Once again we were at Hong Kong airport ready to set off on our travels. A smooth check-in with Malaysian Air and then through into the Plaza Premier lounge for a quick bite to eat and a drink before the flight. We set off in plenty of time to reach the gate, or so we thought. We generally know our way around Chek Lap Kok as we are there so often but this time when we checked the gate number we found that it was 501, a three digit number and we had never heard of that before and had no idea where it was. Time was ticking by but eventually we found where to go and found that we had to take a shuttle bus to an external satellite building. Now that's definitely something new! By the shuttle gate there was a helpful sign telling us that there could be delays in busy times and we should be sure to leave plenty of time to board the shuttle and ensure that we were at the satellite at least 30 minutes before our flight. As it was now only 20 minutes before take off we thought it was a bit late to tell us!

Anyway, no panic, we didn't miss the flight and were soon descending into Kota Kinabalu airport. It was incredibly turbulent on the way down with lashing rain and lightning flashes. A little bit scary but we landed safely and were welcomed by an absolutely beautiful sunset. Getting through the airport formalities was very easy in fact the airport was almost empty. All was going well until we had to wait so long for our airport pickup that we thought we had been forgotten. Our driver arrived at last and took us the short distance to the lovely Pacific Sutera hotel where we were given an upgrade to a suite which was a pleasant surprise. The room was nearly as big as our Hong Kong flat, but that wouldn't be difficult!

We went downstairs to have a look around. It is a lovely resort overlooking the water and it's a pity we won't get to see it in daylight as we leave so early in the morning. We went down into the Juggs Sports Bar for a beer and a snack. Potato wedges doesn't sound very Malaysian but nothing else on the menu did either!