Latest posts by Martin Moodie (see all)
- Get yourself down to El Gordo, ‘Asia Pacific Travel Retail HQ’, for a Sinead Especial, the best Taco in town - November 5, 2025
- Discovering Nomad’s land and bumping into an old friend in Alicante - October 24, 2025
- Flying Kiwi meets Travelling Omelette with a drop of Penderyn in between - October 15, 2025
The wind howls like a hammer
The night blows cold and rainy
– Bob Dylan, Love Minus Zero/No Limit
So much for my Tuesday night flight to London. Along with thousands of other would-be passengers I am still in Hong Kong thanks to the ferocious power of Super Typhoon Ragasa, which hit the Special Administrative Region last night and peaked this morning.
At 2.40am when the Hong Kong Observatory issued the No. 10 Hurricane Signal, average wind speeds were reaching 118 km/h and higher, I reckon if I had stepped outside I wouldn’t have needed British Airways – I would simply have been blown to London. Maybe I chose the wrong Bob Dylan song above.
In fact the noise at that point outside our windows facing Discovery Bay resembled a whole fleet of A380s flying past.
Spare a thought not only for the passengers whose flights have been cancelled but for the airport management, staff and concessionaires. A lot of stress, uncertainty and lost revenue over the day and a half or so of semi-closure (some cargo flights excepted).
Having smashed into the Phillipines, Taiwan and Hong Kong, Ragasa is now hitting the coast of China’s Guangdong province. The Moodie Davitt Report team in Haikou, Hainan province, also expect the island to be affected.
Ragasa is another reminder of the awesome power of nature and of how our industry continually faces (and adapts to) events – whether climatic, geo-political, legislative, economic or otherwise – completely beyond its control.
I would be landing at Heathrow Airport about now. Instead, it’s a day to work on ‘the website that never sleeps’ (and certainly cannot during a Super Typhoon).✈
You must be logged in to post a comment.