Aloha from Hawaii - 21 Dec
Well, the first mishap has already happened as the journey from London to Honolulu took a lot longer than we had banked on.... The first flight was on time and we (i.e. Roberto & I, who went with me to Borneo) were even upgraded to Economy Plus which gave us more leg room - great bonus. I even managed to get an aisle seat though the flight was over-booked... they had a poor choice of movies but at least it helped kill time.
On arrival, it was beautiful weather in San Francisco, really bright and warm so it helped keep us wide awake. We even went through customs pretty quickly which amazed me... hardly anyone there when I anticipated the Xmas crowds. I met up with my two good friends there who kindly took us for a city tour so that Roberto could see more of San Francisco and take some great shots of the famed Golden Gate bridge as we didn't get a view of it from the plane. It was fantastic escapism and it was SO nice to see some familiar faces there.... Roberto had never been to the USA before and it was pretty much our only chance of experiencing a US city. He loved SF and found it very quaint indeed -- as I do, it's my 2nd fav US city after New Orleans.
Our flight from SF to Honolulu was due to be at 6:45pm, so we got back to the airport for 5:45pm and our flight showed to be 'on time' so we said good-bye knowing that at least we'd meet again in two weeks when we get back.
Then, no sooner had we gone through security (and again the domestic terminal was pretty deserted compared to what it is usually at this time of the year) that we noticed that our flight showed a '7.15pm departure'... but by 7.15pm it showed 7.45pm, etc. It turned out there was a 'mechanical fault' on our plane so they had to send a replacement one. On top of it, they had 172 people on stand-by (some had been waiting for 48H at the airport !!!) and so to keep everybody happy, they upgraded to a much bigger plane to be able to squeeze in the last 50 (they could only fit 120 on the original plane). This sounded great in theory, but in practice it meant re-allocated 170 seats and ordering a lot more meals... this took ages... and we didn't take off before 10.40pm !!! ahhhh... 4 hour delay.... and by then Roberto & I were started to be SO tired (it was about 3am in our heads)... and we tried to sleep in the lounge at the departure gate but because they had to re-allocate all these seats, they pretty much called people's names non stop for a good one hour... making it impossible to doze off. Too loud. We were also quite worked up.
If it wasn't for my lovely accommodating friends who kindly took us outside for some sunshine and sight seeing we would have spent 9 HOURS at SF airport after a 10H25 flight. I was just SO frustrated because we could have all gone out to dinner together if we'd known... 'so near and yet so far'...
It was then a long 5h30 flight to Honolulu... and when we landed, we had to queue for cabs on top. To start with they said 'you can't hail a cab, you need to call one', and pointed me to a special call box that didn't work... then 10 mins later someone said 'you can actually hail a cab, but you need to be further down the pavement'... by then, there were 30 people in front of us... but most people were in teams of 2-4 so it went pretty quickly. It just didn't feel like it at 2:00am Honolulu time which is -10H GMT.
The hotel was ok, the room was comfortable, the bed was huge (we'd requested twin beds but the bed we had was so large, you could have fitted 4 people in it). I made a point to sleep till 10am (with sleeping pills) but Roberto was up by 7.30am and went out to explore the shops on Waikiki but failed to buy anything much as it's so over priced here.
I've had a very quiet morning myself, just recovering from the 25H journey of yesterday before facing the next 10 H in the air. I called my sister, etc. I'll be flying out to Guam in about 1 hour, and then connecting onto Koror.
So, that's all for now. Nothing exciting to report so far... but at least the weather is simply gorgeous, very hot and the sea colour is lovely. Palm trees everywhere, lots of people wearing Hawaiian type shirts with the traditional flower in the hair (I have already bought a fake one as a hair pin -- I like to blend it).
I can't wait to get to Palau. Roberto's feeling under the weather (sore throat) so he can't wait to get there as he's feeling the strain of travelling more than I do. Thankfully he came prepared as he's a doctor and has anti-biotics on standby. So far, so good for me. I feel pretty energetic and can only put it down to the adrenaline I get when I travel somewhere mind blowingly beautiful.
I'd better sign off and head for the gate ! Lots of Love, Sylvie xxx
Well, the first mishap has already happened as the journey from London to Honolulu took a lot longer than we had banked on.... The first flight was on time and we (i.e. Roberto & I, who went with me to Borneo) were even upgraded to Economy Plus which gave us more leg room - great bonus. I even managed to get an aisle seat though the flight was over-booked... they had a poor choice of movies but at least it helped kill time.
On arrival, it was beautiful weather in San Francisco, really bright and warm so it helped keep us wide awake. We even went through customs pretty quickly which amazed me... hardly anyone there when I anticipated the Xmas crowds. I met up with my two good friends there who kindly took us for a city tour so that Roberto could see more of San Francisco and take some great shots of the famed Golden Gate bridge as we didn't get a view of it from the plane. It was fantastic escapism and it was SO nice to see some familiar faces there.... Roberto had never been to the USA before and it was pretty much our only chance of experiencing a US city. He loved SF and found it very quaint indeed -- as I do, it's my 2nd fav US city after New Orleans.
Our flight from SF to Honolulu was due to be at 6:45pm, so we got back to the airport for 5:45pm and our flight showed to be 'on time' so we said good-bye knowing that at least we'd meet again in two weeks when we get back.
Then, no sooner had we gone through security (and again the domestic terminal was pretty deserted compared to what it is usually at this time of the year) that we noticed that our flight showed a '7.15pm departure'... but by 7.15pm it showed 7.45pm, etc. It turned out there was a 'mechanical fault' on our plane so they had to send a replacement one. On top of it, they had 172 people on stand-by (some had been waiting for 48H at the airport !!!) and so to keep everybody happy, they upgraded to a much bigger plane to be able to squeeze in the last 50 (they could only fit 120 on the original plane). This sounded great in theory, but in practice it meant re-allocated 170 seats and ordering a lot more meals... this took ages... and we didn't take off before 10.40pm !!! ahhhh... 4 hour delay.... and by then Roberto & I were started to be SO tired (it was about 3am in our heads)... and we tried to sleep in the lounge at the departure gate but because they had to re-allocate all these seats, they pretty much called people's names non stop for a good one hour... making it impossible to doze off. Too loud. We were also quite worked up.
If it wasn't for my lovely accommodating friends who kindly took us outside for some sunshine and sight seeing we would have spent 9 HOURS at SF airport after a 10H25 flight. I was just SO frustrated because we could have all gone out to dinner together if we'd known... 'so near and yet so far'...
It was then a long 5h30 flight to Honolulu... and when we landed, we had to queue for cabs on top. To start with they said 'you can't hail a cab, you need to call one', and pointed me to a special call box that didn't work... then 10 mins later someone said 'you can actually hail a cab, but you need to be further down the pavement'... by then, there were 30 people in front of us... but most people were in teams of 2-4 so it went pretty quickly. It just didn't feel like it at 2:00am Honolulu time which is -10H GMT.
The hotel was ok, the room was comfortable, the bed was huge (we'd requested twin beds but the bed we had was so large, you could have fitted 4 people in it). I made a point to sleep till 10am (with sleeping pills) but Roberto was up by 7.30am and went out to explore the shops on Waikiki but failed to buy anything much as it's so over priced here.
I've had a very quiet morning myself, just recovering from the 25H journey of yesterday before facing the next 10 H in the air. I called my sister, etc. I'll be flying out to Guam in about 1 hour, and then connecting onto Koror.
So, that's all for now. Nothing exciting to report so far... but at least the weather is simply gorgeous, very hot and the sea colour is lovely. Palm trees everywhere, lots of people wearing Hawaiian type shirts with the traditional flower in the hair (I have already bought a fake one as a hair pin -- I like to blend it).
I can't wait to get to Palau. Roberto's feeling under the weather (sore throat) so he can't wait to get there as he's feeling the strain of travelling more than I do. Thankfully he came prepared as he's a doctor and has anti-biotics on standby. So far, so good for me. I feel pretty energetic and can only put it down to the adrenaline I get when I travel somewhere mind blowingly beautiful.
I'd better sign off and head for the gate ! Lots of Love, Sylvie xxx
posted by Sylvie at 11:59 PM
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