We are savvy world travelers – well, maybe not so much…

Observations of the Day:

• Hello all! Hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas and is having a fantastic new year! Myself, I’m happy the “year” of January is over!

• The day after Christmas, Hubby and I set off on an adventure – to Thailand and Cambodia. That personally would not have been my first choice for a vacation, but we were meeting two other couples AND I ended up having a wonderful time.
• We flew from Atlanta to Los Angeles and I must say, having TSA-pre and skipping the long security lines is the. way. to. go! While we were waiting to board, they called us to the gate to check our passport again – ummmm, why? We have TSA-pre AND Global Entry, so we’re probably some of the most “secure” passengers there are. It all worked out and off to LAX we go.
• We land in domestic and since we have a long layover, have a discussion about waiting in one of the domestic lounges or heading to international and waiting in a lounge there. I’ll admit it, I pushed to go to international since we didn’t have boarding passes and it was an epic fail! We didn’t realize there was an internal shuttle to get us from to domestic to international without leaving security. We also didn’t realize that the China Southern gate didn’t open until 2 hours before boarding (we had about 7 to wait). No open gate means no boarding passes. No boarding passes means we can’t get through security and the lounges were on the other side of security. No go on using the old ATL-LAX boarding passes to get back through the domestic security to use those lounges either.
• We ended up Ubering to Dinah’s or some chicken. An aside here – why do Uber drivers insist on playing music loudly while trying to carry on a conversation? While I do enjoy a wide range of musical genres, I am also savvy enough to realize that two olderish white people might not be appreciative of blasting gangster rap (or anything bumping for that matter!)
• We got back to LAX, found a seat and settled in to wait. Then my Sonshine texted that he was also at LAX and might be able to pop in to see us before his ride picked him up (after all, it had been HOURS since we had seen him in Atlanta!). Alas, ‘twas not to be as his ride was closer than he thought.
• China Southern gate finally opened, and we headed up to get our boarding passes. After handing our passports to the young Chinese gentleman, hubby asks if he could check into an upgrade for our seats. The agent smiles at us and then asks hubby, “How many?” (ummmm HELLO – I’m RIGHT HERE!). To his credit, hubby answers “Two” but it was way, way more than we wanted to spend. Besides, I had ambien to knock me out.
• On the plane we had pillows, blankets, sleep masks and a toiletry kit. One difference in Asian airplanes and American airplanes that I noticed was that the seats in the Asian plane sat straight up at an uncomfortable angle until we were in the air and able to recline. They also allow no portable electronics at all during take-off and landing so people like me, who enjoy the adjustable font afforded by my iPad, can’t read.
• When we were in the air, the flight attendants brought us hot towels to wash up and then fed us (I can’t for the life of me remember what we had for that meal). I read for a while, popped my sleeping pill and went night-night for a bit.
• As there was a volcanic eruption in Indonesia, we were rerouted, and the flight took 15 1/2 hours. Before we landed, they turned up the lights, brought us wet towels to freshen up and fed us again. This one I remember well. The choices were “fried egg” and “seafood congee”. As I’m not a huge fan of eggs and I love seafood, I chose the congee. Hubby ended up with scrambled eggs, fried potatoes, fruit and broccoli. I got this:

That was a hard no from me and hubby was generous enough to share his meal.

• We landed in Guangzhou, China along with five or six other planes. It was a madhouse and we speculated that the poor girl who was directing the passengers would probably go home and cry. Let me tell you, Asian security is intense! You have to go through security to go through security. It was finally our turn (we were getting boarding passes) and they started asking us questions about our luggage…that we had checked in Atlanta. We finally got everything settled and thought we’d spend our layover in the lounge. Little did we know…
• We had to go though security again, even though we hadn’t even left the airport. I took out my phone, iPad, took off my watch put them in a bin, put my purse in another bin and went through the scanner. As I emerged on the other side there was a scowling TSA equivalent woman standing by my purse. I walked over, she pointed to my purse and said something to me…in Chinese. I told her that I was sorry (in English) and responded a bit more forcefully…in Chinese. She points to my purse, snarls “pick up” and then throws the bin over to a stack. I still have not miraculously obtained the ability to understand the Chinese language much to her consternation. This went on for a few more rounds and I’m thinking I’m going to be thrown in a Chinese prison when she walks over, grabs a portable battery pack for charging electronics and shows it to me. I say, “ohhhhh”, reach into my purse and hand her my battery pack. She examines it, hands it back to me and walks away. Wouldn’t you have thought the visual aid would have been her first go-to when it was apparent that I didn’t understand?????
• Where is hubby during all of this, you might ask? He holds the world’s record for being the slowest person on the planet to get through airport security. Empty his pockets, take out electronics, take off belt, walk through scanner, repeat in reverse order – all in slow motion. He had no idea that I was ‘this close’ to being hauled away.
• As we headed to the lounge, I spotted a Gold Peak sweet tea! I only bought one which in retrospect was a tragedy.
• We made it to Chiang Mai, Thailand and our adventures there are for the next blog! (WordPress has updated and I’m unfamiliar with the new way of doing things. It’s not easier and I’m not happy with how this turned out! The next one will be better!)