We left Perth at 8:10am Friday morning 29/6/12. The 8 hour plane
ride over to Guangzhou; China on China Southern Airlines was quite pleasant.
Great new plane, decent food, unbelievable leg room & the Macbook Pro
lasted the whole trip which allowed us to watch Game Of Thrones Season 2 (eps -
1-6). First of all, WOW. How awesome is Game Of Thrones season 2! Made the
journey absolutely fly by (pun intended). The food served on this particular
flight was quite possibly the best of any airline food we've ever had (&
Damien considers himself quite the connoisseur of plane cuisine.)
When
we landed in Guangzhou China, pronounced GWAN JO.. it was a balmy 35 degrees,
overcast with sauna-like humidity & smelt of wet-dog & car fumes. We
exited the plane & jumped on a bus which took us to the Los Angeles
transfer section of the airport. We eventually made our way through the
air-conditioningless hoards of customs & proceeded to the boarding
terminals. I would like to make the point, that not a single person in China
can speak English, ALL writing is in Chinese & every single person in China
is in a hurry to get absolutely nowhere. We located a "charging
station" within the terminal & after nearly electrocuting ourselves
several times & reducing our inadequate travel adaptor to a plastic puddle,
managed to pump some juice into our Macbook for the second leg of our journey.
We somehow passed 5 hours at the airport by Jacy: slaying & Golf Solitaire
& Damien: shredding & imaschine. In need of some snacks for our next
plane-ride, I set about visiting the various shops throughout the terminal only
to discover Asians eat nothing but Hello-Kitty Chocolate & Pineapple
Flavoured fizzy water. At the back of a warm fridge in a random shop, in the
armpit of the airport, I located two luke-warm Heinekens! Mild Success.
Finally
it was time to board, we sat on the plane for half an hour in wait of two late
passengers possibly named Feng Wang & Fuark Whitt. We eventually took to
the sky for our final 13 hour leg. And then it began. Much to our sudden
horror, we had been seated behind a very young child who was either a)
possessed b) singing in chinese c) extremely upset. He shrieked incessantly for
the vast majority the next 13 hours! And when I say shrieked, I mean that
breathless, high-pitched wail that babies make when they sound like they’re on
the brink of death. Yeah, no shit. This kid balled his eyes out for HOURS!! And
at this point it was around 12am Perth-time, we’d been up since 4am & in
transit since 8am. We were at our tethers. Somehow we managed to get maybe 5
hours of ridiculously uncomfortable, interrupted sleep before firing up the
iPad & watching the remaining episodes of Game Of Thrones. We can’t be
thankful enough for noise cancelling headphones & visual devices. Truly a
necessity when attempting to pass large durations of travel.
Hours
later we arrived at LAX. We left Perth at 8am Friday, flew for 8 hours, spent 5
more at China airport, departed China @ 9pm Friday, flew for 13 hours and
arrived in Los Angeles at 8pm Friday. WTF. We literally went back in time.
Had
no issues whatsoever with customs at LAX, received our luggage without problem,
jumped in a $54 cab & rode to the Ramada Plaza in West Hollywood. Checked
into our hotel, dropped our luggage & went to the incredible restaurant
next door “K24” for several 1pint3oz? (longneck) beers & burgers. After 30
hours since leaving Perth we returned to our room for showers & a very
desperate slumber. It was 12:30am LA Time/ 3:30pm Perth time when we finally
went to sleep. We awoke at 12pm (3am) the following day & went out for
lunch, beers & shopping. Gorgeous weather, insanely good food & drink @
amazing prices. We made it!
-If
we never go back to China again. It will be too soon.
DC
See accompanying photos: "AIR TRAVELS" in gallery.
