The flight to LA was uneventful. Southwest was very helpful with Mom's wheelchair situation. LA Airport was crazy busy and we had to figure out how to get to the international terminal by aorport shuttle with Mom in a wheelchair and 6 bags of luggage. All worked out well once we found a couple of luggage carts that someone had left on the sidewalk (We gave God the credit for that!). We had a long layover in LA (5 hours). When we reached the Cathey Pacific airline counter there was a sign sitting out that we couldn't check our bags until 8:00 pm ( 3 more hours) so that gave us time to re-weigh all of our luggage to make sure that they didn't weigh too much. At the airline counter, there was a Chinese college girl named Stacey looking lost. (In the picture, Stacey is just to the right of John and smiling) She was waiting for the same flight, so I invited her to sit with us until the plane came. She was great fun and a fountain of information. She was returning to China after staying with a host family for a year while going to college. We would have adopted her too if she was available! :)
The LA to Hong Kong flight was long, but not bad. We left LA at 11:50 LA time (1:50 AM Topeka time) We all slept 8-10 hours and that helped a lot. Mom has been a trouper. The flight was 15 hours from LA to Hong Kong. Because of the 15 hour flight and the 12 hour time difference, we skipped Saturday and arrived in Hong Kong on Sunday AM at 5:20 AM. After the airline unloaded Mom's wheelchair and we got out of the plane, we had to wait in the "Transfer Area" until the check-in desk opened at 7:30 am. This is where the fun started because people didn't speak English very well. After we checked in, we got moved to the front line of the security check because of Mom's leg. Then we were taken upstairs to the food court and the guy took us to Burger King. The bakery next door looked better so we ate there. In the bathroom, we were able to brush teeth and wash faces and that helped a lot. The bathroom was Western style still thank goodness!
The flight from Hong Kong to Nanchang was good. It's a small airline, but the people were very friendly. We had to fill out declaration papers on the airplane. We arrived in Nanchang about 1:30 PM and went through security and customs. Shirley, our guide, met us at the airport and got us loaded into a van. Nanchang was hot and humid!! Luckily the van had AC. It was about an hour drive from the AP into Nanchang and our hotel. During the drive, Shirley gave us a brief overview of the next few days and told us that the Orphanage Director would be bringing Camryn to us at the hotel about 20 minutes after we arrived!
