Here we go!
Another trip! More adventures!
I’ve pretty much got this whole getting prepared thing down now so I was locked and loaded and ready to go last night.
I got off of work, did last loads of dishes and laundry, took out the garbage, and did the final pack of my backpack.
By midnight I was all ready without a care in the world.
Until I tried to access the backend of this website.
Oh my God.
What the hell?
Edit links that are supposed to work, weren’t working.
My media library? Yeah, I can’t access it and I can’t upload any new images.
Tags? Nope.
Adding custom variables? Also, nope.
Thankfully the website still worked but alot of the things I need to create new blog posts were not.
So, at midnight when I’m supposed to be going to bed for my scant 5 1/2 hours sleep, I was instead up emailing back and forth with someone from my website hosting company.
I guess I should be thankful there was even anyone around to help me at that time of night but, damn, not the thing I want to be doing the night before I leave.
By the way, as I type this blog, it’s now 2 days later and the issues haven’t been fixed.
But me being me, I was able to figure out some workarounds to be able to post everything for this trip.
Hopefully it all works, crossing my fingers…
Vancouver to Shanghai
After staying up til 1:30 in the morning, I finally snoozed for a few hours before popping back out of bed at 5:30 this morning.
Four hours sleep, phhst, who cares? I’m going on another adventure!
At just before 7am I was on a bus heading to the airport and, after a couple of hours, I was popping through security at YVR.
Another quick and easy 5 minutes to get through with another 2 hours to spare waiting for my flight to leave.
My first of two flights today was a 12 1/2 hour non-stop flight to Shanghai on Air Canada.
With a 15 hour time difference, I’d actually be landing 27 hours later.
I spent most of my time on the flight watching shows on my newly purchased Samsung tablet and, of course, playing Yahtzee on the in-flight entertainment screen at my seat.
What shows did I watch?
A little SNL, a little White Lotus, and, naturally, since I would be there myself in a couple of days – the movie Seven Years in Tibet with a young Brad Pitt.
At 2pm local time the following day I had arrived in Shanghai.
From one airport to another
There are two airports in Shanghai and, somewhat inconveniently, my next flight onwards to Xi’an was departing from the other airport clear across town.
Luckily there is a direct airport link metro line that takes you between the two in just 40 minutes.
My next flight didn’t leave for 3 hours so I had more than enough time to get my ass over there.
Haha. Famous last words…
First, it took forever to get out of the first airport.
The immigration and security lines were alright but I hadn’t counted on how long it would take to walk through the airport or how utterly lost I’d become looking for the damn metro to get out of there.
An hour. That’s how long it took.
The Airport Link Line isn’t in an obvious spot and it doesn’t help that there are multiple metro options leaving from the airport.
Finally, after asking several people along the way, I found the right area.
Buying a ticket was another adventure in itself.
I had read prior to arriving in China that cash and credit cards are so outdated and, now, everything is all Alipay or WeChat.
I did my due diligence with this and actually downloaded both apps and attaching my credit card to them before I left but that didn’t mean I was out of the woods.
When I was finally face to face with a machine asking for me to pay with Alipay I was lost and couldn’t figure it out.
Thank God there was a kind man who spoke English standing in line behind me and he helped me out.
Seriously, that dude was a life saver!
Anyway I ended up leaving the airport 30 minutes later than I anticipated but, no worries, I’d still have 90 minutes til my next flight left.
Haha. Famous last words…
A confiscated battery pack
I finally arrived at Shanghai Hongqiao airport at just after 4pm for my 5:30pm flight.
It only took 25 minutes to get through the security line so I still had an hour before my flight left.
You see? No worries! I still made it in time!
Haha. Famous last words…
Going through security I took out all the usual stuff, my liquids and my electronics, and placed them in a tray.
After my bags went through the xray, the man pulled my backpack to the side and asked if I had any battery packs in there.
Oh, yeah, I did. I had two external battery packs that I use to charge my phone when I travel. I had never been asked about them before though and had always just left them in my backpack.
No worries I thought. I just pulled them out of my backpack and handed them to the guy.
Well, turns out that China sometime last year decided that any battery packs had to be rated CCC in order to be allowed to go on an airplane.
Mine are just rated CC.
Well, fuck.
I was led to a desk where a immigration officer explained in her broken English what the situation was.
Basically I could go but my battery packs could not.
This was unfortunate and something I had never ever conceived of happening or been prepared for.
There is a real reason I need those battery packs when I travel.
I use my phone alot when I’m out exploring.
From my offline maps to Google Translate to using apps for Ubers (or similar facsimiles) and Google searches. Oh, and of course all the photos and videos I take.
Yeah, this was going to be a major inconvenience not to mention those suckers cost me some coin too!
I was left with an impossible decision and, to make matters worse, my flight was leaving soon.
To her credit, the immigration officer was very nice and helpful.
She asked if I knew anyone in China that I could send the packs to and, of course, I don’t but at least she was trying to find a solution so I wouldn’t just lose them.
And then she asked my travel plans and, when I told her I’d be in Lhasa in 3 days, she asked if I knew the address and phone number of the hostel I’d be staying at.
They could rush deliver to the hotel in 3 days for $6.
Well, shit! Now we’re talking!
Of course, I didn’t know what hotel I’d be staying at because it’s booked through the tour company I’m using for my time in Tibet.
I have, however over the last month or so, been messaging a lady named Mary who works for the tour company so I shot off a last ditch effort message to her.
Would she read the message right away? Would she be able to help?
Time was ticking.
My flight was now boarding…
And then…
Success!
She sent the immigration officer everything she needed and, I don’t know how it all worked, but the officer did a payment over the phone which I’ll reimburse later and then gave me the thumbs up.
My phone banks will be waiting for me in Lhasa when I arrived in a couple of days!
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again – while those hiccups and bad experiences that happen when you travel genuinely suck at the time, they make for the best stories down the road.
And this one will be one I’m telling for awhile.
Off to Xi’an
Anyway, after that whole fiasco, I raced to my gate which, naturally, was one of the last ones down a long, oh, so very long corridor.
It didn’t help that I was parched as I had dumped out the rest of my water before going through security.
No time to stop at a water fountain to fill up though, my flight was leaving soon.
Soon enough though I was boarding my next flight and, shortly after, I was back in the air again.
This flight from Shanghai to Xi’an was only a 2 1/2 hour flight.
My hats off to China Eastern though as they feed us a scrumptious hot meal of chicken and bbq pork over rice and veggies.
I had actually just bit into an energy bar I had packed right before they starting serving that surprise dinner so I just tucked it away back in my bag and enjoyed this great dinner.
I closed my eyes for most of my flight as, by now, it had been 21 hours since I got out of bed after only getting four hours sleep the night before.
Yeah, I was crashing hard.
Arriving in Xi’an
At 8pm local time I had finally arrived at my destination city of Xi’an where I’ll be spending the next day and and a half before heading to Lhasa the capital city of Tibet.
Of course, my travel day wasn’t quite done yet.
There was still the matter of another whopping 80 minute bus ride into town.
Yeah, the Xi’an airport ain’t really that close to the city.
But, by 10:30, a full 26 hours since I woke up now 2 days ago, I had finally arrived at my hostel.
Tibet/Nepal trip has officially begun!
As a side note, I will be doing new blogs every day while I’m on this adventure but, because of some of the logistics, they may back up a little and be a wee bit late (this one came out a full 24 hours late) but I will do my best to get them out there for you all to enjoy.
