Deb slept well last night, me not so much. I detest alarm clocks, I just dont trust them. We were up at 4am showered, finished packing and were in an Uber by 4.25am. It took a bit over 15mins. We were out at the airport, checked in all the way to Shanghai, through security, of course I got bomb tested, again!, and we were standing out in front of the Qantas Club waiting for it to open at 4:50am.
The Club opened at 5am we got a light breakfast and drinks (Coffee! First of the day, lol).
Our flight to Sydney was delayed a little due to a malfunctioning entertainment system. We eventually left and our 1:25hr flight to Sydney started. Normally this flight isn’t too memorable, but today was different. At about 7:15am Sydney time Deb noticed another plane on our port (left) side. It was below us, but not by that much. She said it seemed to change course and we flew straight over the top of it, I guess the separation was around 500m, but a bit close for my liking. Then about 10-15 mins after that we hit a VERY bumpy zone of turbulance, my freshly poured coffee and Deb’s tea spilt into our service trays, lucky the trays have that big lip!
We landed in Sydney @ 8:15am and were disembarking at 8:20am at gate 2. We headed to gate 15 to get the transfer bus to the International terminal. In Adelaide we “met” a woman also traveling to Sydney and connecting for a flight to the USA. Her flight was due to leave at 8:45am, about the time we got off the bus at the International terminal, we never did see how she got on and if she made her flight. And I thought our 1:10hr transfer was tight!
We got through Passport control and security by around 9am and had boarded our flight by about 9.10am. Champagne was offered and seemed like a good idea, the day had started 5 hours ago! A few more delays with our plane and we pushed out at 9:50am on our way to Shanghai.
The flight was reasonably smooth, a few bumps here and there. The flight was long, 10.5hrs, but uneventful. We both watched a few movies etc to pass the time.
We landed in Shanghai at 6:40pm local time and then we spent 10 mins taxiing to the terminal. Shanghai airport is huge and it looks like they are going to about double the size of it.
It was a long walk to imigration control, first we had to be finger printed (electronically), then to another location to get our visa’s and passports checked and more finger prints, the we collected our bags, and queued up again to get out. Not as bad as it sounds, the whole process took about 25 mins.
It’s always welcoming to have transport prebooked and someone there with a sign with your names on it when coming out at a new/busy airport. We found our guy Reo and were soon on a mini bus heading for our hotel, The Marriott Courtyard. It took 50 mins to travel the 30km to the hotel, Rep told us a bit about the city and sights as we drove. 24,000,000 people live in Shanghai, that is the population of Australia squeezed into one city! They also have a high speed train that travels 400km per hour.
We arrived at our hotel around 8:20pm, checked in and were in our room by 8:30. We met a woman who is on our tour in the lift on the way up, Pam, she is from Florida.
Tomorrow we explore by ourselves, we are both looking forward to that, and a good nights sleep tonight. Bye for now.
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Sounds like your adventure started before you left home ? I too don’t trust alarms & sleep little when something important is happening the following day ? Interested in Deb’s casual statement to you telling you of the other plane close to yours ? “Oh by the way Greg ? LOOK it’s another plane!!”✈️ Oh my that’s too scary!! So glad you’ve arrived & all is well, have fun xoxo
That seems a little too close for comfort with the other plane!!!
Yes, I thought so!