plugs in anyway, I set about getting back into my civvies. The Pyjamas on ANA were so good! I wanted to keep them so badly. I even asked but they again said no 🙁 I wish I could find a way to get a pair. They are extremely comfortable! After settling back into my seat and packing up all my gear I was sitting there watching out the window and next thing I know I am drifting in and out. This was not a good thing!

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I woke up somewhere in final descent over Everett/Mt Vernon and pretty soon out the window I could see Lake Washington. Totally missed the top of the descent and the seat belt signs going on. Crazy! The cabin crew returned my jacket and soon enough we were tracking for final approach into SeaTac. We were heading into the 34s and I was expecting to land on 34R since it was where the heavies usually land. Not today though we ended up on 34L and that meant a nice long taxi back to the gates.

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Even though it had been an amazing flight, I was happy to be home, yet I didn’t want it to end. The crew had been so good! One thing I was looking forward to was just how good it would be to clear immigration at Seattle. The flight home had been pretty empty with only 12 in Business and I asked the Chief Cabin Crew member, when I was speaking with her at the end of the flight, and she said there was only 60 people total!

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We had pulled up at the S gates (which is where the immigration facilities are) and it was a quick offload and I was last out of the forward J cabin. But this meant that I was 5th off the aircraft! Can’t complain about that. Immigration was empty and the only people ahead of me were the other Japanese men from the flight ahead of me. Easy as! I waited longer at the immigration desk than I did in line to get to the desk. They asked me what “food” i had brought in and rather than explain the kit kats, I just pulled them out of the bag. It got weird looks and when I got to customs after my bag came out (mere moments after arriving) I got the same weird looks. Love it!

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I missed the train from the S gates since I couldn’t really run, but the next one was a minute or two after it luckily. Off the train, up the escalators and since I already had my bag in tow, I was straight up to the parking shuttle point. Plane to parking garage in 30 minutes. Freaking WIN!!! Normally its that off a domestic flight, off International that is unreal! Pretty soon I was at Wally Park picking up the truck and then before leaving I spied one last special shot. Star Alliance United 737 sitting at one of the A gates right next to the parking garage. Good way to end what had been a fantastic journey!

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Introduction
Seattle to San Jose
San Jose
San Jose to Narita
Narita to Hong Kong
Hong Kong Part 1
Hong Kong Part 2
Hong Kong Part 3
Hong Kong to Narita
Narita to Seattle
Conclusion

                                                                                                                                                                   
Wednesday 5th June 2013

It was going to be an early morning today. Trying to get myself back to reality meant a work out before the flight at least and that meant I had to make sacrifices. I couldn’t sleep all to well, not sure why so a bit earlier than I had planned (even with the workout) I tried to head outside for a run. I figured if I couldn’t get up to speed I would hit up the ATM close by to get rid of the last of my HKD off my card. Fail on both counts as the ATM kept spitting back my card and I couldn’t run even to the end of the driveway of the hotel without pain. So that meant it was back to the hotel gym again. 10km ride complete, some burpees and some push ups and I was all good.

I decided to test out a little facet that the hotel had mentioned the night before. The rooms were apparently sound proof and with an amazing stereo, it was worth a try. The rooms at the hotel are all controlled by an android based system by 3 tablets, a billion small tablets mounted around the room and they all controlled every little feature you could think of. The stereo was linked into the sound system in the bathroom as well and the two systems were indepedant of each other. One in the bedroom and one in the bathroom. So you could have Trance in the living room and news in the bathroom, all at once.

While getting myself dressed and packing things up quickly, I had cranked the sound in the living room on some Trance from last.fm in Amsterdaam and then had the same running in the bathroom (though the bathroom was a few seconds later than the main bedroom). The sound…incredible! I pity the room next door 😉

I made sure my bag was packed and then I headed down to the lobby a few minutes before my ride to the airport was due to go. I checked out and waited a few minutes, using the last remants of the hotel WiFi before all 3 of us were ready to go (Nao, Jason & myself) and we headed outside to the driveway to get moving again. One last bit of Peninsula Hospitality though, it was off to the airport in the Phantom!

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This time it was a different one to the first so I am now 2 down and 12 to go on that list 😉 The ride was awesome, I tweeted a few times, got a couple of photos but most of all I relaxed into the journey. I was starving though as I did not have time to grab breakfast thanks to the gym not opening till 6am and our departure time of 730. O well! Pretty soon we were dropped off at the hotel and another Peninsula staff member was waiting for us as we pulled up. He took our suitcases (although this time the distance was extremely short from the driveway to check in) and I was in the Business class queue.

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The line just did not move and eventually I was beckoned over to the Economy queue. They had me filling in paperwork with my address for some reason as they thought I needed an ESTA and even with my assurances I did not, they still made me fill it out. I did as instructed and after having to head over to the ticketing desk to grab a ticket wallet (since it was a bit easier to carry the mountains of boarding passes etc that way), it was off to immigration. I saw a currency exchange and tried to fix up my HKD issue, still no deal they would not do it and the ATM line was huge. So it was immigration time.

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We had about an hour till boarding and at Hong Kong airport that isn’t much time really. The airport is just so freaking huge! We cleared security and immigration and as I was hungry and rushed, I was getting into old habits. Rushed and Hungry mal means frustrated and little things cause me to get a bit shitty. I took it out on Jason a little bit as he had no idea where to go (but neither did I for certain things) my job right then was to find an ATM and sort the money situation out. So I said I would meet him at the lounge and I would be there as soon as I could.

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I really wanted to check out the Thai Lounge but we were invited to the United Lounge but these were way out in the middle of the pier, where as right then I was just past immigration in the main concourse. So I went in search of an ATM, but again, giant line. So I figured I would give the hunt a bit of an easier time and go out to the middle of the pier since I was wasting time wandering around trying to find one. I hot footed it to the train and out we sped to the middle of the pier.

Once off the train and moving as fast as I could back to the concourse, I went off in search of an ATM again and this time as I passed the lounges I made a mental note of where to go and then out of no where I found the atm. Money issue resolved, next stop currency exchange. I got that done and as I stepped away from the currency exchange I found Jason, wandering about having no idea where he was or where he was going. So we went off to the Thai Lounge which was funnily enough directly above where we stood. Good enough for me!

I was still pretty shirty as again the time was running out quickly and I just wanted to sort things out as I had stuff everywhere in pockets after immigration and security and I wanted to get myself sorted, and get some breakfast, and I still needed to tweet and do other things. I wanted to make sure I wasn’t going to get my ass handed to me for not doing things I should of been. the Thai lounge was nice, though small. The food offerings were not as extensive as the hotel buffet or as other lounges, but much better than what the United Club probably had to offer.

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I grabbed some toast and a banana and some raisins and tried to get some breakfast into me along with some water. I figured the easiest thing to do at that moment was to just get what I could into my system and try and relax on the flight. Stuff emails or whatever, deal with that when you next get a chance. So I got what food I could into my system as quickly as possible and we headed off to the gate which was a good 5-10 minute walk away.

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The gate wasn’t all that busy but people were already lining up and within 5 minutes we had to join the lines or it would be days before we could get onboard. It was into the lines we went and had to wait there to make sure we could get onboard in a timely fashion. The boarding time came and went. In the line we stood and I soon figured out why my phone was having issues. The Hong Kong sim was out of money!! woops! Thank god for free airport wifi.

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All Nippon Airways – NH912 (Operated by Air Japan)
Hong Kong to Tokyo Narita
0940-1500
Boeing 767-300ER (JA619A)
Business Class – Seat 2K

Boarding: 0919 (Gate 30)
Push Back: 0942
Take Off Roll: 1010 (Runway 07R)
Top of Descent: 1430
Touch Down: 1455 (Runway 16R)
Shut Down: 1500 (Gate: Bus)

Boarding was eventually called and we were let loose into the 767. The flight boarded pretty quickly and even though we were 10 minutes late boarding the flight pushed back on time. In that mean time I had settled into my seat and tried sorting out a lot of my stuff for the flight, taken a few photos and just generally spread out. The crew on this flight though were absolutely stunning. every single one of them was as beautiful as the next! This was going to be a good flight!

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Funny thing was, even though they were beautiful, the crew were unique. I was not allowed to have my bag under the seat in front, instead it had to be safely secured on the seat next to me. As though it was a diplomatic pouch or something it was safely seat belted into the seat next to me. Whatever! Before leaving we had to have our meal orders taken as they said that there would be turbulence for the first hour or so of the flight and the last hour, so to make things quicker they would do the ordering on the ground. So I ordered the Western meal (it was catered out of Hong Kong so go with a western option over the japanese) and asked if I could have it about 2 hours prior to landing.

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We taxiied out of Hong Kong Airport and it took quite a long time to taxi all the way to the far side of the airport, but that is always a treat in foreign lands. Lots of things to spot and take photos of (after the crew tell me to turn off my camera that is). We passed a number of different A330s and 777s from Cathay, Dragaonair, Hong Kong Airlines and United. But then there was the rare stuff as well. Hong Kong Trader was getting some work done, Cebu Paicifc had a A320 following us. There was an SEAIR A319 in the queue and again I missed out an opportunity to get Aerflot.

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Eventually it became our turn to hit the runway and we lined up and waited for clearance (it felt like an eternity) but we eventually rotated into the sky right past the freight ramp and unfortunately I missed a good shot of a KLM Cargo. Can’t have everything. This time I had forgone my usual idea of getting the A side and instead gone for the K side of the aircraft. #FAIL! We had a departure directly over the city and had I been on my usual side I would of had a spectacular view of the city (mainly Kowloon) and the clouds were not covering that portion. Damn.

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It wasn’t all that bumpy on the way out, but there was definitely a few different bumps about during the flight. I got stuck into my book, since the IFE was pretty limited and nothing was going to be of interest to me. As the drink service finally started I was informed that I should eat now as they can’t guarantee they can serve me later on at all. Whatever! I did as I was told and decided to try and get as much work done before the meal showed up and then continue working afterwards.

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Drinks and snack mix were served first and it always seems like the towel and mountains of trash sit there on these flights as they just never get collected. So while I had my snack mix, I was listening to my ipod and tuning things out as we went along. The meal was served and the as the way down it was a one tray affair, but I took my time in eating it this time. I wanted to get through it, but I also didn’t want to ruin the meal by scarfing it down. It was a nice meal but not all that interesting really. Maybe I should of gone the Japanese meal! Sucks to be me!

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With the meal packed up (I kept the dessert for later) and the tray was collected. The rest of the flight was seemingly spent with me having my head into my laptop writing away on the trip report to get as much of it done as possible, getting the occasional message from Jason who was further back or just looking out the window. The funniest moment though on the whole flight came when the Captain came on for his announcement. He was HILARIOUS. No idea where he was from, what he had been doing or anything like that but to be honest, he was funny++

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We cruised a long and without even realizing it, we were almost at time for descent. I got a drink of some water and they had the little tubs of ice cream (though this time smaller than the ones out of japan) and it was funny that the ice cream tasted 100% awesome no matter the size of the tub. Just as I finished that up, we were about an hour or so from descent so began the slow packing up as ANA announce their descent 45 minutes prior giving people plenty of time to get things stowed.

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We got the 45 minute warning and a few minutes after that I had everything of mine stashed away and ready for the arrival into Tokyo. The flight had gone by smoothly and there wasn’t much to do at all after that. I had a bit of a read through my book and enjoyed the sights as we descended. It is flights like this that go smoothly that calm me back down and I enjoy them. The rushing about between flights never helps!

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We came into Narita over the runway I was hoping for. We were approaching right in front of the Hilton I had stayed at the last time I was in Japan and within mere seconds of passing it, we were wheels down on the ground and I heard something that other people would’ve hated to hear “You will be bussed to the Arrivals section of the airport”. w00t! Bus gate!!! Always good news for an Avgeek. Unless you’re in a hurry, or don’t like busses. What it meant for me was the ability to get up close and personal to some good unique aircraft.

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Once we were pulled up, the crew had to wait till the steps were in Position before opening the door. It wasn’t as humid in Tokyo but it was nice and warm at 27C. Perfect!!! I was probably heading back to coldness so I would rather enjoy it while I could. I was off the aircraft and down the steps soon after the doors were open. Bring on the goodies!!

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Introduction
Seattle to San Jose
San Jose
San Jose to Narita
Narita to Hong Kong
Hong Kong Part 1
Hong Kong Part 2
Hong Kong Part 3
Hong Kong to Narita
Narita to Seattle
Conclusion

                                                                                                                                                                   
Tuesday 4th June 2013

If I couldn’t run this morning I was sure going to put the hotel gym to good use. I spent a solid hour in the gym doing one of my morning routines that had been slightly modified as I couldn’t even do a single shuttle run. Funnily enough I did try to get the shuttle runs going but it just was no good. My muscles were better but they were not even remotely able to get me close to anything more than a walking pace. About the best I could do was a quick walk. So I swapped out the shuttle runs with some lunges and some extra stuff. Managed to scream at myself outside a few dozen times when no one could hear me.

The workout was good and since it was still early and we had plenty of time till our first morning event, I spent it being very productive in getting a whole heap of work done while remotely logged into the computer at work and by the time I was done and cleaned out some personal emails, Jason had messaged me saying he was enjoying a quiet breakfast already. So I went down and joined him. Drinking some coffee while reading my blogs and clearing them out entirely. The day had started out pretty well.

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Ahead of me that morning laid an exciting plan full of some stuff that you would never think of doing. Our first part of the morning was going to be spent doing a Dim Sum Cooking Class put on by the Peninsula, followed by a lunch in the same restaurant (possibly of what we just made) and then after lunch a hotel tour and then a chocolate class, put on by the hotel’s very own Chocolate chef.

The Dim Sum class was majorly fun, lots of photos, sillyness and plenty of questions & comments by everyone. The chefs didn’t speak english, we didn’t speak chinese so one of the head waiters was our translator. The two chefs guiding our class had been making dim sum for a number of years and we learnt how to make 2 different kinds of Shrimp dumplings. I can’t wait to get the recipes and try this again back home as it was plenty of fun. I enjoyed getting back in the kitchen (as I hadn’t done it in several days) and the Chef was super impressed by my wrapping abilities for the dumpling and I got a very big thumbs up several times and lots of “that is perfect” comments.

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I was super happy to let everyone eat the dim sum as I was more there to enjoy the fun of making the dim sum and watching the whole experience of doing so. This was going to be one of the facets of one of my blog stories for the series covering these kind of things. So I was more about getting the experience than doing it for the food. Lots of photos were taken and I had the best time. After a brief restaurant & kitchen tour (the BBQ pork smelt unreal!) we headed out of the restaurant back to our rooms breifly so that we could get changed if we needed to and then it was time for lunch!

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Lunch was a chinese banquet put on by the same chefs we had just left and there was lots of dim sum goodies and 7 courses of awesomeness later it was over 🙁 I got to try a few things for the first time including Snow Fungus, Lotus seeds, Red Dates, Abalone and Pigs Neck. The most amazing thing though was the Pineapple bun. An added course and the tiny little baked bun was just beyond heavenly.

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After lunch it was as though we waddled around the hotel as we had all eaten so much. We got to see the main aspects of the hotels, a lot of the different facilities including the China Clipper lounge again. Numerous suites with amazing views (and pricetags) were shown to us. The prices for the rooms were astronomical but then you may pay a lot but your not getting nickel and dimed for the little things other hotels would charge for. We did get told that the rooms we were given would retail for $1100 USD a night! Mother of god!

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The hotel tour finished off being taken through one of the kitchens and we were deposited in the laps of the Head Chocolatier for the hotel. 18 months ago the hotel had set up an in house Chocolate shop to help craft signature goodies that could be enjoyed by everyone who stayed at the hotel. Not the first Chocolate Room I had visited but definately the smallest. Though out of that small room came some extravagent and delicate delights. The small bite sized morsels were true gifts from above. Handmade with heaps of passion by the staff as they saw it not as a job but a way to provide others with their passion and love for chocolate.

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We got a breif history of chocolate and also how chocolate is produced. Next step during the class was a chocolate tasting, getting to try the differences in percentages or origins, along with also the difference in the fillings and treats. The final part of the tasting was pairing chocolate with wine or liquors. Pearing two specific drinks (A Sparkling Red and some Armangac) with a specially designed chocolate that would help accentuae the experience and enjoyment. It was like wine/cheese pairing but on a whole other level.

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Once we were finished with the Chocolate class we had a couple of hours of free time to be able to do whatever we wanted and Jason and expressed some interest in getting a similar camera strap to mine. So after a quick google it turned out that their was a Crumpler store in Hong Kong barely 5 minutes walk from the hotel. Awesome++ So with that done we went up there dodging people and cars and buses. The hawkers were out in force as usual in TST and so many times I heard the words “Copy Watch” or “Custom suit” said to me it was funny. The funniest part of the situation was that I had already gotten a suit on the last trip and his office was barely 2 blocks from my hotel, and I desperately wanted a copy watch however the best place for that was about an hour away on the MTR and I just did not have the time or chance to get out there and get one 🙁

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After the Crumpler store visit (I resisted the temptation for anything as there was nothing uniquely Hong Kong in the store) we headed over to the Avenue of the Stars for the usual tourist photos. I got some tourist style photos but not the way you would expect them. I wanted them to be a little bit different and I think I got some of the ones I wanted.

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When this was done we didn’t have much time before our big final dinner so we had to hot foot it back to the hotel if we wanted time to shower and change. Along the way I decided to make a pit stop. Earlier in the day I had made a stop at the Shanghai Tang store in TST which is their Flagship store and I was considering one of their polo shirts. Around about $100 USD, I had enough money left to be able to get one however, I just couldn’t justify it. In the end I decided I would try and get a new lens cap for one of my camera lenses that I had been putting off for several years. The generic one I had been using never stayed on and was at risk of damaging the lens half the time. So while walking past a building I knew had a very good camera store in it, I made a quick detour.

Sadly they were out of the cap I needed so I bailed out. However while speeding back to the hotel I spied another camera store and figuring “what the hell” dropped in and I was quickly served and assured they had them in stock. At first he showed me a generic one and I told him no it has to be genuine as I don’t want the same hassles again. He countered with “It cost more money”, to which i wanted to say “nooo really”. All I did was nod and say “I know” to which rather than pull a sealed one out. He proceeded to remove the exact lens that I had, and needed the cap for, off the shelf and then removed the lens cap from it. He handed me a lens cap from a brand new lens, unboxed, straight off the shelf. Who knows if I got ripped off or not but at least I know its genuine!

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I made it back to the hotel with enough time to have a super quick shower and I was still rolling my sleeves as I walked into the lift down to “The Bar”. We were to have a pre dinner drink with the hotel manager in “The Bar” though I didn’t actually get to speak to him as he was being dominated by one of the other ladies who was spending all of her time speaking to him. Instead I got to spend a bit of time getting to know the head of PR. The evenings plans were to have a progressive dinner through the hotel restaurants with some signature items at each stop. First up was an entree at “The Lobby”, then a second course at “Spring Moon”. Our main course would be at “Gaddi’s” and then the finale would be at “Felix”.

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We headed to the lobby for our first course and it was an amazing creation that started things off so well. After a good chat with some of the others in the group and getting to know them a little better, we headed up to Spring moon for a lobster course. An amazingly tender piece of lobster was given to us along with Honey Roasted Walnuts of Doom as I liked to call them as I just wanted to inhale them (I kind of resisted…. ok I ate a fair few, but not as many as I could have).

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The great thing with a progessive dinner is you get to experience all different kinds of food but for this one we got to revisit some of the restaurants we had been to. It was great. After “Spring Moon” we headed to Gaddis and rather than get in the super slow lift, I ran up the steps. Not a good idea as even though I beat them all to the top, I sadly had screwed up my leg again. Sigh. Dinner then got an even bigger chuckle as we were informed we needed jackets. I offered that I could go back to my room and get mine if needed but I was told not to worry as they could lend me one. Though the one they lent me was a good size too small. The sleeves didn’t even reach my wrist.

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The main course was the head chef at Gaddi’s favourite dish. Piegon is not something I eat all that often (if ever) and I was interested in seeing what made this his favourite dish. It was tasty and lucious and moreish in so many ways. A good dish for sure! With Gaddi’s completed we headed out of the restaurant (though I did get a few photos of me in the jacket for proof) and we headed up…. all the way up to “Felix”.

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Felix is the highest restaurant in the hotel on the 28th floor. Built when the new tower was built after Kai Tak closed and the height restrictions lifted, it was not even 20 years old but you could of mistaken it for being maybe 1 or 2 years old. It was so modern and way ahead of it’s time and never been refurbished. It was penomenal. The dessert was truly a piece of art but the kicker was the view! Out one side was Kowloon, other the other Hong Kong Island. Right at that moment the sky was lighting up as a thunderstorm rolling through. Pretty amazing site! Add in the fact that the bathrooms have the most unique view from a urinal I have ever seen in my life (you pee facing out a window on the 28th floor into a urinal that looks like a bowl, and it is as though you are peeing down onto the people below). The sink was just as out there as the rest of the restaurant. One of the first ever sensor tap systems in Hong Kong it was ahead of its time for sure, but totally wacky and crazy, I had no idea where to hold my hands. I wanted to take so many photos in there but it was dark and that would of been creepy!

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After Dessert we headed down to one of the hotel bars to get a brief look but couldn’t stay long as it was Comedy night and most of us wanted some sleep anyway as it was going to be an early morning for a few of us. The amazing thing about the last two days was just how much fun it had been and shown me a side of Hong Kong I had never thought I would experience. I got to MAKE dim sum in a chinese kitchen. Learn chocolate making from a Gold Medal winning chocalatier, pee on the people of Kowloon and hover above Hong Kong harbour while taking photos of the city. Truly amazing.

I packed up my stuff that night ready for the morning thinking just how lucky I was. It was going to be tough to top the last couple of days!

Introduction
Seattle to San Jose
San Jose
San Jose to Narita
Narita to Hong Kong
Hong Kong Part 1
Hong Kong Part 2
Hong Kong Part 3
Hong Kong to Narita
Narita to Seattle
Conclusion

                                                                                                                                                                   
Monday 3rd June 2013

I woke up to sun glinting in through the curtains and quickly hit the retract panel to open the first set of curtains. It was bright blue sunshine outside with barely a cloud in sight. Hell Yeah! I had (with the help of the staff the night before) worked out the way to the otherside of the road to the harbourfront so that I could run Hong Kong Harbour for my first ever run in the city. I was excited. I have run Central Park, the Thames, Kyoto, the back streets of a Normandy Township, Hiroshima, Berlin, Qatar and Sydney Harbour. I was soon going to add another one to the list. I was excited to get out and run along the Avenue of Stars, past the Bruce Lee statue, soaking in the sun (and no doubt the heat and humidity) before breakfast.

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Within minutes of emerging from my room I was in the lobby and heading towards the entrance. Waiting on the driveway as my garmin found satelites and warmed up was a little bit awkward. There was the occasional person roaming about in their finest, the page boys and hotel staff dressed so immaculately and here I was wearing running shorts, shirt and wearing my buff and sunnies….. awkward!

When I was good to go, I got started and as I cleared the corner of the hotel and hit the subway (almost stacking it on the first few steps) I was good to go, at speed and in heaven. There was heat and humidity and I enjoyed the run immensly. I just kept running my way past the star ferry, along the waterfront, dodging people where I could as it was the middle of monday morning commute and it wasn’t exactly quiet and soon I was clear into the Tsim Sha Tsui promenade and the Avenue of Stars. Passing other runners, people out walking, tourists taking morning sunrise photos it was awesome. The first few kilometers were good and I was soaking it all in.

As I approached the last half a kilometer before I was due to turn I started to head up a long long ramp. I sucked it up and powered up but things didn’t feel good. My leg was burning (I figured it was just stiff after the flights) and pushed the pain aside, getting to the turn point, found a clear space and turned back around to head down the ramp. As I reached the bottom of the ramp, things were worse. The pain was out of my legs but moving towards the muscles around my groin. I knew what this meant. It has happened a few times in the past but it had been a solid 18 months or so since the last time. It looked like my old groin injury was flaring up. I had pushed to hard lately and this was it. The WORST possible time for me to have this flare up was this trip. Not because I was going to be in pain, but purely because it was going to limit my workouts and possibly my movements. I sucked it up hoping that it was temporary and picked up the pace a little bit to try and get me back ASAP.

I got about 4.2km into my usual run and I could not go any further at speed. I could barely walk let alone run and this was not going to be good. It was REALLY painful so I stopped. The first time in over 2 years I had stopped in the middle of a run, before my 5k point. Even in driving snow or rain had I pushed through the pain or discomfort to get me through my 5k run. Not this time unfortunately.

I decided to try and stretch it out a little to see if that could let me pick up the pace to get back to the hotel as I was still not close to the hotel (on the route, in a straight line I was maybe 100m away). It didn’t help that much so figured I would try and push through the pain to get me back. Yeah nope! I could not get up to speed at all not even how hard I tried. It SUCKED! I was floored. I did not want this to happen right now. So I walked as fast as I could to finish off the 5k and headed for the hotel. I would just have to deal with it. I got back to the hotel in a bit of pain and drenched in sweat from the humidity outside I stopped by the gym on the way back to my room to check it out.

After cleaning up and laying out all my things since I hadn’t done anything apart from unpacking my running gear the night before, I set about exploring the room some more. I found the coffee machine and there was much goodness to be found in that room. I set about catching up with life, since it was still Sunday back in the USA there was no point remoting into work as my inbox would be fairly empty still. Instead I caught up on emails, blogs, wrote a blog post as well and headed down to breakfast.

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Breakfast was spent consuming as much coffee as possible while trying not to be obvious that I was sitting next to someone I thought was a celebrity. Not sure but I think was sitting next to an Iron Chef (American one that is) and the coffee flowed from elegant silverware and china while I looked like a wierdo working away in the middle of a restaurant.

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After consuming breakfast and being joined by a few others eventually I headed back to the room to drop my stuff off and swap a few things out and head for the spa. We were told we had to be at the spa an hour before our scheduled appointment to begin our “Heat Experience”, whatever that meant. All I knew was it was good timing to get a massage! I was hoping it could do me some good!

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There was one or two final tweets before we left the Spa reception. It was not as if I was going to be able to use my phone from the Spa itself and meant a few hours of solitude. something I was kind of looking forward to. The spa was going to be interesting. I had no idea what to expect, nor what was going to happen. All I knew was I was here for the next 3 hours. As long as I could get them to focus on my leg it would all be ok. I was shown the spa facilities by one of the staff who then handed me a locker room key, told me to change into the robe and “disposable underwear” provided and I could then head back to Spa Reception.

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The receptionist then took us up for our “Heat Experience” prior to our time in the spa itself. This was time to go from the Steam Room, to a special mint scented shower/mister and then into the Sauna for some dry heat. This was pretty awesome and a good way to start things off. After all of this (usually about 25 minutes or so) we could then emerge from this area and head into the “Relaxation Suite” with its brialliant harbour view and there we could rest up (not that it was strenuous yet) before our treatment.

I was soon collected by my therapist “Candy” who was a pint sized asian woman. She was very pretty and what I would soon found out to be extremely strong! She sure did know how to pack a punch when it came to working my muscles. She may have looked small but she sure could get some pressure on your muscles. I had let know about the injury and she said she will do what she can to try and fix it. So I ended up deciding on a Facial with Neck, Shoulder and Head massage for an hour then also a body massage for an hour with a focus on my lower back and upper legs/thighs to fix up some of my running issues.

The treatment was great, exactly what I needed at that moment. The facial made me look just wierd with some of the stuff they had put in my hair which it seemed when I emerged that a few others had the same experience as Jason’s hair was puffy as hell, but Deborah looked like she had just woken up. Funny++

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After getting changed back into my civvies I headed quickly up to my room to grab my camera and fix up a few things so that I could prep for lunch and the afternoons activities. As I ventured out of the Spa I was handed my Hong Kong Sim Card that a friend had dropped at the hotel a week or so prior, and i quickly set about getting this set up.

Our lunch was an amazing reduced course feast in the First ever French Fine Dining restaurant in Hong Kong. Gaddi’s at the Peninsula is extremely popular place and we were wined and dined on a special menu designed by the head chef (who is French of course) who personally met us during lunch and explained to us, so much about him and his passion and the food etc. The amazing experiences just kept on coming! There was furious tweets and photos being taken. I was having a blast now that I had figured out all my phone dramas.

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The lunch was amazing but it was what was set to follow that had my excited. We were escorted from the restaurant back to the 27th floor, where we were to change over to another lift (a very very tiny lift) to head up to the “China Clipper Lounge” on the very top of the hotel. We were heading to an amazing venue that would make any Avgeek drool.

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The China Clipper lounge is the pre boarding airline lounge for the Helicopter company based at the Peninsula. An amazing place filled with aviation memorabilia, mementos and what would equate to a museum if it not for the fact this was a private lounge on top of a hotel, and the only hotel in Hong Kong with a helipad on its roof. Not one pad but TWO! I was in heaven and snapping away for the story I was going to write and the views were spectacular. I was hoping I could do this place justice. Pretty soon I had to stop taking photos and pay attention to our safety video (no stunning beautiful flight attendant this time, just our Pilot Ben and the ground staff in an orange jumpsuit). Damn.

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It was still amazing and we reached the roof where more photos were taken, of the helicopter, the view, the helicopter, the view, the helipad, just about anything! I was super excited. Jason had the front seat, I had the rear left, the other 3 ladies crammed along the rest of the back seat and we sealed up, started up and soon we were cleared off the pad to circuit Hong Kong Island. Our little AS355N Twin Squirrel handled the flight really well and we circuited the city after our backwards take off.

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I took several hundred photos of so much stuff from the Air, getting some great shots of the hotel, Kowloon, Hong Kong Island, The Peak, Ocean Park but the best few experiences were as we turned back towards Kowloon for the end of our flight. As we approached the old Kai Tak airport site, the pilot gave us a little bit of an old straight in approach to Kai Tak’s runway and even did a nice slow turn to the left so I could get some nice clear photos. Then to show off, we headed back over towards Kowloon harbour above the star ferry pier. He was getting ready to line us up to “Shoot the Duck Approach” over the giant inflatable rubber duck moored next to the Star Ferry pier, and land onto the hotel. But first he decided to HOVER the helicopter above Hong Kong harbour. We were pretty much hovering at 6 knots ground speed right above the rubber duck. Amazing experience.

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The flight was soon coming to an end as we “Shot the Duck” into the roof of the Peninsula and then it was back to earth and reality. I had a giant grin on my face and couldn’t of cared about anything right then. We were ushered off the pad quickly to allow the next group of people to take their flight over the city and we were moments away from a lift ride back to the main part of the hotel, and down to the lobby. Sadly the fun was over 🙁

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As we came back down the lifts, back to reality I was still grinning ear to ear and trying to tweet and catch up where I could. We were taken back to the lobby to skip the giant lines that had formed, meet the head of PR for the Peninsula and enjoy that famous Peninsula tradition of Afternoon Tea. When I first saw this had been added to our revised itinerary (one that was given to us as we left the spa) I had one thing on my mind. SCONES! Proper British scones. None of this Seppo (American) scone BS. It was going to be pure unadulterated baked goodness, covered in real clotted cream and strawberry jam. I couldn’t care less about anything else on those tiers. I just wanted the scones.

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We enjoyed Afternoon tea (and I had a good 3 or 4 scones, both plain and “Fruit” (really just Sultana…. my favourite). Lashing of clotted cream, jam, the occasional other treat from the tier and right then and their, I said to myself. If for nothing else today, I would behave myself just because I got to enjoy those amazingly good scones. The brits sure did pass on one right thing to Hong Kong before they got kicked out.

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After “Tea Time” was finished we had some free time to which I found the coffee machine in my room, decided to call home from the free VOIP calls from the room (a feature I was told about that day with exclamations of “Didn’t they tell you that when you got to your room?”) and was rudely interrupted during the phone call by a knock at the door. I let mum and dad go (they were to busy making fun of my injury with suggestions I get accupuncture or perhaps some chinese medicine.. funny /sarcasm) and at the door was a man holding a plate of Macaroons to which he simply said “These are for you Mr Muir”, scurried in to drop them on the table and then ran out. I was shocked.

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After our brief interlude of some normalcy we were given the rest of the evening off to our own devices, but no need to walk if we didn’t want. We were to be provided with one of the hotel’s 2 Mini Clubmans to take us wherever we wanted to go. It was getting late so with night time approaching I developed a plan with Jason. Get up to the Peak, get some amazing photos. Take him to Hong Kong Station in the middle of Central so he can see just how amazing that station is. Walk over to the Star Ferry to get that over the harbour and then hop the MTR up to Mong Kok for a bit of street food, night market shopping and then back to the hotel.

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It went off pretty well and the drive up to the top of the Peak though long was exciting from the back of the mini and then lots of photos before hurrying back down the mountain to Hong Kong station where we let the driver go and Jason and I headed off to explore. Jason loves subway stations and I wanted to blow his mind with the size of Hong Kong station to which we got absolutely lost a bit and then I hobbled off out of the building towards the Star Ferry.

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We missed a ferry as it left just mere moments after we got there, I was trying to hobble rush towards the ferry but sadly there was no way in hell I was going to make it, so although Jason had decided to not even try to run, in my “rush” to get there, I had missed taking a lot of good photos *sigh*. We waited with the crowds for the next one and then we headed off on the short 10 minutes across the harbour for our hard earned $2.50 HKD (around 20-30c USD). During our wait for the ferry and the ferry ride over, we had tried to develop our plans for some food. I figured my friends tips from Foursquare (something he always used) would be the way to go. I was just scrolling through them (a lot of them were which were the best starbucks in Hong Kong) and then one single word caught my eye. Goose. I so badly wanted Roast Goose. Jason was up for the plan so we went with it.

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After getting off the Star Ferry and taking a quick photo of the crowds swarming around the Rubber Duck, we made a breif pit stop at the hotel to change out a few things/bathroom break. With that complete, we ended up picking up Nao from ANA who joined us for the evening once we mentioned the words “Goose”. Down into the depths of the city we ventured to the MTR Station below the Peninsula and then it was 3 stops north to Mong Kok. Let the random adventures begin!

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Once in Mong Kok my phone made its final death nells on the battery so it meant that my leading the navigation was not going to happen and it was up to Jason to try and take over. We found our way eventually to the small whole in the wall place that was full of locals and not a tourist in sight! Mind you it took us a while to try and find it with lots of “which street is this?”, “what way are we facing?”, “Are we going the right way?”, “Let me take a look at that”, or “Is this it?”. When we got there it was funny because there was not a single person it seemed that spoke english and none of us spoke any Cantonese. This was going to be fun!

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We managed to order once they realized we didn’t speak any Chinese and they bought us a menu that had English on it. It was funny all the same, it would make for a funny story right? Three Aviation people on the streets of a foreign city, not having a clue about any of what we were about to eat and hope and pray we understood. Jason and I went with Roast Goose on Rice, Nao went with Chicken Rice and I got some vegies to at least pretend I was being healthy.

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The food came out Super Fast and although the service was non existent (communication issues no doubt) it looked DAMN tasty! It wasn’t super huge portions, but then for 34 HKD (about 4-5USD), it was still an absolute steal! The vegies were more expensive than the goose and to be honest I didn’t care as I just wanted some vegetable intake. They were tasty but the goose… wow!!! Sublime. It wasn’t like duck and it wasn’t like chicken. Kind of a mixture of them both. The Goose had the texture of chicken but the fattiness of duck. Served on the rice it was super simple but It was amazing!

We had some help from the people next to us when Jason and Nao wanted some napkins as the Hong Kong way is you have to bring your own for most places (I had forgotten this tid bit till the people reminded us) and they kindly provided a tissue for the two of them. Me I just licked my fingers clean!

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After dinner Nao headed back to the hotel while Jason and I headed into the Ladies Market for some haggling. I was searching for some shirts and some belts (I just love the belt buckles they have in Hong Kong, I have not seem them anywhere else) and ended up also haggling for some headphones. Jason also did the same and I ended up half haggling for him and you should of seen the ladies face when I took her starting figure. Halved it and dropped it by twenty (she wanted 200, I counterbid 90) Hong Kong Dollars. Priceless!

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We both walked away pretty content with the nights purchases me 3 shirts, 2 belts and a pair of headphones while Jason just some headphones. Back to the station as it was now approaching pretty late and we had another full day ahead of us tomorrow. As we headed out of the TST station towards the hotel I spied a cream puff stand. $19HKD for a giant Beard Papa style cream puff. The one I grabbed was a Pomelo, Mango, Sago flavour as it sounded totally wierd and unique. I enjoyed this back in the room at the hotel with the Macaroons and called it a night.

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