I have survived…erm, arrived
On checking in, I tried my best to get a seat at a bulkhead/door, or failing that, a window. The best they could do for me was a window seat from Melbourne to Hong Kong, but I was stuck in a middle seat from Hong Kong to London (the longer stretch of the two at 14hours). The flight to Hong Kong was somewhat surreal, I looked out the window just as we were entering the Gulf of Carpentaria, and the whole way up, the moon was sitting off the wing.
The whole flight up, I had a turkish cab driver sitting beside me, and he talked the whole bloody way! He was quite happy to lean across to look out the window without any warning, and his breath reminded me of my childhood dentists, but he was entertaining…to a point.
Over Indonesia, the moon had turned blood red, and the sea was glowing a similar hue. In the darkness I could see what appeared to be the cones of a number of active volcanoes glowing, and the persistent flashes of lightning. I’m not sure how much of that was due to sleep depravation, as that would’ve been around 4am AEST. I wish I’d had the camera handy to take some photos but alas, I didn’t think of it.
We flew into Hong Kong on dawn, and it’s quite a remarkable city—I can see myself potentially spending time outside the airport in the future to explore it further.