HK: Day 1 & 2

Ramada Kowloon Hotel, Hong Kong - Local time 00.10

Tuesday
The cab picked us up at our hotel in Paris and dropped us off at CDG Terminal 2. We went straight to the AF counter to check in for our flight to HKG.

Check-in at the AF counter

I had a headache and backache, so I wasn't really looking forward to sitting in a seat for the next 12 hours. Afterwards Brenda and Grietje wanted to take a last smoke before heading inside, so we found a seat outside the airport where we chilled out. Freddy went to get some MacDonalds for himself.



Grietje and me

Grietje and Brenda

Brenda & me. Notice how we are all dressed alike? Jeans & jeans jacket. The best way to travel!

After the cigarette break we went through immigration and headed to the bus gate. A bus then takes you to a part of the airport called CDG2. From there we walked to gate F25 where a 777-200ER was waiting for us.

AF busses

Boarding

If there is one smooth plane to fly, it's the 777. So quiet that it's unbelievable! I thought we would be on a Jumbo, but I was wrong. The boarding went smoothly and in no time we were seated in Tempo Class (Economy).

Sitting in Tempo during boarding

After the doors were closed, the "Chef de Cabine" (Purser) came up to me and asked me to pick up my stuff and follow her. The same was said to Grietje, Brenda and Freddy. We thought we were about to get bumped off! It did happen on my very first trip for AFC to São Paulo, Brazil. But no... we were taken up front where the Chef de Cabine said: "Au nom d'Air France nous voudrions t'offrir des sièges dans l'Espace Affaires"... On behalf of Air France we would like to offer you seats in l'Espace Affaires. l'Espace Affaires is AF's Business Class. We couldn't be happier! Great seats that are very comfortable and food that can be chosen from a menu! Merci beaucoup Air France! Because we are based in Holland, we fly more with KLM than AF, but AF treats you 10 times better than KLM and AF offers a much better product than KLM... hands down! (Please don't kill me R!).



l'Espace Affaires. Compare this with KLM's World Business Class on the 747, 767 or MD11. Can't beat it!

We took-off and we started to make our way to HKG.

Wednesday (yesterday)
The flight was a smooth one and I slept for about 6 hours in my comfortable seat. Then I woke up watched 2 movies and listen to some radio.

View from my seat

After a while I headed to the galley to get a mineral water where I met up with some of the crew who were just enjoying their meal and conversating. The other half of the crew were in the OCR (Overhead Crew Rest). So since I had nothing to do, I just hung about with them for a while. The crew was a very firendly one and because the Chef de Cabine saw that we were AFC staff on the PIL (Pax Information List) they treated me as one of their own and switched the conversation to English just for me, even though I understand and speak a little French.

Crew eating in the aft-pantry

Jouri, Antoinette and Dénis. Antoinette is Chef de Cabine

The flight went on and at exactly 17.10 we touched down at Chek Lap Kok Intern'l Airport. Before we could even get off, our contact person came onboard; Tang-Fei Liao. He works with HKG/KC/AF... Air France Regional Management as a "Chef d'Avion".

Tang-Fei Liao of AF came onboard to welcome us to HKG

Everything we need will go through him and he is available to us 24 hours a day. So together we came off the plane, went through immigration, picked up our bags, went through customs.

Our airplane in HKG

Baggage carousel

There we said goodbye to Tang-Fei and we then headed to the metro station to take us to Kowloon.

The metro

Hong Kong is split in two districts seperated by a river; namely Kowloon and Victoria. Once in Kowloon we checked in at the Ramada. The rooms are alright. Not the best I had, but good for its purposes.

View of the room

We decided to have a quick dinner in the restaurant and from there we did some preparation work in Freddy's room. Around 23.00 we called it a night. Jet-lag was killing us!

Thursday (today)
We woke up, had breakfast and from there headed to HKG airport to meet Tang-Fei once again.

Tang-Fei at the AF airport office. This is the space we'll be using while working in HKG

After he got us day passes we got a general tour of the airport. HKG is home of Cathay Pacific and is a OneWorld Hub. So Finnair (our client) plays a big role here together with OneWorld partners Cathay Pacific, British Airways, Iberia etc. Finnair has many flights to Asia and a lot of passengers use HKG to connect between OneWorld flights. Finnair has to choose a new handling agent in HKG. The choice is between Menzies Aviation Group, GlobeGround/Servisair and Swissport. Only Passenger Services (HKG/PH/AY). Ticketing is done by Finnair (AY) themselves and ramp/platform services is done by Cathay Pacific (CX). Finnair also has its own Station Management in HKG.

AY's Station Management team (HKG/KK/AY).

We're here to audit all 3 handlers on their service levels, staff training, facilities and management. Most importantly is of course their pricing system. After we have all the data we need, we send them to Rijswijk via MSN Office Messenger, where team #4 will continue to assess all the data. They will then make a findings report and present it to Finnair Management Outstations in Helsinki on July 20th. Finnair will take the advice from AFC and select the ground handler we tell them to. That's the way it works.

When we were finished with the grand tour and met with AY's people, we called it a day. We had enough and were still jet-lagged. We decided to do what we do best... shopping! So we headed back to Kowloon to the hotel, picked up our hand luggages and went shopping at MongKok Road, Ladies Street and the world famous Stanley Market with our carry-ons rolling behind of us.

Mongkok Road

Ladies Street

Stanley Market

Lesley asked me to buy a MP3 player for him with 2 Gb of space. Better than that 128MB thing that he has now. Price? US$ 12,-/€10,-!!!!!

I treated myself with an iPod Nano. Price? HK$ 233,-/US$ 45,-/€40,-!!!! Hong Kong is cheap!!! You see why I love Asia!!!???

Sometime between the shopping we went to buy fast food, when I spotted KFC... uhhh... well...no... it is not Kentucky, but something that looks like it.

This dude has Chinese eyes and it's called LFC (Lee Fried Chicken). I also saw this in Beijing a few months back. Weird... I ain't eating there!!! Bah!

We are done shopping and the ladies are taking a cigarette break while guarding the carry-ons

We bought tons of stuff! As you can see Brenda went crazy buying Kipling bags! Damn!

I am beat! I am going to shower now and sit back with a cup of tea and enjoy the view I have of the city we call Hong Kong. This was an incredible day and for just a few hours I forgot all about the accident...

View from my room. What a place. What a city.