Arrival

Things continued to go well with Air China, we departed Beijing about 5 minutes ahead of schedule. The first aircraft we went on was less than 1 year old whereas this one was closer to 25 years old, although you couldn’t tell from looking at it. The interior was more dated, but nonetheless comfortable. The crew were not quite as organised as the previous one when it came to meal service, but no one died of starvation. I have to admit the Beef Tenderloin I had for dinner was easily the best beef I have had on an aircraft. We arrived to sunny skies and 28C, and after a longer than expected wait for the bags they finally arrived and we could breathe again. After watching way too many Border Security episodes on TV we felt it best to declare the ground coffee we had brought with us, turns out we didn’t need to. Why ground coffee you ask, well from what I have read there is way too much reliance on expensive, yuppie, European inspired, steam engined coffee over here, or on the other end of the spectrum Nescafe. We managed to arrive at rush hour which had the immediate effect of doubling the cab fare because of all the slow downs and stoppages, we could of gone hunting for hotel mini buses, but couldn’t be bothered. We will certainly book one for the trip back to the airport next week. We weren’t feeling too bad at Sydney airport, but tiredness is now setting in so we are going to head out for a short walk and then find a pub for food and liquid sustenance.