My trip to Beijing started on Tuesday with a 4:10am train ride to Sydney. I had to get up even earlier to get ready. Lucky for me, getting ready consisted of rolling out of bed, brushing my teeth, and brushing my hair (because I slept in all my clothes), so I only had to wake up at 3:50am...only? Ugh.
On the train to Sydney, I found a group of three open seats, sprawled across, and slept most of the way - until it started getting more crowded, and I started getting dirty looks from people. Lots of people commute to Sydney via train for work, and I mean LOTS! For me, it was a long 3 hour ride. It was also a cold ride, too ! We're coming into our winter months in Australia, so it was maybe 35-40*F when I left my house to walk to the train station. When I looked up the weather for China though, the temperature ranged from 94-102*F 😱 I try to be a "minimalist" and I pack only a carry-on when I travel, so when I saw that it was going to be so hot in Beijing I decided to throw out my Patagonia jacket and toss in a flannel instead (since it would take up less space). I have a Turkish towel that I travel with; it can function as a towel, scarf, swimsuit coverup, and blanket. I used it as a blanket this particular morning, but I was still cold.
I arrived at the Sydney International Airport around 7:30am, my flight was scheduled to leave at 10:45am. As I was checking in, the receptionist asked me to put my bag on the scale - this made me nervous because I knew that my carry-on would be overweight. Most airlines, China Southern included - which is who I was flying with, only allow 7kg carry-ons (and that's combined weight if you take more than one bag). When I put my bag on the scale, it read 9.2kg 😑 My question is, why the hell does it matter how much your bag weighs if it's going on the plane anyways?! Say it makes the plane 'top heavy'...what's the difference then between a bag that weighs 7kg+ and me being a person that weighed 7kg more than I do?! Because a year ago I used to weigh 10kg (20lbs) more than I do now...and I was still able to sit up top in a seat on the plane...you know?! I just don't get it. If I can fit 10kg in a bag that fits above my seat, I should be able to cram it packed, even if it is overweight! Anyway, the lady started moving the bag down the conveyer belt and I told her that I was planning on carrying it on with me; she looked at the weight and asked if I had any liquids or aerosols and I said no. I asked if I could put some of the stuff into my other bag, and she hesitated then said "I'm going to let you take it, but next time try and stay under the 7kg." Shwew. She didn't charge me anything either! 🙌🏽
My flight from Sydney was delayed until 11:10am, however, we didn't even board until after noon. When I got on the plane I noticed that my tv was frozen - at first I thought that everyone's was and maybe we weren't able to navigate through the movies until after the safety announcements, but as I looked around, I saw more and more people scrolling through their tvs. Now movies on planes are my favorite! Not only are they typically newer releases, they're free (usually), and they make the flight go by heaps faster. After takeoff, I asked the flight attendant if they could reset the tv, which they did, but it still wouldn't work. When I told the flight attendant that it was still frozen, she said she would bring me an iPad. "Awesome!" I thought...
I woke up as the wheels hit the runway, and as I got out my next boarding pass I noticed that the time to start boarding was 7:20pm. We just landed...and it was 7:05pm...shit. The taxi to the gate seemed to take forever, and I was freaking out because (of course) I wasn't listening to the flight attendant when they were reading off all the connecting flight gates 🙄 As we pulled up to our gate, the flight attendant made an announcement that there were 100 people on the plane needing to make a connecting flight, so if they weren't one of those 100, then to please stay seated. The plane stopped and EVERYONE got up! Thanks for listening y'all...not! There were airport attendants with signs pointing us in the right direction to the bus we needed to get on; on that bus a hundred people packed in like sardines - and we stunk! When we got off the bus we were given a green sticker to put on our shirt that said our flight number and boarding gate. I thought that would make it quick and easy, but we still had to go to customs. What I didn't realize was that I needed one of the customs forms filled out - which I was never given on the plane - and so once I got to the front the man in charge made me get out of line to go fill one out. I scavenged my backpack for a pen, filled that shot out as fast as I could, got through then ran to the next person who could tell me where to go. When I asked her, she said the flight had been delayed 'til 10pm...I looked down at my watch, and it said 9:40pm; only 20min, so I kept the pace up. I had to go through security again to scan my bags, then was given a ride to my gate in a golf cart. I arrived to the gate, double checked that I was at the right place, then realized that my watch hadn't synced to local time and I still had 2 hours 'til the flight left at 10pm 😫 As much as I hated that, I was thankful that I hadn't missed it all together. They gave us snacks as we waited - water, saltine crackers, and what looked like a coke can of bean dip, which I was too reluctant to try.
It was a 3.5hr flight to Beijing, no personal tvs so this time I decided to get some sleep - even though "Ballerina" was the movie playing on the shared screens. I only woke up once on the flight, to eat - if you know me, you'd know that I don't miss meals! I love food, even if I'm not sure about what it is I'm eating 😂 I had someone from Albatros Marathons picking me up from the airport, and I was eager to get into a real bed. The good thing about packing only carry-on baggage is you don't have to wait around for you stuff to be taken off the plane and make its way to baggage claim! So I quickly de-boarded and found my guy - the only problem was that I wasn't the only name written on his sheet of paper...there was one more. I really needed to use the toilet, so as I was waiting I went to find the bathroom. I walked in, opened the door to the stall, looked in and was so confused why what was there - or wasn't there, rather. There was no toilet, just a porcelain hole in the ground, and no toilet paper - it was a squat pot, as I like to call it now, and it was not for me...I went back outside to wait. It took the other guy AN HOUR to get his luggage. Not only that, this other guy (and his dad) were staying at a different hotel and they were dropped off first! 😡 I didn't get to my hotel until after 3am (5am Sydney time) - that's 25 hours of travel time, y'all!!
When I landed, I (of course) texted my mom and sister to let them know I shouldn't be too much longer. That's when my mom told me that I needed to get here and get to sleep because we had our first excursion at 9am....noooooooo!!!!
To be continued...
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