Though it’s always been on my bucket list, I had no intention of traveling to Australia while living in Russia. My general travel theory during my time living abroad was to go to places that were closer to Moscow than to Chicago. Australia is not one of them.
Then my brother decided to take some time off work and travel. http://blueelf.wordpress.com/wp-admin/edit.phpAnd since it was December and January, the Southern Hemisphere meant we could escape winter. And Australia is one of his favorite places. So Australia it was.
Melbourne is about 20 hours of flying time from Moscow, plus a layover somewhere. I looked at a lot of options, but the most economical/efficient choices were flying through the UAE or through China. Since China Southern was part of Sky Team, and I have elite status, Sky Team it was. I originally thought it would be a one stop flight (as listed), with a layover in Guangzhou for several hours, but it turns out, there was a second stop in Urumqi, which is in northwestern China.
I flew out on New Year’s eve, which was significantly cheaper than other days as it’s perhaps the most important holiday of the year here in Russia. Since I spent last New Years in Red Square, and have had historically bad New Years Eves during my life, I was OK traveling on this one. So, I arrived at the airport at about 9:00 pm NYE, and after finding the right line and negotiating an exit row seat with plenty of leg room, I spent the first part of my holiday in the Amber Lounge at SVO. Wasn’t particularly interested in lounge food or drink, but it was nice to escape the smoke and and take part in another Russian NYE tradition — watching the spectacle (variety show) on tv.
I boarded the China Southern plane, which was oddly decorated with laterns and garlands, and was pleased to describe that the middle seat in my row was unoccupied. The plane was filled with a mix of Russian and Chinese passengers. My row-mate, Tanya, was a woman in her late 20s/early 30s, traveling alone. I quickly saw that she had brought a bottle of Russian champagne for the flight. As the meal service began, and it approached midnight, she brought out the bottle of champagne and offered me some. I couldn’t refuse, and soon we were chatting in a mixture of English and Russia. Soon, the two guys in the seat in front of us got involved and they offered to share a sweet red wine and absinthe. Ick. Tanya also had homemade salad olivier and chocolates to share. Thanks to her foresight, we were having a New Year’s party on the plane. I felt terrible, as I hadn’t brought anything, but as we all counted down to what we thought was midnight, I was so thankful. After the meal service was finished, the flight attendants had a raffle for airline swag, followed by a champagne toast for all. We ate and drank until all was gone, and as the lights were dimmed, napped until we started our descent.
Now, as I mentioned earlier, I initially thought that it was a direct flight to Guangzhou, but then realized that we had a stop in Urumqi. At this point, I still thought that we would touch down in Urumqi and continue on, as we didn’t have to switch planes, and I hadn’t received another boarding pass. I was wrong. It turns out that because Urumqi to Guanzhou was a domestic flight, we had to deplane, taking everything with us, and reboard after an hour on the ground.
Chaos ensued.
Fortunately, Tanya and I, and our two friend in front of us formed a little group. As we exited the plane, we were given a little boarding control card that we held onto as we boarded the bus to the terminal. As we arrived at the terminal, airline employees were yelling “Guangzhou, guanzhou,” which we eventually deciphered meant that we were to approach them if we were going to Guangzhou. At this point, they labeled you with a bright green China Southern sticker. Then, before we passed from the holding area further into the terminal, they collected the boarding control cards. We were shuttled into the terminal and again came across someone yelling Guangzhou, Guangzhou. This time she gave us a customs form to fill out, which was very confusing and a bit nerve-wracking as I did not have a Chinese visa. We proceeded into the customs line, and came upon a control desk where they looked at our old boarding passes and stapled them onto new, pink, handwritten boarding passes.
Then onto the passport control desk, where I was sent to a second line as I did not have a visa.
Despite my nervousness, they let me through to the next step, where I had to put my carry on through an x-ray machine. For some reason the screener thought I had something in my bag and yelled at me — vodka, vodka? I was half asleep, but I think she thought I had vodka in the bag. We were corralled into a holding area to wait. Not enough seats and only squat toilets. Squat toilers with a backback and half asleep are a unique challenge. But again, Tanya was my friend and had saved a seat for me. I returned the favor by sharing the American magazines that Sam gave me. It wasn’t the I’ve ever been in an airport, but soon enough we were back on the plane, and about 5 hours later, I woke up as were landing in Guangzhou.
More chaos ensued. Again with the stickers. This time, red to indicate we came from Moscow. More boarding control cards. Purpose of it all never clear. We had to pick up our baggage from baggage claim, and then Tanya and I left together. She was staying in Guagzhou to shop, so I said my goodbye as I tried to figure out what to do next.
Various people guided me various ways, but I eventually found the check in counters, and thanks to SkyTeam status was able to avoid the lines. I was able to switch seats to bulk head and re-checked my luggage. I wandered about the airport a bit — luxury shopping upstairs and Chinese restaurants and tea shops downstairs. Eventually, I went through international security and ended up at a lounge where I would spend the next few hours (passing additional duty free shopping on the way).
The lounge was a nice respite from the rest of the world. Comfy chairs, plugs, free wifi and food. After I ate, I looked up to see the following:
Yes, after I ate, I saw the giant rat running around the door frame (if you look closely, it’s about halfway down the door frame on the left side by the tv). I tried to explain to the lounge staff what I saw, but they didn’t understand. Finally, I showed them a picture of the mouse on my iPad. They scrambled around looking for it and ultimately told me they found it under the cooler with the soda. I’m not sure what they did anything, but they found it. No more food for me in the lounge.
Finally it was time to board. A gorgeous, new airbus 330 awaited me. Not only did I have an bulkhead seat, I had an entire 4 (or 5?) across to myself. I took a sleeping pill as soon as the meal service started, ate, put on my noise cancelling headsets, my sleepmask, and stretched out in my silk sleepsack across the whole row. 6 hours or so later, I woke up for breakfast and in time to land in Australia.
Australia! So exciting to be somewhere English speaking. This time there were no stickers, we were just shuffled off to passport control. Apparently my ETA, didn’t exactly match my passport (no clue), but they let me in with a warning.
I quickly claimed my bags and exited, where a driver was supposed to be waiting for me. Unfortunately, a driver with my name was no where to be found. My Russian sim card was not working, and I failed in my attempt to purchase wifi. After looking for about 30 minutes, I eventually gave up and took the SkyBus, which I should have done in the first place.
I easily found where to pay and where to board. Twenty minutes later, I was in downtown Melbourne at Southern Cross Station. From there, it was a short shuttle ride to the Westin where I was going to meet Aaron.
It was surreal. 24 hours before I was in freezing cold Russia. All of the sudden, I was sweating in my t-shirt and yoga pants, and in my brother’s hotel room in AUSTRALIA! And there were Christmas decorations up, but it was hot!
We weren’t sure what happened with the driver. Apparently, he was at the airport, but they couldn’t find me. I showered (I love Westin showers) while Aaron got us coffee (the first of my many amazing coffees in Melbourne), and then we shopped a bit. Since I brought virtually no casual summer clothes to Moscow, I needed to shop in Melbourne, but easily found a Katmandu to take care of that.
From there, we checked out of the hotel and moved to our apartment near the Casino, but still in the center of town. It was a nice two bedroom in a great location — right near Southbank on Kavanagh Street. Only a couple of small problems. First, it was hot. Melbourne was going through a heatwave, and the A/C did not seem to be doing anything but blowing hot air around. Second, the owner was out of town and gave us a significant discount since we agreed to wash the linens ourselves. Except, we could not get the washing machine to work. Fortunately, Aaron had one set of sheets, and I had my sleep sack, and we had both already showered.
We decided to relive an old Fine sibling tradition and lunch at Wagamama (when I visited Aaron in London in 1999, we went to Wagamas at least three times). It wasn’t as cheap as I remember from London, but it was amazing to have fresh Asian food. After lunch, we walked across the river, but it was so hot that we gave up on outdoor pursuits and headed to the Melbourne Aquarium.
The aquarium was delightful, with two things really standing out. Penguins and rays. I loved the penguin sliding down the hill, and the cool dark interior was a welcome respite. After the aquarium, we headed back to the apartment for some down time.
Dinner was at Soutbank again, this time at the World. Started the meal with the first of many glasses of white wine I would drink in Australia and elotes. Continuing the Asian trend that would also last the entire trip, I had an Asian salad. Stuffed, I actually refused the gelato on the way back to the hotel.
