So I flew to Bangkok last weekend, as I have a 10 year/60 day visa for China. It was relatively non-stressfull, well other than the plane from BKK to KMG being over an hour late and that making my connection a bit tight.
Seriously, it was a very lucky thing I was all the way in the front of the plane. I should HOPE that I had a "front-of-the-plane" ticket, because Trip.com pulled that sleazy thing where the 2300RMB tickets kept showing up and then showing as "Oh so sorry that's sold out" as soon as I tried paying. Bah. So I grabbed the next highest ticket, around 4300 RMB. Well La-di-da that went through. Behold the "Fully booked" plane that would not let me book the cheaper tickets:
So once I landed in Kunming, I booked out and flew through immigration and security as fast as humanly possible (which included two more forms for health/contact tracing that had to be filled out) and ran down the escalator to the boarding gate area. There was a guy in the (deserted) departure area looking around, I shouted "Hangzhou?!?" and he waved me there. Whew. I informed him that 2-3 other people were on this connection (I had overheard them asking how to make the connection before I bolted)... he sort of chuckled and shrugged. Sucks to be them I guess. Found my seat, of course everyone is masked.
Gawd I hate these masks. It's Virus Theater just like the Security Theater in the USA. I was worried that after running through the terminal I would be too hot. Oh and I was presented with yet another form to fill out upon boarding. Luckily that was just to fill out at my leisure and present to the officials in HGH.
SO I eventually landed in Hangzhou. Off the plane (it's domestic this time so no La Migra) and a LONG walk to the exit. Seriously, I heard that airport designers figured out that you would rather walk a long ways that wait for your baggage ergo the vast distance between your plane and the carousel.
Upon the end of my walk I am greeted by this:
It's a temperature check and collection of the form I was given on the plane to fill out. They are fully kitted out. Frankly, if I was interacting with that many travelers I would be too.
Ok, through that and then upstairs to traverse the airport to the international section where I parked my car (What, I'm not going to ride a VirusBus or VirusTaxi unless I absolutely have to!)
Actually it was quite dark. Weirdly enough, this was one of those times where I wished the iPhone was NOT so awesome in taking photos in the dark.
Anyways, I found my car and headed home. Streets deserted. At the tollbooth it was free, the guy just waved me through. Could not even reliably connect to NPR, and fuggedabbout firing up the VPN and listening to some YouTube news. Bah.
Welcome Back To China.