Day one - 19 May 2014

Pete with our boxed bikes and panniers before departure at Auckland.

Day one. Flight from Auckland to Shanghai.

Fairly full, few seats available Good service from the mainly Chinese crew.

As far as airline food goes, it was fine.

Then came time for sleep. Oh yes… I remember now why they call it cattle class.

You feel like one of those contortionists, trying to fit into a box that’s ten times too small for them.

But hey, this is budget travel !      

The only thing as small as your seat space, is the toilet.

Flying into Shanghai at 6.30am, temperature 19 degrees and you could sense there was going to be an almighty rush by the 10000 chinese on board to disembark. Sure enough, the planes wheels had barely touched the runway, when a young Chinese girl climbs out of her seat and reaches into the overhead lockers. The plane is still probably powering down the runway at 200kms , when a scream comes from the back of the plane from the stewardess, for her to sit down.

In English, the stewardess probably said something like…….. excuse me madam, but would you mind being reseated until the aircraft has come to a stop.

In Chinese however and recognising their scant regard for human rights, it probably went more along the lines of……… sit down you stupid cow…..unless you want to be dragged from the aircraft by the hair, kicking and screaming to a place no one is ever likely to find you, and shot through the head…….. thank you so much for complying !!!

Shanghai airport is one massive transit lounge that seems to go on forever. Here we sit for the next four hours until our Virgin Atlantic flight to London. Now that might be interesting,………how many virgins can you fit on one plane…….