In December 2015, while on a business trip to London, I contracted scarlet fever. This substantially harmless but extremely irritating children’s disease had, somehow, found its way to my body, and it decided to manifest itself while I was flying trans-Atlantic on AA First Class. I still remember my doctor’s face when he found out I had scarlet fever…! He wouldn’t believe it, first because the disease is today very rare and secondly because it even more rarely affects adults. In the prime of their strength, for that matter. A very unusual occurrence, yet again, I never thought I was normal, so nothing strange there. I had to endure a director’s board meeting where I had to present while feverish and with sore hands and feet. I had to walk for about a mile in Central London with blisters all over my feet because I had promised my wife I would bring her back some macarons from Laduree. I… well, I will omit the most disturbing elements of the disease, but while in pain and with fever – and waiting at MAD airport to fly back home, I decided it was time to fly Singapore First Class.
I started checking availability, and soon enough I came across some suites availability from ZRH to HKG via SIN on the A380, in mid-November 2016. Perfect, especially because I needed to be in London for work around that time. Or so I thought. The problem with work calendars is that they change – a lot. Which meant my itinerary changed 2-3 times, but eventually luck wanted that I managed to get a JFK-FRA-SIN-HKG all in Suites Class for the same number of miles and for dates I wanted. Only minor detail, I did not consider my wife, and I booked only for myself. After all, I wouldn’t want to put her though such an ordeal, would I?
Well, first I had to convince her to go to China. You see, my wife is Vietnamese-American, but she was born in Texas and she’s the most Texan person you’ll ever met – except she doesn’t have a strong southern accent. For whatever reason, she doesn’t like Asia too much – and certainly she doesn’t like Asian food too much. She rather stick to good ol’ fried chicken and, if Asian has to be, Panda Express and the Chinese restaurant at the mall will do it. So negotiations started, and I had to make MANY concessions to make this trip happen. Including booking her on a DFW-NRT-HKG-LAX-DFW in business class. Amen.
Fast forward, eleven months passed, our daughter was 11 months, and on Black Friday we were ready to go! My itinerary looked like this…
…and during the trip we would visit Hong Kong, try some top-notch Chinese food, visit Guangzhou (because, why not?), then spend 5 nights by the beach in Sanya, and then fly back. It actually ended up being an epic and fun trip, with some unexpected happenings (missing our flight from CAN to SYX) and with many good things (the Conrad Haitang Bay, the two Michelin stars Yan Toh Heen, China in general). The report will consist of the following parts:
I – Virgin Atlantic Clubhouse @ JFK
II – JFK-FRA on Singapore Airlines Suites Class (SQ F, A388)
III – Lufthansa Senator Lounge in FRA
IV – FRA-SIN on Singapore Airlines Suites Class (SQ F, A388)
V – The Private Room at SIN
VI SIN-HKG on Singapore Airlines Suites Class (SQ F, A388)
VII – Hong Kong and the InterContinental Hotel Hong Kong
VIII – Dining at Zhejiang Heen (1 Michelin Star) and Yan Toh Heen (2 Michelin Stars)
IX – Guangzhou and the Hilton Guangzhou Tianhe
X – China Southern Lounge at CAN and CAN-HAK in J (CZ J, A320)
XI – Haitang Bay and the Conrad Sanya Haitang Bay
XII – Nanshan Temple in Sanya
XIII – Yalong Bay and the Ritz-Carlton Yalong Bay
XIV – SYX-HKG on Cathay Dragon Business Class (KA J, A320)
XV – Cathay Pacific’s The Wing First Class Lounge at HKG
XVI – HKG-MXP-LHR on Cathay Pacific First Class and British Airways Club Europe (CX F, 77W; BA J, A320)
XV – LHR-DFW on American Airlines First Class (AA F, 77W)
I hope you’ll enjoy this read!
Written by Airways and Travels @ https://airwaysandtravels.com
Written by Airways and Travels @ https://airwaysandtravels.com