Standing in for Montana and LuRue

Hello everybody,
This is Corrine, Montana's mom.  Montana and LuRue arrived safely in China to find out that China has blocked anything to do with Google.  Therefore they can't  use their blog or their email and LuRue can't use her Google ChromeBook.  So they sent me some blog posts and we will see if I can do this or not.  I'm not great with computers but I will try.  They also haven't sent me any pictures yet.
Here is their post from Feb 28th:

Whiplash--A Whole New World (for February 28th...this will probably be out of sync, but doesn't matter)

After four plus hours of sleep, Montana and LuRue awoke to a middle-of-the-night alarm, signalling that it was time to get up for our early-morning flight. We were ready to leave by 4:00am, with Stephen and Sheeba there to send us off with wishes for a safe journey. Brother Stephen was there to drive us to the airport through relatively quiet streets.

The lines for Air India were unclear, and of course we ended up behind a woman who was apparently a group leader, arranging for multiple boarding passes. But eventually we got our own, with the agent indicating that we needed to take some of those ubiquitous stringed paper luggage tags. Now that we're on the other end of our day's travel, we've learned that those tags are important. Apparently they get stamped and are the "credentials" we need for showing arrival times that we've landed somewhere.

After we snaked our way through the security line in Chennai, we saw that there was a division...a portal for "Gents" and a "Ladies Frisking Room" where the ladies have to step up onto a platform while a stern-faced woman passes a wand over arms, legs, body. Montana had to go back to retrieve her passport and boarding pass from the bin about to go through the scanner, and when the woman asked LuRue "What's that?" and LuRue answered "toilet paper" and showed her the plastic bag with neatly rolled-up tissue, the woman indicated that the jacket had to go back through the x-ray machine.

We had time for a quick cup of tea at the gate area before our flight was called. Another case of boarding a shuttle to drive us to the plane...a practice that seems to happen more and more often. LuRue "plane-slept" for a good portion of the flight to Delhi while Montana did some photo and film editing.

Even though we were "international transfers" and had never left a secure area, we had to go through another lengthy security line in Delhi. At the guest house, we had been talking about India's careful security measures; now we were experiencing them. Montana's small stuffed animal that rides on the zipper of her daypack came under careful scrutiny. Again there were separate portals for men and women...this time the women entering a small curtained "booth" to be wanded.

Near our departure gate in the Delhi airport, we passed a small shop selling ice cream. What could be better for breakfast? So we decided to go wild and have a milkshake. The first warning sign was the sound of ice cubes in a blender. Our "milk shakes" were ice water (and ice chips) with a splash of "milk" and a drop of flavoring.

We went to the gate about 15 minutes before the boarding time printing on our boarding passes. Were we surprised to find the gate area empty and the sign flashing "Final Boarding"!!!! We walked right onto the plane and got our seats, but there was still another half hour of people arriving, boarding, and settling in. The US airline companies are always vying for best in "on-time" and in early boarding and departure times. The foreign airlines we've been on seem to take such things for granted.

The 6-hour flight was on a "Dreamliner". It had not only the individual TV screens, but also plug-in for electronics (which Montana used as she did more photo and film editing). The windows didn't have shades, but automatically (or could be done manually) turned darker shades of blue to filter out the light. The toilets flush by gently closing the lid...or as LuRue discovered, spontaneously flush while one is using them, abruptly giving the user the sensation that you are about to be sucked into the void. LuRue watched a movie and a half while Montana worked, watched a movie, and chatted with the Chinese student in the window seat.

Once in Shanghai, having successfully gotten through customs and retrieved baggage, the next step was getting to the hotel where we had reservations. LuRue had downloaded instructions from TripAdvisor about how to find the free shuttle pick-up place. We kept stopping to ask directions from anywhere that said "Information". First we had to walk from Terminal Two to Terminal One; those directions were clear. Then we needed to find Door Number 11 or 12, which we did. Once outside though, "across the street" became less clear. Two Family Marts were right where we expected them, but when we walked "past the taxis", we were in the outer realm somewhere. We crossed too many streets and ended up at the parking garage. Retracing our steps, we asked some airport guy and a couple of bus drivers, none of which spoke English, but the light suddenly came on for one of the bus drivers who directed us back across one of the streets to a small median strip where, sure enough, there was a sign, with posted times, for the shuttle we wanted. We had just missed one, but another was along in 30 minutes. At 40 degrees (after hot, humid India), we were glad we had on our jackets. Other people also began waiting, so we relaxed and felt we were on the right track.

The hotel has turned out to be extremely nice though it is clearly not a tourist hotel.  The staff speaks only the most basic English.  LuRue had the first "real (as in hot)" shower before going to bed.  Montana was ready for sleep right away (11:30 Shanghai time--9:00India time) as she had been up since 3:30 am.