RTW TP Run: Day 18 – Denpasar (DPS) to Hong Kong (HKG)

By Nige on February 4, 2026 at 10:30 pm
Type: Post
Story: Round the World Tier Point Run in Jan 2026 Category: Travel
Tags: Cathay Pacific | CX | Denpasar | DPS | Hilton | HKG | Hong Kong | Skycity

It was mad for pickups at the hotel, but my Grab taxi managed to wind its way through all of the other cabs. For less than £2, its just a no-brainer to avoid the walk and getting sweaty on the way.

I was dropped at International Departures, and since I was on the right level, I thought i may as well ask at Check-In Counters B13-19 to see whether Cathay Pacific might be opening earlier than normal.

The answer was no, but the lady I spoke with confirmed they would open at 1pm. So, as in previous similar situations, the airline forced me into hiding away in Starbucks until they were ready for me.

The staff at the International Arrivals Starbucks were fluent in English and very friendly. The other thing worthy of note: drinks here are 25% cheaper than anywhere else in the world. That might just be worth the air fare!

By the time I had headed back up to the check-in area, Cathay Pacific had already started checking in passengers.

I approached a friendly agent dealing with priority passengers and he spent a long time looking at my booking. I asked him if he could provide as many boarding passes as he could.

He advised he could provide passes through to Los Angeles, but I would need to check in again at LAX. So that covered the next four flights.

Before handing over my boarding passes he asked me whether I was travelling around the world and we started a discussion about what I was doing. It was really nice of him to show some interest and he wished me well. He also was surprised I didn’t have any bags to check in!

I headed through security which was not busy. I even managed to progress through the automated passport kiosks and I was soon heading towards the Tujuwan Lounge.

It was nice and quiet, so I grabbed my normal seat and helped myself to the excellent selection of food on offer.

I enjoyed fish sweet and sour, aloo gobi, some chicken pancake rolls and some noodles. Fabulous!

My flight was due to leave from Gate 5, so it was a decent walk. I planned to head down that way about an hour before departure.

I caught up with the Vickster when she arose to feed the moggies. Chutney was getting the idea that Mum’s lap was currently subject to timeshare rules! Mango was being a little more assertive, which was great. But it was still very wet out, so neither were spending that much time out of the house.

This flight was to be serviced by a newer Cathay Pacific A330-330, which had the newer individual business class lie-flat seats in a 1-2-1 configuration.

That would mean I would have control over all aspects of my flying experience, including my ability to sleep, access to the aisle and my general contentment!

Gate 5 was organised and managed really well by gate staff. I had already made contact with a lady checking passengers were in the correct queues and when a bunch of passengers squeezed past me wanting to board as part of Group 1, my lady told them to form a queue behind me. Good girl!

After being invited to board, I went down a short escalator and was nabbed by a random security check.

This seems to be a common thing on these flights in Asia, and I’ve been caught a couple of times when I was the first to board.

I was delighted to see confirmation that the A330-300 config was as I hoped. It made such a huge difference in the quality of the flight experience.

I settled into 18A and I placed my order for a pre-flight drink and dinner with a very friendly cabin crew member.

I started watching a film about the life of John Candy.

Wow – it was just great and was such a poignant recognition of his humanity as a person and his natural ability as an actor and comedian.

For starters, it was a tuna dish, which was quite nice. I’m not a big one for fish, but I’ve actually done pretty well on this trip for trying fish dishes!

During dinner, I continued watching the film. It was great that Katherine O’Hara reminisced about John, and of course Katherine passed away only recently.

Eugene Levy, Martin Short, Dan Akroyd, Bill Murray and Harold Ramis all worked really closely with John as their careers evolved.

The beef in a pepper sauce was really tasty. I’m loving this Indonesian food.

Back to the film: Tom Hanks, Cheryl Chase, Conan O’Brien, Mel Brooks, McCauley Culkin and Steve Martin shared their experienced of John as actors that shared the screen with him.

It was one of the best things I have watched for a very long time. It almost made me cry.

I managed to get a bit of shut eye, but woke from feeling the wetness of my dribble on my pillow. Nice!

The rest of the flight passed without incident!

We arrived into Gate 24 after a very long taxi from a far distant runway.

It was the normal process for heading back to the Skycity hotel. One benefit of arriving into Gate 24, was that no train was required!

Next up: A gallery of photos from Day 18 of my Round The World trip of a lifetime.

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Round the World Tier Point Run in Jan 2026