I'm back!
The second I got in the cab I knew I was back in China. I've never taken a cab in the states so I don't know about the, but here they all have a certain odor that you just can't get anywhere else. Something like stale cigarettes, and bad breath covered up by the same air freshener. Its really not that bad, just unique enough that it brought back a lot of memories of the last time I was here.
We left the hotel in Las Vegas at 4am on Jan 3rd. For the next 21 hours we chased the sun across the sky. Finally arriving in Shanghai at about 4pm Jan 4th (local time).
I love flying, but appearantly the airports don't love me. As has happened to me every time I've flown post 9-11 I was "randomly" chosen to go though extra security. Poor Sherry didn't know what she was getting when she married me. I did convince the TSA guy to tell me why I get to be the lucky guy every time. For some reason the airlines have me and anyone that flys with me on the non existent "no fly" list. He couldn't tell me why, but said I should write my senator because airlines were supposed to turn that stuff over to the TSA a long time ago, but haven't.
We had a great flight from LV to Vancouver. In fact it was probably the best flight of my life. The nice lady at check in managed to get my a seat in the emergency exit row. I had more leg room than I could use! It was like first class. The plane was state-of-the-art. It had an outlet for everyone, as well as a personal mutimedia system on the back of every seat. You could watch any of a few dozen movies, TV shows, News, or listen to music. I decided to sleep, and save th emovie watching for the second, longer, flight.
The flight from Vancouver to Shanghai, was no so cool. The plane was old school, and she couldn't manage me an exit row seat for that flight. The in flight movie was projected on a main screen, and it must have been from an old VCR, because the tracking was off. Sherry didn't care, she was asleep most of the flight. I did finally get to finish the Harry Potter series though, so it wasn't that bad. It was about time that I found out how those kids got killed off :P
Once we got to Shanghai we picked up our luggage with no problem and took a cab to our hotel. We got lucky and arrived durring rush hour. Only 3 buses tried to run us off the road, so I consider it fairly uneventful. It took us 2 hours to get across town, the driver said it usually takes about 40 mins. There weren't any accidents, just lots and lots of crazy drivers.
The hotel is great, infact its better than the Stratosphere in Las Vegas. For half as much as we paid in LV (and we got a great deal to get that price) we have a cleaner room with free internet and breakfast for a buck.
That was our travel experiance. All in all pretty good.
Could your problem with airport security have anything to do with your name being John Carr? I mean I know that that creep was John Mark Karr, but we all know that airport security workers are hooked on phonics.
ReplyDeleteYou should buy little travel size deodorant sticks to give to cab drivers. That might help the smell.
p.s. I'm jealous enough to almost wish some food borne illness to strike you down following a visit to a street vendor. Be safe and Be Happy