I cant think of any ridiculous story to tell this time involving my departure to Chengdu.
There has been no airline problems involving aliens emerging from volcanoes, my roof isnt leaking, and to my knowledge all nuclear reactors in the immediate vicinity of Sichuan province are maintaining containment.
Here in Australia, we have again tried to oust our prime minister, but no one wants the job. A call for volunteers for the top job in Australia resulted in most of the candidates resigning. Basically 'I would rather quit than be prime minister'.
Enough of that, this trip I am going to Sichuan Province in China, specifically 2 main cities, Chengdu and Chongqing. These locations are famous for eating pandas in the form of hot pot. Its a little known fact but the cuddly creatures are a menace due to massive over population. Bear meat is very good for virility though, so I am excited.
I am hoping to meet the divine leader of the middle kingdom, the recently announced mr Xi Jinping whilst on my journeys, his magical powers are legendary, apparently he once grew up in a rural village in poverty and became president. I saw a news story about his impoverished upbringing so it must be true!
Its me, and each trip I take my eyebrows become just a little bit more awesome. Coming up next trip, grey eyebrows!
Qantas have again rightly recognised the awesomeness of my eyebrows and have placed me in seat 1A for free so that I can greet each of the other passengers by raising them in suspicion.
I spoke too soon above about the lack of drama.
After boarding the plane to Brisbane, the pilot announced there was a technical issue that they just needed to report and get a clearance for...
This was followed of course by just needing to get an inspection...
Just need to get a ruling from ops...
Just need everyone to get off this plane cause its busted...
Apparently theres a spare plane here, and it seems possible I might make my connection in Brisbane, but no guarantees!
If I dont make it, it probably means a full day delay, for which I can expect substantial Qantas compensation.
The broken plane. The pilot was quite funny, 'we hope to use the spare plane which I am sure is much better than this one'
To his credit, he was very good at providing info and updates on connections, likely delay, likely plane change etc. As soon as I saw the engineer get off he was back on the intercom to the passengers providing info.
This is the line of people demanding to know if their connection would be met. Each person got the same story, theres only 3 possible connections on this flight including mine, and the guys behind the desk made an announcement about all 3.
Still each of these people remained in the line to hear it again in person and express their extreme anger personally and swear to never fly Qantas again.
However just looking out the window, what other choice do they have really? Theres no planes parked here now at all except Qantas, so I hope they enjoy the slow boat to China or staying home forever.
It surely was an epic journey.
First up, after my various delays and plane changes in Adelaide, I had plenty of time in Brisbane, well about 30 minutes, as the Qantas flight to Hong Kong was also delayed.
The problem with that is, my connection in Hong Kong was already going to be tight.
Having a good seat was nice, the flight all through the day was nice but lacked food after the initial 3 course lunch. I think in business now you are supposed to ask them to make you a snack on demand, they had grilled cheese, some sort of quiche and whatever, but I prefer to wait for the cart to come around to be polite, it never did. Knowing my connection time would be tight I thought this just meant I wouldnt eat until I got to Chengdu.
As soon as we parked at Hong Kong I stepped off the plane first to be greeted by a smiling stewardess in Dragonair uniform holding a sign with my name on it. She expressed relief that I appeared fit and healthy, as we need to run! So run we did, all the way through Hong Kong airport, and then out to the satellite terminal where I had not been to before.
She was quite fit and good at running in heels, I suspect this is her main job function.
We got to the gate with minutes to spare before departure time (not boarding time), but none the less, no one had boarded.
After wandering around the small satellite terminal for about an hour or so, we were allowed to board late. Awesome, I made my last flight of the day.
However, we sat, on the ground for an hour. People were amazingly calm, the flight was totally full, then the announcement came from the Irish accented pilot (who later gets translated into Mandarin and Cantonese), 'Due to the airspace around Guangzhou being at capacity, we have been asked to hold on the ground for another 2.5 hours'.
Thats all he said! I literally prepared myself for a riot onboard, as there was no departing, and no getting off for another 2.5 hours. However, people were calm, and within seconds were out of their seats chatting with random strangers, playing cards, sharing their children with old women etc.
Of course everyone is terrified of me, after 18 hours of travel I looked like a yeti. So all I could do was observe and wait.
Thankfully, they decided to serve a full hot meal whilst we were on the ground, and kept the drinks flowing, until they ran out! What that meant is eventually once we took off, they left the seatbelt sign on for the full 2.5 hour flight so that people knew they couldnt get anymore drinks.
Arrival into Chengdu at 1:30AM (4AM Adelaide time where I had departed from) was very quick and efficient.
I still had to get into town, at this time by taxi, even that went OK, I spoke Chinese to the guy who seemed to laugh at me each time and nod his head. A combo of That way!, Yes that way! Good one! along with some pointing and hand movements whilst I followed the map on my blackberry got us there in good time.
Brisbane airport, I make a point of taking at least 1 photo of each city I go through so this is it.
This highlights the hilarity of having a separate domestic and international terminal, with no air side transfer. Despite being somewhat late for my planned departure time, I have to go out into the street and wait for a bus. Its about a kilometre so no taxi will take you. If I was really in a hurry I would probably run it!
This is my poor suffering Dragonair A320, which had to hold us at capacity for many hours without being allowed to do what it likes best, fly.
And finally, a photo of the inside of the Satellite terminal in Hong Kong. Thats it for boring plane pics, coming next, photos from Chengdu, after I hopefully go to sleep at some point!