Through departures at Narita, not much there, mostly shopping and one cafe. Good thing we ate before. Down to the gate, which then changed. Down to that gate. The clientele waiting for the flight were much much more different than the locals over the last week. Jetstar are the Ryanair of Japan shall we say. Well it was cheap. That also explains why it was delayed by 15 mins. Definitely Ryanair.

Onboard to our uncomfortable leather (like) seats. Because we had checked-in so early we were given the option for more leg room, the condition was it was next to an emergency exit. Now on the plane, Frank would have to operate the hatch in case of an emergency. It's a good thing Frank doesn't have a problem with flying... oh, no wait. Yeah he does! The flight attendants' instrcutions 'when you hear "Evacutate! Evacuate! Evacuate!" Then pull open the hatch ....' repeating the instructions to the other side Frank quipps 'I wish she'd stop saying that.'

Flight was smooth, suprisingly.

Into Shanghai airport and everyone seemed to hurtle forwards. Crazy pace almost. 'Let them on, let them on.' We had to stay in the airport that night as our hotel check-in was for Saturday morning at 8am. This was now 01:20am! Towards immigration I spotted a sign "Take caution. Trolleys have no brakes" Bloody hell, that's safe with this mad lot. Through the much shorter 'foreigners' immigration que, no hassle, fingerprinted, a face scan and passport stamped - we've arrived! We're in China! Baggage claim, still madness around, I spot my bag all well and good. Franks came out in a deep plastic tray - his tie cord must have got caught at some stage as it was now gone. No sooner had this sunk in than poxy stupid bint pushing a trolley, crashed into both of our feet! (A careless woman to say the least). Cutting my ankle and running over Franks toes! Seemingly apologectic, but still preoccupied with finding her bags/family/marbles, she charged off. We left her and everyone else to find somewhere to relax for the next fews hours.

Unfortunately 'somewhere to relax' was no where to be found, so sitting on metal seats akin to those on Sittingbourne train station (Sheerness doesn't have seats) will do. Not much sleep was had, propping ourselves into several awkward positions, including your head on your own lap, which seemed the most effective if you didn't mind the crick in your neck you got after.

With that and no wifi available, it gave us an opportunity to observe the country's people. The Chinese are much bigger than the Japanese. Taller, broader... and fatter - the blokes really, the women seem much the same size. Elsewhere there was a woman and two men talking and waiting to transfer for their flight and she barely paused for breath in the three hours we sat opposite! A lot more people are in jogging bottoms or jeans. And already we are getting alot of hard, curious stares.

The time comes when we need to get our shuttle bus to the hotel. And it was so simple..... yeah, whatever! Upstairs, downstairs. Ask this person, ask that person. We asked all uniformed people obviously and they had about as much english as we did chinese. The information desk was now open - a becon of hope... dashed forthwith with the words,

"You have to make a call". What?

"You have to make a call". She turned and that was that conversation over with. Cheers luv. We looked at each other - right, erm, ok. We thumbed through our paperwork to find this number to call. I dailed... a robotic voice cuts in,

"Ni haõ, sorry you have call barring on your service" - eh?!!?

Second time, same story. Global sim my arse. Something to be sorted later (it worked fine in Japan).

Tried with Franks phone,

"Hello? Yes, Ni haõ we need a shuttle from the - yes, Ni haõ we need - hello? Yeah, ni haõ - hello? Hello?" She put the phone down on me! Frank tried

"Hello, english? Right ok - they're getting someone..."

So eventually a mini bus turns up at exit gate 25 and when I ask the driver if he is from our hotel, he indicates the Chinese characters of the hotel on his bus match our paperwork. Phew.

Check-in was rather arduous - again little english spoken, but the girls behind the counter had enough cop on to use their mobiles to translate.

Bought our breakfast voucher and pretty much hid away in our room for the next 24 hours catching up on much needed sleep and what felt like trauma recovery.