I always think I am going to pack the night before a big trip and I never do. At least this time I woke up early enough, 7am pacific, that I felt I could get out the door by 11am no problem, get to Issaquah to pickup sleeping pills at the Safeway pharmacy and pick up my passport with updated Visa for China from my office, and make a 215pm departure!
Of course, the boys needed a little bit of attention too so my timeline started to slip... And only then did I remember that J had a dentist appointment at 1pm.
Yet I already decided to ask our nanny to drive so I wouldn't need to spend money on parking and so my wife could use my car while I was away.
So now my relaxed morning packing went back on the clock.
Also I should mention that my passport was "due to arrive" at my office by 10am but had not yet actually arrived.
1140am - All aboard the Minivan -
The text mesage from my super awesome Office Manager arrived with the happy news of Passport sighting and so i could leave.
So it would be a chauffeured drive with the boys and I being able to chat a bit, which was a nice change.
We stopped at the Safeway, I got my pills and some snacks plus Jamba Juice for the boys and I (nanny saying no), so off to my nearby office building.
1PM Pacific - SeaTac drop off -
Not terrible for the checkin,truly over an hour. Perhaps a record for me?
Now the dreaded random prize - what kind of seat would I get?
An aisle seat near the middle of the plane.
A bit disappointing but not terrible so off to the South gates.
Some snacks and something to drink helped kill some time plus I could pick up a gift for my friends in China - some smoked salmon.
I decided to also check at the gate counter again for a window seat or a free upgrade. This tactic pays off more often than you would think.
Bonus prize - a window seat is now available and even better it is actually the row where there isn't a window. Why do I like the non-window window seat? For an eleven hour flight you need a way to lean against something.
Upon boarding there is a potential disaster!
I am going to be sharing my row with a mom and her 18 month old daughter! Even armed with my fresh prescription sleeping pills I could be crossing into the equivalent of a heavy metal concert when you are in the mood for Brahm's lullaby.
The mother explains that she and her daughter have been traveling often and that the little girl is really good with air travel. Now I have watched enough horror movies to know that if they tell you it's safe to go back in the water there is usually a 20 ft man eating shark about to eat the pretty girl, or in my case ten hours of crying and screaming within 18 inches of my ideal non window window seat.
As I smile, I am thinking how small should I cut my sleeping pill so that it would be safe to slip into a toddlers sippy cup?
215pm Pacific - On time departure -
It turns out this little girl sleeps better than I do without any need for surreptitious medication, and she eats her dried seaweed snacks and her mom entertains her. Overall, perhaps an even better traveling companion than on any recent flight I have had. Certainly quieter than that snoring ex linebacker who leaned onto my shoulders on my last flight.
I spent most of the trip watching the movies offered on the in flight entertainment system Koran Air offered. It was a decent selection of movies I had missed in theaters and had been interested in.
Such as:
Limitless
Sucker Punch
Battle: Los Angeles
Paul
The time passed well and despite the cooperation of my enchanting young neighbor I decided to not resort to the sleeping pill myself and try to stay awake to get onto Asian Time.
610pm Seoul time / 210am pacific - The Rain in my Seoul -
As we got into Incheon International we ended up circling for at least an extra 60 minutes or more. The weather was so rainy that many flights were being delayed and I later found out there had been extensive flooding around Seoul [for AP news story see this link].
Landing late with little time between flights, and for International flights you have to be re-screened through security, all combined to make me worry I might even miss my connecting flight.
I rushed through thankful for the "people mover" to help me go faster towards my gate... And of course the gate was almost the furthest it could possibly be away from my landing gate.
I made it just as they were to begin boarding. Except they weren't.
Because of all the delays with the weather our plane was going to start boarding 30 minutes late.
So now I am soaked from the humidity and the mad dash through the airport for nothing.
So I calmly walk back down the terminal and find something cold and wet to drink, take a few minutes to use the free Internet lounge, and relax. Once I get back to the gate another western gentleman casually mentions that Seoul flooding was bad enough for it to have taken him almost four hours to get to Incheon by bus, a trip that is usually closer to an hour.
730pm Seoul / 330am Pacific - Leeeeeea-ving, on a Jet plane, from Incheon, I'll be back again -
For those not keeping score this gets me over the twenty hour mark without sleep. Not terrible but starting to drain me.
My companion this time was a Chinese father with his family returning from several weeks vacation in the USA. They had seen NYC, Washington DC, and San Francisco and he was able to communicate enough that they really had enjoyed their first trip to the USA.
The same set of movies was available so I chose one I had wanted to watch but ran out of time on the twelve hour flight before. How is that possible! It seems like I should have been able to watch everything.
Movie:
Cedar Rapids
9pm shanghai / 6am - China Shanghai PuDong International Airport arrival -
The flight was about 2.5 hours and uneventful. Therefore perfect.
Getting through the short immigration line wasn't too bad. My previous trip was close to 90 minutes but this was about ten!
I wanted to catch the maglev high speed train from the airport and was worried that it used to shut down at 9pm.
They have now extended the hours so i rushed to the ticket window and by 930pm I was on the maglev and headed for the PuDong station at over 250km/hour.
945pm shanghai / 645am Pacific (23.75 hours) - PuDong Station -
The thirty minute taxi ride is reduced to about ten minutes or less by using the high speed maglev. Leaving the station there is a long line of taxis and usually I avoid the aggressive drivers that aren't licensed and want to high gross the stupid tourists with an unregistered fare. I mean I have been doing this for years right?
Well I am almost at the 24 hour mark. So I went with the first guy who offered me a ride. Sigh.
As I hand him my hotel map (at least awake enough to remember that), he happily explains that the five minute cab ride will only be 180 RMB! (exchange rate is 6.4 these days).
The ride to the airport normally costs maybe 90 RMB and is 30 minutes. So that works out to be about 12x the right price to my thinking.
We bicker and argue and I consider trying to get out and find a more reasonable driver.
He finally agrees to 40 RMB and I feel as if I am Brian arguing with a gourd seller in a Monty Python movie.
I just want my hotel.
Off we go and he is happy to have a 25 RMB markup on about a 15 RMB fare. At this point am I supposed to care about the equivalent of $4 he is ripping me off?
Our destination is a brand new hotel, the Kerry Hotel right at the new expo center at Century Park in PuDong (the eastern half of Shanghai).
When he pulls over to drop me off I am a little suspicious as I cant see a hotel entrance. He insists it's the right place. Since I see a lit green sign saying Kerry Residences I agree to get out.
Turns out it's a fairly large complex of apartment/condos plus some shopping and the expo center. But he dropped me off on the opposite side of where the hotel itself is... And so I wander around in the dark a bit with all my luggage trying to find a hotel entrance.
10pm Shanghai / 7am Pacific - My new business home, The Kerry Hotel
Finally a welcoming set of doors leads me to a warmly lit reception desk where I am given a keycard, porter assistance with my luggage and I stumble across the threshold into a very nice king size bed.
Total trip time over 24 hours from one bed to another
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad
Location:Shanghai, China
