The taxi ride took about 20 minutes and once inside the terminal I joined the short queue for my flight and checked in my luggage which weighed at just over 17kg, well under my flight allowance. "Kelly" the lady who was dealing with my check in also asked me whether I wanted window or aisle seats for my forthcoming flights which was the easiest question of the day. The first flight was only going to be relatively short, the second flight however was going to be more of an endurance test at 11 hours and its on these long ones where its much more beneficial to be able to get out your seat at your pleasure and have a wander, use the toilet or access the overhead locker than any lure of being able to look out the window at a bendy wing at night, so "aisle" it was. Kelly also informed me that she had given me a seat with extra leg room due to me being be being quite "large". I took it she meant tall rather than anything kinky or abusive. As it turns out the promised extra space never materialised anyway. On both flights I was afforded the same space as almost everyone else. I think the pilots may have had more but I wasn't allowed in to check.
Clearing security at Singapore took no time at all and I was soon was sat having a breakfast and coffee waiting for boarding time to arrive, I also took the time to peruse the duty free area and picked up a mobile battery pack for my phone as it had fallen flat a couple of days over the last couple of months, especially when using the GPS.. The packaging was discarded immediately in order for the pack to fit snugly into my hand luggage with the minimum of effort.
The first flight departed on time and at 8am my journey through Asia came to an end. The plane was small and pokey, the seats were hard and the ride was rough but I managed to sleep for a good portion of the first stint, waking briefly for on board refreshments. Seemed my lack of sleep from the previous days was starting to benefit. By the time the plane landed at Guangzhou airport in China however my bum was beaten and sore, my neck felt crooked and my back was far from good. As I made my way to the waiting area for the next flight that was due to depart at 2.30pm I noticed another similar sized China Southern Airline aircraft being loaded up with stock and the thought of another 11 hours on the same kind of plane filled me with dread. I needed to get back to Thailand for a massage or find some strong muscle relaxants ASAP. What I found instead was a cup of extortionately priced lemon tea which i supped slowly to ensure i got the most taste out of every Singapore Dollar that slipped past.
I took the opportunity at this point to purchase a bottle of water, some chocolate wafferthin biscuits and with thought of forthcoming discomfort over 11 hours playing on my mind, a travel pillow for my crocked neck. After a just couple of hours my time in china was over and I lined up to board crate no cz335 for its scheduled 14:30 departure.
As I embarked it was immediately clear that this was a much bigger plane than I had been fearing. With 3 seats each side of the central row of four, my aisle seat was located a short way down on the left hand side of the plane and came complete with an old grinning chinese lady sat in it. Alongside to another grinning chinese lady in the middle seat and an empty window seat which they gestured for me to sit in.
Notaneffingchance went through my mind, ran down my arm and out of my finger as I pointed towards my ticket number, and the number above the seat. Each repeated smiling gesture from the chinese people towards the seat in the window was met by my own non smiling gestures. Shake of the head, finger point at ticket, finger point at seat, my seat. Rinse and repeat.
It took a little while but the message finally got through and their smiles dropped away. It turns out that their group numbered around 20 or so and had just been trying to get hold of the my allocated seat for themselves rather than moving amongst around accordingly, thus started their game of musical chairs with no music, plenty of puffing and huffing from the disgruntled onboard chinese community as they all switched around due to being an aisle seat down. I got the feeling at this point that I was now public enemy number wan.
There was no conversation for the next few hours, no witty anecdotes or light banter, just the occasional daggers thrown in my general direction whenever the head of the group in the row in front got out of her chair to organise additional food for the rest her group. The headphones I had picked up in Melaka a few days before had now earned their keep and I couldn't hear a thing over the various films I had buried my head into. Everytime i saw the leader fussing or sorting someone or something else during the flight I smiled at the thought of the boys and girls of New Zealand customs and the fun they were going to have with this lot when the plane landed.
Over the next 10.5 hours the overly firm seats became increasingly more uncomfortable. My weight was shifted from left tock to right, right tock to both tocks and both tocks back to left until the weight trasitions were no longer effective and my travel pillow was deployed to cushion the ride. It had little effect. Every slight shake no matter how brief from air turbulence was met by my inside voice assuring me that it was almost over, I was nearly there. As the morning broke at 6.30 along with my will, the plane finally touched down and I immediately unclipped my seatbelt, I couldn't wait to get off that bucket.
I cleared customs quicker than I had dared to anticipate. A few "good mornings" were exchanged, Bags were scanned, a few questions were asked and then I was through. I took the opportunity to have a quick wash, change and freshen up, grabbed a coffee and a spot of breakfast. After just under 10 weeks of fantasic travels through some of the beautiful countries of Asia I had finally arrived in New Zealand. It would be interesting to see how it would compare.
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