Traveling day two - in which we do laps above Urumqi

We took the overnight flight from Sydney to Ghangzhou.  We shared the flight with some teenage tennis players, their competitive nature continued into being first in the immigration queue and first off the plane.

I didn't sleep much on the plane, but that's normal for me.  We arrived at Ghangzhou airport at 4.30 in the morning - EARLY!!!  Then we waited at Ghangzhou airport for 3 and a half hours. I was thankful I had packed a season of Northern Exposure to watch on the laptop.  Deanne and I acclimatized to going into the cold by watching people in Alaska.  Then came the flight to Urumqi 

Wellll

We waited on the Tarmac for one and half hours after boarding, then had a 6 hour flight, then we circled around Urumqi for ages and couldn't land because of the snowy weather so we flew to another little airport over the mountains and landed.  We were told we were going to catch a bus to Urumqi which was 200 Km's away, but we waited in the plane for a looooonnnggg time - enough to play 10 phases of a phase 10 card game - then flew back to Urumqi over the mountains and landed in the fog and snow.  So we left at 8 in the morning and arrived at 6 at night, having spent the whole day in a Jetstar style domestic plane.

Descending into Urumqi in the fog was a little hair raising, as we saw massively beautiful mountain ranges up close as the plane got lower and lower, then it got all foggy for ages, then suddenly 10 metres off the ground the runway appeared.  Props to the China Southern pilot, who made an excellent landing in difficult conditions.

Our hotel was lovely, and we hit the streets in search of dinner and wandered into a little noodle bar and had a plate of yummy noodles for $1.  It was one of Deanne's first attempts at chopsticks, and there was no option for a fork, and it was slippery noodles.  Sorry Deanne.....

We hung out in the hotel lobby and had a hot chocolate which was 6 times the price of dinner.  And a shower was fantastic after not having one for two and a half days.  And lying horizontal to sleep.  Maybe planes could have those little sleeping compartments like in Japan so people could sleep on overnight flights...

It is cold, about 0 degrees.  Very happy I packed my snow jacket and I pulled out the pixie beanie.

Here we are all bright eyed ready to leave Sydney
 

This was the view from our hotel room in Urumqi - busy busy China!

 

Tomorrow onto Bishkek!