June 18, 2009 No Pedicure, but WOW!

Hi FROM China:
Well, the night before our trip I decided to save the $20 and NOT have a pedicure. Instead, my daughter Hannah filed my claw-like toenails and painted them hot pink.
When we were checking in for our flight we were offered the option to upgrade to Business Class for $680 per ticket. It's a good thing I saved that $20, cuz we splurged and upgraded to Business Class. The upgrade cost nearly as much as our economy class ticket cost!!!! AND it is only for one leg of the journey....only from San Fran to ShangHai, one-way. But boy oh boy was it worth it.We have never flown Business Class before. Usually we are back in the cattle car portion of the plane, surrounded by people, where getting up to use the restroom means nimbly hopping over at least six people just to reach the aisle. Not so in Business Class. Wow, our chairs reclined so that we could actually sleep in a horizontal position. We had personal TV monitors that popped up from the arm rests. We could choose from about 7 movies and 2 TV stations. For us the best part was the relaxing reclining chairs, complete with built-in massage option.Never before have I actually sleep restfully on a long flight.
Our flight lasted almost 14 hours. When we landed, we were told not to leave our seats because a medical team was coming on board. In walked two individuals wearing "haz-mat suits" like you see in CSI. They even had respirators in use. They came equipped with laser beam heat detectors, which they aimed at each person's forehead. If the laser beam indicated elevated temperature, the next step was an actual thermometer under your tongue. We saw that happen to the man sitting in front of us. as it turned out, there was one man back in the dreaded economy coach section who was sick, and so it took a long time sitting on the runway while authorities decided what to do with him. Ultimately all of us (except the sicko) were allowed to deplane.
Pudong Airport is Asia's newest, most modern airport, and we are told, the largest. It is impressive, and we navigated through it with ease thanks to the intuitive way in which it was laid out. Our guide for the one hour drive through ShangHai to our hotel was Mindy. Her English was excellent, and she was so sweet and full on information about ShangHai.ShangHai is a city of 18.7 million people. Traffic at night (during the "slow" time of day") was comparable to driving on the AZ-101 during rush hour. I would hate to be on that freeway during rush hour here in ShangHai.After we checked into our hotel rooms we met our travel companions, the Cleeff Family from Lake Forest, Illinois. We first met the Cleeffs back in 1996 when we were part of the same adoption group. We adopted our daughter Hannah and they adopted their daughter Madeline. This time it is just Marilyn Cleeff (the mom, my age), Caitlin Cleeff (the daughter age 17), and Madeline (the younger daughter age 14). Their Dad Pete could not come on this trip. It is great for the both Perrie and Hannah to have travel companions their own age, and very similar in temperament. And Marilyn is an awesome travel companion....very sweet and full of enthusiasm.Our hotel is beautiful, and tomorrow at 9:00 we will meet our other guide named Laura, and she has the day all planned out for us. We will be touring ShangHai with her and the Cleeff family. The breakfast bar opens at 6:00 a.,am, and as in most Chinese hotels, the breakfast is included with the room. The Cleeffs told us it is very good, with both Western food and traditional Chinese food. If I know Hannah and Perrie they will start their day with noodles.We are off to a great start.
We will be here at the Holiday Inn Vista shanghai today (it is 4:00 am on June 18th here). On the morning of June 19th we will take another flight, about a 90 minute flight, from ShangHai to NanChang. Once we arrive in NanChang we will meet a new guide who will drive us up to Mt. Lushan, a national park in China. We will spend two days/nights in Mt. Lushan at the GuoMei Hotel, hiking, and enjoying the cool mountains.watch for my next email...Cathy Last=======