30 Hour Travel Marathon

30 Hour Travel Marathon

Travel marathons with young children is not for the faint of heart!  Definitely a couple of brutal days.  Our kids repeatedly told us “These days are terrible!” “These days are horrible!” “These days are the worst days of my life!” (Well you and me both kids! Haha). However much of what happens while traveling on planes is not in your control.  You often can only smile, pray for supernatural patience and love, and pray some more!

Leaving RDU, NC: Check in went pretty smooth, however they would not print out all the boarding passes we would need.  First indicator of rough times to come.  Security went smoothly.  Arrived in plenty of time to get water, breakfast, etc.  Boarding went smoothly.  Then spent 1 hour on tarmac due to bad weather in our connecting city, Newark.  After 1 hour on tarmac, we were finally cleared to fly out.  1 hour flight to Newark went smoothly.  Then Satan really went to work.  Got to Newark (now 1 hr late and we only had a 2 hr layoever) and could not find a counter that would issue us boarding passes.  Sam had his, but the girls and I did not have any.  We were told we would have to travel to a different terminal to get that. So we take a tram.  Find the check in counter.  Then spent 30 minutes trying to get boarding tickets.  Our flight is now boarding!  We are rushed through security, but we were not prepared to go through security a second time and we were very unpopular cutting in front of all these people.  We still had our water bottles full of water (which they then confiscated most of the water bottles), and made us take out all snacks – and we had a lot (evidently this is a new rule to search food), and all electronics, etc. in our 6 carry on bags.  Trying to do all that quickly with crazy kids and taking off shoes was stressful and the Air China agent trying to help us through the line is now angry with us for taking so long and then we get stopped by security when we forget to give them the 8 yr olds water bottle which has about 1 oz of water.  Security now has to test it.  Needless to say, we should have missed that flight.  However we find out it has a delay and so we make it.

The 14 hr flight was long and arduous.  I will say that we only paid around $700 per person for our Air China tickets, so we got what we paid for.  It was an older plane and not all the screens or headphones worked, and the seats were similar to concrete.  However they did provide headphones and screens, most working, with several movies, etc. some of which were in English.  Staff were very good considering their long shifts and workload; food was warm and decent (2 meals were provided with a few snacks available in between).  The meals were combination of Chinese and Western cuisine.  Would have loved much more water to drink.  Because of our rush to get on the plane, I did not have time to purchase more water (and most of our water bottles got taken away in Newark), so I was so thirsty for most of the flight from Newark to Beijing.  Small cups of water were occasionally offered.  Staff did know some English.  Children slept sporadically.  Bathrooms were surprisingly large and came equipped with toilet paper, soap, lotions, Kleenex and hand towels.  We were also given pillows and blankets.  But could not adjust air (it was kinda hot for the entire trip) and was not allowed to lift up the window covers for most of the trip (I think they were trying to encourage people to sleep most of the flight – but who can sleep for 14 hrs on a plane??).  A neat side note is that I found a German movie with Chinese subtitles that was about Christianity and played recognizable Christian songs that I had heard on American radio. So awesome to see His work being done by His people in other countries for the Chinese to see and hear.  China is still a restricted country in terms of faith.  Please be in prayer for this immensely populated country that holds 1/5 of the entire world’s population.

Super difficult part came in Beijing.  With the delay leaving Newark, we arrived in Beijing an hour late and only had 70 minutes to make our flight from Beijing to Dalian.  However we now had to go through at least 5 different entry points – fingerprinting twice, immigration (which involved filling out paperwork on each of us), security multiple times, etc. etc.  Then we finally find the Air Tram to get to the terminal with our Dalian Flight.  We take it, go through more security, and run to our gate only to see our plane taxing away from the gate!  We were so crushed.  We then spent multiple hours wandering the HUGE Beijing airport with our very limited mandarin and finding limited English speakers to help us find out where we need to go to get a new flight.  By this time we have already been traveling for 24 hrs and our children are at their breaking points.  Everyone is tired, hungry, dirty and super cranky.  Thankfully the supernatural patience and prayers took over at this point.  Many people wanted to take pictures of our children and one lady even came up to Sam and wanted a picture of him and her together!  I was pretty assertive in not allowing strangers to take pictures of the girls (I had read that we should not allow it) however a person we met later in the week who helped us with orientation told us it is part of the Chinese culture.  Taking your picture means they think you are cute and it is a compliment (It also made me realize no one wanted a picture of me! lol)

 After walking around for what seems hours and past very intimidating Chinese Military personnel in uniforms, jeep and weapons (though at this point I was so tired, I couldn’t think much about them except to start praying fervently for protection of everyone in the airport), we did eventually get boarding passes for a flight to Dalian that left 5 hrs after our original flight.  We spent that time resting, eating, using the bathroom, filling up water bottles (from the free filtered water machines – not the water fountains), playing on a kids indoor playground and talking to a Chinese family that now lives in the US but was visiting China for a couple weeks to introduce their new child to their families.  Our 6 year old started having nose bleeds, but it had been very dry at the airports and the airplanes.  As we are in line to board the plane, the hymn “Amazing Grace” started playing over the speakers in the Beijing airport!!  I was so humbly reminded of He who is in control and of His great protection, care and love.

That flight to Dalian went smoothly and had air conditioning and bottles of water (yay!).  Our 6 year old got more nose bleeds, but everyone else slept on the flight.  Arrived in Dalian (yay!!!!) but no luggage.  Filed paperwork for luggage (and those employees did know some English).  Found our driver quickly and was able to get to our hotel about 30 minutes away.  Our hotel staff was amazing.  Even though it was 11:30pm when we arrived, they had people escort us upstairs and had food brought to us since their kitchens were closed.  They ordered KFC for us, which did have chicken, along with Chinese soups and orange juice (orange juice is very popular in China).  And our room already had several snacks, a stocked refrigerator and even New Zealand milk and American cereal for the kids. (Those items are not normally eaten by the Chinese – they don’t normally eat dairy).  And thankfully the hotel gave us lots of toiletries so between that and what we brought in our carry-ons, we were able to get by ok without our luggage for that first night.

Here are a few pics of our 2 bedroom apartment taken within the first few days: