Road to Rio | Road to Rio: Smoothest of transitions from Hong Kong to planet football
Elation at in-flight screening of games matched by relief at pain-free arrival and a warm welcome from a Braveheart-schooled cabbie
The Sao Paulo early evening sky was a haze of pink and blue as I opened my bleary eyes for a first glimpse of Brazil. Thirty hours and back-to-back long-haul flights from Hong Kong via Istanbul had left me stiff and weary, but that sky seemed as welcoming and invigorating as a cold beer after a long hike.
The flight was, to use a football cliché, a game of two halves, and it was the first half that would dominate the highlights reel.
Given the ever-decreasing number of places that we can truly be off the grid these days, I usually embrace long-haul flights for their forced respite from the constant hum of the 24-hour news cycle and the relentless to-and-fro of social media.
Boarding the flight in Hong Kong, however, I was far less enamoured by the looming connectivity cold turkey than usual. The reason: four World Cup games being played between take-off and landing, the pick of which was England-Italy.
It seems that reports of total chaos and ever-present danger have been somewhat exaggerated
It was with a mixture of delight and incredulity then that, while flicking through the inflight magazine ahead of take-off, I noticed a full-page ad celebrating the fact that passengers could watch all the World Cup games live on a dedicated TV channel during flights.