After walking Adam to the bus stop on Tuesday morning at 7:50am, I drove my rented white Kia something Hybrid down to O'Hare for my 12:00pm departure to Beijing. The Kia was a sporty 4
seater that I enjoyed, although the acceleration was a bit delayed in kicking in. The drive took 1hr and 30 minutes and I checked in uneventfully. I had
time for about 1 hour in the United lounge where I made some final phone
calls. The snacks in the lounge were
quite sparse. Just some nuts and simple
cookies. Quite a drop-off from what I
remember from just a few years ago.
I
boarded the plane at about 11:30am and found my seat – not before catching a good
look at the 8 first class seats in the front.
Very nice setup in the 747 as the cockpit is on the second floor, so
those lucky to be in first class have the first row at the actual front of the
plane – pretty neat. I can’t complain
about my seat – Business class with a lie-flat seat and 17” TV monitor. For you China blog veterans out there you
will be happy to read here that the TV never left the GPS page for the entire
flight – although I could see the person next to me could choose between a ton
of shows – but none could compete with the GPS channel.
As for the flight, it took off on time at 12:05pm and I had
a coke and a bowl of mixed nuts at 1:30pm – this was followed by lunch service
shortly thereafter as we entered Canada on the polar route to China (due to
headwinds). For lunch, I had a very tasty
salmon with mustard sauce, salad, and some sort of fish on vegetables. For dessert, a plate of cheese and crackers with an ice cream sundae – although I ordered mine extra plain; Just the vanilla ice cream.
By 5:00pm Central time, I took a break to stand in a galley
area and spoke with the lady who sat next to me. She works in the patio furniture business and travels to China 5-6 times per year.
By 5:30pm we were approaching the North Pole and had traveled 2900 miles
with about 3800 miles yet remaining (and 7 hours and 30 minutes left in the flight). It was pitch dark outside and I
decided it was finally time to attempt some sleep. I struggled for about 5 hours to sleep and
got about 2 hours of actual sleep.
Details are sketchy, but at midnight (US time) (2:15pm China) I peeked
outside and saw sunny skies and a brown barren land of Russia. About 30 minutes later I had my breakfast of
scrambled eggs, fruit, yogurt and a pastry.
We landed to a sunny Beijing at 3:15pm China time – as scheduled. Went through immigration, got my
luggage, then customs, finally caught the 15 minute shuttle to the other
terminal. There I noticed an earlier
flight to Dalian, but it was sold out.
So, I waited for my flight to leave at 7:50pm. Long story short, after a delay and gate
change, I found myself in line waiting to board the plane... 45 minutes later I was on board (not sure why
they had us stand in line so long). It
was during that time in line, I realized that I was getting extremely tired and
had not eaten or had a drink since my breakfast – now 5 earlier. We pushed back around 9:00pm and sat and held
for an eternity before taking off around 9:45pm. On board the Airbus 321, I was lucky to have
an open seat next to me to spread out a bit.
Seems like they always give me an adjacent open seat on my domestic flights in China. On the short flight I had a meal of beef with
rice and a bottled. Not great, but I was
so tired and hungry, it did the trick.
We landed in a foggy Dalian around 10:30pm and my hotel shuttle driver was
waiting for me at the airport. The 20
minute ride in the van ended with us pulling up to the new hotel in
Dalian – a Grand Hyatt and it was both real and magnificent. 3 people from the hotel met me outside and
escorted me to the front desk where another 2 people had my paperwork out and
ready for me to sign. Two people then
walked me to my room on the 21 floor and gave me a brief tour. I’ll save the description for another day (I
have a night meeting to call into), but the room is terrific with a view of the
water, with large shower room and walk-in closet. In fact I learned that the hotel had just opened in September 2014.
I unpacked and fell asleep about 12:15am to a surprisingly
good night’s sleep…
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