Departure

The last night went like this, maybe it’s the excitement that we are going home again.

We didn't do anything last night either - we didn’t even eat. I didn’t feel like trudging through the rain again, we weren't really hungry and so we watched TV, drank beer, and ate chips instead.

Since last night, the weather hasn’t improved - it keeps raining and raining and raining.

I’m feeling drained today. I don’t want to see, hear, eat anything, and I definitely don’t want to walk anywhere. Ideally, I would just stay in bed all day. We extended our room today until 6 PM since our flight doesn't leave until 10:30 PM. With great weather, it’s a blessing to fly this late because you can still see things all day. But in the rain, it’s just annoying. And even if it weren't raining, as soon as you step outside a climate-controlled building, you’re already soaked - that's not how you want to board a plane.

As the heavy rain slowly turns into a light drizzle, we finally decide to go out again.

 

Schahaatz wanted to browse a camera store one last time. A place like Saturn or Media Markt where you have everything in one place would be great. I heard they have that here called Broadway, but we couldn’t find it. Even with a local’s tip (in the Langham Mall), we couldn’t find what we were looking for.

 

Even the many smaller electronics stores we found had everything but cameras.

So, we returned to the hotel empty-handed, frustrated, unenthusiastic, and drenched down to our underwear.

Even though we are not made of sugar, a city isn’t fun in the rain.

Still need to pack (this time we can pack up to 30 kg - which we haven’t even come close to), check out is at 6 PM, so we need to grab a quick bite, and the Uber to the airport is booked for 7:30 PM.

I knew it was a silly idea to leave the hotel again after checkout, because as soon as you step outside, the rain starts pouring down on you.

We dive into the first dumpling shop and order something that looks somewhat normal. They also had chicken feet, but no way.

Aside from this dumpling

they were quite tasty, though a bit slimy and hard to eat with chopsticks, but the flavor was pretty good.

We actually wanted to make a quick trip to the harbor and photograph Hong Kong at night, as the rain finally stopped, but unfortunately we ran out of time.

Now we are finally heading home. The flight time was supposed to be 11 hours and 40 minutes, but it seems we have a tailwind and only fly for 10 hours and 15 minutes. That’s quite enough because the cabin is really cramped. We had booked a window and an aisle seat as always. Since the plane is full, a young Portuguese student named Gordance is sitting between us, who briefly tried to snag my aisle seat, but no way I’m giving that up. Schahaatz and the young man, 17 years old, chat animatedly in English. Gordance attended school for 12 years and is now studying physics in Portugal. He’s a little nervous about returning home after such a long time. But at least he has family there.

We take off at 10:48 PM. The plane takes a long time to lift off, you feel like the runway is about to end, but eventually we take off - into the clouds, into a storm. The beginning is quite bumpy and accompanied by a couple of small air pockets, which even made me feel a little uneasy.