Another 2.00 am start to the day didn't do much for my appearance and to my horror I had once again burst blood vessels in both my eyes - a sure sign of tiredness. Even make-up didn't help. I was looking in the mirror at the real Bride of Frankenstein...

Our taxi driver was the same fellow who delivered us from Heydar Aliyev Airport to our hotel the evening before. He was running 20 minutes late but was adamant that it was no problem. A large ebullient man who spoke good English, he kept us entertained - or perhaps I should say awake - with his lively chatter. We were, he told us, to pick up another two passengers for our early flight and drove to what appeared to be another section of our somewhat strange hotel in the middle of seemingly nowhere. He parked the taxi and disappeared - for what felt like a very long time. After some 15 minutes, a wave of anxiety swept over us. We were running late anyway, and if we missed this flight, we were in real trouble....

At last two passengers, and most importantly our taxi driver appeared. One of the passengers looked familiar. It was American Michael who we had met in the infamous airport queue the day before. Looking even more disheveled - if that was at all possible - he stumbled out of the hotel, clutching his luggage, a number of coats and a brief case. Gone was that enviable look of impassive calm from the day before. Michael was looking decidedly rattled. As it happened, he and the other passenger had both slept through their alarm clocks and were only awakened when our taxi driver knocked on their door.

We arrived at Heydar Aliyev airport in time and bade a final farewell to Michael. We gave him our card and told him to contact us if ever he was in Australia. Michael was a lovely guy and I would have liked a photo for my blog but from what we saw of our reclusive friend, it is unlikely we will ever hear from him.

We began to relax. After all, the only task now was to check in and sit in our lounge until our flight left. The check in was no problem but the following security process was. Apparently, the face recognition software on the camera refused to identify me. I could well understand - my poor eyes resembled stewed plums and during the last few days, I had probably acquired a few more ageing wrinkles. The staff must have thought that I looked liked the person in my passport photo however as they tried every face recognition camera in the security area. While this was going on, another group of officials was opening up my hand luggage and giving my computer quite a check over. Alan who had long been processed, just stood shaking his head. The other officials and the passengers held up by the process looked on suspiciously. After thirty minutes or so, the officials gave up and waved me through. I wondered what was going to happen in Russia where we had witnessed the most draconian airport officials on our entry to Moscow some weeks before...

Now by our standards, there is always an occasion for a drink. But even we couldn't start at 5.00 am! Three Russian passengers in the Business Lounge had no compunctions at all and were well and truly pissed by the time we arrived. A very friendly and jovial threesome, they looked delighted to see us and did their best to entice us to join them for some red wine. The bar area was littered with empty beer and wine bottles and for a minute it was tempting.... One of the group spoke excellent English and explained that they were Russian miners working in Azerbaijan who were returning home for some leave. They were great fun to be with and willingly posed for some photographs for my blog. We were just pleased to finally be in the Aeroflot lounge, with all our security and check in procedures completed - and most unlike us, enjoying a bottle of water and a coffee.

Once again, we were really impressed with our flight. The service was exceptional and the food fantastic. I could become quite accustomed to eating Beluga caviar and smoked salmon for breakfast each morning! Our friends who sat behind us, collapsed into a deep sleep and snored all the way to Moscow. On our arrival, they didn't look quite so chipper. It appeared they were in for one hell of a hangover.

We knew that our Aeroflot flight to Shanghai departed Moscow's Sheremetyevo International Airport at D Terminal which we read was a considerable distance from our incoming F Terminal but we didn't quite expect the (what seemed like) a kilometer or so to get there. Unlike our experience with the airport on our first entry into Russia some weeks before, we found the other parts of Sheremetyevo airport very pleasant with lovely shops, good signage and easy to follow directions. All we had to do was keep walking, and walking.

Alan was looking in one of the Duty Free shops when I noticed a vending machine selling Vladimir Putin t-shirts. And it was attracting quite a lot of buyers. President Putin is amazingly popular in Russia and no-one at all seemed to think it a bit unusual to buy a Putin t-shirt. I was tempted to buy one, and rather regretted not doing so. I settled instead for buying some Moscow chocolate for our friends Peter and Roz Roberts who so kindly dropped us off and picked us up from the local airport on our return home.

The Aeroflot Business lounge was absolutely packed with passengers, some of whom looked like they had camped there overnight. Many were lying across the seats with their feet on the tables. Perhaps they were trapped as we nearly were, having missed flights and were without visas? Fortunately, our connection time was short and as soon as it was called we happily left the rather grotty lounge and boarded our Aeroflot flight to Shanghai.

Once again, our Aeroflot flight was outstanding. There was never a question about ordering more drinks and Alan was astounded when we were descending into Shanghai, one of the flight attendant offered him another gin and tonic!

At the time we stayed in Shanghai, it was possible to stay in transit (from an international flight only) for a maximum period of 72 hours without the requirement for a visa (we now understand the transit time has been increased to 144 hours). Well, that's what the rules say. Reality is quite something else and it well to know what to expect when you pass through Immigration. We had experienced being in "Less than 72 Hour Transit" mode on our last trip and we knew there would be lengthy questions from Immigration officials. For this reason Alan had conscientiously printed copies of our paperwork and itinerary, all carefully translated into Mandarin. And sure enough, we were immediately summoned over to another desk where surly armed officials scrutinised our passports and documents, peering at us and asking numerous questions. The process was much more rigorous and unfriendly than for our last entry and took around half and hour before we were finally "released".

A brittle young blonde Russian woman wearing skin tight jeans and a very skimpy top, was not so well organised, nor was she prepared for the Chinese officials' scrutiny at our "Special Desk For Those Under Suspicion". Stupidly, she made the fatal mistake of arguing before throwing an absolute tantrum, pointing at her itinerary and waving her passport. Red faced and tearful, she continued to yell at the officials until we couldn't bear it any more and tried to intervene to calm her down. It was impossible as she spoke only Russian and despite our hopefully reassuring smiles and heartfelt "It will be OK's" we ended up leaving her arguing in Russian. Not surprisingly, the Chinese officials were not taking it lightly and her fate was not looking good. We were astounded by her behaviour, especially being from a country where we would imagine that sort of reaction would not be tolerated at all well.

Our China Eastern Airlines had promised to provide a transfer from the airport to our hotel and we were delighted to see our China Eastern representative meet us at the luggage carousel. Wearing a faded dusky pink cardigan and floral skirt, the diminutive friendly young woman politely waited for us before accompanying us out to our limousine. We were grateful. It was around midnight and it can be quite difficult hiring a taxi from Shanghai airport at any time, let alone the early hours of the morning.

Just as we were about to depart the airport, we saw our blonde Russian friend walking quickly past us and wondered how she had fared. Out of the blue, two burly officials made a run for the automatic door, grabbed her and between the two of them dragged her legless back to Immigration. Goodness only knows what happened to her.

We arrived at our Shanghai Sofitel Hyland hotel around 1.00 pm, tired but so pleased to be back in Shanghai and at the lovely hotel with which we were so familiar.


Postscript

*Note: We later heard from reliable sources that Chinese airport officials can be very difficult with passengers arriving into Shanghai on foreign airlines - especially we were told, Aeroflot. We shudder to think of what became of our blonde Russian friend....