Multiple Bucket List items checked off - Dim Sum style: bert goes to China with TPR! (a photo trip report with lots of cities, lots of hotels, lots of parks, and lots and lots of food!)

[bert425]

so. . . one of the reasons I love TPR (and there are many, among them the great friends I've made over the years with other posters/trip goers) is that via Robb & Elissa, I'm able to do things I never thought in a million years I would get to do.

this trip to China was one of them.     I'm serious when I say that this trip knocked out several things from my bucket list, including my #1 (getting to visit all currently existing Disney Parks in the world).

I'd looked forwards to this trip for almost a full year, and now that it was upon me I had a bit of panic (the Government had shut down and what would that do to travel?), and a lot of excitement.   Elissa and Robb were invaluable assets in terms of knowing what to apply for Visa wise, what apps to set up, how much local $$ to bring, what VPN to get, what eSim, etc. etc.  

add to this, my Boyfriend was fully moving in with me, 2 days after I left for the trip - after spending the better part of the prior year and a half traveling back and forth an hour 40 minutes each way to stay with me every few days.   and I'd be gone for almost a month, while he was alone in the house.   

But I valued so much that I was invited to join, and overall, wouldn't trade the experience for anything!    

the first installment here is getting to China, so not a lot of pics of things other than myself and plane food.  but we'll quickly get into many amazing things in upcoming installments. 

*and I'm even gonna go back and finish off my Oktoberfest report from last year. . . whoops!  life got in the way, but gonna finish that, as that TPR trip was amazing as well.

anyways. . here we go, off to the races

 

up at 3am, and Jim and I took a pic before he drove me the 40 minutes to the Austin airport, before he headed back to Waco - as he had to work that morning.

 

I always tend to fly United for international flights, because for me?  they are the best of the worst.   They ALWAYS mess something up, be it delayed/cancelled flights stranding me somewhere, lost luggage, a missed connection. . . something!   
(that said, this trip?  first time, EVER, no luggage lost, and no flight cancelled that left me stranded somewhere.. even tho there was a bit of drama, as you'll see).

the bonus is that because I've always had issues, I have a ton of credit and goodwill from the Company, so when they offered to upgrade me to Polaris Business class (after some flight f**kery that moved my flights around multiple times in the month leading up to the trip), for less than $150?   I grabbed it.

and because of that, I had access to the United Lounges on my flight there.

here I am around 4am having a light snack in the Lounge in the Austin airport.

the first flight went without a hitch, and since they had upgraded me to Business for the long flight, this much shorter one (still 3 1/2 hours tho) bumped me into 1st class:

nice, wide seats

and to my surprise, a served, warm meal!    the rest of the plane got the option to buy those meal boxes, but I was able to have Peach crepes.

and they were good!  (but it was too much food)

landing in San Francisco, I had about 3 hours until my connecting flight to Beijing. . . which was a good thing, as the walk from my terminal to the gate for the international flight took almost 30 minutes.
(the gates are NEVER close to each other. . LOL).

took this pic of the plane I had gotten off of as I passed it walking from domestic into the international terminal.

I wasn't really hungry, but I had almost 2 hours to kill, so hung out in the lounge there and eventually had a light snack here too.

I'd been really trying to lose some weight before China (so my big American butt would fit in the Chinese rides). . .but this was a bad start that I was already eating way too much.

spoiler tho: I was only denied 5 things during the whole trip. . and really, it was only 3, because one I didn't even try (knew I was too heavy) and the other I was *just* below the weight limit, but I didn't want to argue with them, so just said ok and stepped aside to take pictures instead of riding.

beautiful day tho. . . so wasn't expecting any issues.

hahahaha. . yeah.

some of the SF Airport artwork as I headed to my gate.

which as noted, was the ass end of the airport, and down the stairs.

but at least made it and the flight showed on time still.

the Polaris Business Class on United is amazing.   Even tho I tend to get claustrophobic in these "bathtubs". . these ones seemed OK, since I was the only one on this side, and there was no "door" so it was open.   the seat reclines all the way down and slides forwards and turns it into a flat bed for sleeping.   

they give you so much stuff, it took some rearranging to fit in.   but I enjoyed my glass of champagne while boarding.

then we sat.   

and sat some more.

and sat some more.

the pilot came on multiple times to tell us that we were holding for the wind to let up, but he hoped we could take off.

luckily I wasn't the only one on the China TPR trip, as Shane and his son Fischer were also on board, and also in Business class, so we chatted while we sat.

I got an alert from United offering us a $25 (I think?) coupon to use in the terminal to get a snack, but it must be used today.   and I walked up to Shane's seat and said - "they're gonna make us deplane"  

not even 20 minutes later, we got the announcement that the crew had timed out, and we all had to deplane, and to come back to the same gate in about 3 hours, as they had already called a new flight crew.

the conspiracy theorist in me thinks it had something to do with Air Traffic Controllers (as my prior pic showed, it was a beautiful day. . and other flights were taking off.. so very odd, the "wind" was only affecting the one runway that we HAD to use, because the other one was under construction).     anyways, we took all our carry ons off, and since we were all Business class, we 3 headed back to the lovely United Lounge in the international terminal to hang out and wait.

exhausted already - and not even on the 14+ hour flight - but sending proof of life home to Jim and telling him what's going on.

eventually, we made our way back down to the gate at the new time, and tho they were late getting boarding going - we started boarding moments after the flight crew came in, but interestingly just after the door steward had announced that they were delaying boarding so they could finish cleaning the plane (yes, the same plane we had been on earlier).

so this is me not really trusting them, but trying not to panic, that if the flight got cancelled, how the heck was I gonna get to China in time for the food tour I had booked on the day after my arrival?

but eventually, we did back away from the gate. . and about 6 1/2 hours after we were supposed to have left, we finally took off and headed towards Beijing.

 

here's a peek at the menu - they really do love to feed ya on international flights.

I didn't have everything - I was simply too full.

but I did have the beets salad:

the prawns:

a few cold brews:

and tho I watched a few movies, and never sleep on flights, I actually did lay the chair down into bed position and napped for about an hour or so.

woke up to desert snack service (that I passed on), and this beautiful sunrise out my window.

I did give in and try the grilled cheese for the 2/3rds flight snack (it looked way better than it was, and funnily Shane, Fischer, and I had all gotten it and all had the same opinion of it).

we were starting to pass over cities . . .and were supposed to land soon

only ~7 hours after we had been supposed to arrive. . but hey, we were here!

and the perk of arriving so late, was that the terminal was pretty empty.  

Which made getting thru Customs and immigration a breeze

Shane had arranged a car, and the driver had been following along with our flight delays.. thank goodness he was there waiting for us, when we finally came out of arrivals.

we all breathed a sigh of relief, and piled into the car, for the drive to the hotel we were staying in pre-trip.   a Hilton, as had been recommended by Elissa.

not sure if it was because we arrived so much later than intended, or what.. but I ended up in a HUGE corner suite for the night. . .for a super reasonable (ie: inexpensive) price.

really, the room was big: 

the first of many hotels that had the bathroom/shower open to the main room.

yes, you could pull out the sliding panels to block it off, but it seemed to be a thing in China, that one would be able to watch someone in the bathroom (tho not on the actual toilet - in most cases) if one chose to.

most all of the hotels on this trip provided bottled water, so never really worried about getting sick (and didn't really, luckily).

the view from my corner room.

at this point i was exhausted. . so after a shower and a call home to let Jim know I had arrived safely (14 hour time difference, so my 1am was his late 3pm) I climbed into bed and was out cold.

I had a food tour booked in the morning, and had to check out and meet Elissa in the lobby by 11.

tho I did get up to pee during the night, and the toilet freaked me out enough by opening up to greet me and lighting up, that I grabbed my phone from the charger, and snapped some pics.

freaky

let the adventure begin!!

 

 

[AmyUD06]

I'm eagerly awaiting the rest of this.  There really is no better place than TPR for Trip Reports (I've got about two years worth to write LOL), and I always enjoy yours, so thank you.