TRAVEL AWAITS: My 8 Favorite Chinatowns in the World

 

This article was first published in Travel Awaits on Sept. 18, 2023.

The Philippines was a Spanish colony for 333 years, but the Chinese also arrived in droves. Thus, a Filipino is either a Pinoy (native), Tisoy (Spanish), or Tsinoy (Chinese). I am a mix of the first two, but my family frequented Manila Chinatown so it’s part of my heritage. I make it a point to visit these neighborhoods where I visit. Fortunately, my children (and grandchildren) settled in areas with Chinatowns.

The Chinese emigrated in waves when they felt pushed out of their homeland because of economics or politics. Thousands also left when major happenings pulled them into other countries. For these reasons, many Chinatowns were born. And they have become tourist destinations. The following are my favorites.

1.                        Manila

The Manila Chinatown is not only in the World’s Top 10, it's also the oldest! It was created by Spanish missionaries circa 1594 for the Catholic Chinese in Binondo. Later, it expanded to five neighboring districts.

The place to visit is Divisoria Market, with building malls and street stalls. It’s the Philippines’ bargain center, where you can find very low-priced goods, great Chinese food, and knockoff products at unbelievable prices. After dusk, it transforms into a vibrant night market.

Pro-Tip: Be sure to visit the historic Binondo Church, and sample classic Chinese pastries like “hopia” and “tikoy,” and mooncakes at Eng Bee Tin. When I go back to visit, I shop at Building 168. For authentic Chinese cuisine, go to Toho Panciteria Antigua, the country’s oldest restaurant (since 1888).

2.                         San Francisco

Also in the Top 10, the San Francisco Chinatown is the oldest in the US (since 1848). The lovely Dragon Gate ushers you into 30 blocks around Grant Avenue and Stockton Streets. The neighborhood houses 10,000 people, stores, and eating, cocktails and karaoke joints, etc. Streets are festooned with bright red round lanterns and ornate temples complete the festive atmosphere.

It was the Gold Rush in the mid-1800s that attracted thousands of Chinese males. They came again to help build the Transcontinental Railroad from 1865-9. It’s interesting to note that this neighborhood attracts more visitors than the Golden Gate Bridge.

Pro-Tip: My eldest daughter lives in the Bay Area and my foodie granddaughter introduced me to Good Mong Kok Bakery where the dim sum is so good you are content to eat your favorites standing on the sidewalk. Or bring them home!

3.                        Melbourne

My youngest daughter chose to migrate to Melbourne. So I also got to know their Chinatown which grew from Little Bourke St where the Chinese settled following the discovery of Australian gold in 1851.

This Top 10 Chinatown has predominantly become a food mecca, with an entire range of eating places. Besides Chinese food, it’s a place to get other Asian favorites and even European and Australian cuisines.

All year, festivals are celebrated around the historic streetscape which has been well preserved, along with the five refurbished entrance arches. Discover Tianjin Gardens, shop at Asian groceries, and visit a couple of plazas.

Pro-Tip: My foodie daughter loves Juicy Bao for its dumplings, Woodoo for Korean barbeque, and lots of hotpot places. For fine dining, Flower Drum brings back dynastic luxury food.

4.                        Vancouver

My eldest daughter lived in Seattle before the Bay Area, so I settled there when I migrated. We would take the less than three-hour trip to Vancouver to get much-missed Chinese and Filipino food at the Vancouver Chinatown. This community, next to the touristy Gastown,  is traced to the Chinese recruited to build the difficult section of the Canadian Pacific Railway through the Canadian Rockies (Vancouver to Calgary).

This Top 10 Chinatown is the third largest in North America behind New York City and San Francisco. It also has that special serene Sun Yat Sen Garden in the middle of skyscrapers. An annual Chinese New Year Parade is also well-attended.

Pro-Tip: We bought Chinese “siopao” and other goodies at Newtown Bakery. And the iconic Filipino chain restaurant Goldilocks has all the Filipino comfort food I like.

5.                        Seattle

This brings me to Chinatown in Seattle where the same foodie granddaughter now lives. The area near Pioneer Square was the first stop for virtually all Asian immigrants. The Chinese came first in the 19^th century but now it is called the Chinatown-International District with two additions: Japantown and Little Saigon.

Enter the historic Chinatown Gate, get the story of the neighborhood at the Wing Luke Museum; and visit the restaurants, galleries, and supermarkets. Take time to stop at Hing Hay Park where you can find locals playing ping-pong.  

Pro-Tip: Honey Court Seafood is the go-to place for family-style Chinese food and dim sum. Or visit Tai Tung, Seattle’s oldest Chinese restaurant, where Bruce Lee was a regular! And get a good dose of Asian goods at Uwajimaya.

6.                        Las Vegas

Las Vegas is just five hours from Phoenix where we are now based so the three-mile Chinatown Vegas around Spring Mountain Road has become “the other strip” for us. A huge Chinese Pagoda marks its entrance but the Journey to the West Monument is the attraction. It’s a gold statue in the parking lot that showcases the Buddhist monk Tan San Zhang, his white horse, and his three protectors from the classic Chinese novel Xi You Ji (Pilgrimage to the West).

It’s as busy and exciting as The Strip with two CBD dispensaries, 40 massage spas, several shooting ranges, and martial arts schools. Its Eastern character spawned 20 strip malls, 150 restaurants, six Asian supermarkets, dozens of Asian churches, and the Little Vegas Theater.

Pro-Tip: Seafood City is the largest Filipino supermarket chain in the US and Canada. There is one in Chinatown Vegas and it’s where we go.

7.                        Calgary

My third and middle daughter chose to settle in Calgary, Alberta so we have also explored the Calgary Chinatown on Center Street. In 1883, many of the Chinese who worked on the Canada Pacific Railway settled in Calgary after it was completed. The beautiful Chinese Cultural Center, the biggest such facility in North America, is styled after the Temple of Heaven which is a World Heritage Site in Beijing. North of Center Street, a “second” Chinatown has emerged out of Asian-inspired businesses.

Pro-Tip: We love to eat at Silver Dragon Restaurant where a long line of people usually waits to get amazing dim sums. Be sure to stop at Rainbow Bakery inside the Dragon City Mall to sample the divine Hong Kong egg tarts and other Chinese pastries.

8.                        Victoria

It was the beautiful Butchart Gardens that drew us to Victoria on Vancouver Island. But we considered ourselves lucky to also find there the small and charming Victoria Chinatown. It’s the oldest in Canada, second only to San Francisco in North America. Founded by Chinese merchants from San Francisco during the Fraser River Gold Rush of 1858, it’s now a National Historic Site.

There are rows of restaurants offering great Asian food around a couple of blocks. But it is the tiny alleys that hold the heart of this Chinatown. We found so many interesting little shops in the narrow but colorful Fan Tan Alley.

Pro-Tip: Be sure to spend some time at the Umbrellatorium and Canery, a unique little store of different kinds of umbrellas and canes.

Do yourself a favor. If the city you are visiting has a Chinatown, add it to your itinerary. Sample authentic Chinese food, shop for unique souvenirs from the East, visit temples and museums, and unravel the Chinese mystique.

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FOODS FROM OTHER LANDS: Hainanese Chicken Rice

NOTE: The first post in my series, Veggies beyond Salads, was “Air-fryer Vegetable Tempura.” The dish is a favorite of mine and a classic from the lovely land of Japan. In this second post, I have decided to modify the series to “Foods from Other Lands” which expands the dish options to better suit a travel blog. I promise to err on the side of dishes where vegetables are key, not only by adding nutritional value but also by enhancing the overall taste of the dish. 

I have learned how to cook favorite dishes from 12 countries. This week, we move from Japan to China as the place of origin of what arguably is my favorite. However, Hainanese Chicken Rice is now more known and commonplace in Singapore and Malaysia.

Singapore skyline (with my book in the foreground)

I discovered Hainanese Chicken Rice in Hyatt Regency (now Grand Hyatt) Singapore in the early 1990s when I was still traveling the world for work. It is reported that the hotel chef has perfected the recipe over the past thirty years and that the Hyatt branch in Singapore remains the place to taste the best of this dish.

Fortunately, the dish is also widely available, for just a song, in the hawkers’ centers all over the city-state. In 2017 while I was on an overnight layover at the airport hotel in the KL International Airport 2, I found a branch of the much sought-after Malaysian chain The Chicken Rice Shop built around the dish. I had a treat!

my girlfriends and I enjoying Hainanese Chicken Rice at the KL International Airport 2

Yes, the dish is very popular all over Southeast Asia. It originated from Hainan, a region in southern China as the dish called Wenchang chicken. Immigrants from that part of the region brought with them the wonderful dish wherever they eventually settled. It became known as Hainanese Chicken Rice and has become Singapore’s unofficial national dish which Malaysia contests, having also adopted it as a culinary staple.

I just had to learn how to make it. There are many versions offered on the Internet but they all seem far too complicated. This is my simplified version, still in keeping with the three key secrets of the dish: how the chicken is cooked (poached slowly at low temperature), how the rice is cooked (steamed with the poaching broth), and the sauces with the poaching broth as the base (and I simplify to only two).

THE RECIPE

Note: This recipe is a serving for four and can be finished in an hour and a half.

 Ingredients: 

poaching the chicken thighs

Hainanese Chicken

4 medium chicken thighs (with skin and bone)

Salt and pepper to taste

1 tablespoon minced garlic

1tablespoon minced ginger

2 tablespoons chopped green onions

3 cups water

3 teaspoons “Better than Bouillon” chicken base 

cooking the rice

Hainanese Rice

1 tablespoon olive oil

1 teaspoon minced garlic

1 cup Jasmine or long-grain rice

3 cups broth from the poached chicken

 Sweetened Soy Sauce

½ cup broth made from the poached chicken

1 tablespoon soy sauce

1 tablespoon brown sugar 

the chili sauce to the left and the sweetened soy sauce to the right

Chili Sauce

½ cup broth made from the poached chicken

1 teaspoon chili paste

Vegetable Sides:

1 cucumber, sliced into 1/8-inch circles

Bok choy leaves, steamed

 How to Prepare It: 

1. Make the Hainanese chicken:

a.     Dry the chicken thighs and apply salt and pepper all over.

b.     Make several slits on the chicken meat and insert minced garlic, minced ginger, and chopped green onions into the slits.

c.      Pour water into a pan. Mix Better than Bouillon chicken base into the water.  Put the chicken thighs into the water and bring it to a boil, then simmer in low heat for an hour.

garlic, green onion, and ginger

2. Make the chicken rice:

a.     Saute the minced garlic in the oil and medium heat

b.     Toast the rice in the garlic oil until all the oil is infused into the grains.

c.      Transfer the toasted rice into the rice cooker. Fill it with 2 cups of broth from the poached chicken. Reserve the other cup for the sauces. 

3. Prepare the sauces (while the rice is cooking):

a.     In a small bowl, mix the soy sauce and the brown sugar with ½ of the reserved broth made from the poached chicken.

b.     In another small bowl, mix the chili paste with the other half of the reserved broth made from the poached chicken.

steaming the leaves

4. Prepare the vegetables (while the rice is cooking).

a.     Slice the cucumber.

b.     Steam the bokchoy leaves. 

5. Serve the chicken with the hot steamed rice, the sauces, and the vegetables. 

Enjoy!

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Feeling Isolated in China

Guangzhou International Airport

China is the world’s most populous country, with 1.4 billion people. With the world’s population of 7.6 billion people, that means nearly one in every five individuals is Chinese. It is second only to the US as the world’s largest economy and just behind Russia and Canada in size. No traveler should overlook visiting this vast landscape of grassland, desert, mountains, lakes, rivers, and even a long coastline. Beijing is a magnet for history buffs with the imposing Forbidden City and the infamous Tiananmen Square. Shanghai, a modern global financial center with steep skyscrapers alongside its old sections, makes it the country’s largest city. Running majestically east-west across the country's north is the iconic Great Wall. And the third longest river in the world, the Yangtze, romantically connects inland cities and frontiers, including the home of the Great Panda and the site of the unparalleled Terracotta Warriors.

My first glimpses of China were of Hongkong, Macau, and Shanghai during my jet-setting business days. Last year, as a great bargain, China Southern Airlines offered Guangzhou as a layover city from Melbourne to Manila (7 hours) and Manila to Phoenix (12 hours). But it was in this city, that has recently overtaken Beijing as China’s second largest, that I felt a strange isolation from the world.

irregular flight service area

    

Chinese meal

 First Layover from Melbourne to Manila

I was going to use the first layover to figure out how I could take a short tour of the city on the second. There was little information I could get because of the language barrier, however, so I decided to hunker down and just get lost in my social media world. Sadly, with my laptop charge down to zero, I spent most of my time finding out how I could power it up with the gadgets thrown into my computer bag by my loving husband Bill. But, with a mechanical aptitude also near zero, I was ultimately unsuccessful.

Luckily, I did have a portable battery for my phone. Signs indicated that there was supposed to be free airport WiFi, but no luck, I could not get my phone to connect. A couple of millennials finally took pity and rescued me from my dire situation. With about half of my layover time already wasted, I sat down to another unwelcome shock. Facebook is banned in China! I turned to surfing but the last shock floored me: every search pointed me to sites totally foreign, totally unfamiliar, and totally Chinese!

My isolation was complete. With just two and a half hours to go before my flight departure to Manila, I consoled myself with a mouth-watering Chinese meal and musing about life. Only when I had to give a presentation on Social Media to the Viewpoint Technology Club in Phoenix did I learn why I could not get into my familiar world of social media. Of the top 10 websites in the world in 2017, 4 are Chinese! They have a Google equivalent, Baidu, Facebook/ Messenger equivalents, QQ, QZone and WeChat, and even an Amazon equivalent, Alibaba.

Oubon

Second Layover from Manila to Phoenix

On the way home from Manila to Phoenix, I dreaded the 12-hour layover in Guangzhou. You won’t believe my complete surprise when the immigration officer told me that I qualified for a complimentary shuttle and hotel in Guangzhou if I could find the counter that processed such things. I was on extremely high alert and found it. There they told me that I could get my vouchers at another counter if I could find it. Being of a certain level of travel intelligence, I found that, too! The only problem was that the hotels that were familiar to me were all out of rooms and I was left with one called the Oubon International Hotel. Feeling happily adventurous, I again took the challenge and soon I was off to my one lucky day.

just outside the airport

The road out of the airport was strewn with glitzy modern sculpture, and I prepared to be wowed. What followed was a disappointment with a capital D. The hotel was a two-star facility in an almost rundown suburb of Guangzhou far from the city. By the time maintenance staff was found to fix my room’s air conditioning unit, I had already lost a lot of time. They even had to get the Manager because no other staff spoke English. I decided not to take a chance on a short city tour and opted to get a feel for the hotel facilities. There were the standard restaurant and a fitness center. But I was surprised to find a red-themed mahjong room! But the hotel was mostly empty; I guess it is just really used as a rest stop for transients. I ventured out to the small shopping mall nearby. There I consoled myself with another flavorful Chinese meal and peeked and poked around the small department store.

small shopping mall

My twelve hours easily frittered away.  I truly felt isolated in China, but I also got to see why she has become a great power. About eleven years ago I was asked which, between China and India, did I feel would become the superpower. I hesitated to say China back then because I wrongly thought India had the advantage of being an English-speaking country. The language barrier is only real for us who are outside of China trying to look/get in. Internally, China has used her masses of people, her vast natural resources, and her long and rich heritage to develop technologies that rival ours. The policy of isolation, of attempting to make one’s economy self-reliant, and of seeking to devote its entire efforts to its own advancement has served China well throughout the years. She may be nowhere in the Top 50 of the Happiness Index of countries around the world, but she has risen to #21 in quality of life (#8 for the US).

department store

You can bet I was happy to be on the way back to my comfort zone; but I also resolved, on the plane to Phoenix, that China deserves to be visited properly.  Beijing, the Yangtze, and the Great Wall await me.

6 Cities in 7 Weeks, on the Way Home from Melbourne to Phoenix

rainbow trees in the Ayala Triangle

My three months in Melbourne have been covered in about ten posts, my few days in New Zealand in two, and my five-day tour of KL, Vientiane, Bangkok, and Brunei in another two. In this article, let me take you on a sweep of six cities that I visited over the seven weeks between leaving Melbourne and Auckland and finally being home in Phoenix, USA.                                                                                                                                   
Manila, Philippines

The thing that drew me to Manila, other than to visit my BFF Jingjing, was to sell my Makati condo. My daughter April had migrated to Australia so I no longer have a daughter who can take care of my properties there. I accomplished that mission the day I left for Guangzhou. Before I left, I still got to enjoy the condo’s “comforts”, especially since my BFF Ann brought me pillows, linens, and towels for me to use. It is sad that I didn't get to visit many places.

Sonya's Garden in Tagaytay, Philippines

Except for these four. Ayala Triangle. I had looked for rainbow trees all over the world after I saw a picture in a glossy mag and I was pleasantly surprised to find them right at the heart of Makati, the financial district where I used to work! Sonya's Garden in cool Tagaytay, the city on the ridge of a volcano crater in the middle of whose lake sits the world's smallest.volcano. It was just under an hour from Metro Manila. Enderun Colleges, the upscale culinary and hotel management school in the newest urban center, Bonifacio Global City where Lydia, another BFF, is Chairman of its Technology Management Department. International School Manila where I was given a tour before I gave an informal talk to the current Filipino scholars there (I was part of the very first batch, 50 years ago.

Enderun Colleges in Metro Manila, Philippines

Which brings me to the real reason “it’s more fun in the Philippines!”  Metro Manila is the world’s most densely populated city with about 12 M people. If we include surrounding towns, the number swells to 21 M. I had a total of 35 meet-ups while I was there, an average of one a day! You see the Filipino, like his half ancestor Spaniard, is a warm, clannish, and social animal. People just think of all reasons to meet, have coffee, discover a new restaurant, check out a new shop, watch the latest movie, or go out of town. I miss all the people and all the fun!!

International School of Manila in the Philippines

Guangzhou, China

The cheapest flight I found for the Phoenix-Melbourne-Manila-Phoenix trip featured long layovers, including in Guangzhou, population 15 M, a Chinese city I had not seen. The layover on the way home was long, made longer by the fact that there is no Facebook in China! I had already booked the flight when I found out that the city proper is two hours from the airport. I dropped the idea of touring the city and suffered silently on the way to Melbourne.

Guangzhou, China

But, on the way back, when I was going through the transit officer, she asked if I wanted to see Guangzhou. Of course, I said, in utmost joy! She said if I can find the specific immigration section, I will be able to get a free 23-hour visa. Of course, I did! There they directed me to another place, where, if I could find it, I could get free transportation and free lodging. Of course, I found both and off I went to the Oubon International Hotel on a free shuttle van ride!

It was a frustrating side trip. Nobody spoke English, except for the Hotel Manager who finally had to be called. As a result, I frittered my hours away. Afraid I would only get lost and not make my flight, I gave up the notion of going to the heart of Guangzhou. I settled on just walking around the stores of the small mall around the hotel and inspecting the hotel’s unusual amenities like the Mahjong room. Then it was time for the free authentic Chinese dinner. It was good and it was free! 

 Santa Monica, California

LA/Santa Monica, California

I used the long layover in Los Angeles, a large spread-out city of about 19 million, to visit my First Apo (first grandkid), Krishna. She had just transferred to a new flat in Santa Monica, just 20minutes from the airport. It was in a neat 1920s landmark building just two blocks from the Bombshell Salon where she works as a hairstylist. The next day, walking to her Salon, I got fascinated with the trees that lined Main Street. Krishna treated me to a haircut so I treated her to Jinya Ramen across the street. Then I took an Uber to the airport.

Albuquerque, New Mexico and Oklahoma City, Oklahoma

Two days after I landed in Phoenix but it didn't feel like going home. Bill and I put our brand new Hyundai Elantra to good use. We embarked on a road trip to go to his 55^th HS Reunion in Pittsburg, Kansas. On the way there and back, our two stops were Albuquerque, New Mexico and Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. While Phoenix has a population of 6 M, Albuquerque and Oklahoma City are both just over 600,000. It was quite a shift from the three chaotic megacities I had just been through.

Musical Road, Sky City, and Enchanted Mesa, Albuquerque, New Mexico

We stayed longer in Albuquerque to do a bit of sightseeing. On the way to Kansas, we visited the Sky City in Acoma, standing atop a 350-foot-high sandstone mesa which had been inhabited since AD 1150. The views out across the plains are unforgettable, especially toward Enchanted Mesa which is just under half the size of Uluru in Australia's Outback. On the way back, we drove on the Musical Road, on Old Historic Route 66. One of five musical roads in the world. This one plays America the Beautiful if you drive at 45mph! Two years ago, we had visited the one in Lancaster, California which plays the William Tell Overture. 

the Will Rogers statue that is inside the travel center built over the Will Rogers Turnpike

We didn't have much time in Oklahoma City. From Phoenix, we were hurrying to get to Pittsburg. On the way back to Phoenix, we even took the Oklahoma turnpike which reduces the time by an hour. This brought us back to the travel mega plaza built over and across the Will Rogers Turnpike which we visited six years ago. A statue of Will Rogers, the famous Oklahoma son who was a stage and motion picture actor, vaudeville performer, American cowboy, humorist, newspaper columnist, and social commentator.  

Pittsburg, Kansas

From megacities of 21, 15, and 19 M to those that don’t even reach 1 M, we finally found ourselves in Pittsburg, Kansas whose population is just over 20,000. This is the town where Bill was born and grew up. You can visit the whole town in a day and you will surely bump into someone you know while going around. And we felt right at home at his sister Rosemary and brother-in-law Jack’s home.

Via Christi Hospital in Pittsburg, Kansas

Sadly, Bill was not able to attend most of his Reunion. The day after the Welcome Dinner at Jim’s Steak House for early arrivals, Bill played golf with some of the men. That was when his Phoenix cardiologist called me and said: “Check him into a hospital right away!” The online heart monitor he had to wear after he reported passing out in Auckland, had been recording stoppages and irregularities in his heartbeat. At first, Bill was hesitant to have this procedure done in such a small town. But he had no choice. As it turned out, Pittsburg’s Via Christi Hospital did the job well.

These five cities in a span of 7 weeks were very disparate destinations, not just in terms of population, layout, and facilities. If I had stayed in each of them as much as I stayed in Manila, I would have also found the disparity in culture and the way people lived. Undoubtedly, I would also have discovered the unique beauty of each one. But now we need some rest from traveling!.

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How Saving US$200 on Airfare Turned Out to Be a Major Mistake

the flight I took: China Southern Airlines

Bill seeing me off at Phoenix Sky Harbor

“The Agony and the Ecstasy” is a cliché well appreciated among travelers. After all, we go through the agony of packing and the ecstasy of arriving, of spending hard-earned dollars and enjoying the thrills, of enduring stressful flights and reaching exciting destinations. But this time I really had THE agony. For savings of about US$200, I chose a multi-stop flight combination that appeared as the cheapest in Skyscanner searches. Boy, what a major mistake that turned out to be!

I wanted to go first to Melbourne, Australia to babysit my youngest grandchild and, second, to Manila to visit friends and family, in particular, a BFF dealing with cancer. The cheapest flight included layovers in Guangzhou, China in all segments. I hadn’t been there, and that became a tempting bonus instead of a deal breaker. Unfortunately, I signed up without looking closely at the devilish details. What should have been a 20-hour trip to Melbourne with one stop (LAX)  became a 38-hour ordeal on the first segment alone.

Skytrain at Phoenix Sky Harbor

Right at the outset, the one-hour flight from the Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport to LAX became all of three hours and a half. The weather in LA was reported as unstable, and Air Traffic Control required that the plane refuels for a potential extended circling over the airport. So, when we finally landed at LAX, I had to rush from Terminal 3 to the Tom Bradley International Airport. I could not find any golf

carts and had to run a circuitous 2 miles because of ongoing extensive construction. I did not want to miss my connecting flight to Guangzhou.  I barely made it in time for boarding. Sadly, the beautiful red and black scarf from Italy, the first gift ever given to me by Bill during courtship, was lost in the mad dash.

I was able to sleep for five hours on the 14-hour flight from LAX to Guangzhou. The other hours

were spent downing two Chinese meals and watching three good movies: Patriot Days, Miss Sloane, and The Founder. But when we landed at the Guangzhou Baiyun International Airport, the simple transfer to another plane involved long queues just like strict immigration lines. Then, as I sat in the waiting lounge, I came to the painful realization that Facebook is indeed banned in China and that internet speeds are extremely slow. I was not able to connect with anybody except for Bill via regular cellular call rates. I was glad I had a portable charger because I was afraid to use the airport’s strange-looking charging stations. 

our plane at Gameco

On the way out of Guangzhou, after all of us were boarded onto the plane, we encountered another two and a half hours of delay, ostensibly because of weather and air traffic control, whatever those meant. But I could not help notice that we were bussed from the waiting lounge way out somewhere beyond the airport terminals to the hangar of Gameco, Guangzhou’s aircraft maintenance engineering section, where our plane was ominously parked. I wondered what they weren’t telling us!  No wonder there was a flurry of activities that delayed our getting bussed by about an hour.

Fortunately, the flight was smooth and uneventful, and I finally arrived in Melbourne. There was minor ecstasy when I found my luggage. She, like myself, had made it through all the running around! It was 50 degrees Fahrenheit at 11:00 pm when Clint, my son-in-law, and I got out to get a cab. Oh, how I missed the scarf that would have kept me warmer. In another 15 minutes, we were at their apartment and Kyrie, my 19-month-old youngest grandchild, was still wide awake. We played until 1 AM with the Play-doh I had brought with me. But it was his pouty lips ready to kiss an old, tired grandma that was the reason why I traveled so far. This was THE ecstasy that came with THE agony!

Kyrie

The US $200 savings is not worth all the hassle. I dread the two other segments, from Melbourne to Manila and from Manila back to Phoenix. They both pass through Guangzhou, and I know I will again suffer the symptoms from Facebook withdrawal. Sigh. From now on, I will limit the flight stops to just one or none and choose the cheapest among those. It is but logical that the hassles will grow exponentially as you increase the number of stops and the end-to-end flight hours. As Murphy’s Law dictates, “Anything that can go wrong will go wrong.” The more stops you make and the more hours you fly, the more things can go wrong! Ergo, simplify!