Its about time to go on another holiday. Asia of course, more specifically China yet again.
This means I have actually managed 4 overseas trips in 1 year, perphas something to be proud of.
The goal this time - dont die of heat stroke or drown in floodwaters from a typhoon.
Today I am going to Shanghai and there is actually a typhoon forecast.
The immediate goal however is to actually make my connecting flight in Sydney, the connection time is only 1 hour, during which time I need to transfer terminals on a bus and clear customs. Unfortunately there are still no direct flights from Adelaide to China, and theres only 1 flight a day on Qantas to anywhere in China.
It does seem ridiculous that Qantas can only sell 300 tickets a day to China, out of the total 10,000 or so that are sold across all the other Chinese airlines that fly between Australia and China, but thats the strength of our once great national carrier for you.
On this trip I will be spending some more time in Shanghai, as thats where the plane goes, but also will move around to Nanjing and Hangzhou. I dont really know what to do there other than eat lots of things and walk a lot until my feet turn into festering blisters, photos to come.
I have also bought a new camera for this trip, it does all sorts of useless things like turn photos into water color paintings, in camera HDR (clown vomit), photo stacking, auto crop etc. So you can look forward to some awesome effects that render the subject matter unrecognisable.
I had to break the news to my missus that I was again buggering off to China. Chocolate seems to work well in such circumstances. She was a bit surprised I only bothered to tell her the night before.
Me, in my red colored street at 4 AM on a Monday morning. The red lights are to help the homeless people that live in my street get some well earned rest from all their drinking, can collecting, pissing on my fence etc.
Qantas recognise how awesome I am once again, with a free business class upgrade.
And here I am. Looking thrilled to be on holidays!
Well, I am here, but my bags are not. I kind of knew that would happen.
The connection in Sydney went smooth for me, my flight from Adelaide was even 10 minutes late and I still made it with ease. The bus was waiting to do the whole transfer thing, and then I had a priority pass for customs etc. and then someone met me with a sign etc. Thats too many etceteras.
There were other people on the Adelaide to Sydney flight who didnt have priority passes (because they are not special) but they still made the flight. I ended up sitting on the plane after transferring for a good 30 minutes, until the people I had left at the customs queue got there, looking frazzled. They headed way down the back whilst I sat up the front refusing champagne.
The flight itself, about 10.5 hours. The business class section was full of white business men in suits, and an old couple going to meet a cruise. They were clueless about everything, and couldnt get the on demand video to work for love or money. The old man threw the remote at the screen at one point.
They then proceeded to have a heated 8 hour debate over which of the Bee Gees are dead, I believe the old lady thought John Lennon was in fact one of the Bee Gees.
There was too much food to eat it all, so I took photos of only some of it, out of boredom. There is however a self service bar where you can top up your water if youre me, or help yourself to spirits if youre the business men. One guy drank 20 whiskeys in the 10 hour flight.
Whilst I was at the bar getting water, a small Chinese child from the back section came through the curtain, and took the entire basket of chocolates with him back to his seat. He stared at me as he grabbed it waiting for me to stop him, I just smiled at him and gave him a thumbs up.
Amongst the crap I watched, The Avengers. Worst movie ever. I havent seen the latest batman so that opinion may be updated if I ever bother. I dont understand how anyone can watch comic store idiot movies.
OK, enough crap about being on the plane, customs was no drama, but then the bags didnt come. I recognised a few people from the Adelaide flight that morning, and knowing that the frequent flyer loser websites say the bags never make it due to the short connection time, I headed over to baggage services.
They were too well rehearsed for this, knowing which flight I was on and that it connects from Adelaide etc.
I was OK with this, but a guy of a specific ethnicity (somewhere near Israel and Syria) was complaining loudly in the line. He exclaimed 'Im gonna stab a slope for this, this shit would never happen in Australia' with a few other F and C words too. He was also wearing a baseball cap, stereotypes, how do they work? I asked him if he realises the bags are in Sydney, and that I am not sure if Sydney airport ground services is run by slopes (as he put it) or not, but I kind of doubt it.
Thats probably enough text for now, its late, I am tired, and I am rambling like a maniac.
Lunch entree was pretty good, a carrot soup. They put cream in it which was annoying.
Lunch main was a bit weird, its a chicken breast, skin on, with walnuts (those dark things) and snow peas cooked for what must have been 2 or 3 weeks. Theres also a potato and celeriac gratin, which was quite nice, but largely it was just potato.
Dessert was offered, some enormous slab of cheesecake, I opted for fruit, and didnt take a photo of fruit.
The light dinner turned out to be a rack of lamb. It was very nice actually. With roasted parsnips and other things. Again I had fruit for dessert. The larger choice was rhubarb and peach pie with creme fraiche and a selection of cheeses and desseret wines etc.
OK, enough food photos. I didnt even take a photo of the outside of the plane!
Here I am, on the Maglev. I rode it last time too so didnt bother with photos, just photos of me, looking thrilled.
The maglev doesnt go all the way into the city, as they ran out of magnets. So you have to transfer to the metro instead. My carriage buddy is enjoying a rest on a pillow of cans and bottles with a mattress made of newspaper. He seems to be enjoying the air conditioning.
Actually its not too hot, but its certainly windy!
After checking in, I headed into town to buy shorts, as who knows when or if my bag will get here (they say 11am tomorrow).
I didnt buy any underwear though, so I got commando colored shorts because tomorrow is commando day.
This actual photo is Nanjing Road East. Full of people offering you all kinds of services if you are a single male. However now I speak Chinese. I can tell Chinese peasent girls that not only do I not want their services, but I also have no money as I am a train ticket and I like noodles.
I stopped on the way back to participate in some mass line dancing. By now due to the wind, and 10 hours on a plane, I looked like young einstein, so the line dancing grandmas were terrified of me. More than usual.