It was exciting... touching down on another continent so we were blinded at the time... but in retrospect, this airport was shit. It wasn't terrible from a style or layout perspective, but from a food and things-to-do perspective it was pretty boring. As we disembarked the plane hopped up on adrenaline and a few hours of sleep, we had already walked to the end of the building before the realization of where we were actually set in.
We had an hour and a half to kill so we thought we'd grab some food and maybe a beer at one of the restaurants they were bound to have. But because we weren't hungry when we initially got there we weren't really focused on food (or anything for that matter) because it was all so overwhelming. So, we had to walk around again to explore our culinary options. No biggie, only took us ten minutes to see it all in the first place.
We had two choices for food because there were only four restaurants in total - two of the same ones repeated. And one of them was McDonald's... safe, familiar, can't go wrong. Sweet ...
... Not sweet.
First of all, it was physically attached to a Chinese restaurant that didn't look near as appealing as a Big Mac and fries. When it was our turn to order, after being greeted by an angry drill sergeant, we discovered we could only order one thing... chicken.
You could have the chicken sandwich, the chicken nuggets, the chicken wings, the fried chicken, or a combination of two that included a drink in a bag... which, as we later learned, was a common occurrence in southeast Asia.
And don't ask for ketchup unless you want to be called a fat American and have your head ripped off for asking. They didn't even offer us a drink choice or any condiments... but I wasn't about to argue for a Sprite over a Coke... (well done Coca Cola [and Pepsi] by the way, for being the assumed drink of choice at most fast food outlets - they either carry Coke or Pepsi, never both, and it's always the default option).
After our fowl feast, and not having internet access because we would have had to turn in our passports in order to get said access (fuck that), we boarded our connecting 3 hour flight to Bangkok, Thailand...
+ + +
GETTING THERE
Before we arrived in Guangzhou, we took a 13 hour flight from Vancouver via China Southern, which was awesome. This time, we had decided to splurge for the $300 CAD upgrade in order to be (quite a bit) more comfortable...
Flashback: Five years ago we flew to Fiji via regular economy, and while we got there in one piece, there was a lot of complaining from both parties. So this time, we upgraded to premium economy and it was worth every penny.
We had movies, television shows, video games, blankets, slippers, really good food and semi-reclining seats, not to mention prompt and friendly service. Everything was wonderfully timed and went a bit like this... priority boarding, drinks, drinks, food, drinks, rest time, hot towel, snacks, drinks, dinner, more drinks.
And since this section wasn't quite full, we snagged some extra pillows and created ultimate comfort...
We were also pleased to learn that the food was actually quite good... we would go as far as to dub it the best airline food we've ever had.
What I did learn which I later felt the need to remind myself about, was that I do not enjoy dried shrimp. Nope nope nope.
- xomo