Travel back to Mongolia

zieak ♦ August 18, 2012 ♦ Leave Your Comment

Wednesday afternoon we boarded our flight from Petersburg, Alaska.  We were not all seated together but hopped down to Seattle and spent the night at Holly and Ryan’s place where we left two bags a month ago.  They had to work so we were able to hit a brewery, get pizza, relax and shuffle things from bag to bag before they took us to the airport on Thursday night.  While pulling into the terminal to drop us off we realized we were flying on Delta.  ”Ugh” was the collective reaction.  Multiple negative experiences with them and a long flight was not something to look forward to.  When checking our bags we were told we would be given seats at the gate.  It is a “very full flight” – great.  Pepper asked if we would be seated together.  They said we would be but that they were shuffling big groups around to try and make space.  That sounded promising.

Pepper got her (second-to) last Starbucks for a year and then we went to the gate.  We were pestered for not having a Chinese visa.  Apparently even the airline gets fined if they drop off passengers that do not have the proper visa.   But we have done this before.  You don’t need a visa if you are transferring within 24 hours.  We showed them our tickets to Mongolia, our Mongolian visas, our Mongolian alien registration cards and the few stamps in our passports already given for these transit stops.  They decided to allow us to fly.  And because of the big groups or the hassle about our plans or just good luck we were bumped up to business class.

Swanky.

I downed a few glasses of champagne and orange juice before takeoff.  They gave us small pillow, big pillows, a comforter, slippers, and a bag with an eye shade, ear plugs, socks, lip balm, lotion, tooth brush, tooth paste, a sanitary wipe, shoe polish, shoe horn, comb… The earphones fit well and gave great sound.  The meals were fantastic – dinner was five courses.  And the wine was delicious.  The seats folded down nearly flat with raised legs.  I watched the Avengers and most of John Carter until the wine kicked in.  It was a great flight.

Then we had a long layover in Beijing.  Ten hours to pass time.  I tried to sleep.  Pepper did a puzzle.  We all read and played games on tablets.  McDonald’s only had Spicy Chicken Sandwiches available.  Not even french fries!  So Burger King would have to be the last chain meal for me.  We are to arrive in Ulaanbaatar at about noon.