Date: 24/7/2012
City: Okinawa, Japan
Remarks: Day 5, Flight from Okinawa to Hong Kong
We were taking Hong Kong Airline direct flight back to Hong Kong today at 1540. Upon returning the rented car to OTS (the car rental company: https://www.otsrentacar.net) near the Airport, we took their free shuttle bus to the Airport (it took around 15 minutes. It stopped first at the Domestic Airport, and then the International Airport).
PS. Checked online that there was a signal no 10 typhoon Vicente in Hong Kong yesterday, and heard this morning the typhoon had weakened to signal no 3. Had kept my fingers crossed that it wouldn't affect our flight today.
Checked in the luggage at around 2pm, and well, the flight was delayed! 1540 departure became 1930. Could only get into the immigration at 1800. Now we have more than enough time to walk around the Okinawa Airport. The Okinawa International Airport and Domestic Airport were in 2 separate buildings sitting side by side, with distance of around 3 minutes walk. The Okinawa International Airport was super small, with nothing to walk around, but the Okinawa Domestic Airport was much larger, it's 4-storey, with many souvenirs shops and restaurants.
Had a meal in the Domestic Airport at around 1430. Then walked around the Airport. Brought 2 A5 size notebooks in the Airport. They were single-line notebooks covered with black leather. Costed only 105 Yen each!! Such a bargain!!
Had another meal at around 5pm. Went back to the International Airport to check my flight. Holy crap!! 1800 immigration changed to 2000. Well, went back to the Domestic Airport. Had another meal again. (PS. There wasn't much seats in the Airport unless getting in the restaurants) Sat in the restaurant til 2000 and then got back to the International Airport. Unexpectedly, or indeed as expected, there's another delay. Immigration time delayed to 2110. The Hong Kong Airline staff said the Hong Kong Airport was a chaos because of the typhoon Vicente yesterday. Our plane had only just took off from the Hong Kong Airport and would arrive Okinawa at around 10pm.
My flight finally managed to depart Okinawa at 2245!! Delayed for 7 hours!! Why didn't you just tell me that the flight would delay for 6-7 hours so that I could indeed get back down town to walk around or maybe had a good meal instead of being trapped in the Okinawa Airport and walking back and forth from the Domestic Airport to the International Airport every 2 hours and then being informed there was another 2-hour delay?
I wished it was the end of the story, but it wasn't... We arrived Hong Kong Airport at midnight 0010, and there was a long queue of planes on the runway, waiting for the parking!! There were at least 10 to 20 planes queueing for parking!! This was seriously my very first time and we had queued for another 2 hours!! Just for the parking. Only managed to get off the plane at 0200...
Got through the immigration very quickly. And when I was thinking that I could finally back home for a sleep, there was another 1.5 hours waiting.........There were crowds of people waiting for the luggage at the luggage belts, but even more luggage on the luggage belts!! It was a total chaos!! I had waited the luggage for another 1.5 hours. I was so exhausted that I thought I had fallen asleep while standing besides the luggage belt waiting for the luggage!!
Had really experienced the post typhoon impact. 2-hour flight became 7-hour delay, 2-hour flight, 2-hour parking, plus 1.5-hour collecting luggage, that was a total of 12.5 hours!! There was even VERY HEAVILY RAIN when we finally managed to get off of the airport at 4am in the morning!!
Thank you Vicente. I totally understood your power.
#Okinawa, #Okinawatravel, #travelblog, #travel, #OkinawaAirport
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