First House Guests...tell me again which airport?

Our first house guests left this morning (Monday) to go back home. So this is the first in a series of posts dedicated to their trip. Since we have not had guests before we needed some willing guinea pigs to test some new waters. Unfortunately, the waters started out a little choppy...

Let me introduce our guests...my brother Dave and his girlfriend, Ayumi. They currently live in Tokyo and had a short flight to Shanghai and only a one hour time difference. They decided to come and visit us during the May holiday (holiday in both Japan and China). They arrived Wed. night and I went to pick them up with Mr. He at the Pudong International Airport. A new terminal had been opened there recently so we confirmed with the travel agent that the flight was arriving at the new terminal 2.  Upon arrival I checked the fancy new arrival displays and found no flight number matching 816 from Tokyo...a flight at 4:20 and one at 5:30, no 816...no 4:30...uh oh.  I got Kim on the phone and she got a hold of the travel agent that earlier confirmed T2 at Pudong..."Oops, sorry, that flight is arriving in Hong Qiao not Pudong."  (Travel agent got a little bit from Kim in the exchange, but you can imagine that yourselves)  Oops is right...Hong Qiao is on the other side of Shanghai and it was rush hour the day before a major holiday!  Dave and Ayumi's Japanese cells phone do not work in China, trying to get a page out in a Chinese airport seemed remote, so we started our trek to the other side of Shanghai at 4:45.  Fortunately I had told Dave earlier in an email to stay in one place if something happens and borrow a nice person's cell phone and give me a call if need be.  Well something did happen and I got the call at 5:20, "Where are you?"  "Other side of Shanghai, stuck in traffic, not sure when I will be there...hang tight".  6:15 we pulled up to the the airport and finally picked up our guests...first lesson learned...never trust a travel agent to tell you the right airport or learn how to read a Chinese itinerary.

Meanwhile, back home our Ayi had whipped up a fabulous Chinese meal and was stressed out with her guests arriving so late.   We arrived at about 7:00 with hungry guests after a long wait at the airport.  Everyone thoroughly enjoyed several different types of Chinese dishes served up family style.  The main event however was still to come...

What is a great way to end a stressful day of airport travel?  ...a massage...so we left the kids with Wang and headed out to Head 2 Toe.  Here we learned lesson number 2...Dave is still very ticklish on his feet and could be given the nickname, "Frodo". 

All's well that ends well...the day ended very well...more to come.