Brie and Soph's Excellent Adventure: Part I

My trip abroad was overwhelmingly amazing. And it was a lot to process upon my return to Nanjing. Yes, let's use that as the excuse as to why I haven't posted anything about it yet... let's pretend I didn't get horribly sick and that I didn't harbor a new obsession with Mindy Kaling's recent TV series…

Brie and Soph's Excellent Adventure Part I: Getting There

Sophie and I, being the young adventurers (read: broke recent graduates) we are, decided to fly to Thailand from Hong Kong instead of from Nanjing. Unfortunately, Hong Kong is normally a flight away. Instead, we took an overnight train to Shenzhen, which has an underground subway (the British meaning, as in a walking tunnel) to Hong Kong border patrol. However, Nanjing to Shenzhen is a 25 hour train ride. Being the young adventurers (again, really broke) we are, we got the least expensive sleepers on the third level. When we were walking toward our train, we only saw two levels of beds. "Wow!" we naively thought, "there must only be two levels!"

We were wrong. There were three. On the third level, it is only possible to lie down. You have to hoist yourself up the ladder, then become vertical immediately. It is unpleasant, but it is manageable for young adventurers like us. We were able to steal flip down seats occasionally, otherwise the nice people on the first level bed let us sit there to read or chat.

I read, played Set (thanks Mom!) but I mostly slept through the train ride. We stayed the night in Shenzhen with a friend we met while being TEFL trained, and the next afternoon we headed to Hong Kong for our flight.

In Hong Kong, we met up for dinner with a friend of a friend who is now, I would say, just a one-degree of separation friend, and then we went to the airport. Areas of Hong Kong really look like New York City! The neon lights, the crowded streets, the foreign men trying to sell me "real Timex watches" on the sidewalk. Homesickness abounded!

When we arrived at the airport, the only available kiosk was in business class, so we went to get our tickets there. Our tickets had a big stamp that said "BUSINESS CLASS." This is important to my story, trust me. At the gate, we got in the longest line of people at the Economy station, but a nice attendant told us we were in the wrong line. 

"No no," we insisted, "we simply got our tickets from the business sections. But we're economy."

"No," she answered, "please get in the business class line."

"NO!"

"Yes"

"NO!" (this went on awhile...)

We finally ceded and defiantly sauntered over to entrance, where we were sure to be denied. When we were let in, Sophie and I had a moment of panic in which we thought that we accidentally bought business instead of economy and oh, what a waste of money that would have been for two young adventurers such as ourselves! But then we realized there was no way we both individually accidentally bought such expensive tickets.

Basically, we got upgraded. It was really exciting. There were other bedraggled backpackers who were equally as confused, then freaked out, then super psyched to be on such a fancy airplane. I had my own airplane pod. Open bar. Massage chair. Full meal on my three hour flight at 9 PM. A fancy table cloth for said meal. Swiveling complicated tray tables. Hot towels for my face and hands. AUTOMATIC BLINDS FOR THE WINDOW. How pointless is that? 

Champagne, anyone? Look at that POD!

Why yes, I will have champagne, thank you very much.
So many movies!

You can't tell, but I'm fully vertical.
Better than the vertical-ness from the train, I'll tell you that much...

A good meal by any standards. But this was an airplane.

After one night in Bangkok, (cue the overtly racist and sexist music!) Sophie and I flew to Chiang Mai. And that is where my vacation really begins. Sorry, I am still really excited that I got placed in business class... it was really fancy... China Doll is a fancy doll...