Guangzhou, China and an unfortunate “Mauritius” incident, etc.
I had airport standby a couple of weeks ago and I only had like an hour’s sleep because I really thought I wouldn’t get pulled out, but they put me on a flight to Guangzhou, China. I didn’t mind so much since it’s one of the very few layover destinations left that I’ve never been to. Usually, when crew go to Guangzhou, they just go shopping. But for me, when it’s my first time somewhere, I’d much rather go sightseeing. A colleague and I were thinking of getting a short tour, but it was so expensive. We decided to just go around by ourselves, and we managed to go to 3 major tourist spots in Guangzhou in just an hour and a half, which left us some time for shopping. But as I have always said, I don’t exactly enjoy shopping in China. It annoys me when you ask how much something is and they give you an amount x10 of the actual selling price and you’d have to waste so much time bargaining.
First stop - Western Han Nanyue King Tomb Museum
Just outside the museum
Inside the museum (I forgot what this is, because I wasn’t really that interested. Haha.)
One of the ancient jade displays
Right below the glass pyramid is the Tomb of the Nanyue King. From the outside, it looks like a mini Louvre.
A nicer shot outside the Western Han Nanyue King Tomb Museum
Second stop - Sun Yat-sen Memorial Hall
Here’s the front view of the Sun Yat-sen Memorial Hall. I found the place really nice from the outside, but I wasn’t really in the mood to go inside anymore.
On the way to the third stop, we got to pass by these really cute plants!
Cool stone frames!
One thing I noticed all over China is that there are so many statues!!
More statues
Third stop - Chen Family Ancestral Temple
There are supposed to be ancient relics inside, but once again, we didn’t bother going inside anymore. Maybe because we were so bored from the first museum that we just became too lazy. Usually, I’m always curious to see things, but during that time I guess I really just wasn’t up for it.
Last stop - Shangxiaju Road for a bit of shopping (Statues again?!?)
After Guangzhou, I flew to Durban, South Africa, a new destination for October. There were so many things to do, but not enough time. So sad! :( Another thing was that I started getting sick. I ended up just walking to the mall in front of our hotel to buy some food and that’s it. I felt like it was a wasted layover because I didn’t get to do or see anything. New destination yet no pictures. Boohoo.
I flew to Manila a few days later, even though I still wasn’t very well. It’s been 1 whole year since I’ve done a Manila layover! Before, I used to have Manila flights like once a month. But since they came up with that stupid, heartless rule of putting a 50% Filipino limit on Manila flights, I didn’t bother bidding or swapping for Manila anymore. Oh whatever.
A really irritating thing was that I was supposed to have a 36-hour Mauritius layover after my Manila flight. I was so excited for it already, since the last time I went to Mauritius more than a year ago, layovers used to be 12 hours only. Now we stay at a different resort, and I was really looking forward to snorkeling or dolphin-watching. Anyway, I was removed from the Mauritius flight due to some legality issues on my roster, which I won’t bother explaining. Instead, I got a day off, and - surprise! - a Mauritius TURNAROUND. It was only recently that we started having those Mauritius turnarounds. Since the flight is actually too long to be a legal turnaround, crew only work for the first sector going to Mauritius, then instead of having a layover there, we deadhead (fly as passenger) on the way back to Dubai. It was so ironic. Technically, I was still going to Mauritius, but not quite. I was already so pissed as it is, but that wasn’t even half of it.
When we were arriving in Mauritius, the Captain couldn’t land because there was no visibility due to the rain. We tried twice, but couldn’t land. We ended up circling and circling for so long, until we were about to run out of fuel!!! We had to divert to the nearby Reunion Island to refuel. There were other aircraft that also had the same situation, so we had to wait for our turn. The thing is, Reunion Island airport is just so small, they didn’t have enough fuel for all the planes that diverted! We had to wait so long for fuel because it still had to be delivered from Mauritius! Finally, when we were ready to take off, they couldn’t remove the steps they installed outside our aircraft because - get this - it ran out of fuel!!! My goodness, I didn’t even know those stairs needed fuel!!! So we had to wait and wait again for the steps to be refueled. After a long time, we were ready to take off again, when suddenly there was some kind of minor fire at the Reunion Island airport, so we didn’t have permission to take off anymore! What the?!? It was like a series of unfortunate events! Anyway, when we finally arrived in Mauritius, we were already delayed for like 4 hours. Plus, the bad thing was, we still had to deadhead back to Dubai instead of having a layover in Mauritius! So we had to wait another hour until we took off for Dubai. Another unfair thing was that half of us (me included) had to sit in economy class while the other half were in business class. After such a long, tiring day, how could we rest properly?! We landed in Dubai at around 6am (it should have been 1am if we didn’t have to divert and stuff), and I got back to my flat past 7am. To think that I took the crew bus to work at 7:30am the previous day!!! It was like I was on duty for almost 24 hours!!! Wahhh!!! :(
After that incident, I had a couple of days off in Dubai. I got to catch up on sleep, but a few days later, I had some problem (too lazy to write about it anymore) and I got sooo stressed out. I even ended up crying in my flat and I really felt like I was going to get sick from all the stress. Poor me. Finally, God answered my prayers because I found a kind soul who helped me. In times of need, some people can really be angels in disguise.
Anyway, I just had a long flight recently, Melbourne-Auckland-Melbourne. We got delayed for so long from Dubai that our first layover in Melbourne became so short! Then in Auckland, I just went out for a while but didn’t really do much. I managed to sleep for 15 hours! Wow. When we went back to Melbourne, a funny thing was that some guy that worked at the hotel where we stayed suddenly just asked me out for dinner/coffee because “I know it's kinda upfront, but i may never see you again…!” Haha! He was right about not seeing me again. I told him I was just there for 1 day! Anyway, our Melbourne layover got extended by about 13 hours, due to some problem with the aircraft. They even had to change our wakeup and pickup times twice. A really pleasant surprise was that we ended up doing a “ferry flight,” (zero-passenger plane) back to Dubai! It was a 15-hour flight and we had the entire plane all to ourselves. We got to sleep in first and business class, and I even got to watch 4 movies that I’ve been itching to see. It was so cool. If the whole Mauritius incident was so sh*tty, this ferry flight was the complete opposite.
I’ve something coming up tomorrow that I’m really thankful for - I’m finally going to TURKEY!!!Ü It’s a 5-day holiday with Ann and Rars. We’re going to have so much fun for sure!!! Ü
First stop - Western Han Nanyue King Tomb Museum
Just outside the museum
Inside the museum (I forgot what this is, because I wasn’t really that interested. Haha.)
One of the ancient jade displays
Right below the glass pyramid is the Tomb of the Nanyue King. From the outside, it looks like a mini Louvre.
A nicer shot outside the Western Han Nanyue King Tomb Museum
Second stop - Sun Yat-sen Memorial Hall
Here’s the front view of the Sun Yat-sen Memorial Hall. I found the place really nice from the outside, but I wasn’t really in the mood to go inside anymore.
On the way to the third stop, we got to pass by these really cute plants!
Cool stone frames!
One thing I noticed all over China is that there are so many statues!!
More statues
Third stop - Chen Family Ancestral Temple
There are supposed to be ancient relics inside, but once again, we didn’t bother going inside anymore. Maybe because we were so bored from the first museum that we just became too lazy. Usually, I’m always curious to see things, but during that time I guess I really just wasn’t up for it.
Last stop - Shangxiaju Road for a bit of shopping (Statues again?!?)
After Guangzhou, I flew to Durban, South Africa, a new destination for October. There were so many things to do, but not enough time. So sad! :( Another thing was that I started getting sick. I ended up just walking to the mall in front of our hotel to buy some food and that’s it. I felt like it was a wasted layover because I didn’t get to do or see anything. New destination yet no pictures. Boohoo.
I flew to Manila a few days later, even though I still wasn’t very well. It’s been 1 whole year since I’ve done a Manila layover! Before, I used to have Manila flights like once a month. But since they came up with that stupid, heartless rule of putting a 50% Filipino limit on Manila flights, I didn’t bother bidding or swapping for Manila anymore. Oh whatever.
A really irritating thing was that I was supposed to have a 36-hour Mauritius layover after my Manila flight. I was so excited for it already, since the last time I went to Mauritius more than a year ago, layovers used to be 12 hours only. Now we stay at a different resort, and I was really looking forward to snorkeling or dolphin-watching. Anyway, I was removed from the Mauritius flight due to some legality issues on my roster, which I won’t bother explaining. Instead, I got a day off, and - surprise! - a Mauritius TURNAROUND. It was only recently that we started having those Mauritius turnarounds. Since the flight is actually too long to be a legal turnaround, crew only work for the first sector going to Mauritius, then instead of having a layover there, we deadhead (fly as passenger) on the way back to Dubai. It was so ironic. Technically, I was still going to Mauritius, but not quite. I was already so pissed as it is, but that wasn’t even half of it.
When we were arriving in Mauritius, the Captain couldn’t land because there was no visibility due to the rain. We tried twice, but couldn’t land. We ended up circling and circling for so long, until we were about to run out of fuel!!! We had to divert to the nearby Reunion Island to refuel. There were other aircraft that also had the same situation, so we had to wait for our turn. The thing is, Reunion Island airport is just so small, they didn’t have enough fuel for all the planes that diverted! We had to wait so long for fuel because it still had to be delivered from Mauritius! Finally, when we were ready to take off, they couldn’t remove the steps they installed outside our aircraft because - get this - it ran out of fuel!!! My goodness, I didn’t even know those stairs needed fuel!!! So we had to wait and wait again for the steps to be refueled. After a long time, we were ready to take off again, when suddenly there was some kind of minor fire at the Reunion Island airport, so we didn’t have permission to take off anymore! What the?!? It was like a series of unfortunate events! Anyway, when we finally arrived in Mauritius, we were already delayed for like 4 hours. Plus, the bad thing was, we still had to deadhead back to Dubai instead of having a layover in Mauritius! So we had to wait another hour until we took off for Dubai. Another unfair thing was that half of us (me included) had to sit in economy class while the other half were in business class. After such a long, tiring day, how could we rest properly?! We landed in Dubai at around 6am (it should have been 1am if we didn’t have to divert and stuff), and I got back to my flat past 7am. To think that I took the crew bus to work at 7:30am the previous day!!! It was like I was on duty for almost 24 hours!!! Wahhh!!! :(
After that incident, I had a couple of days off in Dubai. I got to catch up on sleep, but a few days later, I had some problem (too lazy to write about it anymore) and I got sooo stressed out. I even ended up crying in my flat and I really felt like I was going to get sick from all the stress. Poor me. Finally, God answered my prayers because I found a kind soul who helped me. In times of need, some people can really be angels in disguise.
Anyway, I just had a long flight recently, Melbourne-Auckland-Melbourne. We got delayed for so long from Dubai that our first layover in Melbourne became so short! Then in Auckland, I just went out for a while but didn’t really do much. I managed to sleep for 15 hours! Wow. When we went back to Melbourne, a funny thing was that some guy that worked at the hotel where we stayed suddenly just asked me out for dinner/coffee because “I know it's kinda upfront, but i may never see you again…!” Haha! He was right about not seeing me again. I told him I was just there for 1 day! Anyway, our Melbourne layover got extended by about 13 hours, due to some problem with the aircraft. They even had to change our wakeup and pickup times twice. A really pleasant surprise was that we ended up doing a “ferry flight,” (zero-passenger plane) back to Dubai! It was a 15-hour flight and we had the entire plane all to ourselves. We got to sleep in first and business class, and I even got to watch 4 movies that I’ve been itching to see. It was so cool. If the whole Mauritius incident was so sh*tty, this ferry flight was the complete opposite.
I’ve something coming up tomorrow that I’m really thankful for - I’m finally going to TURKEY!!!Ü It’s a 5-day holiday with Ann and Rars. We’re going to have so much fun for sure!!! Ü