Getting there...

My itenirary was Toronto to Vancouver to Shanghai to Haikou Island. In total, 27 hours from getting on the first plane to getting off the last.

I didn’t anticipate how long 27 hours of flying feels like. Not to mention the effects of getting up 5 hours before my flight and getting only 4 hours of sleep the night before. Not to mention having to drive and check into the hotel.

When I got to Vancouver, I thought I was already in China. I didn’t realize how large Vancouver’s Asian population has grown. When I finally boarded the plane, I was one of the few white people. It was hot and muggy and smelt like cabbage and mothballs. I thought to myself, “this is going to be a long flight”.

Ironically, a few weeks ago, I was thinking the only time I smell mothballs is when I’m around old people. Which got me thinking, “who even uses mothballs anymore and why? I now know. The mothball industry is alive and well in China. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not prejudice, I’m just making fun of a cultural stereotype. I’m sure they probably think I smell like “steak and potatoes” and can drive well.

Once we got in the sky, the ventilation system kicked in, thank God. Now the only smell was coming from me. At one point, I let out a little "SBD" fart. I didn’t think anyone would notice. Wrong! A woman a couple seats over, picked up the emergency instruction card and started fanning the air. It was a nice touch, letting me know it didn’t go unnoticed.

I was a little embarrassed, but then remembered a Chinese guy, that I hired 20 years ago. He used to let out loud farts all the time at work, regardless of who was in the room. Remembering that made me feel better by thinking farting in public is probably part of the Chinese culture.

The one thing about Air Canada’s overseas flights is most of the flight attendants look like they started flying shortly after the Wright brothers invented the airplane. They are also a cranky and miserable looking bunch.

At one point, I’m sure I was close to getting kicked off the plane. I was returning from the washroom and inadvertently walked right into the backside of one of the “old birds” as she was bending down and getting food from the cart.

It was a full frontal bulls eye and she definitely felt IT. The way she looked at me, you’d think I sexually assaulted her. She should be so lucky! She let me off the hook once I started apologizing profusely and for the rest of the flight I over used the words “please” and “thank you “ when dealing with her.

For the first 21 hours of travel, I was awake and doing well. Then I got tired. Big time. The best thing I did was to bring a neck roll and an inflatable cushion to sit on. I’ve done these long flights before and after a while the airline seat starts to hurt your butt and your neck flops all over the place when you sleep.

I think I got about 4 hours of sleep before we landed in Shanghai. A few times I was semi-awake inside, but couldn’t force my eyes to open. I’m hoping I made the right decision to stay awake as long as possible. Time will tell.

When I got to Shanghai, I was blown away. The airport was state of the art and looked similar to the Toronto International Airport. The look of the people also surprised me; they were very North American chic. I was expecting poor looking, down trodden people, who had suitcases made from boxes and string. I was wrong.

I was also surprised by the sense of Capitalism. There were many Chinese business people in suits and polished shoes, looking successful and progressive. Sitting beside me on the plane was a couple of twenty something business people, complete with laptops, iPods and cell phones. One was even watching the movie “UP”. I felt like I was in any major Western City.

On the plane, I was the only white person. One drawback for me was that most of the people I tried to speak to didn’t speak English or it was extremely poor. This caused me a lot of problems when I tried to check in my bike as luggage. It was very hard to understand the process required. I didn’t get the sense they get many bikes. I thought I did it right, but apparently not.

As I boarded the flight, one of the male flight attendants handed me a cell phone and said, “it’s for you”. At first I thought is was a joke or a mistake. Who’d be calling me in China? It turns out it was one of the Airline counter personnel and “I think” they were saying my bike and luggage did not make it on the plane, that I did something wrong. I “think” that’s what they said.

A couple more times, the flight attendant handed me the phone. More “gibberish” on the other end. Then he asked me to write out my name on a piece of paper. Fifteen minutes later, he came back and asked me for my baggage tags.

I appreciated the effort they were making to try to find my bike and get it on the plane. I was fortunate that someone on the plane was sick and required medical attention, it allowed more time for the airline to find my bike and get it on the plane. Later on in the flight, the sick traveler was a row over from me and started “puking”. Not a good smell. I’ll take the smell of “cabbage” and “mothballs” any day over the smell of vomit.

It’s early in on my Chinese adventure, but I think North American’s may have Communist China all wrong. During the flight, I was given an English speaking newspaper. It was an interesting read, very open and critical of things going on in China. It was not at all what I expected.

One article spoke of how China needs to increase the literacy of women, that they’ve done a poor job. Another one was about 20 million women who have to cope with husbands that are migrant workers and rarely at home.

There were many articles about infrastrucre projects. On the international front, there was an article that was critical of the U.S. for selling arms to Taiwan and Obama meeting with the Dali Lama. I didn’t even know the U.S. sells arms to Taiwan.

The business section was about IPO’s, foreign investment, GM’s Chinese sales and Toyota’s woes. Essentially, everything you’d see in a North American newspaper. I enjoyed the newspapers writing style and honesty.

Good news when I got off the plane, my luggage and bike arrived. Also, thanks for all the support comments from yesterday’s post.

Scheduled Rest / Travel Day – No training.