We arrive in San Francisco

The fully booked flight from Hong Kong to San Francisco was markedly worse than the flight from Singapore to Hong Kong.

The food was barely edible on the first flight. But it got worse in the second flight, along with a crew who kept on turning the cabin lights on and off regardless. Half the cabin was lit, half wasn’t. Then it was lit for 5 minutes, then it was off again. Way to help us deal with jet lag.

There was a fight amongst Hong Kongers a few rows ahead of us.

And I have to say that I hate flying in the 747 more than the 777. The seats really do feel more cramped.

As you know, I have my Qstarz Travel Recorder with me. It works indoors sometimes, so I find it a bit more reliable in tracking my movements compared to the Garmin I have. Also, it uses a mobile phone battery, which lasts more than the AA batteries.

Here, the view from the plane as we land at Hong Kong International Airport.

No water bottle and no water fountains at HKIA. If this was Malaysia, you’d see a plastic bag over it. And possibly the sign “ROSAK”.

Finally, at San Francisco Airport, from where we waited for our hotel courtesy shuttle.

We are staying at the Staybridge Suite San Bruno. We were upgraded to a two room suite. I had booked a one bedroom suite and I was going to sleep on the sofa bed.

It’s in a very nice location, walking distance to shops and the San Bruno BART station. Plus, not dependent on any shuttle to get us to the airport BART, where there’s an extra premium to ride the BART to town. To give you an idea, if you get from SFO BART to Powell Street Station, it costs $8.10. The ride from San Bruno, one station away from SFO, costs $3.90.

The kitchen is well stocked with all the utensils, four pillows a bed. Two bathrooms for each of the bedrooms. Remarkably clean.

It has a business centre where I printed my boarding pass and checked in. Breakfast starts at 6:30am, but I asked them to leave some fruit out to pack for us as we’re leaving at 5:15 or so and they agreed. And of course, a free shuttle to and from the airport.

We took the BART into town. $9 Senior Citizen tickets with a $24 value. And a stored value ticket of $48 at a discounted price of $45 for me from the airport.

L has insisted that I update this sad blog. But I also have to write my diary and most updates will be through photos in the gallery.

It’s 11pm here (2pm in Singapore) and I was tired at 10pm. And now, as I type this, I’m starting to wake up again. Tomorrow morning at 6:30am, we fly off to Omaha, where my sister will pick us up and drive to Lincoln. I have not seen her in 8 years.