MrD and trophy H fly upfront.

Every so often when MrD and I have to do the shuttle run back and forth to Manila from Vancouver we use our mileage points to upgrade from our business class seats to first class. We have both put more than enough time sitting in monkey class and there is nothing wrong with that but when you are old and cranky its best to have a bit of leg room and a flat bed or just stay home.
Friends and family have asked me many times what it is like up there past the curtains. Most people really don’t like to hear about others having a good time as much as the bad side of things. Fair enough. Those people can now click the close button and get on with the real world. For the rest who want to hear about my trip in 2D then read on my silent readers. Here is an excerpt from my diary.
I settle into seat 2D for the 13 hour and 22 minute flight to Hong Kong from Vancouver. It’s already nearly 3 am. There are only six seats in first class and 2 attendants, Valerie and Clarisse to take care of us. Valerie, one of our two flight attendants brings my complimentary Shanghai Tang pajamas and a Bally amenity kit. I take time to peak inside the Bally double zippered black bag and find a tooth brush, Colgate mouth wash and tooth paste, all standard, a shoe horn, Acca Kappa amenities consisting of a lip balm, anti aging moisturizer, white moss facial mist, ear plugs and a wooden comb. All in all no surprises there. Tonight’s soft cotton PJ’s have a rusty brown trim. I quickly change into an older pair of PJ’s I brought with me, saving the new ones for future house guests to snuggle up in some day. I am wearing a blue trimmed pair from an earlier flight so I don’t look part of the “tour” plus the crew will know I’ve been here before.
MrD is seated just in front and is already flipping through the foreign language movie channels. A New York Hasidim Jewish couple have seats to our right. He is standing up in his prayer shawl rocking back and forth in mid prayers. The high walls or our first class suites hide whoever the two to our left are. I notice there are no fresh orchids in our wall mounted flower vases. Cut backs on Cathay?
I have given our head flight attendant a large bar of Lindt 85% dark chocolate. It’s a good travel tip to bring small gifts for the cabin staff no matter where they seat you on the plane.
It’s 2:35 am. The big bird leaves the docking area. Our welcome bubbles have been sipped and flutes collected. Up, up and away. Our monkeys are travelling with us tonight. I hope they don’t snore. I hope I do. I managed to get a couple of hours sleep before we left so I can stay awake and enjoy some of the luxurious service. In first you order your food ala carte from the menu and eat when you want. I want to watch a movie or two.
Clarisse just brought the dinner menu and said she’d checked on the where abouts of the missing orchids. Tonight’s food fare starts with caviar and smoked salmon, asparagus soup to follow before a salad of greens with grilled prawns, dried cranberries, pecans dressed in a dilled lemon dressing. To follow will be pan fried beef tenderloin and portabello mushrooms with Cabernet sauce, served along seasonal roasted veggies and red skin potato mash. There is also ricotta ravioli with tomato basil sauce if I want but pasta on planes never works out to be a good choice. It is always comes partially dried out. I take that back. The 2 dollar instant noodles you have to buy on Air Canada is a delightful meal choice considering their options.
There is also a Chinese menu. We are after all on the way to Hong Kong. Cathay offers a chicken and young coconut soup, followed by a cold plate of marinated bean curd and carrots with the main of stir fried sea food with X.O. sauce, steamed rice and stir fried veggies. Its first so we can pick and choose or go for the works.
But first before I order any food,Clarisse returns and drops off a dish of warm smoked almonds and offers me a flute of the Krug Grand Cuvee Champagne. The wine list reads like the who’s who of what wine connoisseurs drool over. Like the Vintage Chardonnay and nose in the glass Malbecs. Chateau stars from 2003. No 4 star entries here. They are back in business class. This flight features the 2009 Morgon. A French Bordeaux Burgundy, old old vines of Gamay. 2009 was an exceptional vintage with a dense crimson dark cherry hint laced with velvet tannins. It promises a persistent length still fragrant at 15 thousand feet in a pressurized tin can.
There are lots of good cheeses on the menu for desert like Cambozola, Cheddar, Oka or goat cheese to go with the fresh berries and custard or the triple chocolate cake with vanilla cream and raspberry coulis. (But haven’t we just about had about enough raspberry coulis?) There is also a choice of black sesame desert for our Chinese fans and a full supply of chocolate pralines in case we are still feeling peckish.
If I find myself getting hungry later on there are snacks of grilled pork quesadillas, chicken, cheddar, tomato and bacon baguettes or braised beef brisket with noodles in soup. There is also a hot pot of rice with a minced pork patty and mushrooms in chicken broth or several flavours of Haagan Dass ice cream.
All this should keep me going until breakfast arrives two hours before landing in Hong Kong. My menu promises fresh squeezed juices or papaya kiwi smoothies, fresh fruits and yoghurt with or without cereal. Eggs served which ever way I fancy, like, boiled, fried sunny side up or scrambled and served with grilled Canadian ham, Cajun sausage, potato rosti, grilled Roma tomatoes and asparagus. There is a basket of warm croissant, muffins and toast to go with all that.
There is also a breakfast tray of dim sum for our Chinese lover’s morning menu and of course Kosher meals for my neighbours.
All this with a cappuccino, latte or espresso?
I fasten my seat belt for the long flight ahead and prepare to stuff my face.
Tonight we have four choices in our own bread baskets. Cathay’s signature garlic bread is not toasted as well as I like it. Besides, who eats garlic bread with caviar? The Melba toast will do just fine. Clarisse offers second helpings of caviar and salmon but I decline and move on to the soup course. A warm crusty rosemary bun keeps me amused while I wait and shuffle the over abundance of silver and crystal around on my linen covered over sized table.
The asparagus soup arrives with floating bits of al dente spring spears. I order a glass of French 2006 Meursault Les Clous from Bouchard Pere & Fils. It is crisp and clean as the asparagus floating in the pottage.
The soup is a little thin but the asparagus shines through. The wine proves a perfect compliment and reminds me of spring mountain meadows on a cool morning. All this at 15,000 feet and 4am remember. I’m glad I had a long nap before all this indulgence. I have to pace myself so I leave some soup for Clarisse to clear. Moments later Valerie arrives with tonight’s salad of huge jumbo prawns and roasted pecans. The prawns are a little too dry but the greens are crisp and abundant. The dried cranberries are complimented by the subtle lemon dill dressing.
I keep going back for crumbs and nibbles of the soft rosemary bun. I am not a big bread eater but this has a punch I enjoy. Valerie clears my left over shrimp salad. I am still attempting to pace myself. The beef and a glass of 2009 Morgon will follow. It shows up looking just like the steaks served in business class but on a bigger plate and swimming in more gravy but in first class we don’t call it gravy. The Morgon I send back because it’s too floral and almost sweet. Clarrisse offers a snifter of the 2003 Lynch Bages. It matches well with the beef, green and yellow grilled zucchini, carrot cornels and my lovely smashed red potatoes.
I have been eating for two hours and I still have dessert and coffee to work my way through. I leave a lot of the steak and veggies. I choose 2 of the 4 cheese selections although they all look tempting. Clarisse offers the vintage Ramos Pinto 10 year old Port to go with the cheese but I decline and sip a tiny bit more of the Bages. I decide to pass on the three other desert choices or I will have to go jogging into the back monkey section or do a trophy H Roman diet number in the toilet.
Besides it is time to sleep so while I go freshen up and give my good nights to MrD who is still munching away and watching films in foreign languages, Clarrisse and Valerie make up my 81 inch flat bed with its own mattress, over stuffed pillows and thick white duvet. Our fellow travelers are already off to dreamland.
I won’t bore you with breakfast details other than to let you know that the smoothie was a good choice and the fried egg sunny side up was not.
And then poof, all too soon the 14 hours had passed and the captain had turned on the seat belt signs for landing.
I don’t know how I managed to waddle off the plane and through immigration but MrD and I were soon settled into our suite at the Marriott in Hong Kong Central just in time for another breakfast in the business lounge.