Sunday, 4 August 2019 – Cairns to Shenzhen
Our day started by getting up early. Early bird gets the worm, or so they say. Research we did on what lounge access was available in Cairns was not good – the only lounge, the Reef Lounge, was apparently destined to close on 1 August, days before we arrived. We had a buffet breakfast at the hotel given that we may not have the opportunity to have something substantial at the airport. Your typical Aussie breakfast – bacon, eggs, hash browns, baked beans, juice etc.
We finished packing up our bits and pieces and headed off to the airport around 7:30am, with check-in opening around 7:50am. We arrived right on time, with the taxi driver telling us about his 20 years of running a banana plantation on the tablelands and still not liking the site of them in the house!
We went into the terminal and proceeded to check-in. This was unusual for us – Qantas staff do the check-ins for the Hainan Airlines flight (pronounced like ‘High Naan’ – like Indian naan bread). The lady gave us an entry pass for the Reef Lounge, even though we thought it was not open.
By the time we had checked-in and gone upstairs towards Customs etc. it was about 8:15am. Alas, the Customs door was closed! We were the first people there, closely followed by a few others. The doors definitely weren’t open, even though lots of other people who came after us tried to push them. Like we hadn’t tried that! Just after 8:30am they opened Customs and we went through. A very painless and quick process and all of a sudden we were in departures duty free area. You had the usual Bundy Rum, Chivas Regal etc.
Ros found some makeup so was making herself busy checking it all out. I decided to have a look around and stumbled across something I have not seen before – powdered milk. And it wasn’t cheap either! I also found a cool container of M&M’s, so they are making the journey to Europe with us.
We found the Reef Lounge and it was indeed open. We got to spend a bit of time just chilling before our flight. The flight was due to board at 10:20 so we went down about 10:15 and it had already started.
Upon entering the aircraft (an A330), we found our seats quite easily – row 15, which was directly behind row 12, with no row 13 and 14. Our original seats we had selected were no longer available, but that was ok. They were two seats together in the middle of the plane as opposed to two in the middle separated. After everybody had boarded we counted five people including us. There were 27 empty seats – so plenty of room!
The hostesses came past with Champagne and warm nuts. We still had a bit of time before takeoff so we checked out the amenity kit, which came in a small Samsonite suitcase, quite nifty!
Next came the pajamas – after looking at us she suggested either large or extra large, but pushed to extra large. Ok then. We were also given menus and asked to choose dishes – with a couple of traditional Chinese meals and one or two Western. I went with poached chicken and bamboo (as did Ros) plus I had pork belly (the Western dish) while Ros had a mixture of Chinese dishes dimsum etc
I can say I’ve never eaten bamboo before, but it actually wasn’t too bad. The main meals, served two hours before landing, were huge. We both went with the traditional Chinese options. Mine was quite spicy while Ros’s congee was bland, but the meat was nice. We both had salted duck eggs served as well. They had been salted for 10 days. We had a little bit each but not to our taste, very salty!
As the flight departed at 11am Brisbane time and landed at 6pm Brisbane time, I decided just to stay awake and watch shows I had downloaded on Netflix. Ros had a nap. I may have polished off a packet of Doritos during this time, which is maybe why I couldn’t eat all my main.
The landing into Shenzhen was amazing. On the left were lots and lots of tall buildings, all the same size. On the right were lots and lots of boats. Everywhere you looked there were just lots of buildings. We landed and taxied to a faraway drop off point. Then onto a bus for a 5 minute ride to the terminal.
After arriving at the terminal, we needed to go through customs and pick up our bags as we then had an airport hotel room available for the 9 hour layover. Well, things didn’t go as planned. We followed the signs to customs and handed over our info. The guy said ‘Visa’ – obviously in very choppy English. I said we were transiting and he pointed to another area. So we made our way there. After about 20 minutes we had filled out our required paperwork, and the customs lady yelled out in Chinese to a guy on the other side who was waiting to show us where to collect our luggage after we got through customs (she did have a walkie talkie but obviously had no need for it!). Same guy was there to take us to the taxi area to wait for a pickup to the hotel. The service was fantastic and we didn’t have to think too hard about what to do as the staff on the ground basically escorted us everywhere even taking us to collect our baggage.
There is a group of hotels right next to the hotel – Hyatt.
On the way outside we saw lots and lots of police and military. They had various ‘implements’ – some had full body riot shields, others had ‘Avenger-style’ arm shields, more had batons and even a few machine guns and another with a metal pole that looked like you could use it to hold back a person. There were five people lined up – machine gun guy, shield guy, baton, metal pole guy and a fifth. He scared me the most. He simply had a long stick that was taller than he was. It may not have been the stick so much as it was the look on his face.
We waited outside for about 30 minutes in stifling heat – 31 degrees and high humidity. Finally our ride arrived.
We naively thought that ‘airport hotel’ meant a hotel at the airport. We took a long route around the city and ended up at a hotel. They seem to honk their horns at everything – car going slow, honk; cyclist on road, honk; pedestrians on road – honk. We went through what seemed like lots of back streets to reach the hotel.
Bonus trivia question – how many people can you fit on a ‘one person scooter’? Hint: the most we saw was more than 4 and less than 6! Squishy ride,
The hotel was interesting – no air con in the foyer and lots of people in the foyer. There is no such thing as personal space, especially when waiting in line at the counter as people just push in front of each other. The lady behind the counter could not speak English and used google translator to ask me if I wanted a bigger room, so I nodded and smiled and said yes please, upgrade number 2….. We got our hotel key – 8422. Level 8, right? Wrong. We went to level 8 but the room numbers start at 8810. Wtf? We then guessed level 4 so back down in the lifts – which felt like something out the 70s. Arriving in the room, it felt just as hot outside as it did in. We cranked the air con to 17 degrees, but it did not feel like anything was happening. Eventually the aircon kicked in and it was nice and cool but only after we had a cold shower. The cold water in the shower worked though. Hot water, not so much, if at all.
The shower door was interesting – sign saying push. Ummm, it was a pull action. On the other side it said pull, again opposite needing to push to open it from inside. Whoops!
Interestingly they have fire masks in the rooms to wear in case of evacuation. But there was only one.
The room started to cool down when the sun went down. I had a little bit of a nap then Ros had one. While Ros was napping I was people watching from the room. Ros decided to turn the lights off so I wasn’t visible watching them. Smart move. The translation of the place I could see down below was ‘Wan and shopping wholesale’. There were about 10-15 people visible busily packing boxes. In between packing they would be on their phones and smoking. They finished packing boxes then loaded them in one of the trucks out the front.
By this time it was our time to head to the airport. We waited for 15 minutes in the foyer while the guy was busy chatting to the girl behind the counter. The drive back to the airport was quick in comparison – no back streets and onto the main road in a few minutes.
After arriving, we still had a bit of time before boarding commenced. There seemed to be lots of expensive shops. We went back to the check-in counter to wait. After waiting for what seemed an eternity (maybe 45 minutes), we checked-in. Going through the first customs they asked Ros some questions about how long she had been there. Ros’s watch showed the next day, so Ros told her we arrived yesterday and I was telling her it was today, then she said I don’t know about 9 hours ago, but it was only 7. That confused the lady a bit more but then she showed the lady her old boarding pass and it all got sorted out. From there we went through another area where they check your boarding pass again and bags go through security. Well, not safe for work content coming up!
Ros had to go left and I went right, with the intention to meet on the other side. As usual I put my bag on the conveyor and walked through the machine. The guy motioned me to stand on a box to do a ‘pat down’. It was a very intimate pat down! He was very very very thorough and did not miss a spot, or crevice, on my body. Thinking that was the end of it, I grabbed my bags. Or so I thought. Nope, they said there were batteries in there. Yep, I had spare batteries. Took them out and showed them. They scanned it again. Still not good enough. Ok, maybe I forgot the drone batteries. Took them out and they inspected them. Nope. Finally remembered I had a mobile battery charger in there. That was the answer! Ros was watching and laughing from the other side of security and she said my face was bright red from embarrassment!
We went into the lounge for an hour or so. We couldn’t find any butter to share photos with Ros’s family but we did have some other unusual stuff there. It could have been butter as we had no idea what it was.
Just before exiting, I happened to catch a glance of a kid walking and licking his phone screen. I’m not sure if he had spilt noodles on it or not, but it must have been tasty.
Finally time to board!
