Celebrating 10 Year Wedding Anniversary in Hong Kong.

It was early October; Thursday evening and I just came home after being away for few days. We were both doing some housework when Birna got silent for a moment and finally turned to me:

„Thröstur, when did we get married?” She asked. I panicked a little bit, this sounded like a tricky question and I am exremely bad at remembering dates. „Hmm 8th of September, why?” I replied. „What year?” she asked. I became even more sceptic, where is she leading me! „hmm 2007 if I am not mistaken, why?” Then she said: „We had a ten year anniversary last month and we forgot it!“ OK we are both bad at this kind of things.

We had decided long time ago to travel somewhere far away, only the two of us to celebrate our anniversary, but we totally forgot it. Now we had to plan something and decided to go for a long week-end to Honk Kong, not exactly the closest destination. It was a challenge to find a suitable time when we didn’t have any important voluntary work to do or other planns and Rannveig was at home to take over the parent role. We managed to find a good slot in earl November.

The departure date came, and we headed to the airport after the kids went to school. We had a flight to Stockholm around 11 am and a direct flight from there to Hong Kong just after one o’clock, just enough time to have a cup coffee in the lounge.

All good, we relaxed for a while in the lounge before heading to the passport control and gate. When we came to the gate it was already announcement for a short delay and soon after we sat down another delay was announced, couple of hours this time. We decided to go back to the lounge and were told to sit down and relax, there was a bigger mechanical failure on the airplane and we would be contacted when it was ready.

We tried to be positive and take the situation lightly. We started posting newsflashes on Facebook, about the mechanists fixing our plane with duct tape and so on. We were punished for the disrespect; the departure was delayed again and again until around eight in the evening when we were told that the airplane was fixed, and we should head to the gate.

When we came to the gate there was still no sign of departure and soon things started to look suspicious. Some SAS staff came walking into the waiting hall followed by many security guards, not looking good at all. They told us that the flight was cancelled and we should turn to the service desk where we would get allocated a hotel room close by and information about new flight.

This was not good at all, our already short trip to Hong Kong suddenly became even shorter and we even felt it would not make sense to go and considered going back home and drop the whole thing. The last flight to Oslo for the day had already departed so we had to stay the night anyway. We were already on our way, so we decided to stick with our plans and continue our journey.

We were put on the same fligt the day after. We headed to the gate but the boarding was a bit delayed again. After finally boarding we were sitting for more than one hour, there was again some technical issue. Finally, announcement on the intercom, “please fasten your seatbelts before take-off”. We are not supposed to go at all! the couple on the other side of the isle were struggling folding the table. The crewmembers came one after another including the captain and no one managed to put away the table. I had to control myself not to stand up and take over the operation but finally they realized that they had to call for a technician. Fifteen minutes was added to the already way to long wait, but the tech fixed the table in few seconds and the airplane was finally ready for took off, the 10 hours long flight to Hong Kong ahead of us, 25 hours later than originally planned.

We had wonderful time in Hong Kong, but the stay was exactly one day to short. We stayed at a hotel very centrally on the island and started by walking to the harbour to take the ferry over to the mainland. The ferry trip is almost free, costs ca 1 HKD but we just arrived and didn’t have any coins. We had to buy some souvenirs that cost 10 times the ferry fee in order to pay for the trip with coins.

We wandered around the whole city, walked though Tsim Tha Tsui, Yau Ma Tei to Mong Kong, explored the markets and street life.

We spent the 2nd day hiking, we walked though the city, took the Mid Levels Escalator, world´s longest escalator, from central througn Soho and to the roots of Victoria peak. We walked the rest of the way seap path up to Victoria Peak with some detours. We walking aroung the peak and spending some time enjoyin the vew we walked downwards through the woods and ended on the other side of the island and took the bus back.

We noticed how the people living in Hong Kong was extremely helpful. Every time we stopped to find the directions or even just to look around, someone stopped and ask if he/she could help. But usually, if we needed help they were not able to help anyway but tried their best.

We had tree wonderful days in Hong Kong and due to the lost day, we tried to be as active as possible. We were tired after 3 very busy days and decided to treat ourselves and upgrade to business class on the way back although it costed a lot of bonus points. We came back home relaxed and ready for the busy everyday.

We felt that the delay affected our vacation significantly and we knew we had right to compensation according to EU rules. After we came home I sent in a claim although I had heard the airlines always deny. I sent in the claim electronically one night before going to bed and immediately got auto-reply stating the claim would be treated within 14 days. Just after nine o’clock the morning after I received a mail saying the claim was accepted and full compensation would be transferred to our account within few days. I must admit, SAS got credit for good service this time.