I don't think LAX has ever seen two people attempt to carry the amount of luggage that Ashlee and I had. We had some serious issues just trying to get our bags out of our hotel room and into the elevator. It was quite a comedic moment seeing short Ashlee trying to control 4 pieces of luggage that with their combined weight easily weighed 50 pounds more than her. With the annoying 50lb restriction on checked baggage we had to resort to creating carry-on bags that weighed more than our checked bags.
As my luck would have it the security at LAX decided that they wanted to go through my carry-on. Little did the lady know that it was packed like an intricate puzzle of fun or as Adam would say it was a total "yard sale." After making it through security I thought I was in the clear with the massive carry-on until the friendly gate agent at Air Canada explained to me that it was to heavy and to big. Frantic re-organizing of the bags ensued and we were able to satisfy the gate agents qualms.
The flight to Vancouver was quick and we were able to get a few hours of sleep. The flight from Vancouver to Shanghai was a different story. It was thirteen hours of boredom as our luck would have it the new fancy in flight entertainment system that Air Canada installed in all its planes wouldn't work.... After 6 hours of the flight attendants resetting the system with no luck they gave up.
Anyways we made it to Shanghai and were met by a Chinese lady from the school. She had us and our 6 bags board the bus and we went for about 5 minutes until we pulled up to a gas station and were informed that we needed to change busses. All the bags therefore had to come off bus a and onto bus b. This new bus lasted about 20 minutes or so before we and our bags had to make another transition to a new bus. The journey time in total from Shanghai to Hangzhou was about 3 hours and let me say that there really aren't any rules for driving in Shanghai. The lane lines are there just for show as no one seems to follow them and driving with your vehicle somewhere on the line is quite OK.
Once we got off the bus in Hangzhou we had to take a taxi over to our apartment. One small problem. Ashlee, myself, Mei (the girl from the school), and our luggage did not fit in one taxi and boy did the taxi driver try and make it fit. So Ashlee and I went in one cab and Mei went in another. Our cab driver was told to follow the cab that Mei was in.....but he was not impressed with the speed in which her cab was going so he decided to race ahead. Once he had his fun driving down the streets he just stopped in the lane and put his hazards on and attempted to spot the cab that Mei was in. He pointed to one taxi, uttered some phrases in Chinese, which I think was to try and get me to confirm that the one he pointed to was in fact the correct one. Somehow it was the correct one and he then followed the taxi the last block or so to the apartment. Meanwhile during this whole adventure it is raining, which only added to the fun.
Here is where things get interesting. Both cabs pull up in front of the apartment complex and we start unloading all the luggage. The cab that Mei was in decides to take off as he got paid and Mei was over paying the fare for our cab. So we got all our bags on the sidewalk and do a final count...oh crap....one is missing. The cab took off with one of my bags in the trunk....
I thought for sure that the bag was gone and it would never be seen again. Somehow through the detective work of Mei she was able to track the cab down and he brought the bag back to the apartment a few hours later. Thank god as it had the majority of my clothing in it.
That pretty much wraps up the first day of China for Ashlee and I. We are currently staying in a 6 bedroom two story penthouse apartment until our 2 bedroom apartment is available. I will attempt to post some pictures of the apartment in the future.
