Short but eventful trip to HK

Shanghai to Hong Kong

We missed our flight HK on Friday night, due to a dishonest taxi driver who took us on a long route to the airport. Normally, it would only take us 15-20 min to the airport but we ended up spending 45min on the road and missing the cut-off time for checking in our luggage. Since we were rescheduled to fly out on Sat night, we decided not to spend our night in the airport but to return to our apartment in SH. On Sat morning, we decided to take it easy and went out doing some last-minute shopping. After lunch, we went home to get ready to leave early for the airport. We had arranged for the taxi driver (who took us home from the Pudong airport yesterday) to pick us up today, as he seemed pretty savvy with the traffic in Shanghai. However, he did not turn up at all and we had to arrange for the security guard to hail a cab for us. It turned out that the security guard asked for a bribe of 10rmb from the taxi driver who wanted our business. In the end, we found out that the taxi driver had taken us on a longer route, probably to recover the "bribe" that he had to pay the security guard at my condo. So much for dishonest taxi drivers and security guard.

At the airport, the staff at Dragon Air gave us a hard time by faulting us for having an excess baggage of 3kg. I was very angry with them for making me repack my bags on the spot, and not helping me with loading the bags on the weighing scale. Handling the luggage further aggravated the pain in my right armpit. We were then told that our flight would be delayed and that meant that we were scheduled to arrive in HK near midnight. Even though we arrived at the airport early that day, things were not plain sailing. Sigh. Hubby told me this was nothing compared to the experiences he had when he took domestic flights within China on his business trips.

We arrived in HK near midnight only to find that one of our luggage was missing as it might not have been on the flight. In the end, we had to lodge a missing luggage report at the airport and by the time we arrived in the hotel, it was 2am. The next morning, we met up with my hubby's colleague who was visiting his girlfriend in HK over dim sum. Then, we later met up with an old friend who is currently living in HK (also over dim sum). The airline called sometime in the day to say that our luggage has been found. Apparently, it was tagged all the way to Sg and the ground staff had left it at the transit area, instead of loading it on the conveyor for arrivals in HK. I swore that this is the last time that I would fly with Dragon Air. If not for the wrong tagging, we would not have to go through all these angst and worries.

Given that we had only a day in HK, there was very little time to do any shopping and sightseeing. What's more, we had to leave for the airport early so that we could retrieve our missing luggage before checking in for the next flight to Sg. At the airport, we finally had to chance to savor the delicious soup at one of our favorite restaurants in HK (AH YEE LENG TONG) before boarding the flight back to Sg.