#164 1st day at the Shanghai airport

Transcript

It was just because it was night time that the cicadas were this loud. But now it's the morning, and they're still this loud by the airport. It's fucking insane.

It's weird that I'm looking at these trees and, like, clearly, they're folicicadas to make that level of noise, but I can't see them. I don't see any of them. Crazy.

And then as I walk away, it gets lower, but it takes a while. Like, that was so loud. I thought at first, to my dumb sleepy brain yesterday, I was like, is that some kind of, like, man-made noise that's supposed to drive away insects? But then I realized if that is what it is, it's not fucking working. That's just the cadence, man. That's what they do.

What do you think it is? All right, it's a little tough to talk to yourself in an airport. A little tough to find a spot to yourself, but I think I'm more or less by myself here in this corner. Man, I guess the first thing I just want to talk a bit about is, man, anxiety is such a kick in the dick. Like, once you're under the water, it's like, well, now I'm under. Now I can't get back out. Like, overall, this trip has all gone pretty well. No serious problems. I mean, I remember I was like a bit in the dumps a little around Christmas, and now it's the middle of summer. So maybe every six months, just, you know, something gets a little shaky, but even the Christmas thing was just kind of a general malaise, similar to when I first got to Seoul. This is definitely different, what this reminded me of was going to Amsterdam the first time in like 2017, I think that was. And doing okay with my friends were there, but then when they left, it was this anxiety just pressing down on my chest that reminded me a lot of being in school. One big reason I did not pursue further education, I hated that feeling so much. And yeah, I would go to bed, stressed out, and I would wake up, stressed out for just days and days, and I was like, alright, I gotta get out of here. I don't know what's going on, but it's not getting better. But that level of anxiety is pretty uncommon, but I definitely had it yesterday. But like two days ago, even after I got the email about the cancel flight and got the new one set up, I really wasn't feeling that bad. And then yesterday morning in the shower, I remember it was like a mixture. It reminds me of if you've ever swam in a lake where it's like cold water in the lake, but if it's the sunny day, they'll be like parts of the water that are just like warm parts. I kind of go from warm to cold to warm to cold, and it's just a weird feeling. It's not hot cold or warm, it's just like cold and hot back and forth. Not hot, you know, temperate. That's how I was feeling in the shower, getting ready to get going. I was like, yeah, I'm a little nervous, a little apprehensive, weird new flight, staying overnight at airports, but then I kind of chuckle like, yeah, but it's exciting, it's gonna be cool. And then once that first flight failed, and then the second flight failed, and then I had to book this other flight, and then I realized I was gonna be a day past my exit.

That's when it's like, uh-oh, uh-oh. Now I'm just feeling like I just want to go sit somewhere and just try to just... I don't see the other problem, too, is I got a little sobby yesterday, but it's hard to properly cry. I'm just like, I would like to, though, I would like to get this feeling out of me. I'm gonna try, but it's not really gonna happen, but I just feel like I want to cry all day.

And then this morning, I woke up again feeling that way, and it was like, uh-oh, this is just like an Amsterdam. Like, sleeping didn't help. I was still anxious, and it just persisted throughout the morning till finally I got like a little mad. I'm like, all right, body. I know, I know you're still in me with stress hormones here, you want me to be wary, but it's just not helping anymore. Why are you still doing this? And then I realized like, oh, wait, maybe I can just do some exercise, do some squats, do some fucking planks. There's even it's a real simple exercise, but just standing up and just raising your arms above your head and then bending backwards. 5:00 And it's shocking how much weight just your arms can give if you hold your arms above you and just bend backwards and just hold the weight. Of your own body, with your core. It's incredible how fast that gets hard to do. But anyway, I just did some basic exercise stuff, and at least that balanced things out a little. That put some exercise hormones in my body to at least battle back against these other ones.

But then I got to the airport, and I sorted out stuff with immigration, and you know, I'll get into all the details, but once that was all sorted, now I feel basically okay again. You know, I just feel like, yeah, right, it's the shame that I got to go sleep overnight at the airport in Shanghai. Like this is going to suck, but it's going to suck in just the normal way of like, you know, this is what I'm trained for. This is what I do all the time. And this is specifically what I did in Calgary, but just in general, just kind of dicking around around traveling shit. Like none of this should be that big a deal. I should be more or less used to this. And it's just so weird that yesterday it was just like too much, just like pushed the head under the water. Now you're drowning. What's going on?

The boarding time for some flight has been delayed. I don't know if that one was mine, but certainly don't fucking care. I got an 18 hour layover. I'm all right. That can be late.

But I was thinking about it, and I think it must be the not knowing what's going to happen next. I think that must be my Achilles heel, because in Amsterdam, I really didn't plan it out well. That was a point in 2017 when Airbnb's were very convenient in Canada. They were very easy to get. They were very cheap. They just seemed to be always available. So I was carrying that idea to Europe. And it seems like Europe never had the Airbnb culture that North America had. But also it wasn't the same. It's more like how things are now. You really got a book ahead of time. It's not going to be that cheap no matter what you do. It's not particularly super flexible. But I wasn't sure what I was going to do in Europe. Like maybe I'll go here. Maybe I'll go there. Maybe I'll go to England. Maybe I'll go to France. Maybe I'll stay in the Netherlands. That was a bad idea, because then I just ended up doing none of them. I just freaked the fuck out and I went home. I think I need to know what's coming. I need to have a plan. Like with Japan, I set up the whole 90 days before I got there. I loosened it up a little bit in South Korea, but I still had like five weeks in Seoul. And then we can figure it out from there. The reason I have to go to Taipei is because I've already got a month set up there, you know? Of non-refundable places to stay. You know, it definitely just works way better financially. And it just works way better for me. Just knowing what's coming down the pike is what makes all of this solo traveling possible. So it makes it not freak me the fuck out.

Because yeah, once that broke down, like that's what I didn't have in the Netherlands. And I was just nervous every day. And that's what I didn't have yesterday too. It's like my first flight got canceled. And I was tired and just having to figure this all out on the fly. And under the gun of like the flight's going to leave in fucking 40 minutes. And I got some guy through Expedia saying like it'll take us 20 minutes to book this new flight. And then that didn't work anyway. And then having to book, like I've never had to book an emergency flight for that day. It's never happened to me before. It's like I need to leave this country to day. And oh great, there's only three fucking options. That's through Expedia and they're all within two hours of each other. They're all essentially the same and they're all $650. And it's like well okay, I guess we're doing that now. But then not knowing how any of this immigration stuff works and not knowing what to even do about that. Just not understanding the process. It was just I think all of that unassuredness even going to that hotel yesterday. Like I showed up at the Busan Airport hoping I could talk to immigration. I was there too late. And then it's like now what do I do? Looking up Airbnb's and then it's like maybe I can just go find a hotel. But I was just walking through the night. Let's just walk and let's just get to the first hotel I see and see what happens. And then luckily that all worked out great. I spent $90 on a hotel room but it was worth it. It was fucking great. I'll tell you more about that too. The thing is amazing. So I think that's got to be it. It's just because I was surprised I guess. Because you know it's like all right. I feel like I canceled and stuff. But I mean this is what I've been doing, right? I should be more or less kind of resilient enough to be ready for this or whatever. And it just wasn't. I just felt so shitty all day yesterday. It was awful. And then I woke up this morning and I still felt it. It's like damn man. 10:00 This is not right. This is wrong. And I think that's got to be it. Because now once things are set up again. Now that I've sorted out immigration stuff and I'm on the other side of the border thing. I'm like essentially out of Korea at this point. I'm just waiting for the flight. And then I got an 18 hour layover in Shanghai. And I mean whatever. Like that seems like such a small issue compared to this other stuff. Because I know what's going to happen. I'll get there and I'll wait. And then I'll get a flight to Taipei. And then I'll wait again. Because I can't get into the Airbnb right away. I mean maybe I can. I'm two days late. I think the person will let me in early. But I don't know. I probably just won't give a fuck about. I don't like arguing with Airbnb people especially when they don't speak English. It's like a fuck it whatever. But I know what's coming. Everything now for the next month is okay. It's all set up. Unless there's another crazy weather situation. I mean.

But I feel just like it's night and day. And now I just feel my normal levels of just general low level anxiety. You know, gotta keep yourself on your toes. It's not the worst thing to have. But yeah, that all just went away. Like, okay, good. That's gone. So I figured that's gotta be it. That's my theory. It's the uncertainty of what's coming. What's gonna happen next. And even like with stuff like talking to the border guard. There was nothing I could do. But wait until today to come deal with it. But to my body. You know, like my body is like, well, alright then. We'll just continue to be horrifyingly anxious until then. I found with that asshole. I mean, it's good to know about myself. And I mean, I guess I have been setting things up to avoid this. Without distinctly knowing it was gonna fuck my head up this bad. But I have just generally been, you know, booking things ahead of time and trying not to fall into these situations. But yeah, now that I've fell into one. Now that I had the typhoon flight reroute situation. Now I know. Now I know. Like, yep, this is gonna be bad. This is bad for you, my friend. Your solo traveling is completely predicated on having everything set up. As far into the future as possible.

I mean, that was one thing I was enjoying in South Korea. It was being a little more flexible. Switching things up a little, you know. Getting to jet-chon and realizing like, oh, nope. I don't wanna stay extra time. Three weeks in jet-chon. That's plenty. Let's go to Busan. And then with Busan, like, okay, let's go to Jeju. And then with Jeju, like, alright, let's stretch out to Jeju. But still, I was always at least three weeks out. I mean, three weeks for jet-chon, five weeks for soul, five weeks for Busan, four weeks for Jeju that turned into a little over two months, I guess. So, at a minimum, three weeks out and usually five. So, still, that's what I call flexible. That's flexible compared to Japan, where I planned out both times the entire 90 days before I even got there. And if I get back to Japan, I'm not sure what the plan is. I would like to just go down the coast as kind of my thought. Start in Yokohama and go down the coast. I don't quite know how I'm gonna set that up or how that's gonna work or even how many places are available or what I'm gonna do. But I think this is good to know. Don't just wing it. Don't just not set things up. That is not gonna work. That is stress-vill. That is anxiety town. That sucks. That looks like my boarding actually starts pretty soon for this flight. So, I'll save the rest of my jammering for when I get to the Shanghai airport. But this is one thing that's kind of cool. This has never happened to me before. Because I had to book this flight emergency-wise and just take whatever they had. So, I ended up buying a better ticket than I've ever had. I was upgraded to first class one time in Canada. It was like a flight from Toronto to Vancouver, I think. And it was oversold somehow. So, I don't remember if it was like a volunteer thing or how it worked. But, you know, there were business-y people that needed to get on that flight. And then there was me who didn't give a sweet fuck, especially flying from east to west. You've gained time. So, it was gonna still be early in the day even if I had to wait three extra hours. So, I did not mind being pushed back. And they gave me like a $200 voucher and a food voucher for like 20 bucks. Go buy a sandwich and upgraded me to first class. And I was like, wow, we should over sell every flight.

But then, first class, I kind of, I don't know, I didn't actually like it that much. It was nice to have more seat room, but the extra attention from 15:00 stewards and stewardesses, I did not enjoy. It's like, leave me alone. Stop trying to give me bottles of wine and little fucking towels for my hands and shit. I much preferred being left to fuck alone. So that was weird that a first class was not all, it was cracked up to be. But I guess this where this confused me is these are still economy flights. You know, it's still for a three-leg flight, $650. I mean, it's a shame. It's double, more than double what, you know, my original flight was, but honestly not that bad for a flight that I bought, you know, three hours before departure. But one of the things it comes with is at least for the Korean air part of this flight, the final flight from Shanghai to Taipei is a different carrier. But I've got Sky Priority, which I didn't even realize, like when they were calling the zones. Okay, you know, zone one, zone two, whatever. I'm always just like zone five. I'm always the shittiest of the shit, the cheapest ticket, the last guy on the plane. And I don't give a fuck who cares.

But that was happening this time with our up to like zone three. And I'm like, what can it my ticket? And I'm like, man, am I such a nobody that I don't even have a zone number? Where even is it? It's not, I don't even have a zone number of my ticket. What is this shit? And then I realized I have priority. It's like, oh yeah, this is a real plane ticket. This isn't some discount thing that I bought eight weeks ago. I bought this today. This is a normal plane ticket where you get stuff. So that was the first thing that made me feel good yet.

It kind of made me laugh. It's like, oh fuck, I could have got on this plane several waves of people ago. But I just had no idea Sky Priority that I'm the priority guy. I've never had that in my life. And then today at the airport, I got the guy giving me the ticket. It was like, oh, by the way, there's the priority lounge. When you get out here, you know, take a left and there's the lounge. So I was sitting in the lounge all fucking afternoon. I edited it. Finished editing the Akihabra episode of this very podcast. Just sitting in the little fancy pants lounge. I've never had access to the lounge before. And not only that when I was going through security, it wasn't very busy anyway. But I noticed there was like the priority line with nobody in it. So I just held up my thing. And I was like, hey, is this me? Can I do this? And he's like, yes, indeed, come on over. So I got my own security line. It was just me. I'm like, wow. I mean, it's not worth doubling the price of these flights. But it's nice. It's nice at least that when I did have to pay all this extra for these things that I get as stupid little priority bullshit. That's pretty cool. So anyway, yeah, I got to go get ready because now I get to, I get to go on the plane first. This might never happen again. So I got to soak it in. And I actually didn't do it last flight.

This could be the last flight of my fucking life where I get priority to go on first. So I'm going to go get ready. I'm going to do that. But yeah, basically, like I said, I still still have many wisdoms and information to impart about flight stuff and immigration stuff and whatnot. I will get to it.

Probably during my 18 hour layover in Shanghai, I will get to it.

Man, the Busan mountains are fucking beautiful today. It's weird. There's like frosted glass here. I don't know why you can't see at these windows. I have to go stand next to them, stand on a vent.

And tippy toe to see over top. So only the very tall are allowed to see this view, I guess. But yeah, it's really pretty day out. And man, those mountains like fucking cool. I don't know what the biggest mountain is near Busan, but must be big-ish because those look fucking significant.

It was neat to after flying from Jeju. It's incredible how fast you get from Jeju to the mainland and then you're just flying over Korea.

And it was cool just flying over Korea at night. Like it got dark real quick. And just looking at the different cities at night and just knowing, I guess just from going to jet-chand, just knowing, yeah, this whole country is so connected. 20:00 You could easily just take a train to pretty much any of these places. I don't know why exactly to go to any one specific one, but you could. I don't know. You could just go check out these different parts. And I guess it's just, I don't know. It seems interesting to me just because I've been here. Now that I've been here, now I've got an interest. Now I'm like, there is more I would like to know about Korea. And even just watching the mechanisms of it at night, like that it's such a, like it's got the lowest birth rate in the world. They talk about that a lot in Japan, but it's lower here. And one of the theories is that people don't want to bring kids into this system and just the incredible stress of the South Korean system and the high suicide rates and stuff. It is just weird to see, you know, like capitalism is such a powerful mechanism. And it's like, especially North versus South Korea, you know, in South Korea they wound up the capitalism and just wound it up and let it go. And it worked, you know, it's super prosperous. Everything is so cool looking. The whole country is just covered in modern stuff, but everybody's fucking miserable. And certainly not saying North Korea is a better plan. It's just that it's such a stark difference. They really went all the way in both directions. And there it's just a, I don't know, in some ways both sides are like a weird disaster. But in very different ways, at least in South Korea people aren't starving to death, but spiritually there's something very wrong going on. I don't know, it's all very interesting and I hardly understand it at all, but maybe I soaked in a bit over the last six months.

I got some airport Wi-Fi. Tallest mountain in Busan is apparently Pyong-jeon saying 801.5 meters, almost exactly 800 meters.

Map wise, it is north of the city. Cool. Well anyway, there's something for next time, something to look into next time.

It begins, let's see if I can talk to myself. While stuff's going on here in the plane.

Again, I just bought whatever ticket was available, you know, and there were very few options, especially leaving from Jeju. And I just, I don't know, I don't even know how, how I would have switched anything. Anyway, I guess this is making, again the price is not like the price was the worst. But yeah, I don't just have priority, I do in fact have the first class BS. I guess I didn't from Jeju, because I think that just doesn't exist. It was a little teeny plane. But yeah, this one, it's so pointless for such a short flight, at least last time I had first class from Toronto to Vancouver. Yeah, I got that super leg room. There's only, there's only eight first class seats on this whole stupid plane and I got one of them. But yeah, I assume it's probably that the, again, because I bought this yesterday for a flight today has probably sold out except for this. I assume, I assume that I just got this because there was no other option. But anyway, I guess I get to try first class again. But yeah, like even I've got a couple of coats with me that I certainly don't need in this weather, but you know, I will in the fall. But I also have stuff in my pockets. I've got like various cords for my phones and stuff, a battery charger, you know, I just got stuff in my, in the pockets of my coats. But the lady asked me if she could take my coats and put them in the cloak room. First class is a cloak room and I was like, I know this is weird to turn down your hospitality, but I got stuff in my pockets that I might need. So I'll just keep it if that's cool. But yeah, the beginning of the first class shenanigans, man, the cloak room, get out, get out. Why is there a cloak room on a plane?

Oh man, there's big super headphones, like the big cans that you put on in like the 70s, you know, like great big headphones that cover your whole ear instead of just little ear buds. And there's slippers. What in the name of sweet fuck? Why would I need slippers while I stroll about the cabin? But then yeah, the lady came over and there's like, oh, here's our menu, prestige class. I guess my ticket did say prestige class. I didn't ever pay attention. I've never flown Korean air before. I didn't know what that meant.

Wine. Cocktails. What? Is this shit included? There's no prices. I guess it is, right? That's the first class thing? God damn fucking first class. I want to explain like, listen, it's not what you think. I'm not, I'm not Joe Fancy pants. This is the opposite. I'm so cheap that my cheap ass flight got canceled and I tried desperately to rebook the cheap ass flight. And then I accidentally fucking paid for this shit. I just feel like a dickhead. People have going to walk and buy me. I'm sitting here. There's not anyone next to me, which is cool. Maybe I'll have my own extra seat to myself. Anyway, since I got to stay, again, yeah, I got to stay at the airport all night after this opposite of Fancy. So I think there'll be no spirits or brandy for me. However, I might get a coffee. That sounds pretty good.

I guess though, I mean, this must just be how the economics of flying work, right? Like, I'm sure that this plane was filled up ages ago. And even my little flight, I guess what I haven't explained all the details yet, but it seems what happened with my flight is as soon as half of it got canceled. It was presumed that the whole thing was canceled. My seat was immediately filled by someone else. All these economy flights, especially in this part of the world where there's little quick flights all over the place. They just fill up fast. They're just full ages before. That's why I had so few options for getting out of Jeju, essentially none. Just three copies of the same flight. But if you are a fancy business guy, I guess that's the thing too, right? Is like, there are...

Yeah, it looks like my whole section is not full.

There's a family who have the other four prestige seats. But of my four, I'm the only one here. The other three are empty. So I guess this is like, if you're a business guy and you need that flexibility, you just want to be able to leave and go wherever you want whenever you want. That's what these insane seats are for, right? That's why... I don't know what the price breakdown is of my stuff. I wonder if I can figure that out. I just paid it as a bulk thing, but obviously this particular part of the flight is the big one. But if it wasn't for this nonsense, I wouldn't have a seat at all. There'd be no flight available, so I guess I can't complain. The bullshit of first class is what saved me, what got me the fuck out of here. Because if these were normally priced seats, they would have been taken a long ago.

First class just sits here till it's needed.

Oh, damn.

All right, I just had my little meal with a teeny tiny bottle of vinaigrette and a little teeny tiny ceramic pepper and salt shaker like just enough pepper and just an assault from my one little meal and fresh fruit and a baguette and a salad with sashimi on top and like spicy cod and rice and it was ridiculously awesome and they came out offering little bottles of red or white wine but I had to decline because you know I got to deal with an airport after this I got to say it's where I'm going from being this is the height to the the depths I'm like the king right now it's ridiculous the little hand towel again this one wasn't heated though like the one in Canada but the little hand towel I did take them up on one little cup of coffee I got the the curtain pulled so I can't see the people behind us and especially because I'm the only one on my side the three seats around me are empty I'm like a super king right now now looking at the window I can only see water but I was watching a bunch of Korea go by and it's so fascinating just all the little islands some of the islands have bridges some of them don't the landscape of South Korea just looks like the most fun video game ever but anyway yeah it's just weird because I honestly didn't know I really didn't 30:00 know that I signed up for this and I mean it is pretty delightful but it's just funny that I'm going straight from this to I got a sleep in the airport tonight ultimately I mean because I stayed at a fancy place yesterday and I got a first-class flight today this has been very weird because it is a jolly old rogering of spending two days to get to Taipei when it would have originally taken like four hours but at the same time I'm doing all this fancy shit that I would never have normally done so at least I guess it balances out you know the fancy shit is pretty cool I really don't know how much extra this cost me or whatever I don't know quite how my ticket prices broke down but it is kind of neat with stuff like this or with that sweet that I stayed in yesterday like that anyone can do this stuff like if you're a rich guy you get to do this stuff every day but it's kind of cool that everybody can just try it you know if you want to go to a ski chalet somewhere or if you want to land a helicopter on an aircraft carrier or a yacht or something I don't know I don't know what rich people do but you could do it one time and it's not even that expensive really it's just you can only really do it one time but how many times do you got to do this shit I don't know but this is a ghetto mint this has been this has been pretty cool for an accidental thing that I stumbled into I feel a lot better today than I felt yesterday oh look at that there's some ships down there's some big shipping type ships whenever you order something from Amazon that's coming from China with free shipping and then you have to wait four months for your three-dollar item to arrive that's where that's where it comes from those ships but yeah I see in the little teeny tiny salt pepper shakers that cracked me up the most it just made me think of fight clock tiny life but anyway I think they're done offering me stuff now so maybe I'll try to get a little map though even that when the lady pointed out the menu like prepare yourself for which menu item you want but she also asked like hey if you're napping is it okay if I wake you up I was like yeah that's fine yeah I don't know maybe it is just a difference between North America and being on the other side of the world is it was just very unnatural feeling and uncomfortable to be weighted on in North America it didn't feel right we're here I mean it's just it's just part of the culture especially in Korea Korea so obsessed with like who's the older one who's the younger one you never talk back to your elders but if you're the younger you also don't pay for the group meal or whatever there I'd go so far as to say obsessed with seniority at rank I believe all this stuff probably contributes to why they're so stressed out and miserable too is this weird super strict social conventions that don't necessarily line up to anything that makes a fucking sense but it's just more common around here it just I don't know they're just better at it they have a I mean I can't put my finger on you know the secrets or whatever it's just it's just like there's a way that you can be in the host position and be the person offering all the stuff and be the person catering to the first class person without it seeming I don't know I really can't put my finger on how to explain this it just felt so it felt ridiculous in North America it felt like why are we doing this why are you especially I guess in the North American example because I didn't pay for that ticket I just got upgraded and now they're treating me like oh this guy he's first class guy the whole thing felt very unnatural where I guess I guess like it's been kind of like this the whole time in Asia not all the time I mean the the immigration lady I dealt with today literally shoot me away when she was done she's like yeah yeah get out of here go but generally you know if you go to a convenience store or you're just dealing with airport people or whoever in your day it's just more natural over here for that acknowledgement that there's yeah what's the point 35:00 of me trying to explain it it's pretty obvious just not even hard to explain it's just it's just more in the culture over here it all just goes a lot smoother I just got my hand to me my China visa thing even though I'm only going through there from the airport but which countries and regions have you ever been to in the past two years it's like almost right anyway because I better fill this shit out

oh no time for an app and we're already here and man we're basically flying over at desert I've never flown over terrain like this before is that why there's like an island it looks like a desert but then those are like islands that's not water what the fuck I thought that was sand that might be water I yeah because I'm seeing like in inputs heading into the land why is the water just brown man what is what is happening I 100% thought that maybe it's shallow shallow water and I can see dirt under it I don't know I just make me realize I just know it literally knows about China but I have a feeling I'm not gonna learn this in the same way as Russia this is one of these you must have a visa super unfriendly fucking countries it's like why the fuck would I go that far out of my way to visit if you're gonna be such a dicks about it yeah that is water what the hell I don't know man that's fucking weird but yeah even just to transfer the airport I got this big fucking make sure you don't want whatever I'll get into it later

does this sound maybe this sounds bad maybe this sounds bad yeah yeah this this feels bad so I'm talking into my recorder but I've got I got this little little felt bag thing that I keep it in it's like maybe I'll just keep it in the bag could talk through the bag so it looks less weird that I'm talking to myself in this Shanghai airport this land of mega security it just feels very fucking weird to record a podcast when I'm gonna be here all night if there's ever a place in the world where somebody's gonna notice that I'm doing something weird this is the fucking place this or Russia maybe I'll just try talking into my phone that doesn't seem so bad then it's like I'm talking into a phone but anyway I'll walk by some Chinese food little Chinese food restaurant area and it's the first nice association I've had so far in China I'm like ah Chinese food that smells good other than that this place this place fucking blows man it's extremely similar to Russia for now though yeah man this place is fucking ridiculous this is weird I've got a headphones in so I can hear myself talk but now I'm hearing an echo so I'm gonna turn them off but that sounded fine I guess the question is how weird is this now I'm just talking into a phone but who the fuck knows man this is the land of security what the shit I just had to go through another security thing just to get from terminal 1 to terminal 2 however terminal 2 I believe is my home to hell the morning but this is a good example of 40:00 I think my little theory about just the security of knowing what's coming this is fucking sucky but I just seems like whatever whatever it's not like it's news the China's a fucked up country and even if it was I already got the news from when I was in Russia stuck there overnight there was this Dutch guy named Valentine that I hung out with all night and he told me like three different times that if I thought the bureaucracy was bad in Russia he said in China it's much worse like he couldn't be more emphatic about how much worse things are in China and that's where I am so whatever man but all I got to do is hang out here if I can find somewhere to curl up that would be nice but worst case scenario I can go to the ticket counter for my flight in a little over 12 hours so I don't know if I stay up for 12 hours walk in the airport it's not optimal but I'm not stressed out about it like I was yesterday it was so funny because yesterday when you really boil it down I went from one hotel to another I went from the hotel in Seguapo to a hotel in Busan like on a surface level it was a fucking cool last day wasn't a hard day at all just that everywhere in the middle I didn't know what the fuck was going on it made me miserable here at least I know what's going on I just have a long waiting game to play no internet because of course why wouldn't it the millions of hoops to get on the fucking internet I couldn't get on the internet in Russia either just know this place sucks but just here to do a transfer man I really doubt I have a feeling that my flight was kind of in trouble from the beginning even before the typhoon sent me scrambling because I did only have 90 minutes to transfer in this airport and I was a little unsure about that already but now that I've been here I don't fancy my fucking chances dude I had to do multiple rounds of fingerprint scans just to hang out in the airport 90 minutes is not enough to transfer in Shanghai for now I guess I'll just find where my it's find where my flight company is so I know where to go at 8.30 in the morning and then as for what I'm gonna do all night I don't fucking know

This is weird, so the first thing I saw that stood out to me in this airport in China is a Lawson's. I'm like, oh nice, Lawson's. I don't know if I'm going to buy anything while I'm here. But I saw Lawson's, then I saw a Family Mart. I'm like, ah, that's nice. And now there's a motherfucking Tim Hortons bitch. I remember when I saw Tim Hortons in New York. It was like near Times Square, or no, near that fucking Madison Square Guard. I don't know if it's still there or anything. This was back in 2008, 2009. It was a minorly big deal that there was a Tim Hortons there. No Americans cared though, so it might not be there at all. Anymore. But I guess I shouldn't be too shocked because I did see some Tim Hortons in Seoul. But yeah, I don't know. This is what, I don't know, it's weird. It's like, I don't know anything about this part of the world really. But it's kind of weird how North Korea is basically in the past. But if you want to be controlling in totalitarian, China is still that way. But they have Family Mart and Lawson's and McDonald's and Tim Hortons. I guess philosophically that doesn't mesh. I guess with North Korea, but it's like you can do both. You can have a veneer of like, hey, look, we got all the stuff. Just also don't step out of line. Don't. Don't. But anyway, I truly did not expect to see that. Fucking Tim Hortons. It is a shame. I should have looked up some of this stuff before I got here, but I didn't figure that I just wouldn't be able to get on the internet at the airport.

So there's like that places to sleep website that I checked out for Calgary. I might be handy just to see if there's anywhere around here. I don't know. I guess when it gets late, I'll just see if there's other people sleeping. It's easy enough. Calgary, I guess, made me overly confident about sleeping in the airport because it was so easy. And I saw so many different places where you could and it was so nice. 45:00 Yeah, I guess I'll just see what's going on here. If I see someone else sleeping, I'll just follow suit maybe. I mean, it's a pretty airport, but so was the one in Russia. I don't know every airport's pretty. The fuck cares.

And yeah, now that I'm up in the proper terminal on the second floor of the terminal, there's fewer people asking me constantly if I need a taxi. It's like, no way. I ain't going outside. I ain't touching soil around here. I don't even know if I can. But yeah, basically to finally get into some of this crap about the flight might as well gamer about that as I just walk down. You know, this place is big too, but that's another thing with Calgary. Calgary was insane. As was the Russian airport, like I'm actually almost at the end of this terminal. I'm just going to walk back and forth along this fucking thing for 12 hours. Like in Calgary, you legitimately can just walk and walk and walk and walk and walk. And I walked across the Russian airport for like 40 fucking minutes and I have no idea how far I got. It took a long time to walk from terminal one to terminal two. There was some stuff going on in there. What? There's a security pass. I can't go back. But basically, see last episode for more details. But I had this flight that I booked sometime back with China Eastern Air through Expedia. And, you know, there's like this thing with these third party websites that you booked through where you should be very sus of, you know, dream flight and these weird ones that post very cheap prices on flight websites just to get you in the door. And then they do buy tickets for you, but then, you know, you're dealing with a middleman instead of the actual airline. It's not necessarily the best way to do stuff if you deal directly with the airlines. Then, you know, you're dealing directly with the airlines. But I don't know that I necessarily would change what I did. I was even thinking for a bit like maybe I should leave a day early. And I'm not saying that's a bad idea, but now that I've learned all the ins and outs of stuff, I don't think leaving the last day of your visa is necessarily so bad. Really, a typhoon is a pretty, pretty much falls into the acts of God territory. But yeah, I don't think I necessarily did anything wrong. I just know more ins and outs now to smooth this out next time. So it'll hopefully happen with less effects to my for psyche if it happens again. But yeah, I was using Expedia, which I've used many times throughout the years. And they're pretty established. I think they just bought and merged with hotels.com. Pretty big. And I got to say through this process, things didn't go smoothly. But I can't complain on their end. I mean, there might be some errors in their system, but they always got on a little Skype call with me within like two minutes. And where as helpful as they could be. So yeah, it was a case of having to allow them to be the middleman for me in dealing with the airline. But in this part of the world, I think that's still not the worst idea because how am I going to deal with all these random airlines by myself? You know, I went to the China Eastern airline for a hot second. And I was like, ah, fuck, got a register and log in and navigate this motherfucker. I flew Korean Air today went way smoother. It's obviously a way easier to deal with fucking entity. But still, I went to their website for one second for something. And I was like, ah, geez, like luckily I found ways to do this through Expedia because it's like Jesus. I don't want to deal with this. So this part of the world in particular, the Expedia method seems pretty good. But it is still a middleman situation in the event that something goes wrong. Here's a nice big window. There we go. There's my view of Shanghai, just another airport terminal, an overpass, some airplanes.