Hong-Kong Airport to Fij

When I disembarked from the plane at Hong Kong Airport, everything was quite confusing lots of different signs, a mass of people who seem to know where they were going and no one around to ask until the main hall I asked an air steward who said that I needed to go through immigration and I had to fill in a form. I thought I had better check I had filled in this form correctly and then my brain had had enough and I went into melt down, I was told by the information desk lady to calm down. I walked away, and tried not to check in online but the computer said no, I rang the company and they said that I had to wait until 12.30.

Unfortunately I needed my boarding pass to use my lounge ticket so I decided to check if there were any showers about and thankfully there were some, very basic but it revived me and a clean set of clothes and I was ready to do battle with the world again. I bought some food which was OK, treated myself to some sweets and an eye mask. The fruit crisps tasted yuck but the mango and ginger sweets were delicious and I later shared with my fellow passengers to cheer the mood.

When it finally came time to check in, there were other people who had similar problems like me of checking in online. The man on check in desk was not helpful in giving clear instructions on how to go the departure hall and as I walked away my mind became a forest of various paths that I was unable to decipher. Thankfully the lady on the information desk was more helpful and guided me where to go and remembered to point out the lounge as she recalled me asking about the location of the place.

The lounge was a long walk but it felt good to stretch my legs. It was very plush and even though I could only use it for a certain amount of time, it was a welcomed break from the chaos of the huge departure hall. The staff were very friendly and welcoming. I had a huge array of hot and cold food to choose from as well as a variety of non alcoholic drinks. It was lovely just to chill and feel relaxed for a few hours.

When I arrived at the gate, an old Fijian lady chats to me about not being able to go to brisbane, about her face mask being very hot and to drink lots of water. I took the time to check my messages and about an hour before we board, my friend from New Zealand posted an article about a new ban that her country was enforcing that nobody who had been to mainland China were allowed to go to New Zealand.

We boarded the plane and then an announcement came from the captain that all the Chinese people were asked to leave the plane as Fiji was no longer accepting Chinese visitors then a few minutes later came another announcement that we all had to get off. It was chaos as this was unpresidented and the check in staff were in deep discussions about how best they should approach the problem. The lucky ones were allowed to board again then we had to sit around whilst the hold luggage was sorted.

The plane eventually took off and everyone was relieved that we were finally heading to Fiji. The staff were more friendly than the Cathy Pacific crew and we were given 2 forms to fill in, a health form and goods form as Fijian customs heavily fine undeclared goods even sweets. It took 10 hours to fly to Fiji and the Gluten Free food was the most edible by far.