I will go back and fill in the last few days in the next week or so. But for now we are finally home!!! The night before we left we had a group dinner with our guide at Lucy's - it is a western style restaurant on the island. Then Greg and I finished up some shopping and then headed back to the hotel to pack everything for the trip the next morning. We all went to bed about 10:00pm. The kids feel asleep right away and Greg too but I could not sleep. I kept thinking about the flights home and wondering how in the world both of my kids were going to make it thru the long flight from Hong Kong to Chciago? I finally fell asleep about 2:45am - which was just in time for Molly to wake up screaming. And then at 4:00am is when we had to wake up. Uhhhh!!! Can you say tired!!!
We met in the lobby at 6:00am and the second I got there and started talking with Nelson Molly threw up all down the front of me!!! What the heck is going on with puke on this trip??? Of course all my clothes were packed and already loaded on the van on the bottom of the pile so once again I am flying covered in throw up. Lovely!!! The bus ride to the airport was pretty quiet - everyone was really really tired. All the babies and Madelin fell asleep on the way.
We arrived and then the airport craziness started. We all got carts and loaded our bags and tried to find our ticket counter. It is nothing like the US airports. Most airports have their check-in areas in the front of the airport so you dont have to take your bags very far. Well here you have to walk at least a mile and the ticket counters are all over the place. I still cant figure out how you would find your counter. If Nelson would not have been with us I am not sure we could have figured it out.
Once we found the counter we realized the lines were very long and barely moving. All of a sudden one of the reps came over to us and put us in our own line. If he would not have done that I am not sure we would have made our flight. We had to go thru one area and tell them if we had anything to declare. Then thru the departure card area - this is where we got stopped - we got pulled aside for some reason - they really did not ask us many questions just kind of looked at our paperwork and then at our passports then at our paperwork and back and forth. After that we had to go thru security which took about 45 minutes. Then had to walk about a mile to the gate. We made it about 10 minutes before they started to board. The flight to Hong Kong was short about one hour. We landed in Hong Kong and I have to say it was so beautiful there. The water was on one side of the airport and the mountains we on the other side - it was so beautiful - I felt like I was on a movie set or something. In Hong Kong we had to check in with United in a holding area - they told us the flight was oversold so it was going to be full. The women that helped us was so nice and helpful. Then we had to go thru another security check point and then find our gate. This airport was huge too. We found our gate and then we had about 10 minutes before we could board. The gate workers came over to us and told us they wanted us to board first. So we got on the plane and got settled in for the 14 hour flight. The staff had made an announcement if we could board quickly we might be able to leave 10 minutes early. Next thing we know they are paging a passenger over and over. They finally tell us that one passenger is not on the plane but his bag is so they have to take all the bags off until they find his and pull it so we were going to have a delay. Soon after that we noticed that the power kept going on and off in the cabin and it was getting really hot on the plane. Soon the pilot came on and said that we had a maintenance problem they were trying to fix. They would update us in 1/2 hour. Well now the plane is getting very hot - it was about 95 degrees in Hong Kong - and the plane felt like it was 120. People started getting very uncomfortable and complaining. They came on the PA and said they knew it was getting hot but they were doing their best to resolve the problem. Well now another 1/2 hour goes by both of my kids are soaking wet with sweat and starting to not look good. I started to walk Molly around the back of the plane. By the time I got back to the seat I noticed Madelin was sleeping - I think it was because it was so hot. I felt awful for both kids and us for that matter it was not fun. We ended up leaving about 1.40 minutes late which had us worried about our connection.
The plane ride actually went better then we thought. Not that is was fun or anything like that it was just the kids did really well and the crew was wonderful. I have not had that kind of customer service in probably 20 years from an airline employee. It was such a breath of fresh air to actually see the flight attendance enjoy their jobs. They all loved Madelin and came back all the time to check on her and give her treats. I think we walked off the plane with about 20 packs of Milano cookies. She thought she was pretty hot stuff. Somehow the whole crew knew her name - neither Greg or I told them - but they all called them by their names. Madelin slept a lot and made pictures and listen to her IPOD. She was so good. Molly was a little wiggly and wanted to be on my lap the whole time. Greg would walk her once and awhile to give my arms a break. She did not scream but once. Yahoo!!! I was shocked. She really did great and was smiling at everyone. Everyone kept saying what a happy baby she was. And I was thinking to myself when is the big melt down going to happen??? But it really never came. Amen!!!
Finally we made it to Hong Kong - we actually got there on time. Shocking after such a delay. We got off the plane and had to go thru immigration - we have to get in the non-american line because Molly has a Chinese Passport. Of course this line is much slower. We finally made it thru but are starting to panic a little because we dont have much time to make our connection. Then we go get our bags - which took forever and one of our bags did not show up for a very long time. Everyone else in the group went ahead with out of because they were worried they would miss their flight. Then we had to go thru Costumes and again we had a special area we had to go thru. We had to wait their while they finished our paperwork for Molly. Then our bags had to be screened again. Then off to the transfer station. This is when they told us one of our bags tags was coming off so we had to get in line to get it re-tagged and then get back in line to put it on the belt. Finally we got all that done then we had to find the train to get to our concourse and then once again thru security. We actually had to fun a little because it was getting close to boarding time. Finally we made it to our gate I had just enough time to brush my teeth and change Molly's diaper then we boarded the flight to Des Moines. It was hard to believe that we were going to actually arrive on time in Des Moines.
We arrived in Des Moines and that is when Allison and I started to fall apart.
No comments:
Post a Comment