Shanghai

When I think about it, I really like midday flights.

Early morning flights are terrible; I tend to get very little sleep the night before making it nigh on impossible to raise myself from slumber in time for the flight.

Evening flights are the worst, particularly long-haul ones. It's hard to sleep (perverse as it is, this is my experience), and there's always more work to do after hitting the tarmac. There's finding a taxi, driving a couple of hours to the next city, and helping the driver find the hotel in unfamiliar territory (this can take some time, the best plan is to change to a local taxi).

Midday flights on the other hand let you sleep in a little and enjoy the morning. I had a midday flight to Shanghai yesterday, which I was rather happy about. It's easy to get blase on a slow morning though, and getting sucked into Wikipedia can be dangerous. With 100 unread tabs open I realised I had about 10 minutes to pack, get breakfast, check out, and get to the airport by the recommended time. The airport wasn't far and traffic was light, so I arrived with plenty of time as it turned out.

I had a lighter in my carry-on bag (I don't smoke, but it was a cool lighter), and even though the bag was full of batteries, adapters, two phones, ipod, chargers, camera bits, etc - the x-ray image was a complete mess - the security suits found it. I guess the machine can identify and highlight certain density and/or chemical signatures - probably in the butane gas, I don't know. I had forgotten it was there, and they didn't tell me what they were looking for at first. I thought they would be satisfied after removing my camera lens, which is frequently mistaken for a bottle, but no. They told me what they were looking for and started digging around, it didn't take long to find. I got a rather unimpressed, yet unimpressive "you aren't allowed to take that onboard", and it was promptly confiscated. No questions, no warnings, nothing. I returned a dumb look, said ok, and was on my way.

With half an hour to spare I found a cafe and sat down with the Doc, my colleague and travel companion. 58 RMB for a coffee... A few months back the NZD was pushing 6 RMB. $10 for a coffee would have been steep, but agreeable considering this was the last stop after customs and immigration (anything for sale in an airport departure lounge is by default extortionately overpriced). Unfortunately the NZD has taken a battering of late, and it's currently down to about 3.6 RMB. That's $16 for a coffee. No.

We stumble upon a Star Alliance lounge, something neither of us were expecting a small town (with its mere 6 million pax) airport like this to have. Gold card in hand we slipped into a land of free coffee, biscuits, and blaring, tasteless elevator music.

The departure lounge resembled a local market more than anything, with a large fruit and vege stall and shops selling all manner of toys. Oh, and people everywhere. We board. I watch The Graduate on my laptop. The friendly Chinese man next to me watches some of it too, taking particular interest in the scene where Ben takes Elaine to a strip club. The lunch and service is surprisingly good. I doze off...

...Rough landing. Everyone gets up as soon as the plane pulls into the gate, still moving, seat belt sign positively still on. I go for my luggage in the overhead locker. People swarm past, pushing and shoving. I stand back and block the aisle, to little effect. So much for being 6" and wearing a leather jacket! Apparently, as long as I can't see who's pushing, they'll be ok. Even with nowhere to go, with plane doors still closed, immigration counters for Africa, plenty of luggage trolleys, etc, people are still running, pushing, and shoving. The mentality is odd, yet understandable when put in context. China is a harsh place, fear is pervasive and survival is key. I figure the thought process goes something like this: While I don't have any particular hurry, nor is there any immediate need to get ahead of everyone around me, I must try to gain an edge. If don't I will be disadvantaged in some way when unforeseen circumstances arise in the near future.

Taxi to Jiaxing. I doze, snap pictures of the setting sun through the thick smog. Check in. Dinner. Sleep.

China Haze-O-Meter, Thursday July 24

Today's Haze-O-Meter report is from a special guest location! I overnighted at Shanghai Pudong airport - that way I only had to get up at 5am for my 8am flight back to Thailand.




I took this shot from my hotel window at 5.43 this morning looking west toward terminal 2, about 1km away, just visible in the top left corner.

So Long, Sucky Weather! Part Deux

I made it, hooray! I've never had my carry-on bags checked before, but I hold no delusions the airlines will eventually get around to enforcing the weight and number restrictions (1 piece, 7kg + laptop/camera/handbag etc). Walking past the scales on my way to the departure gate always dredges up recollections of a particularly unlucky soul denied entry to an Air NZ flight because his carry-on suitcase was too big (he might have just left it there, or had to pay more - I don't know). That's usually about the point my palms get sweaty and palpitations arrive (or perhaps it's because I'm dragging twice my bodyweight in luggage onto the plane).

Why do I take so much luggage? Well, for starters, it's actually not much of a challenge to use up the 20kg checked allowance. M plastic suitcase alone weighs at least 5kgs. It's also wiser to take more than you need than too little if going for more than a couple of weeks. I never know how long I'll be away (6 months, 1 week last time) so plan for a month or two at least. That means camera+lenses, tripod, laptop, DVDs, books, and other stuff I don't want to buy all come for the ride.

So anyway, the title. Yup, this is what Shanghai looked like when I arrived.



At least it was warmer than Auckland. In fairness though, it was a sunny day for Shangers. It was snowing when I was here in February.

Those disappearing vertical features turned out to be part of a rather spectacular suspension bridge (spectacular from from my 10mm super wide angle lens at least).




Righto, the tin can awaits again. At least this time I can rest easy, my carry-on is well within spec (can't push my luck!).

Going Home

I've been away for just over 6 months, so I'm rather stoked about finally coming home. I left Auckland last November, and I've been traveling since. If I thought living in a hotel (hotels) for 6 months sounded like fun when I left, I certainly don't think that any more. I had fun, but it's time to go home.

My travels look something like this from memory:New Zealand-Hong Kong-Thailand-Finland-Thailand-China-Thailand-China-Taiwan-China-
Thailand-Malaysia-Singapore-Thailand-China-New Zealand (I'm about to embark on the final leg).



I have a plane to catch, so I'll fill in the gaps later.

It's a....blog!

I've been meaning to do this for a long, long time now. No more putting it off! No more scribbling notes on receipts and napkins only to leave them in my pockets where they inevitably go through the wash and end up in little pieces stuck to my clothes. I hate it when that happens.

Right, let's get to it. I can't guarantee my blog entries will be in any kind of order (chronological, geographical, or otherwise), but don't let that spoil your fun!

I just left China where I spent the last month visiting some factories for work. By the end of January it had started snowing a little bit in places it doesn't usually snow, like Jiaxing:



Suzhou had it worse, and I forgot to bring my snow chains so got stuck:



By Chinese New Year it was snowing heavily. Highways were closed, utilities were failing, flights were being cancelled. The country was buckling under the pressure of millions of people trying to traverse the country in the worst weather to hit in 50 years. System Overload, Core Melt Down Imminent...



Many Chinese work 20, 30, or even 40 hours away from their hometowns. Lots of people queued all day for tickets home on New Year's Eve to find all the trains were full. Chinese New Year is one of only two weeks the Chinese get off every year. It's the most important, for many it's the only time of year they see their families.

I was very glad it didn't mean anything to me.



The laowai failing to blend in made his escape and hot footed it out of there, heading for the warmer shores of Thailand.