Tuesday, 10 February 2026
It was an early start this morning for our latest adventure, spending our day travelling from Melbourne, Australia to Delhi, India via Hong Kong.
We were up at 4.00am. Groan, yes, 4.00am. I don’t like early mornings! After a quick shower we quickly scoffed down some fruit before cleaning our teeth and packing our toilet bags. Kerry arrived at 4.55am for our 5.00am pick-up and we were actually ready to leave at 5.10am. We were feeling a bit sluggish being up before the sun.
We made it to Gilbert Road before someone realised that a jumper – the only jumper being taken on this trip – was still on the clothing rack in the downstairs bedroom. Oops! Kerry executed a quick u-turn and we headed back home. With the jumper collected it was back onto Bell Street for the run to the Tullamarine Freeway and a drop-off at the airport at 5.50am. Only ten minutes later than we had been aiming for.
With Bernie having checked us in online, all we had to do was tackle the bag drop kiosk. We scanned out passports to retrieve our check-in details and then we were asked to scan out Indian visas. What? Bernie already included all our visa details when he checked in online. We attempted to scan them anyway, but we couldn’t get them to scan. There was a ‘skip’ option so we skipped that step and printed our luggage tags and boarding passes. With the luggage tags attached – we are getting better at having to put those sticky labels on ourselves?! – we dropped our bags off and saw them disappear on the conveyor belt.
Onwards to security screening and immigration. Security screening is easy now at Tullamarine without the need to remove electronics from carry-on bags or show liquids and gels in a clear plastic bag. Well, I say easy BUT there was the issue with Bernie having to remove his hanky from his pants pocket at the last moment before entering the body scanner. And then, of course, Bernie’s bag was shunted to the side for extra scrutiny. He thinks it was the small torch that he keeps in his camera bag/pack that caused concern.
Bernie was on a roll, with the passport scanner at the e-Gate refusing to scan his passport and let him through. I barged ahead of him and scanned my passport without any trouble and then the scanner decided his was OK too and we were off to our next stop at the Tourist Refund Scheme counter. Bernie’s camera lens developed a fault about a week and a half ago so he decided there was no time to have it repaired before our trip and ordered a new one. With previous failures and difficulties claiming a TRS refund we were pleasantly surprised when that went without a hitch this morning.
We settled in to wait for flight CX 0143 to start boarding. We were leaving from Gate 4 which is quite near the food hub so I filled in some of the time walking laps around the food outlets. Going to be cooped up like a sardine in a tin can for much of the day so I took the opportunity to exercise while I could. I returned to our seat and Bernie set off to complete some steps for the day. He was not long gone when we were paged to make ourselves known to the gate staff. There was no sign of Bernie so, I was about to send him a text to make sure he had heard our names over the PA, when he arrived back.
Now it would have been LOVELY to have been paged to be given the news that we going to be upgraded wouldn’t it?? Ha, no chance, it was because we skipped that step where we were supposed to scan our Indian visas!! So, even though all the details were entered during online check-in, they still had to make absolutely certain that our visas were in order for us to enter India. Better than arriving in Delhi and being sent back home for sure!
Boarding started a little later than we expected but the plane was loaded quickly and our Airbus A359 Jet was being pushed away from the air bridge just a couple of minutes after our scheduled departure time of 8.40am with us hoping for a smooth 9-hour 15-minute flight to Hong Kong.
Soon after take-off it was fruit, yoghurt and scrambled eggs for breakfast. We both agreed that the food offering was better than Singapore Airlines. About two thirds of the way into the flight it was time for ‘lunch’ with Bernie opting for the chilli seafood and me the penne with a roasted vegetable and tomato sauce. Again, voted better than Singapore Airlines.
We both availed ourselves of the in-flight entertainment today. I managed three movies and Bernie watched a couple. And those were so memorable that I can’t recall the names of all of them just at the moment. One starred Keanu Reeves as an angel in a ‘Trading Places’ type story, then Channing Chatum in ‘Roofman’, a true story about the McDonald’s burglar and the third one … escapes me completely … at the moment. Maybe I’ll come back at some stage and record that movie?? Bernie watched Liam Neeson in ‘Ice Road’ and Ron Perlman in ‘The Gentleman’.
We arrived at Terminal 1, Hong Kong International Airport on the island of Chek Lap Kok in western Hong Kong at about 2.50pm local time as scheduled. We made our way to Gate 45 to wait for our flight to Delhi. We had to clear security with Bernie getting the works. His camera bag was just about completely unpacked and then individual items re-scanned AND he was given a thorough going over with the paddle, before he was cleared to proceed.
With nothing much else to do we took it in turns to walk laps around the travelator, with Bernie exploring even further afield, in pursuit of our 30-minute exercise goal. Not slaves to our watches AT ALL, ha, ha. Departure time rolled around eventually and we made our way onto Flight CX 0695 aboard another Airbus A359 Jet, to commence the 6-hour 25-minute leg to Delhi.
We arrived at the Indira Gandhi International Airport pretty much on time. I think, we were both very sleepy. After clearing Immigration and collecting our bags, we made our way out to be met by a TripADeal representative before being transferred to the Hotel Radisson Blu.
Steps: 11,173 (7.41kms)
