Part one of my Asia trip...
CX270 AMS - VHHH
A340-300, B-HXB
After a 3 hour train trip from Gent to Schiphol via Antwerp, I arrived around 10.30 in Schiphol. I checked in my luggage right away at the Cathay desk and went on to explore the airport a bit. Too bad the panorama deck was closed, probably due to the snow. If you compare the number of widebodies at Schiphol with those at Zaventem, you can't but wonder why the Belgians missed out on building a real International airport... still...
My A340 was standing at a parking spot, gradually being snowed under.
Snow clearing teams rushed back and forth all the time to keep the runways open.
You can't make them out too well, they were quite far away... but seeing them rushing by was quite an impressive sight.
At around 12.00, the Cathay bird made it's way to gate E19, and boarding commenced at 12.30... Instead of queuing up like an idiot for half an hour, I stayed on my comfy seat and watched the herds almost fight to get in line... people still don't seem to understand what numbered seats are for.
Soit, at 13.00 everybody was on board. As far as I could tell a nearly full flight. The departure was originally scheduled for 13.15, but had to be delayed because of some "minor technical problem", the cpt said. Pushback was at 13.30, and we taxied towards the runway. Further delay was caused due to the de-icing of the plane...
Finally, at 14.05, the A340 rolled on the runway, and off we were, for a 12.00 hour flight... Shortly after t/o, lunch was served... the traditional chicken / beef stew choice, nothing too special here.
(F/A just peeping above the trolley )
The flight went very smooth, without any turbulence, and I amused myself with Cathay's entertainment system, called Studio-CX... though the games didn't seem to be working. So at an altitude of 33.000ft and a speed of 864km/h, we raced towards the Far East
Touch down at Hong Kong was at 7.13, by the time I was off the plane it was almost 8.00... I didn't have much time to enjoy the magnificent airport, as I had to be at the check-in for CX717 to Singapore at 08.30, and, as usual when time is running short, the two gates couldn't be further away from each other... So on to the second leg of the trip...
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CX717 LHHH - WSSS
A777-300 B-HNJ
Another full flight... The F/A asked me to move from seat 44K to 34K, so a family could sit together... pushback was shortly after 09.30, and takeoff at 09.55... from runway 25L/07R... I felt right at home Cpt was Mr Simon Smith, assisted by purser Cindy. Something that struck me was that all the pilots seemed to be Australian or from New-Zealand... no "local" pilots there.
Shortly after take-off, breakfast was handed out... some greasy combination of eggs and sausage, with a small but very nice fruit salad... soon after, I took off too, to the land of dreams . I woke up while the plane had already started its descent into Singapore, where we landed at 12.18.
Next... from Singapore to Chiangmai in Thailand, and more!
Edit: something went wrong with the pics it seems :s
27/12/05 Cathay to Singapore via Hongkong
27/12/05 Cathay to Singapore via Hongkong
Last edited by b-west on 31 Jan 2006, 19:09, edited 3 times in total.