Terminal Cases at Guangzhou Airport

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This is NOT a good place to start reading my blog. Please fast forward to my earlier trips. I have severe sleep deprivation due to flying through what seems like 115 time zones and now have the worse case of jetlag ever. Our trip is in its terminal stage and we are stuck in a terminal and things feel very terminal like that movie starring Tom Hanks called "Terminal".

The incompetent, idiot of a Chinese official told us we could get free accommodation at the airport hotel through Southern China Air because we were in transit for so long. Just finding it was a chore in itself with having to take all of our luggage without a trolley which weren't allowed to leave the airport. Another Aussie family on the same arriving flight were in the same situation. After wandering around trying to find the hotel we got there and the receptionist said that we couldn’t check in with out a voucher. It took them ages to find out from Southern China Air that only First & Business Class had this service. Meanwhile the other family decided that they’d check in anyway. The cost was $120 and another Aussie at reception had said the rooms were wonderful for the price and it was 5 star. By this stage I was VERY tempted. However, we had already anticipated spending 14 hours in the airport and had prepared by buying food etc. and we also had to leave again at 5pm to check back in at the airport so we decided not to stay. Not before taking advantage of the ever so fancy toilets, complete with couches to change my underwear, jeans, socks and brushed my teeth. Do you think anyone will notice if I catch some zeds on the couch in the toilets? I already felt better and wished I had a spare shirt as I was feeling stinky even with lashings of deoderant. Back at the terminal, the first flight had arrived for the day and they hadn’t even turned the air conditioning on. It wasn’t pleasant trapsing around with all our stuff in the stifling humidity. At the gate the official told us we couldn’t go in and sent us back to where people were checking in their luggage. We thought this isn’t right and asked and info lady what to do and she sent us back to where we were in the first place. With carting all our caes in the suffocating heat I was becoming very frustrated. When we went back to Gate A, Brendan just flashed the boarding passes very quickly so they couldn’t even see and barged ahead, no one stopped us and they obviously didn’t recognise us from the 5 minutes before when they turned us away. The most frustrating thing was the security officials were even more diligent than the USA ones. I also had to take off my shoes (never had to in Perth). Then I got frisk searched in front of every body (by a female), who was very diligent and even checked under my hair band! They made us unpack everything out of our checked luggage (we had a lot of it) as there was something they couldn’t identify. Back in LA I had painstakingly packed in order to prevent possible breakages and now my prized purchases were spread all over the shop. After I eventually repacked everything with hundreds of people waiting behind me, the fucking zip broke all because one stupid wanker told us we could stay at the airport. We wouldn’t have to have gone through all this rigmoral if we were just transiting as per the original plan. I guess the promise of a nice hotel with showers and a bed was all too tempting to the jetlagged mind. Our 14 hour transit turned into a 17 hour transit. You can use your imagination on how we filled in 17 hours!

In a nutshell, I really think my grand parents emigrated to the wrong country. I will miss America for its food, it’s exceptional service everywhere you go and being a pedestrian in this country makes you feel very special. Even if you think you might want to cross the street or hang around the kerb for a split second the traffic will stop for you even if it’s not on a Ped X. LA has a terrible reputation for its traffic but for the wrong reasons I think. People stop if there is an emergency which doesn’t help traffic but it is safe. Drivers are all polite and let you change lanes even in LA, and stay out of the fast lane at all times.

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