Not Rushing Back

About 45 minutes away from Brisbane. They’ve just cleared up breakfast and I suppose they’ll make me put away my computer soon…

It’s been a relatively uneventful flight. I managed to sleep for four or five hours, so that was good. My trip from Tokyo to Brisbane took me through Guangzhou (formerly Canton), which I was excited about. While I didn’t have a chance to leave the airport, I did get an impression of China. Unfortunately it wasn’t all that great.

As we landed, the city was shrouded in a cloud of smog. Considering China’s reputation as a very polluted place, I wasn’t all that surprised. Once we had parked at a gate, we went down the jetway, but instead of continuing inside, we were ushered down an exterior staircase. The smoginess was compounded by the 90 degree temperature; the combination made it really unpleasant to breathe. After waiting a minute in the heat, punctuated by frequent lightning which lit up the hazy black sky, we were packed onto buses for a ten minute drive around the airport.

We climbed up another series of steps and I was able to quickly pass through a side line at customs as I wasn’t staying in the country. I headed down to my gate on the lowest floor of the concourse, which I immediately regretted. Downstairs was smoky and cramped with people waiting for flights from the six gates. And with only escalators running down, we were all effectively trapped downstairs. Some people wanting to get out (including myself) found an elevator, waited more than a few minutes, and finally made it back up to the main level.

With 45 minutes to kill before boarding, I began to search for an ATM to withdraw some money which I could use to buy a Coke (my typical souvenir from foreign countries) and then keep the change (my other typical souvenir from foreign countries). After determining there was no ATM (and almost getting run down by numerous employees driving golf carts way too fast in the concourse), I went to the one available place to exchange money. And after commission, lost over a third of the value of it, but I was able to get my Coke and some change, so that was nice. Though I was only able to get 1 yaun coins; I’m not sure if there are smaller coins, but no one would give them to me if there were.

Once back down at the gate area, I was ushered outside to wait for another bus to head to the plane. It took about ten minutes for a bus to come, and then we were taken to another part of the terminal, where we traipsed back up a few floors on an exterior staircase and into a jetway (which was attached to the terminal, so it made no sense that we couldn’t have walked inside to get to it) to board the plane to Brisbane.

All in all, the two hours in China didn’t paint a rosy picture – I don’t feel I need to rush back.

On my first flight yesterday, which took about five hours, I got some work done, watched Birdman, and enjoyed a pretty good dinner of pork and rice with vegetables. I also somehow ended up in a section of the plane that had a ridiculous amount of leg room, so I enjoyed stretching out.

Unfortunately, for this nine hour flight, it was back to standard leg room. The first half hour after takeoff was very turbulent as we ascended through some storms, but things calmed down around the time dinner was served (beef with rice – not as good as the pork) and then I got some sleep. Breakfast consisted of dim sum, which I was rather indifferent about.

And now it’s time to turn off electronics and get ready to land. Hopefully customs will be a quick process and I’ll have the day to enjoy in Brisbane.