August 28, 2004
Homeward bound (sort of)
My day started well enough, or so I thought. I was up bright and early in the morning and took a stroll around the hotel. It's a prety clean area, especially for being in China. I've heard a lot of stories how dirty Shanghai can be, but today seemed like it was going to be just great.
I checked out of my hotel and took a taxi to the airport, with plenty of time for my 12PM flight to San Francisco. "So what could possibly have happened?", one may ask. The airline cancelled the only flight to San Francisco for the day and tried to reroute everyone through other airlines. Everyone was given two options, first was a person could stay an extra night in Shanghai, fly to Tokyo the next day, and then fly from Tokyo to San Francisco, the next day after that, for a total travel time of three days, but was most direct of all the available flights. Second option was to fly from Shanghai to Hong Kong, then from Hong Kong to San Francisco, for a total additional travel time of 12 hours to the original 11hrs it takes to fly from Shanghai to San Francisco. Wonderful.
I took the second option, seeing as it would get me home the fastest. But even that was not without problems. When I arrived in Hong Kong, the second airline that was supposed to fly us back to San Francisco, would not recognize our new passes. I was traveling with maybe about 20 other people in the same boat as I was, and you can probably imagine how some people would become very irate over this. I felt there was really no need for me to add to the commotion, so I sat back for a little bit, and read a magazine. I reasoned the worst thing that could happen was maybe stay and visit my relatives in Hong Kong. Not a bad option, I suppose.
After about 2 hours, they found our reservations and we were on our way again. I never though flying back to San Francisco would be so beautiful.
For what it's worth, I saw our original plane in the Shanghai airport, parked on the tarmac, with all the engines and lights shut off. I think it was obvious there was something wrong with it, so I am also glad we didn't have to take off in it.
Posted by Jimmy at August 28, 2004 07:58 PM