Trevor & Jonathans Cruise & Trip to the Far East and Australia 2016

Day 55 - Sunday July 3rd 2016 - Shanghai to Chongjing, China

The alarm was set to make sure that we were up on time but as per usual we did not really need it as we were awake.

We had packed virtually everything up the night before so there was not much running around to do before we had eaten breakfast and met up with Mr. Unpronounceable (our driver again) and a new guide who was to check us in at the airport called Steven.

Unfortunately, Stevens command of the English language was not that great at all but it’s a damn site better than our mandarin so off we went to the airport with our partial speaking guide hoping all would go well.

Before you read on just read those words again that I have just written, hope that all would go well…..here comes one big rollercoaster of a ride!

The airport was absolutely heaving. We were here about three hours before our flight departure time so early by English standards but this is the time that China Eastern (our airline) tell you to be at the airport for and it had not been a problem when we had checked in at Xi’an.

It was a problem here though and they were telling us that we could not check in. Steven did not have enough of a command of the English language to explain to us if there was a problem or not but for now all he could tell us was to relax and wait. Well relaxing was not really an option. There was not an empty seat to be found anywhere in the airport (or so it seemed) and our flight was nowhere to be seen on any of the departure boards. What we could see though was lots of delays or cancellations against nearly all the flight that should have gone out this morning, ummmmm something is going on here and no one Is telling us what.

In the end our frustration boiled over and not having a clue what was going on so we just moved and Steven came with us back to the check in desk to see what we could learn rather than being tucked away somewhere to the side of the airport with nothing. It really was chaos here and at first we were told that we had to wait another half an hour before we could check in. We were just tempted to try and give it a go but Steven was not looking keen so we waited patiently for a while.

In the end we persuaded Steven to go up to the counter and try and see if they would take our bags from us despite what the attendants were saying and surprise surprise they did. With our bags dispatched into the bowels of Shanghai airport we bode farewell to Steven and made our way through security.

Even this turned into a saga! Those of you that know Mr. T. Blofeld well will be more than aware of his love of technology so it will come as no surprise that his hand luggage is a sea of wires, connectors, charges and electronica in general, it’s like a magnet to an airport scanner. Today Trevor’s bag was to be scanned, scanned and scanned again and with each scan they would remove something else from the bag trying to find whatever was offending them. Trev hates this sort of hassle, hates being the centre of attention especially when the guards can only converse in Chinese and hand pointing. Eventually Trev’s bag was released, turned out it was a stand for a sd card reader that they didn’t like. They thought it was a bunch of keys and Trev kept protesting saying he only had one set of keys …. anyway we were through with the best part of two and a half hours to go before our flight.

Our flight was still not on the board but what was a little worrying at this point was that the boards were telling us that many flights since 07:00 this morning had been delayed with a few cancelled. The weather outside was very foggy but there was no sign of rain or an incoming storm but the runways did seem eerily quiet. Ignorance was bliss at this stage and the announcements in the terminal did not give anything away at this point either so off to Starbucks we went for our morning coffee fix then it was a walk around the many shops of the terminal looking at bags that would fit an iPad pro in but coming up with nothing.

With forty minutes before our flight was due to take off we walked down to the gate, a lower area of the airport full of noise and children running around and a general air of busyness and chaos. Nearly all the flights bar one or two were now delayed with no indication of when they may take off but ours was still looking good. After a twenty minute wait at the gate it was clear that actually we were going nowhere (on time).

No announcement was made but one minute our flight looked ok to go the next it just came up delayed.

As you do in these situations you head to the gate desk to try and find out what is happening, well that’s all very well in a place where English is spoken but in Shanghai it just doesn’t work. We were given little to no explanation of what was happening, not the poor girl at the desks fault, she had a plane full of passengers all screaming at her and believe me when the Chinese loose their tempers they really do!

Um, so what do we do? Well the answer to that is don’t panic just yet (that would come much later), mooch around the shop some more until frustration at a lack of information gets the best of you then seek out help.

So our first port of call for help was the information desk. As we were airside you would normally expect there to be a well manned desk advising travellers etc. on airport delays and such but not here. A huge airport and one little desk manned by a poor girl that spoke about five words of English. In the end she shoved a phone into Jonathans hands and he spoke to someone on the other departures side of the airport telling us that they knew nothing. Now that clearly does not help especially when you have a boat to catch and we needed to be in Chong Jing at the very latest by 20:00.

Time was still on our side though at this point, it was just after one and our flight was due to take off at 1255. The flight to Chong Jing takes two and a half hours so we basically worked out that as long as we took off before 17:30 ish we should be ok. It would mean that we would miss the planned tour around Chong Jing but we would make it to the boat and the Yangtze cruise.

So by time another hour or so had passed our frustration levels were rising and there was still no information coming through. We were flying with China Eastern Airlines so we decided to go to the first class lounge and see if they knew anything at all. Was our flight going to happen? How long would the delay be, really basic questions. Again communication was a real issue and all they kept saying was that we needed to leave airside and go to the supervisor’s desk.

In the end with the clock ticking we had no choice but to go through and see if they could help us. Nobody airside was saying a thing and the information was nil so for the first time ever we went backwards through security and back into the chaos on the other side, specially around the supervisor desk for China Eastern.

The queue was big and chaotic with Chinese people just pushing in from the side at the front of the desk making a lot of noise and waiving their airline tickets in the air. Trevor was left in the queue whilst Jonathan went off to try and find a phone we could use so that we could ring our Chinese travel agent and advise them of the problems we were experiencing so at least she could ring on and warn the boat and the people waiting for us in Chong Jing that we were going to be running very very late.

Call made and we finally got to the front of the supervisor’s desk blocking off any of the Chinese that tried to skip the queue by running in on the side of the desk! The news was basically the same, there was no news at all, no one knew what was going on or when the situation might change. The only option they offered us was a cancellation letter to give to our insurance company so that we could make a claim.

This was a nightmare, we had come all this way, China is a long way from home and we had always wanted to end our trip here cruising down the Yangtze, you can’t really say you have done China without a trip down the river that is called the life blood of China. This dragon shaped river with its twists and turns is an icon of China and we were not giving up yet.

We still had about two hours until there was no point getting on a plane. The travel agent had told us that the latest we could get on the boat was 21:00 so we were back to clock watching again.

By now we had gone back through security (this time without the drama with Trev’s bag) and looking at the departure screens we could see that we were now on three pages of delays and cancellations. The only announcements being made were for delays and gate changes with only about four flights taking off. They kept saying that the delays were due to bad weather but there was no sign of it at the airport other than the mists then they would report air traffic control issues and so it went on.

With an hour to go before the deadline to travel we started to think practically and found some free Wi-Fi and looked for a hotel in Shanghai for the night, we even rang Air Asia (we are flying with them to Perth, Australia) to see if we could change those flights and bring them forward if we could not get to the boat, all of this was an option.

We really had given up on the river cruise but with half an hour to go until it would be too late, on a regular check of the departure board our flight status had changed to boarding…. we were off like a runaway train back to the gate and on a bus out to the plane.

Now this was cutting it fine. We managed to hold a Wi-Fi signal long enough to ring through to the travel agent on skype trying to explain that we were about to fly out of Shanghai but had no idea if she heard me or not the line was so bad.

We worked out that we should be landing around 20:00 giving us an hour to get to the boat but that included picking up bags etc. so this was still tight as you like, all we could do was keep our fingers crossed.

Sat on the plane, pre-flight inspections all done and the captain made an announcement that we just didn’t want or need to hear. We were going to be stationary for half an hour as the plane had not been given a slot for take off yet….despair set in and we knew we would not make it.

So eventually we took off in what turned out to be quite a bumpy flight but certainly not terrible as all the cancellations suggested with the bad weather reports. The plane was rammed. The inflight food came round and one observation I have about the Chinese is that they really don’t eat quietly. There was lots of slurping going on and on mass that can be a bit off putting but hey we were in the air and on our way, god knows what would happen next, would we make it, not make it? Would there be a guide waiting for us at the airport?

So we landed into what from the air looked like a huge city, the taxi to the airport seemed to take forever just when you don’t need it to and as for the bags well that wait felt like an eternity.

As we walked through the exit doors our guide was there frantically jumping up and down with a sign with Trev’s name on it. He ran around to meet us and told us no talking just running and we physically ran out of the terminal to the waiting car at the end of the concourse just the far side of the security gates. It’s not often that you see Trevor run at all, it’s not his thing but this was real Blofeld in motion running along the pavement trying to keep up with the guide. We climbed into the car like we had just robbed a bank and had jumped into the getaway car and sped off into the city.

The guide was on his mobile, phoning ahead to the ship company telling them we had landed are were in the car on way to the dock, out expected arrival time was 21:30, later than the agreed latest time we could arrive. We all had our fingers crossed.

Outside of all this chaos was the sight of Chong Jing and what an amazing city it looked. Like Shanghai it has a river cutting through it this time being the Yangtze but it was crossed by many bridges , all spectacular and all lit up. The skyline was another masterpiece in modern architecture and it too like Shanghai came with its own lightshow that challenged Shanghai for the best we had ever seen even though we were in the back of a mini bus hurtling through the streets as fast as we could.

Chong Jing is a relatively modern city built after the year 2000 and now even boasts direct flights to the UK. The city itself was alive with the lights we mentioned, all led moving displays, very 21st century, very Bladerunner.

We were all crossing our fingers by now but it looked like we were going to make it and just as we made it to the port we were met with more obstacles. Parked cars, reversing cars and no way in. We had to jump out of the bus grab our bags and run for the quayside but at 21:40 we boarded the Century Sky River Boat. We were exhausted, exhilarated, relieved, in total disbelief at the last few hours of our day.

As we got shown our cabin the boat was casting off, they had really been waiting for us to arrive and as the captain later told us, if we had been another twenty minutes they would have gone, they had to leave port by 22:00.

Now I could go on and talk about the boat here etc. but I’ll save that for tomorrow but what I can tell you is we went to the bar, and we didn’t leave until after a few drinks. In our relief at getting on board we signed up for the all-inclusive drinks package so now we were intending to come out in profit.

The boat did feel very empty though, it was just us and a table of noisy Aussies drinking the bar dry but we deserved that.

What a day, what hassle, but we are here and our China trip can end as we always intended, on the Yangtze.

Our thoughts had already turned to the return flight as every single internal flight we have taken has been delayed and we do only have a smallish window for that. There is three days to go through before we need to worry about that so for now after three gin and tonics (all doubles) it’s time for bed.