My head is still spinning, but I'm slowly finding my feet in a new land. Its been and adventuresome few days and the limited internet connectivity for many western sites and apps have curtailed my ability to chronicle my fun as it has happened. Brian has set up a laptop with the home wifi with the VPN so that I can access most western sites so here we are. Update I now have a VPN working on my phone! Yay!!!!
Day 1 Departure Day - Saturday 16th May
I arrived at the airport on Saturday with great excitement after a pretty hairy couple of weeks leading up. With a long awaited surgery finally happening a mere 2 weeks prior to my departure, I knew that I needed to concentrate on my health if I was going to get on that plane. Although I found myself knocked around quite a bit, I managed to find a balance between fulfilling my work and home commitments and before I knew it, I was off to China.
After a lovely goodbye with my awesome children, Sequoia and Pheonix, and my dear friend, Robyn, I was making my way through Australian Passport control and Customs. In true Angie 'Lets be super early for everything' form, I had quite a bit of time before boarding. What to do but to celebrate that I was actually there and off on my crazy Chinese adventure...
After enjoying my beverage, I took a wander around and before I knew it I had met a couple of new travelling companions, George and Peter, about to board the same flight to Hong Kong.
Much to my surprise, I found myself seated next to my new friend, George, on the plane, where I learnt that he was flying right through to Shanghai with me. Little did I realise at the time what a lifesaver this would turn out to be.
Soon it was time -
I arrived at the airport on Saturday with great excitement after a pretty hairy couple of weeks leading up. With a long awaited surgery finally happening a mere 2 weeks prior to my departure, I knew that I needed to concentrate on my health if I was going to get on that plane. Although I found myself knocked around quite a bit, I managed to find a balance between fulfilling my work and home commitments and before I knew it, I was off to China.
After a lovely goodbye with my awesome children, Sequoia and Pheonix, and my dear friend, Robyn, I was making my way through Australian Passport control and Customs. In true Angie 'Lets be super early for everything' form, I had quite a bit of time before boarding. What to do but to celebrate that I was actually there and off on my crazy Chinese adventure...
After enjoying my beverage, I took a wander around and before I knew it I had met a couple of new travelling companions, George and Peter, about to board the same flight to Hong Kong.
Much to my surprise, I found myself seated next to my new friend, George, on the plane, where I learnt that he was flying right through to Shanghai with me. Little did I realise at the time what a lifesaver this would turn out to be.
Soon it was time -
Bye bye Cairns!
On approach into Hong Kong, the pilot advised that, due to recent adverse weather, we'd be doing a couple of loop-de-loops (holding pattern) before it would be our turn to land. Our Shanghai flight was to have a tight connection of 1 hour 10 mins, so I was starting to worry about missing the next flight and not being able to meet Susan.
After over an hour's delay we finally landed and raced out to see if there was still a flight to immediately catch. Alas, apparently Hong Kong Airport had been severely effected all week due to weather and not only was our connecting flight delayed, it would be a couple of hours before we'd be flying out.
Susan had already left home headed into Shanghai to meet my arrival at 2130. She had booked a place to stay for the night with the plan we would spend the next day exploring Shanghai, before heading on the train for the hour long trip out to Jiaxing. I didn't have direct contact with Susan so all communication was made through Brian. After much discussion, it was decided that as I would be arriving after midnight and well after public transport to and from the airport would have ceased for the night, Susan would just go directly to the hotel and make her way to meet me at about 0615 the next morning.
George, being a Chinese Australian and quite fluent in both languages, managed to secure comped meals for us for the delay and also helped me find a few items that I had realised in my crazy rush that morning that I had left behind and I may find very difficult to source in China.
We ate and hung out. Quite a pleasant way to pass the time. However, with the new boarding time fast approaching and no gate number or advice issued at all, we checked the flight boards and realised that our flight was now boarding (early) at gate 511. Of course, we were lazing comfortably around at gate 30! A mad dash from one end of the airport to the other then ensued.
This is what we found:
Where we waited for about and hour.
On approach into Hong Kong, the pilot advised that, due to recent adverse weather, we'd be doing a couple of loop-de-loops (holding pattern) before it would be our turn to land. Our Shanghai flight was to have a tight connection of 1 hour 10 mins, so I was starting to worry about missing the next flight and not being able to meet Susan.
After over an hour's delay we finally landed and raced out to see if there was still a flight to immediately catch. Alas, apparently Hong Kong Airport had been severely effected all week due to weather and not only was our connecting flight delayed, it would be a couple of hours before we'd be flying out.
Susan had already left home headed into Shanghai to meet my arrival at 2130. She had booked a place to stay for the night with the plan we would spend the next day exploring Shanghai, before heading on the train for the hour long trip out to Jiaxing. I didn't have direct contact with Susan so all communication was made through Brian. After much discussion, it was decided that as I would be arriving after midnight and well after public transport to and from the airport would have ceased for the night, Susan would just go directly to the hotel and make her way to meet me at about 0615 the next morning.
George, being a Chinese Australian and quite fluent in both languages, managed to secure comped meals for us for the delay and also helped me find a few items that I had realised in my crazy rush that morning that I had left behind and I may find very difficult to source in China.
We ate and hung out. Quite a pleasant way to pass the time. However, with the new boarding time fast approaching and no gate number or advice issued at all, we checked the flight boards and realised that our flight was now boarding (early) at gate 511. Of course, we were lazing comfortably around at gate 30! A mad dash from one end of the airport to the other then ensued.
This is what we found:
Where we waited for about and hour.
Of course there was no access to the free internet available throughout the rest of Hong Kong Airport. George provided the entertainment by challenging all the rude people who decided where we were standing in line was a thoroughfare, regardless of how closely we were to the people in front of and behind us.
Suddenly George looked at me with abject horror! 'We have to take a bus to where we board the plane. If you look through the doors, you can see the bus!' Yep...and there it is!
I noticed one of the airline staff was making her way down the line handing something to the delayed travellers. Maybe she is giving out cookies???? Cookies could make this situation somewhat better. But of course no! When she got to us, she handed us a raincoat each. This is not looking good.
The line started moving and we found ourselves on the bus...in the rain.
I guess it must be time for a selfie. We were both not amused!
I guess I wanted adventure and here it was. We got to the plane and made a mad dash up some rather slippery stairs, stupidly sans provided-raincoats, to be advised by the pilot that we had not actually received clearance for takeoff. He just wanted to get us all aboard in case there was an earlier slot. The estimated wait was 1hr10mins.
After a 2 hour delay, we hit the skies and we were finally on our way to Mainland China.
Upon arrival, approximately 0230 by this time, we enjoyed a rather hasty clearance through passport control and customs (hey, I'm not complaining). I said goodbye to George after swapping contact details and making plans to catch up when I visited Shanghai during my month in China.
Time to explore my home for the night! There was never any concerns regarding my safety. I was in good company, surrounded my the many other displaced travellers bunking up for the night. I managed to secure a prime piece of real estate at one point, where I tried to get a little bit of sleep. Alas, between the snorer 2 rows over and my own excitement at being in the big Red, any sort of rest was elusive.
Yes. Cozy!
Soon I decided to do a bit of exploration and couldn't believe I had hit the Holy Grail downstairs when I spied an open Starbucks for some much needed caffeination. I paid dearly for the privilege and the free wifi required a local phone number to register, but I managed to kill some time here.
After this, it was time to find a bathroom. As I had all my luggage in tow, I figured it would be a great idea to take the opportunity to freshen up and to make use of the rather spacious handicap toilets.
Apparently public toilets in China are not known to have locks and I thought I was on to a winner when I found one that not only did not have a big gaping gap between the door and the wall but also was sporting a lock. Granted, I had to jimmy it a bit to get it before it secured, but soon I was enjoying some much need privacy.
Once I was all sorted and had my luggage all packed up again, I decided it was time to go and check out the place I was to meet Susan. As I went to leave, the door did not open and the lock was stuck fast. I shook it, I pleaded with it, I damn-well near assaulted it, but it was definitely not budging! I considered calling out in the hopeful attempt at attracting a passer-by to help but aside from the sheer mortification, the chances of encountering an English-speaker was as likely as my could-be rescuer being the Queen of England herself. Surely there was no way this was how my much-awaited big trip to China was going to pan out - stuck in a Chinese airport toilet!
So I decided to channel my inner McGyver. With a pen and a stick of gum retrieved from my luggage (well, maybe I'm making up the bit about the gum), I started trying to pry the latch up with the ferocity only a desperate, sleep-deprived traveler can muster. After a frenzied attack, I finally managed to lever the entire latch away from not only the wall but also the door. I was free!!!!
Nevermind that I had just committed common area vandalism in a foreign country. I gulped the fresh air of freedom with relish.
I still had a bit of time to kill so I spend the rest of my airport stay enjoyably people-watching as the airport slowly came alive for the day.
I honestly cannot described the emotions I experienced when I finally saw Susan approaching me! Finally something was going to plan and I was ready for my adventure to begin in earnest!
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