The Adventure Begins

As I write this I am sitting in Guangzhou Airport in China and oh what an experience it has been already! It’s only 12 hours since we left Auckland but there are so many note-worthy events which have already taken place, like the guy weighted down with gold chains and the customs officer who shook his head while wryly explaining to Hisham that there were no limits on jewellery being taken out of the country, unlike cash.

We read a comprehensive review of China Southern before flying which prepared us for the worst – impolite, unhelpful staff who do not speak English; unpalatable and rarely provided food; cramped cattle class seating; and a dearth of signs in anything other than Chinese at Guangzhou airport. Our experience has been the polar opposite of this. The lady who checked us in back in Auckland was very lovely to deal with and even went to the trouble of changing us to better located seats; we gave the food on our flight here a solid 6/10 on the arbitrary Airline Scale; and everybody in Guangzhou we have encountered so far speaks decent English (and all of the signs have English translations too). One of the ladies we talked to was even wearing a badge which proudly proclaimed “I speak English”. Three stars!

As to the cramped seating, yes, it is Economy and so we were rather squished. No more so than on any other flight I’ve taken though. I hate hate hate the seats on planes. I know they spend ridiculous amounts of money coming up with comfortable seat designs but they never seem to work for me. Perhaps I sit funny? And so on every single long-haul flight I find myself gazing longingly at the floor and pondering whether it would be more comfortable than my seat. I can now inform you confidently that YES it is.  Adam took a while to fall asleep but when he finally did it was across two seats. Any six year old will tell you that 1+1+2=4, and of course we were only allocated three seats. Once the meal service was over and the lights were dimmed I finally got up the nerve to slide off my half chair and squish myself into the space between seats and bags on the floor. It was a mission to get there but once in it was surprisingly comfortable. Sure I had bits of seat poking me in the knee and I had to keep my legs bent and my hips were trying to become one with the carpet, but it was a zillion times better than the half-lying, fully squashed, extremely uncomfortable experience that is an Economy Seat Sleep. I did actually sleep for a solid couple of hours and woke up feeling normal. Definitely an activity I’ll be trying again in the future and I highly recommend it to any of you crazy cats who are in the Seat Hating Club with me.

Guangzhou airport is pretty stock standard as far as airports go. It has the same cafes, duty free shops, travelators, gate numbers, and travellers. The staff are helpful, the signs are accurate, and the atmosphere is mellow. I cleverly bought some porridge to feed the hungry child for breakfast (my plan of freezing it before we left worked perfectly) so I just went to the closest café and asked them to heat it up for me. After a few puzzled looks at the goop in the container I was offering they took it and graciously fulfilled my request. I then pitifully offered a US $1 note and asked if I could possibly please have a little bit of milk on top. The girls chitter chattered among themselves and tap tapped on a calculator and then showed me the number nine. “Hot milk nine dollars”. I tried to explain that I only wanted a little but the calculator was produced and displayed again. $9. Hot milk nine dollars. What?! Adam and I enjoyed our porridge plain with a sprinkling of stolen packet sugar and all was well with the world.

To London!