This morning I was returning home to Canada and had a flight connection via Hong Kong. I was awake from 4am so watching a Russian retro film in low volume.

Breakfast didnt start till 7am so I went down from 6.45 to see if they would let me in as I had to leave the hotel as close to 7 as possible.

I left by 7.15 and made my way to the metro. There were some homeless people sleeping in the street so I left some of my small paper bills with each of them on my way out.

The metro was not packed at this early hour but took exactly one hour station to station to get to the airport. At the airport they dont let you into the terminal but herd crowds into holding pens then released in batches into the terminal

I'd been having problems with my wifi internet. China blocks Facebook and other sites so I had paid for a VPN account to bypass this. My first day it was working fine but then it began throttling connection speeds.

I put it down to a bad hotel wifi connection but in the evening I was logged out from my VPN account. I kept trying to log back in but it said 'page invalid'. Even when I was trying to do my online check in thru Air Canada it wouldnt let me download my boarding pass. Since I was leaving in the morning I wasnt too bothered but it proved that my VPN account was not good in China.

Security had long lines as China is very methodical when going thru security checks. I first had a short 40 min flight from Guangzhou to nearby Hong Kong.

You see the mix of countryside and how urban development has been plopped into the middle of farmland along with luxury developments.

We flew over Macau and I was able to recognize many of the casino skyscrapers.

On arrival in Hong Kong my wifi connected instantly when I tried using it via the VPN account. Somehow China had logged me out of my VPN account!!!!

I needed to collect my boarding card in Hong Kong. The person at the Air Canada transfer desk was very unenthusiastic. Then I had to go thru security again. As this was internal it didnt have the lines of normal security. Nonetheless the person was also unfriendly and said "Go" in a blank unfriendly stare.

I had four hours to kill in Hong Kong and was watching planes come and go and the tall skyscraper apartment background. I dont remember them being this tall and was guessing how many stories.

I saw my Air Canada flight arrive and taxi over to the terminal.

It was a 15 hour flight home and end to a long trip. Instead of the normal Alaska route it went more east over Russia and the Arctic to avoid bad weather.

It was good to be back in Asia after three years and I hope to be back in China again when I renew my passport and get my 10 year China visa for Canadians!