December 20th, 2008 - going to Shanghai

We had to be up at 630am to get ready for the airport. And I actually woke up around 3am thinking that it was already 7am since JP's parents were up drinking coffee. As I started to pack JP was awaken by the noise of the zippers opening and closing and asked me why I am still packing at 3am. LOL.

My Dad booked a van for us ... so yes we decided to take 4 lugs with us instead of 5. The driver was struggling to put everything in the van.

At the HK airport, Theo was in his tantrum mode again. Understandable cause he was tired from us waking him up at 630am and he refused to go on the plane ride and do the routine. And to make the event worst was that the check in procedure was the slowest. Dragonair is pretty much bad with check in ... and why even have an online check in if we had to go from ground zero again at the airport ... it was a waste of time to even have an online check in and even at the self check in you still have to have a lady help you and at the end we still ended up at the counter with two ladies ... with no idea whatsoever.

Theo was running around in the vast open space.

My Dad almost got into fight LOL ... well mainland chinese are the rudest people ... this man and his wife and child just stood in front of my dad and said probaby something like "let's just stand here" ... and my Dad got pissed off and told them to go to the back of the line. First of all there were two lines for check ins and the three of them were standing in the middle of the two very long line. I am sure there are more to come in this rudeness to us and it is the fact of life for them and not rude manners for mainland chinese. So the man was giving the evil eyes to my Dad and I was sure he was about to jump for a punch. But he headed with his family to the back of the line! Pretty much a close call.

Theo refused to go to the security. So we all waited for him to calm down and he gave JP a hug so we can at least go thru the security without any more episode. It is just a matter of time and we finally went thru security. And I can tell you it was a joke. Cause I had like bottled waters, juice boxes and all sort of liquid, the security did not open up the bags and start throwing things out in the trash.

Theo was fine on the plane ride, Clemmie had a tantrum cause she was sleepy.

We all get to eat something on the plane with the kiddos behaving for once.

Landing was okay.

One thing positive I have to say, the staffs on the plane were very friendly and helpful. One of the guys actually helped me with my bags. And another gave me two bags of baby food and helped me buckle up the seat belts.

Okay another episode of Theo ... during custom ... they were so slow and amused by the whole situation with Theo throwing a tantrum cause now he is super tired. I was pushing him in the stroller and I am sure he wanted to sleep, but we had to stop at the custom. And he threw a fit and all hell break loose.

So a good idea is to go in doubles instead of having go thru as a group during the custom.

Theo was crying and crying until we got on the bus ride to the hotel ... he finally calm down and fell asleep.

We experienced some scary driving ... yea ... so if you been thru Nigerian driving ... this is pretty much tame. Going on the freeway a car wanted to cut off a bus?! ... yea ... again the rudeness that is everyday normal manners.

We arrived after a very very long bus ride at 3PM.

Theo sleep a bit longer in the hotel room. And we ordered some food at around 5PM.

Our basic time schedule:

630AM wake up time
730AM all packed and ready
745AM we are off to the HK airport
830AM we arrived
10AM we checked in, went thru security
1015AM we sat and had a break of starbucks
11AM we boarded the plane
1PM we landed in Shanghai
130PM we took the bus
3PM we arrived at the hotel
330PM we check in at the hotel and go to our rooms ... big rooms for the price of USD 300 a night.
7PM we had to get ready for dinner
9PM we couldn't even have dinner and came back to the hotel cause the kids were tired and didn't want to hang out with a bunch of people they do not know

Pawpaw and Kungkung came by and they were staying above us in room 6025. They both looked the same to me ... looking great.