We had an 8AM flight from Seattle to Vancouver, B.C. I always have some misgivings when a short hop is required to make a connection to a major international flight. Will something go wrong, causing us to miss that connection? We left the gate on time but sat on the runway, with engines running for almost 30 minutes. Will there be a problem? We did have 2.5 hours between flights but what if this flight got cancelled? There was no other alternative to get us to Vancouver in time. Finally the captain did announce there had been a small mechanical issue that needed resolving but it was fixed and we were on our way.

The only other “glitch” in Seattle was that Alaska Airlines could not print the boarding passes for our flights on China Southern. They assured us we could get them at the gate in Vancouver.

It was a marvelous winter day in Seattle- sun and mountains everywhere. The 30 minute flight was a sightseeing wonder and included flying near our home on Miller Bay. We were both glued to our windows as we winged our way.

We whizzed through passport control in Canada and retrieved our boarding passes at the gate as promised. The 787 flight to Guangzhou actually left 5 minutes early. A minor problem developed as the audio system in our row of seats was not working. Great, and we had a 12+ hour flight ahead of us. They flight attendants were very cordial and attempted to reboot the system but were unable to get it to perform properly. They apologized profusely and brought us personal iPads to use for the flight, which worked out fine. Actually we both ended up only watching one movie (Victoria and Abdul), which, by the way, was quite good- worth watching as it is based on a true story about Queen Victoria of England. We both spent the rest of the time reading and napping.

Our route to Guangzhou took us up the coast of Alaska and down the east coast of Russia and China. Guangzhou is in southern China, near Hong Kong, which I did not know until I got to see the flight map on the TV monitor.

The food served on our two meals was some of the best we have experienced on airlines, and the staff was very attentive to our needs. It was a very pleasant flight. China Southern did themselves proud, just as the reviews said they would.

Something new we experienced as we got off the airplane was to take a bus to the terminal. Because we were in business class they provided special, small (20 Passenger) “VIP” buses to take us to the terminal. Nice touch!

We had a three hour layover in Guangzhou before our 3 hour flight to Bangkok. We left on time and slept most of the way there as we were both good and tired by then.

The Bangkok airport is big and modern, and at 11 PM it was “hopping”. There were plenty of helpful people who assisted us getting through Immigration (no problem but we had to fill out a form we did not know we had to have). Luggage arrived safely. Whew! That is always a concern as you read horror stories of lost luggage. We had taken the suggested practice of putting a change of clothing in each other’s bag, just in case one of the bags did not make it.  The luggage also had to change three different planes.

I had chosen to spend the night at the Novotel Hotel at the airport to break up out trip and allow us to recuperate. Airport local staff all spoke English and there were booths everywhere to provide information and answer questions. We easily found the shuttle area where the hotel bus quickly took us to the nearby hotel, eliminating a necessity of walking underground to it. I had considered originally doing that but thought better of it because we both were worn out.

The Novotel hotel is big, modern and fancier than other Novotel hotels we have stayed at.  An interesting policy they have is that you have the room for 24 hours from the time you check in. No need to worry about that 11AM check out time. Again, another nice touch.

The end of a very long journey. In fact we may have set a new record for getting somewhere as it was now 7 AM body time by the time we stumbled into bed. That travel record, (we hope never to repeat) is 26 hours on 3 different planes.  Hopefully, the rest of the trip will not be as stressful.