munitalP
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- Oct 10, 2006
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24 December 2011
Maybe I shouldn’t have gone to bed after the AFF drinks and more drinks at the Hilton South Wharf, but I did, and now I regret the wine, not the beer, just the wine.
Out of the hotel by 5am, four of us stuffed into Kim’s little hatch with luggage – a tight squeeze but one that no-one complained about because we were starting our new China adventure – well at least on the way to Melbourne for a flight to Sydney then onto Pudong.
Our planning had started quite some time ago – 9 months earlier to be precise, with hotel rooms booked to get best rates and at the 6 month mark, airfares booked for the same reason. The trip would replicate the previous China holiday with the difference being leaving before Christmas rather than 2 days after, and this time travelling with two very good friends.
So, Shanghai for a few days followed by Beijing then the c'est magnifique snow and Ice festival in Harbin – Northern China. Hotels being, Shanghai’s Eton Hotel, a 5 star property in Pudong, The Holiday Inn downtown Beijing and the Holiday Inn in Harbin. Flights were on Qantas, MEL/SYD/PVG with internal travel to be booked once in China.
Checking in at MEL, our luggage was tagged through to PVG and the four of us went up into the Business lounge for coffee and pancakes. After a short wait in a quite empty lounge, we boarded a quite full A330 for the short hop to Sydney with a planned breakfast in the First lounge. Our time in the First lounge started getting eroded as we sat at the gate in MEL waiting for items being loaded into the hold, and eroded more when we started doing circle work in the sky somewhere above Canberra while waiting for traffic congestion in Sydney due to poor weather.
On touching down, we were then parked at gate 11 – possibly as far away from the transfer bus at T3 as possible, then a slow disembarking of the aircraft. The erosion was now having an environmental impact! We got to the transfer lounge just in time for a bus, and were driven across to the international terminal with little fuss. Immigration was reasonably quiet, and after a LAGS check and a suspicious bottle of water in my bag, we were let through and were quickly seated in the F lounge for breakfast.
I had a breakfast of mushroom, hash brown, poached egg, bacon and sausage, with a serve of sour dough toast, whilst the other three had eggs benedict or varying types. Kim was the only one who risked Champagne while I settled for coffee and orange juice. Unfortunately our flight was on time so the hoped for knock on from the weather disruptions had no affected our flight, so boarding was on time and in less than an hour from entry to leaving, we were using priority boarding onto another A333 up to Shanghai.
The aircraft was the single business cabin layout, with the older blue seats and dodgy IFE that seldom works correctly, and this flight was no different. The condition of the aircraft was clean, but just felt well used and I wasn’t really looking forward to the 10+ hour flight ahead.
Kim and I settled into 24A/B while our travel companions settled into 23A/B (the worst seats due to restricted leg room caused by the bulkhead) and the flight was soon climbing up toward cruise altitude.
The Cabin Service Manager came down and introduced himself and offered the usual stuff – business headphones etc, then we settled back into the flight. The first round of refreshments came out quite fast, but from there on, service was – well slow would understate. After meals were served, it was more than 1.5 hours until the trays were removed. This was caused by the number of tea drinkers in cattle class, and the 3 different types of tea on offer. The flight attendants had to keep refilling the teapot, and it seemed everyone on the flight bar a few were into the tea action and wanted a piece. This was also later seen with noodles – horrid pot noodles, that for the majority of the PAX felt was compulsory consumption! On one lap around the cabin I could not believe the number of pot noodles being consumed.
Anyway, the meal service was finally cleaned up, and I settled in and watched a movie. The CSM mucked around with the AVOD on seats 23A/B that totally failed to work, so our travelling companions were left to talk to each other and read a newspaper. I did annoy them quite frequently by telling them how good the movie selection was, and how much I was enjoying the movies. At one stage I got up to use the bathroom and on my return had found myself relegated to 23A.
The flight was enjoyable with good banter between friends with a couple of deep and meaningful conversations thrown in, multiple seat changes – even the CSM commented during one of his many stops for a chat that we were confusing him. A couple of drinks later and after 9 hours, we were on descent into Shanghai and soon touching down 30 minutes before schedule into a cool 4 degree Shanghai.
Immigration was painless and we were quickly on the other side working out how we were to get to Pudong. After a quick check of bucket lists, the Maglev was chosen as the means of transport, and we were soon heading toward Pudong at 300 km/p/h – what a way to travel. My previous Maglev experience was much quicker, but a short time later we were at the Pudong station, down the ramp and into a cab. We are very lucky that we have a Chinese speaking albeit Malaysian Chinese member of the team so it is quite awesome to watch the mannerisms between her and whomever she’s talking to, so directions were finally worked out and we were soon dropped at the Eton.
The Eton offered executive room upgrades, which we both declined, and were soon in our rooms, ours on level 32 and our friends on 37. Our room although smallish, was well appointed with a view of the river, censored WAN internet and usual room amenities one would expect in a 5 star hotel. The one immediate thing I don’t like is every flat space has stuff on it – hotel services books - 4 volumes, trays, desk calendar, menus, mini bar stuff including pot noodles – it just makes the place untidy and not much room to spread my own stuff out without cleaning up first.
There was a fruit platter and a Christmas stocking in the room (loaded with cookies) and the bed had been turned back. Overall experience so far is OK to Good, however time will tell.
We met downstairs about 30 minutes later – 20 of them minutes were spent under a scolding hot shower and after a quick chat with the doorman, we walked down to a neighbourhood restaurant and sat down for a late dinner – approx. 8pm China time, where we had hand made noodles, 2 types of dumpling soup and a tofu sweet/sour soup, 4 600ml bottles of Harbin beer and the whole lot cost $18.
A quick stop at a convenience store for some fresh milk and it was time for bed.
Maybe I shouldn’t have gone to bed after the AFF drinks and more drinks at the Hilton South Wharf, but I did, and now I regret the wine, not the beer, just the wine.
Out of the hotel by 5am, four of us stuffed into Kim’s little hatch with luggage – a tight squeeze but one that no-one complained about because we were starting our new China adventure – well at least on the way to Melbourne for a flight to Sydney then onto Pudong.
Our planning had started quite some time ago – 9 months earlier to be precise, with hotel rooms booked to get best rates and at the 6 month mark, airfares booked for the same reason. The trip would replicate the previous China holiday with the difference being leaving before Christmas rather than 2 days after, and this time travelling with two very good friends.
So, Shanghai for a few days followed by Beijing then the c'est magnifique snow and Ice festival in Harbin – Northern China. Hotels being, Shanghai’s Eton Hotel, a 5 star property in Pudong, The Holiday Inn downtown Beijing and the Holiday Inn in Harbin. Flights were on Qantas, MEL/SYD/PVG with internal travel to be booked once in China.
Checking in at MEL, our luggage was tagged through to PVG and the four of us went up into the Business lounge for coffee and pancakes. After a short wait in a quite empty lounge, we boarded a quite full A330 for the short hop to Sydney with a planned breakfast in the First lounge. Our time in the First lounge started getting eroded as we sat at the gate in MEL waiting for items being loaded into the hold, and eroded more when we started doing circle work in the sky somewhere above Canberra while waiting for traffic congestion in Sydney due to poor weather.
On touching down, we were then parked at gate 11 – possibly as far away from the transfer bus at T3 as possible, then a slow disembarking of the aircraft. The erosion was now having an environmental impact! We got to the transfer lounge just in time for a bus, and were driven across to the international terminal with little fuss. Immigration was reasonably quiet, and after a LAGS check and a suspicious bottle of water in my bag, we were let through and were quickly seated in the F lounge for breakfast.
I had a breakfast of mushroom, hash brown, poached egg, bacon and sausage, with a serve of sour dough toast, whilst the other three had eggs benedict or varying types. Kim was the only one who risked Champagne while I settled for coffee and orange juice. Unfortunately our flight was on time so the hoped for knock on from the weather disruptions had no affected our flight, so boarding was on time and in less than an hour from entry to leaving, we were using priority boarding onto another A333 up to Shanghai.
The aircraft was the single business cabin layout, with the older blue seats and dodgy IFE that seldom works correctly, and this flight was no different. The condition of the aircraft was clean, but just felt well used and I wasn’t really looking forward to the 10+ hour flight ahead.
Kim and I settled into 24A/B while our travel companions settled into 23A/B (the worst seats due to restricted leg room caused by the bulkhead) and the flight was soon climbing up toward cruise altitude.
The Cabin Service Manager came down and introduced himself and offered the usual stuff – business headphones etc, then we settled back into the flight. The first round of refreshments came out quite fast, but from there on, service was – well slow would understate. After meals were served, it was more than 1.5 hours until the trays were removed. This was caused by the number of tea drinkers in cattle class, and the 3 different types of tea on offer. The flight attendants had to keep refilling the teapot, and it seemed everyone on the flight bar a few were into the tea action and wanted a piece. This was also later seen with noodles – horrid pot noodles, that for the majority of the PAX felt was compulsory consumption! On one lap around the cabin I could not believe the number of pot noodles being consumed.
Anyway, the meal service was finally cleaned up, and I settled in and watched a movie. The CSM mucked around with the AVOD on seats 23A/B that totally failed to work, so our travelling companions were left to talk to each other and read a newspaper. I did annoy them quite frequently by telling them how good the movie selection was, and how much I was enjoying the movies. At one stage I got up to use the bathroom and on my return had found myself relegated to 23A.
The flight was enjoyable with good banter between friends with a couple of deep and meaningful conversations thrown in, multiple seat changes – even the CSM commented during one of his many stops for a chat that we were confusing him. A couple of drinks later and after 9 hours, we were on descent into Shanghai and soon touching down 30 minutes before schedule into a cool 4 degree Shanghai.
Immigration was painless and we were quickly on the other side working out how we were to get to Pudong. After a quick check of bucket lists, the Maglev was chosen as the means of transport, and we were soon heading toward Pudong at 300 km/p/h – what a way to travel. My previous Maglev experience was much quicker, but a short time later we were at the Pudong station, down the ramp and into a cab. We are very lucky that we have a Chinese speaking albeit Malaysian Chinese member of the team so it is quite awesome to watch the mannerisms between her and whomever she’s talking to, so directions were finally worked out and we were soon dropped at the Eton.
The Eton offered executive room upgrades, which we both declined, and were soon in our rooms, ours on level 32 and our friends on 37. Our room although smallish, was well appointed with a view of the river, censored WAN internet and usual room amenities one would expect in a 5 star hotel. The one immediate thing I don’t like is every flat space has stuff on it – hotel services books - 4 volumes, trays, desk calendar, menus, mini bar stuff including pot noodles – it just makes the place untidy and not much room to spread my own stuff out without cleaning up first.
There was a fruit platter and a Christmas stocking in the room (loaded with cookies) and the bed had been turned back. Overall experience so far is OK to Good, however time will tell.
We met downstairs about 30 minutes later – 20 of them minutes were spent under a scolding hot shower and after a quick chat with the doorman, we walked down to a neighbourhood restaurant and sat down for a late dinner – approx. 8pm China time, where we had hand made noodles, 2 types of dumpling soup and a tofu sweet/sour soup, 4 600ml bottles of Harbin beer and the whole lot cost $18.
A quick stop at a convenience store for some fresh milk and it was time for bed.
)
