Day 20: Bangkok to Shanghai to SFO to E-ville

Day 20: Bangkok to Shanghai to SFO to E-ville

Weather:  Steamy in Bangkok (this is the warmest season), so steamy there is a torrential rainstorm between 7:30 and 8am, very pleasant in E-ville at 10pm

We're carrying our shoes and holding umbrellas

Quote of the Day:  Mick, we love you, there’s life after a stent

C&J have been following along, they are sharp little cookies!

Going Home lyrics by jagger-richards-thb

I'm goin' home, I'm goin' home
I'm goin' home, I'm goin' home
I'm goin' home, bome, bome, bome bome bome
Home, bome, bome, bome, back home

Yes, I will
Yes, I will
See my babies, see my babies
I want to see my baby twin girls
I just can't wait, I just can't wait 

THBs: Thai bahts...at one time, THB thought that the  currency had the palaces and temples on them...now it is 100% roayalty

THB had noodles at every meal, all four of them today; chow fun with pork, one of THB's all-time faves

It ain’’t easy, this going home. Shanghai Airlines (aka China Eastern?) is impossible to reach, either by web-site or phone. Finally one of the butlers gets through a few minutes before we head to the airport in a taxi, confirming our flight out of Bangkok; $13 for the cab including tolls and tip; 1 hour. Can that be right? Really? THB thinks we paid 8+ times that for “expedited” transfer. WOW!!

Biz class check-in takes a while and since we’re switching carriers we’ll be going though immigration in Shanghai and then back through security. So it goes when you are on inexpensive biz class tix (saving something like $2K each working through a consolidator). This going home is a real struggle.

Noodle soup with chicken and Thai spices and seasoning

Hang out in the Thai Airlines biz class lounge. Good food! THB and DB share dim sum and THB has his second set of noodles today, this time in a spicy broth (made spicier by THB’s addition of that red chili paste) and a Schweppes tonic.   This going home is a real struggle.

In our four times in the Bangkok airport, we managed to walk the entire width and length through a very crowded terminal 3 times (only expediter #1 got us out in direct fashion…maybe he did earn his fee). Can’t wait for the 2^nd terminal to come on-line. This going home is a real struggle.

Finish our walk to the gate, the plane has just arrived. Another 40 minutes or so and we time our emplaning just right: we’re the first two on the plane. Whoa! There’s a guy in our seat, he was onboarded early due to a disability; THB thinks he’s a monk because a monk was with him in the waiting area. The stewardesses don’t speak much English, they ask us to take the seats across the aisle. No problema, more white rocks for us at the moment of the big decision. They split up another couple and move the guy into the seat next to the monk. He helps the monk cut up his food, 10,000 white marbles! This going home is a real struggle, more of a struggle for some than others.

Lunch for THB is fish with noodles, Kit Kat bar for dessert and some of DB’s pork belly (mostly belly, not too much pork). THB has his camera buried in his backpack and we’re in the first row so we have to put all bags in the overhead, otherwise there would be a pic of this one.  This going home is a real struggle.

Land in Shanghai about ½ late and as the plane is pulling into the gate there is a mad dash for the front of the plane. Turns out there’s a group going to LA and they have 40 minutes to catch their flight. Because we are transferring from China East (one of seemingly 5 names that this airline has) to United, we have to through an elaborate process to demonstrate we do not need a visa because we’re not entering the country. Double fingerprinting, two different forms that are two part, one immigration agent going through the line and marking your paperwork as complete and another agent verifying it in the system. That takes an hour. This going home is a real struggle.

Next we have to find our bags; phew, they are waiting beside the carousel. Load up to go through customs. That line is also slow, everybody has to put every bag through the scanner. Finally, as the line is backing near Bangkok, the custom guys start waving people around the scanner. This going home is a real struggle.

More noodles, these are cold to luke warm

Now to find United, in terminal 2. We’re in terminal 1. Two elevators, lots of signs pointing the way, and 15 minutes through the Middle Path (seriously, there are North, South and Middle paths; THB doesn’t make everything up in the blog, just most of it), we get to the United check-in desk. HAH!! We’re a half hour early, they don’t open until 3 hours before the flight and this is the only flight scheduled in our window. Hurry up and wait. This going home is a real struggle.

Filled out in duplicate, one for each of us, on the flight to Shanghai; nobody in China even looked at them

The United check-in is smooth and back go our 2 big bags through to the plane. Now we go through immigration to leave the country we haven’t entered. Another 20-25 minutes of standing in a zig-zag line and China kindly allows us to leave the country. Nobody has kept or even really looked at any of the two two-part forms we filled out. They do ask us to put our left hand on the scanner to see if the fingerprints they took 40-60 minutes ago are still valid. They are! This going home is a real struggle.

Almost done: now to get through security. Belts off – THB isn’t wearing a belt. Passports and wallets go through the scanner. I-pads out (nowadays that is not common). Netbook gets scanned, that happens a lot. DB’s back-up battery pack: needs to be taken out of the bag and scanned separately. That’s a first. Shoes stay on. The line goes really slowly. It’s now hot, THB has taken off his outer shirt. Phew, we’re through security and into the massive shared lounge, it’s 10pm and our flight leaves at 12:30am tomorrow (we get back today). There are signs up at United check-in desk that say there will be another security check before we board; we’ve had that before as well. The food is not too good in the lounge and there’s a new system for getting logged into the wifi: you use your passport and a kiosk, and a ticket spits out with your personal wifi code. Takes DB a couple of shots and some help, then she eases THB into the on-line world. This going home is a real struggle.

THB is pretty sure those people trying to catch the LA flight were either on a co-share flight with China Eastern and leaving from the same terminal or are staying over in the airport with or without visas for at least another 12 hours. This going home is a real struggle.

THB has no idea what the first meal was on the flight from Shanghai to SFO; breakfast was  congee...pretty good

Our last leg is leaving Shanghai just after midnight. THB has hit the wall, they leave the biz class and 1M fliers standing up for over half hour and THB finally sits down on the floor. When we board, THB puts on his seat belt and passes out. No recollection of taxiing, take-off or the first 3-4 hours of flight. Land around 8:20 pm, home before 10. If you don’t have global security, it is a good investment: the line to get through immigration appeared to be over an hour. We breezed through in under 10 minutes, beat our bags to the carousel. 

Yes, there is traffic getting on to the Bay Bridge, there's always traffic on BB going west. This going home is a real struggle.

Getting home feels might-eee good.

Book Review: Late In the Day, Tessa Hadley (novel): Two tightly coupled British  families are struck by tragedy by the sudden death of one of the husbands. While the backstory is there, it is well integrated with the present day (THB was thankful for Hadley’s avoidance of the dreaded inability to make sense of the early days of the characters).  Are women strong even in the face of adversity? Hadley would say yes. Recommended