From Hong Kong to Dubai

Apart from our firt day misunderstanding of what prepaid Octopus cards actually cover, public transport in Hong Kong is fantastically well organised. We used a lot of it while there, and all you have to do is swipe the card in front of reader when getting on buses, trains and ferries. But perhaps the most impressive was the ride back to the airport for our departure.

Our Octopus cards included the Airport Express fares, and with such a ticket, the train company (the MTR) shuttles you for free from your hotel to Kowloon Station. At Kowloon Station, as our friend Debbie had told us, you can check your bags in for the flight. One's confidence in this process is enhanced by the check in area looking just like any airport, and boarding passes as well as baggage claim tickets are issued there. Thereafter, the train takes you at high speed to the airport, with no luggage to lug around.

Hong Kong airport is one of the world's best - that's well known, but it fell down in one area for both our arrival and departure, and that was in the Immigration check, where long queues and surly staff greeted us both times. Everything else works so well in Hong Kong - why can't they get this important process right?

Our flight to Dubai was pleasant enough on Cathay Pacific. The 9 hour flight with a 4 hour time change and late night arrival makes for some very tired passengers. The horror stories about arrival in Dubai that we have read in the Sydney Morning Herald were confirmed but not fully borne out. Correspondents to the SMH have complained about immigration queues of 2-3 hours, but we only endured about 30 minutes, and it was torturously slow enough. Huge crowds of incoming passengers, even at that time of night, were being processed by large numbers of staff working very slowly, and in fact, most of them seemed to be doing nothing at all. There are no forms to fill in on arrival in Dubai, so everything the immigration people want to know, they have to ask you. It just seems so slow and inefficient.

But the rest of the airport works well. Our bags were dizzy from having been on the conveyor for so long before we got there, and the process of getting a taxi to our hotel was efficient and worked well, much better than it does at Sydney airport.

Dosed up with sleeping pills, we both managed a good night's sleep, and look forward to our stay in Dubai.