Our stay in Khabarovsk had sadly come to an end. It was just a short one-day visit but it did give us time to draw breath after our gruelling four week journey. We always enjoy the lovely city of Khabarovsk and this stay was no exception. Khabarovsk is indeed "a city with a soul".

Our day welcomed us with a cloudless, glorious glowing amber sky. In the clear cool Siberian air; the majestic buildings of central Khabarovsk appeared as razor sharp silhouettes against a backdrop of an emerging dawn light. There was not a soul to be seen; not even any motor vehicles. In ghostly silence, it was a Khabarovsk morning at its summer best. 

Surely, it was a good omen for our coming journey to Shanghai. 

That morning we were scheduled to take an Aeroflot flight from Khabarovsk's Novy Airport to Seoul, South Korea where we would connect with an Asiana Airlines flight to Shanghai. We dread connecting flights. In these days of so many travellers, the insanely tedious security procedures often cause long delays and absolute chaos. And that is to say nothing of the almost usual flight delays or cancellations. More often than not, flight connections make for a nail biting and stressful experience. Sadly, air travel today is not a relaxing experience. 

We were however looking forward to our three day stay in Shanghai; a stopover that has become almost a tradition and for us some time to enjoy a little bit of luxury and usually some well earned R & R. We always treat ourselves to Club Room accommodation at the Sofitel Hyland Shanghai Hotel, a great establishment which has almost become "home" for us in Shanghai. For this visit however, Alan had convinced me to stay at the Pullman Skyline Hotel in the southern Shanghai Huangpu District. "It looks like a truly lovely hotel. And the Club Floor facilities have exceptional reviews" he argued. "It will be a nice change from the Sofitel". I must confess that despite its excellent reputation, I was not all that convinced. I just love the whole experience of the Sofitel. I am undeniably pig-headed and I was actually surprised I gave in. But I had to admit that Alan had wanted to try a different Shanghai hotel for some time.  

As usual, the Olympic Hotel had efficiently organised a taxi for us to the airport, a journey of only ten kilometers and depending on traffic, only a twenty minutes drive from our hotel.

After visiting Khabarovsk on so many occasions, we were now very familiar with the often frustrating and ill defined procedures at Novy Airport. We know now that if you are even slightly early for your flight, the gates are not opened to the Departures Section until only just before the check-in time for your flight. 

I also know that there are a few souvenir shops that are always handy for buying last minute gifts. After all, there are not many shops in Chukotka, let along ones where we could buy gifts. And in Magadan, we had little opportunity nor much inclination for any sort of non-food related shopping. Thanks to the friendly shop manager who spoke excellent English, I managed to buy some easy to carry touristy refrigerator magnets and some good quality Russian chocolate - and hoped that I had not given these same presents before, which I most probably had.

Unlike previous occasions, we had no problems with our check in. And we were astounded when the young stony faced woman at the counter asked us if we would like our luggage transferred onto our connecting flight. Aeroflot and Asiana Airlines are not part of a formal alliance but they do have reciprocal flight arrangements in Russia. Despite many requests however over the years with all sorts of airlines and various alliances, we have never been able to organise anything at all that would assist us with flight connections. This was a very pleasant surprise.  

Delighted, we thanked the young woman profusely. Alex had often told us that in his opinion we go overboard smiling and thanking people. Laughing at our pathetic apologies and over the top series of thanks, he would often say "You are SO un-Russian! No wonder everyone can spot you a mile off as a foreigner!"

Obviously this woman shared Alex's views. Staring at us blank faced, the woman official certainly had that look of "Why are you thanking me so profusely? Why are you smiling at me? You don't know me. Are you crazy?" It didn't matter. We were just relieved we would not have to go through the tedious procedure of finding, then checking in our luggage again at Seoul's Incheon Airport. 

While we were waiting in the departure lounge for our flight, a pleasant and interesting Finnish businessman sitting next to us struck up a conversation. Speaking perfect English, he asked the usual questions as to where were we from, where we had been to in Russia etc. 

Partner of a large international financial capital company, Mikke was based in Amsterdam but his family lived in Spain - and obviously spent a lot of his time travelling. But despite his wealth of travel experience Mikke (like Aeroflot Alex and Tele 2 Dmitry) was astonished to hear of our travel adventures, particularly those in the Bering Strait region and of course our epic voyage to the iconic Cape Dezhnev.  "Ahh, you need to travel in a bit more style!" he laughed offering his knowledge of a luxury resort in Rovaniemi in northern Norway called Kakslauttanen Arctic Resort. "Here you can stay in glass igloos and be warm and comfortable while looking out onto the Arctic environment. And you can go dog sledding and skiing. There is a lot to do. And there are good restaurants" he explained.

Feeling jaded, travel weary and decidedly grotty in our clothes we had worn continuously for nearly a month, and having eaten mostly bread and jam for weeks, the luxury Norwegian Arctic Resort with the good restaurants sounded great. But only for a few minutes. Tough as it was, we knew such a luxury tour could never re-create the extraordinary real life experiences we had encountered in Chukotka. A tired cliche - but it had been a truly life changing experience. And we knew that we could never go back to purely touristy destinations, no matter how luxurious nor how attractive they would be.

Improvision is a Wonderful Skill....  

All went smoothly with boarding our flight; somewhat of a miracle for Novy Airport which almost always has unexpected - or should I say, now expected - delays with boarding. So many times, we have been left in the stairwell of the airport for over an hour waiting for our airport bus to take us to our aircraft, with nowhere to go and no information. Again, no-one ever complained or even looked anxious. Such is the queuing acceptance of the ever patient Russians. Everything was going - almost too well....

I had a seat next to Mikke while Alan sat ahead of us in an aisle seat with a bit more leg room. The Aeroflot flight attendants in their attractive red uniforms were charming and very welcoming, and even though I tried my best to say "Доброе утро" (or good morning) as usual they returned their greeting in English, smiling broadly at my foreign accent.  Mikke on the other hand, was greeted in Russian. It was very amusing especially as he later admitted that despite being of Russian descent, he could not speak any Russian. Perhaps he just looked more European than us....

Our hot breakfast was eggs (fried or scrambled), ham and fried potatoes. I chose the scrambled eggs while Mikke and Alan opted for fried. It all looked quite delicious. The only problem was that there were no knives and forks. And when you can't speak much Russian, it is quite difficult to use sign language to explain. But there was no need. A rattled flight attendant apologised as best as she could that somehow the flight catering company had overlooked the cutlery, which also included the serviettes, pepper and salt.

It was in fact quite hilarious to watch how people coped. I noticed Alan used the foil from his disc of butter to spread it on his bread, then used the cap from his orange juice to scoop us his eggs. Voila! We had some sort of solution but it was not easy. I looked at Mikke's beautifully tailored navy suit and crisp white shirt and hoped he didn't come to grief with his dripping egg yolks. Which of course he didn't....

Coffee was another problem as the sugar sachets were also in the non-existent cutlery bags. But there was milk. I had to laugh that I did actually know how to ask for milk and even more amusing that I was able to help out Mikke as well. Imagine me helping a Finnish man of Russian descent with Russian language!!! It made my day. There were three spoons that the attendants managed to find and so the whole plane load of passengers shared them to stir their tea and coffee. It was really very funny.

Apart from the amusing cutlery incident our flight to Seoul had been pleasant and surprisingly incident free. It been fun meeting Mikke. At Seoul's Incheon International Airport we exchanged cards, promising to stay in touch - which we have.

Our Asiana Airlines flight from Seoul to Shanghai was half an hour late but everything worked well. And unlike our March 2018 experience, we were able to find the correct terminal with no problems.

Being in transit, we had to locate the Transit Centre for Asiana Airlines to register as ongoing passengers and to present our luggage vouchers with the reception desk. Finding this office was not quite so easy. 

While we were waiting a young English woman arrived breathless and obviously stressed to the limit. She was running late with her connection and had not able to find the Transit Centre. We had plenty of time for our connecting flight and of course insisted that she go ahead of us to be registered. 

The staff was very kind to her but somehow she misunderstood their advice about her luggage being automatically transferred to her oncoming flight. Thinking that she had to catch the airport train back to the terminal in which she arrived to find her luggage, the young woman nearly passed out from anxiety. And even when she did realise her misunderstanding, it took her quite some time to recover. When she finally did, I think she would have gladly kissed the staff.

Our Asiana flight to Shanghai on a brand new Air Bus 330 was very pleasant - and incident free. We were only slightly late, arriving at Pudong International Airport around 3:00 pm, well in time to enjoy our Happy Hour at the Pullman Skyline Hotel. Or so we thought.

There must have been several flights land at Pudong International Airport at the same time. And to our surprise, there was a huge number of passengers queued outside the Immigration Section. Standing waiting, we estimated there must have been well over 400 people lined up in maze-like queues to have their fingerprints registered at the self help machines, before joining the Immigration queue.  

Alan joined one Immigration queue and I another. Alan's line was painfully slow but it was actually moving - and miles faster than mine. But there was nothing I could do other than push in behind Alan, which of course I would not dream of doing ( I must confess the thought did pass through my mind, but only fleetingly....). The young pimply faced official in an over sized uniform who was handing my queue, was obviously very inexperienced. And ridiculously slow. Several times he had to leave his counter to confer with other staff, adding to the frustrations of the many now agitated queue members.

Waiting in line, to my horror I began to realise I was having an oesophageal spasm. The familiar gripping raw pain which moves from my back to my chest then under and through my jaws is always frightening. These spasms are no joke. They can be agonising, exhibiting the very same symptoms of a massive heart attack. And although I have experienced many, on each occasion I cannot help but think "Now calm down, you know it's an oesophageal spasm. But maybe, just maybe this one isn't and I'm having a major heart attack...". Being totally out of control in my hopeless queue, it was hard not to panic.  

It was no place to try to find my medication in my loaded backpack but thankfully after frantic searching, I finally found my precious bottle of tablets. But of course I had no liquid with which to swallow the medication, so I just had to choke the sizeable dry tablets down as best I could - which is just what you don't do for oesophogeal issues. By this time I was bent over in agony. In the distance I could see Alan's look of concern. He had exited Immigration and there was nothing he could do for me. 

I have no idea how long it took for me to go through Immigration. It was a horrible situation and one I hope I don't ever have to experience again. Alan found me some water from one of the bathrooms and finally my medication slowly kicked in.

To our surprise, the entire process from landing to finding a taxi took well over three hours. After a long and tiring day we were anxious to find a taxi and enjoy some refreshments and food at our hotel.

One of the reasons we choose Club Room accommodation at any hotel is for the luxury of a quiet space in a lovely Club Lounge setting to enjoy some drinks and finger food in the evening. Club accommodation always has superior facilities and with the lounges being located on the top floor of the hotel, they always have splendid views of the city in which we are staying. It has become part of our travel experience and a great treat after our usual rough and tough travels. And we never miss out on Happy Hour!

As we were about to exit the the airport, a young man in a uniform approached us asking if we needed transport to our hotel. After many years of travel we were well used to taxi scams and having been caught out badly on our first visit to Shanghai, are very cautious to avoid such approaches. The young man however explained that he was part of the airport staff and suggested that we would be much better off to take an airport shuttle bus to our hotel. "The  traffic at this time of the night is horrendous. The shuttle bus will be a much quicker and cheaper option. It would be leaving soon and there were just two seats left. He sounded convincing, even showing us his credentials as an airport employee. And he probably was.

The bus trip was the worst nightmare imaginable. We have witnessed heavy Shanghai traffic but nothing quite this bad. It was so congested that we were stationary for sometimes 15 minutes at a time. And as we were dropped off at our hotels in order of boarding, of course, we were last on, last off. 

It was an absurd situation. We actually passed very close to our hotel, but there was no way our driver would let us off. We even ended up driving back over the Huangpu River some 30 kilometers to Pudong, almost back to the airport. 

And all the way, a huge European man behind us snored heavily, often waking himself up with a roaring gasp and an atrocious snort. At one stage I thought he was about to choke. But of course he didn't. Instead he ended up being "released" at his hotel relatively early in the endless journey. Smiling as he collected his bags, he said good night to the bus passengers and wished us well. It's amazing what tiredness and frustration can do to your sense of humour. Glaring at him I muttered insincerely under my breath "Oh thanks. And the same to you....". It was probably as well he didn't see my face - or hear me.....

After an hour of this crazy trip, we tried to ask our driver when we would be let off at our hotel. It was getting late, and dangerously close to us missing out on our cherished Happy Hour which finished at 8:00 pm. But of course the driver did not speak English. A Chinese passenger tried to help us but all she could say was "It should not be long now..."  But it was..  

We finally arrived at the Pullman Hotel at 7:15 pm and after checking in had just thirty minutes to race up to the Club Lounge for some food and refreshments. The charming Club Lounge French manager was very understanding of our plight. Explaining that the hot food was about to finish, he graciously escorted us to the buffet section so we would not miss out on at least something to eat

We may have had just thirty minutes but we certainly made the best of our time. After several gins and tonic, we began to feel almost human. We even had a little time to relax and admire our luxurious surrounds. It was a truly magnificent lounge.

"I will make sure that you get special service tomorrow", smiled the manager as we left. And he did. It was a very good hotel and the friendly management was exceptional.

In our beautifully furnished room, we collapsed into bed for an early night. It had been a mixed journey - some parts good but others very trying. But it all ended well. And Alan was right. The hotel was truly beautiful.