Tuesday afternoon I took Maddie down to the Cat House Hotel and she readily hopped into her usual junior suite and settled on her ledge. We then drove our Hertz rental down to the LAX Marriott where we turned in our car and met my sister, Hilary, who had just flown in from Tucson.
Hil's elite status got us not only free rooms but access to the concierge lounge where we had drinks and good hors d'oeuvres, before returning to the lobby for a light dinner in the sports lounge. We crashed early as we were planning on picking up the airport jitney at 5:30 AM.
We got to the Tom Bradley International Terminal at about 5:45 and found the Cathay Pacific counter....where Bob and I were informed that we had been bumped up to Business Class from Premium Economy and could join Hil in luxury! Wow!! On a 16-hour flight that is really a bonus. We wandered around the beautiful newly-remodeled terminal which was almost empty at that hour so we could really appreciate the beautiful art, clever seating, and the rising sun shining through the intricate skylights - really something LA should be proud of!
We boarded the front of the 777 and found our "pods" with seats that could be completely reclined, several cabinets to store our stuff, big TV, and a cotton comforter that could cover a full size bed! We got juice and fruit plates and both had delicious bowls of imperial noodles with dim sum and a blueberry muffin, and settled down for some serious TV watching with lunch later in mid-flight.
We arrived at 4:30 PM on Thursday in Hong Kong, left our pods and entered the huge, but bleak airport terminal. We had arrived late, but had a scheduled 4-hour layover; our next flight was delayed 2 hours pushing our departure time to 10 PM. There is no place to sit in the airport except at gates or restaurants so we threw ourselves on the mercy of the Cathay Pacific lounge. Hilary, with her high status, could take one guest into the lounge, but the manager kindly let both Bob and me inside. We settled into soft chairs; I got a delicious bowl of corn soup and some ginger beer and whiled away the hours.
We left the quiet cocoon of the lounge and headed to our gate where we were met with a scrum of passengers. Hil boarded first, back to a pod in business class, and we moved to the back of a very long line. Fortunately we were able to find room for our carryons and settled into our economy seats which actually had enough knee room for us. I put on my eye shade and tried to sleep, but Bob had dinner at 11:30 of okra, tofu, rice, and carrots which was quite bland.
The flight flew down the South China Sea, crossed Viet Nam, Thailand, Myanmar, and Bangladesh, and entered India. It would have been wonderful to see all this in daylight but this and our flight home are in the middle of the night! We finally landed in smokey Delhi at 1:30 AM, and walked a very long way to an escalator which descended into the enormous immigration hall jammed with people.
We found the area for non-Indian passports but in the chaos couldn't figure out where the end of the queue was. We finally merged in with the crowd and slowly it became a line. We tried to fend off queue jumpers and gradually made our way, reaching the immigration counter after nearly two hours! Our passports were stamped and we were whisked along and found our luggage already off the carousel. Customs ignored us and we entered the main hall where, thankfully, a Marriott rep greeted us and led us to our van.
Approaching Immigration
Shortly we were inside the lovely hotel and up to our rooms. Unpacked and lights out at 5 AM.
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