China - Day 87 - Going going back back to Cali Cali

Of course, the travel gods of China would make it difficult for me to leave. After Dr. Sun generously offered one of the company cars to drive me to my hotel in Shanghai, it was an hour and a half late. Why, you may ask? Because the street outside my apartment had flooded. After we finally hit the road, about an hour into the drive, we hear some knocking and have to pull off the road to check it out. I was worried that I wasn't going to make it to Shanghai, but the problem turned out to just be the under-engine plate guard, not a major problem. We fixed it with some rope and continued on to the hotel.

The flooding in front of my apartment building. I wasn't kidding.	While we were getting the car checked out I played with the mechanic's dog. Playing with dogs is the same in any language

The hotel turned out to be in the boonies, nothing like the area around airports in the states. I think it qualified as the Chinese suburbs. Either way, I was kinda disappointed. I checked into the hotel and I actually had a pretty nice room (free internet even). However, I didn't see any other guests there, which was a bit disconcerting (I later heard them having an argument later that night). I wandered around the area looking for dinner (eschewing hotel restaurants, which was a good idea in hindsight), but the pickings were slim. I grabbed some modest street food and retired to my room to watch far much more TV than is probably healthy for me.

My glorious 11 kuai (about $1.50) dinner.

China - Day 1 - Whelp, I'm in Asia now

Wow, where to begin?

June 19
Let's start with the flights. I left SFO on June 18 on United flying to Incheon where I would catch a connecting flight to Shanghai on China Eastern Airlines. I was lucky enough to be upgraded to business class for the SFO-ICN flight (thank you mom and dad's frequent flier miles) and I have to say, it was exquisite. They served me three glasses of champagne before we even left the gate (one I had when I first sat down, the second when my seat mate [an anthropology professor from Harvard] joined me and the third when the flight attendants had to finish off the bottle before take off [I guess we looked like we would oblige another drink]).

747-400's at SFO. I think one of them was mine	A little pre-flight champagne

China - Day 0 - Leaving on a jet plane...

June 18
Today is the day. I can't tell if my feelings are nervousness or the coffee in my veins, but I'm giddy. I'm currently sitting in the United Red Carpet Club at SFO (thank you to Jordan and Sylvie for driving me to the airport at this ungodly hour), and I have mixed feeling about this place. On one hand, it is nice to have a quiet place to relax before the flight and I'm enjoying the complimentary wifi (I turned down the two complementary drink tickets, although given my nerves I'm thinking that may have been a mistake). On the other hand, the ambiance here is like a motel lobby and the lounge does not appear to have been particularly well maintained. Both power plugs at my seat don't work, but luckily the guy sitting across from me was kind enough to offer one of his ports. I board in 50 minutes; I'm scared and excited and ready to do this.

Here's the entrance on the first floor. Probably the nicest part of the Red Carpet Lounge.

The view from the departure lounge. A classic San Francisco summer morning.

Oz Day 7, 8, 9 - Animals and Going Home

Last couple days we exhausted the interesting things going on in Sydney, so we visited the Wildlife World and the Aquarium. There was an amazing amount of animal life diversity there, so I'll let the pictures do most of the talking.

The flight home was among the worst I've ever had. I was sitting in Economy, which had even less leg room than I remember. I spent the entire 13 hour flight with my knees in the seat in front of me or standing in the aisle while the very polite Canadian couple next to me went to the bathroom. It's a good thing I didn't try to sleep that much, because that would not have been remotely successful (and when I did try to, it wasn't). Luckily, my laptop lasted long enough for me to watch 2 movies, so I watched Hamlet 2 (had it's funny moments, but seemed to be trying too hard) and 3 Fast 3 Furious (utter garbage, but I like cars and I have to get caught up for 4 Fast 4 Furious). All in all, I'm glad to be back.

Pictures

A Crocodile




Huge Ants




A Baby Koala (awwww)




This duck isn't moving for anything




Oh sign writers, you're so funny




Oh shit! A shark




Oh shit! A turtle!

SE Asian Restaurants: 6

Page in Blink: Still 98

Traveling and Sydney Layover

I knew it was going to take a long time to get from San Francisco to Christchurch, but I really didn't know how long it was it was going to take. 38 hours after we left home (thanks for the ride to the airport Jordan) we finally touched down in Christchurch, ah where to start, well, how bout the start.

The flight from SFO to LAX was pretty uneventful. I was over my cold, then back under the weather again. Similar to how the past 2 weeks have been. We had time to eat dinner, so we ate at Wolfgang Puck's, which was pretty good (from what I could taste), but overpriced. We were late leaving (an flight, late, what?), but I had plenty of reading material (A Short History of Nearly Everything, again, thanks Jordan) so I was fine. I even got lucky, getting an aisle seat and having an empty friendship seat. My brother was not so lucky, the guy sitting next to him was about my size, bald and covered in tattoos (including a tear drop tattoo). We were joking about this later and my mom told him that he got the "fuzzy end of the lollipop," to which Dan replied, (in a rare moment of quick thinking) "I didn't get the fuzzy end, I got the shiv end." When I tried to get to sleep, I realized that my seat wasn't nearly as awesome as previously though (44C). Flight attendants are really chatty and people love to run into the first seat following an open space. We eventually got to Sydney's Kingsford (not charcoal) International.

Normally, I don't think much of airport layout or security, but I had to take notice at these. Kingsford is like some cross between a mall and an airport. We had to walk about 1/4 mile through a duty free shop before reaching customs (and later, when we were leaving, we had to walk about 1/2 a mile past shops that rivaled the Stanford Mall in opulence to reach our gate). When we got to customs a fellow passenger warned us that using a cell phone or camera before we left the baggage claim would likely get us thrown in jail. Needless to say, Australia means serious business, they even had a real-life bomb sniffing dog (who was really cute, but I refrained from taking a picture, as per the previously mentioned jail threat). The only humor I found in the whole exchange was when the Quarantine agent (different than Customs apparently) asked us if we had "microwave popcorn." He was not as entertained as I was, but the rest of my family loved it.

We visited assorted places in Sydney that were near the Harbor Bridge including Circular Quay (Quay = Key, why? I don't know), the Sydney and Luna Park (a watered-down version of the Boardwalk with a sign that inspires nightmares). The weather was absolutely wonderful, no a cloud in the sky. 75 and sunny, what a great way to spend December. While wandering about North Sydney trying to find the Counter (oh yeah, like the one on California), we got lost. We gave up and walked back to a Thai restaurant I pointed out because I liked the sign (eh, I'm a design nerd) and the food was absolutely great, but the restaurant was tiny, the dining room was smaller than a Lag mini-double. It's a good thing they do take out, otherwise I don't think they'd be able to make money. Here's a true testament to the goodness of this restaurant: even Dan liked it; and he doesn't like anything. I gotta say, Thai is getting up there with Greek on my favorite foods I didn't realize were my favorite foods list.

When we returned to the Sydney airport to check-in for our flight to Christchurch, we found out that there was an issue with our visa (not our VISA card as my dad initially thought), that Virgin Blue couldn't find it. After a fairly tense half hour of waiting, everything got straightened out and I learned that visas are a lot less impressive than I thought (we just bought one for 20 bucks and didn't even get a hard copy of it, the airline took care of everything). The ticketing agent had to ask us a few questions, during which, this little gem occurred:

Agent: "Daniel, what's your birthdate?"

Dan: [gives his birthday]

Agent: "Daniel, are you a male?"

Dad: "Some of the time"

Everyone: Laughter

Dan and I were two of the last people to board the plane (his fault). While walking down the single aisle of the plane, I look first at my seat, which is next to a tall, lanky guy (probably 6' 9", 220 lbs), and then Dan's, next to a petite girl (maybe 5' 6", 110 lbs). Being the gentleman I am (and not wanting to trigger a tantrum on full flight), take the seat next to My Giant. I decide to size up my rowmates and notice that between the two of them they have half a dozen ear piercings and are both my size or taller. And we fit together fine in a row (probably the strangest thing of the entire trip so far). After a fairly unevenful plane ride, we reach Christchurch and start to deplane. As we walk down the jetway, my dad (also a tall guy) points out the sheer height of the two guys sitting next to me, moments before they start to hold hands. This is met with some surprise, but I figure they are the world's tallest gay couple, or at least New Zealand's.

Now, pictures:

A beautiful day in Sydney, as evidenced by the Sydney Opera House.




The entrance to Luna Park. I swear this thing will give some kids nightmares.




Food at Stir Crazy. Holy crap that was amazing, I'm glad we're going back to Sydney so I can eat there again.




The best designed water fountain I've ever seen. It looks like a can opener, the water flows down the curves back into the water system.

Thai Restaurant Count: 1.5 (I'm counting the Thai Beef salad I had at the airport as a half)

Page in ASHONE: 187