Siberia and sakura

Brief stop - just long enough to walk down to the harbour to see the lights and the buskers, then a few hours sleep before the next plane.

Hong Kong airport reeks of tea. The cuppa of the old Empire, rather than Kyoto's matcha with wafts of roasted green.

It also has a map problem - both in arrivals and departures. Most are just of a section, not the whole thing. So it's hard to get a sense of where you are, and where that is in relation to where you need to be. ''Ahead and left' on a map can mean 'right and right again to get to the bit where the map starts *then* ahead and left'. And some maps number gates, while others number things that are not gates, and relate to a key some distance away. Numbers on the map appear sequential, but then the sequence leaps wildly across to another segment for 2 numbers before hopping back to carry on.

It is a light and airy space, but not well designed for the traveller who has had too little sleep and just wants breakfast. Most people plumped for McDonalds or the place that offered 5 flavours of congee. Not up to a 3-turn queue and extensive conversations about which congee might be vegetarian, I hunted down the small (nominally French) supplier of Danish pastries.

On the way I discovered a more diverse selection of eating places than the average airport - from Chinese street food 're-imagined' by a chef with a tyre company star, to Goose to Go. Most of them don't open until 11, so if your airport requirements include the availability of whole rotisserie geese make sure you book a later flight.Læs mere