Well, I thought it was about time to renew this blog, since I have been out of Ghangzhou for 2 days now. I was able to access this blog web link in Shanghai without any problem but the Internet Server in Ghangzhou would not let me log in. Hmmmm? No doubt the "censor control" is a little more active in southern China.The picture on the left is me standing on the hotel veranda (today) after I had just finished my early morning breakfast at the Eastern & Oriental Hotel. I was the only one there as the sun rose up over from the east. It was awesome! I asked my photographer (waiter) to capture the background, so I guess I am lucky to be in the picture. I have about 5-7 more pics that I will post on my Facebook account.
My birthday Sunday in Ghangzhou was rather uneventful, as I worked out in the morning, ate a big lunch and then went to bed at 4pm. My alert call from Fedex came at 1155pm and I left the hotel at 1am to fly 2 legs to Penang (2500 mi journey). My first leg to Cebu was with a 38 year old female Captain, who has only been in Fedex for 5 years! She got upgraded early because she volunteered for Hong Kong. I enjoyed the flight and she did a nice job, considering her experience. Of course she is ex-Air Force (KC-135 driver) so I felt ok with her flying. The flight took us over Hong Kong and across the South China Sea into the Southern Philippines. Once we arrived in Cebu, we were greeted with a host of yellow shirted cargo loaders (smiling Philippino's) who unloaded and loaded our plane in about an hour. I then waited another 45 min on my next Captain who had spent the night in Cebu, who eventually met me at the aircraft. Phil (Captain) is my age and has been living in the Far East for 10years, so we had a lot to talk about. This leg to Penang was over 3 hours and it took us next to Vietnam, Jakarta and then into Penang. Landing at this little airport (on an island) was beautiful! Not a soul in the air as we let ourselves down to 2000 ft over the water for a visual approach back into time. The runway is surrounded by a host of vegetation, water, huts and little farms. I will try to take a picture of it today when we taxi out. I have been told many times you see boa constrictors and iquana lizards laying on the taxiways as you taxi across the airport, which should give you a mental picture of the landscape. I did notice on final approach, that there were machine gun pill boxes on the beach, which were obviously left over from the Japanese forces in WW II. It was interesting to see.
Today, I will go to the little exercise room and try to work off my Indian cuisine from last night and my great breakfast this morning. My plan then is to soak up some more of this 90deg sunshine, read by the pool, and mentally prepare for my next flight (45 min) to Kuala Lampur which is about 150 miles south of Penang ;) I will be flying with yet another captain, whom I will meet at the airplane tonight at 6:30pm. Our layover tonight is for 25 hours and then we blast out on Wed night for a 2 leg (6 hour flying) back into Shanghai which will end my journey. This trip has been fun and I have gotten to see two more cities (Shanghai and Kuala Lampur) which were both new to me. Shanghai reminds me of NYC, except much cleaner with no obvious street people. I am sure they are around....but it looks like the govt has everybody doing something (sweeping, cleaning, picking up trash) which keeps the city nice. Of course, their economy is booming and there seems to be lots of pride for their city and country. Refreshing actually.
Ok....this has been rather long....sorry if it was a little slow. I just wanted to catch up. I won't be flying international next month but hope to venture out again in July-September. Right now, my B777 training class starts on 22 Oct and will have me in Memphis until Christmas. Hopefully, I will have lots of Nashville time once that training is complete.
And the journey continues.........mm
