Sunday early morning, Jan 11

My flights from Toronto to Shanghai was on time, and as comfortable as any 15 hour flight in a coach setting can be. China Eastern, my airline, uses old planes, they still have the drop down TV screens, but I think older planes have more leg room, and that's a good thing.

What impressed me where the hostesses; each one young, slim and beautiful. 

The food was good, and plentiful. I couldn't finish, too much food. Timing was tricky. We were served a second full meal two hours before we landed, 5 am Toronto time, 6 pm Shanghai time.. I couldn't face a full meal at that time, but I forced myself to eat the cheesecake.

The reasons I chose China Eastern was threefold. They were the cheapest, the total flight time was the shortest, and they won the prestigious Bauhiria Award. Three years in a row! Impressive!

You may ask what is this Bauhiria Award? Good question. The only note for this is the China Eastern brochure. Sounds good though.

Shanghai airport was huge, but quiet, and everything was on time. From there I flew with 4 hours to Bangkok, with Shanghai Air, a subsidiary for China Eastern. They served a meal that must have been chosen by a kid walking through a corner store. A sweet bun with two raisins, two small candy bars, a small bag of banana chips, a small bag of dried pickled radish, and a small bag of "Magic Wings". They turned out to be sweet roasted bits of pecans. I did not finish the radishes.

Arriving at Bangkok was a surprise. I thought, that with only a carry-on I would breeze through. Surprise! At 2 in the morning there were at least 300 other people ahead of me at immigration. It took an hour to get through.

Fortunately there were taxis, and I arrived at my hotel at 4 am. I am situated in the Old City, which is nice and central, but full of backpackers and hippies left over from the seventies. My room is very clean and nice, but the street is noisy, even at 4am. Thank goodness for earplugs.