CHINA

090807 It looks like China is getting very close! The authorization for the Business Class tickets went to the Travel Agent (Safi) today and we’ll get them Monday. Since the plane is purchased from China Air, we must fly them rather than Emirates Airways. Will be packing and planning for the trip till then.

Right now the plan is to take the Monday night flight which departs at 2300 arriving into Beijing at 1100 the next day. Beijing is four hours ahead of Dubai, so this will be a total of twelve hours ahead of Atlanta. What this all means is that I’m now half a world away!

We had received directions to the Hotel written in Chinese so the taxi driver would know where to take us. These directions proved invaluable; as we could use them anywhere we went and knew any taxi driver could get us “home.” The Hotel had very large apartments and was in a very nice part of town, at least for ExPats.

K and I got our signals crossed on when we would take our combat naps, so ended up at the Silk Market at different times. This is the market where most people have their custom tailored suits made which requires the first meeting to pick out the material needed, type of suit or sport coat, buttons etc. Twenty fours hours later is the second meeting where your clothes are fine tuned to your exact measurements. Then once again after twenty fours hours your clothes are ready. I was able to get two suits, one sport coat, and four shirts for the price I was going to pay last Christmas for the same sport coat. So, in that regard, it was a successful trip.

Now about the Silk Market! What a place to walk into. The only way I can describe the Silk Market is to call it a “zoo.” The first two floors must be very good “knock offs.” The prices that they are selling name brands for is unbelievable! There are two to three floors of small cubicles selling clothing for all age groups. The people running these booths put the American car dealers to shame when it come to aggressive selling.

My first night there I made the mistake of stopping to look at some Tommy Bahama knock offs. The young sales girl took the shirt off a hangar and handed it to me. Stupidly taking the shirt in my hand, I was “fair game.” With the shirt in my hand, she had the opportunity to grab my Cross Pen out of my pocket to “look at.” All of a sudden the pen is in her friend’s hands and we’re playing “Monkey in the Middle,” and guess who the monkey is? Once I obtained my pen back, I knew I had to stay focused on ordering my suits.

I think the rules I learned from these first three floors were: don’t touch anything, don’t shake hands (you can be pulled into the shops), don’t answer where you’re from (they then know which currency to convert to), offer your first price at 25% of what they want and try to stay below the 50% level and you will win, stay focused on why you’re there. Other than these rules, just go and have a great time!

Now we need to talk about the upper floors. This is where the good stuff is. The jewelry, jade, pearls, and stones appear to be very good. Like the Gold Souk, a lot of weighing goes on to determine prices. Artistry does change the price. They do have real luggage (Samsonite) for very good prices but again negotiating comes into play.

I had arranged to have dinner with SB in China on the first night. It turns out he lives very close to the hotel so we decided to have dinner at a German restaurant in the Lufthansa Center. I do understand that you don’t go to Beijing for German food, but this was very good. It was very nice to be able to sit outside and have adult refreshment. The only problem outside is that the Chinese are able to put the people of Los Angeles to shame with all their smog. Those that are able to see my pictures will see that on the ramp of Beijing airport visibility is only about half a mile during the day do to this smog. It must be all the bicycles over here!

The real reason I was in Beijing was to pick up the 767 for Safi Airways and take it to Ras Al Khaimah, UAE. Tuesday morning Air China picked up K and I as well as two others that have been “getting the plane ready for flight.” These two also happen to work for Safi Airways. One of the individuals was named J, who is an Afghan and is the brother of our President. The second is an Italian named M who happens to be “a maintenance professional.”

Our two Safi employees begin to explain how to get the security passes at the Air China/Lufthansa Maintenance Facility and Chinese Military. It sounds so easy when I put the initial conversation on computer, but as some of you know, nothing is easy with the Chinese!

Arriving at the front gate at the Maintenance Facility, we went into the security office. The initial pass didn’t take too long but the agent there wanted to keep our passports, which we would need to get our ramp permits. It took a few calls to our Air China Customer Service Agent to have him explain in Chinese that we were not required to give the passports to her. She succumbed to the pressure and we had our passports back in hand.

We then went to the Safi Office within Air China and gathered up numerous items that J and M would need at the aircraft. K and I had our flight kits that we would need to check out the various systems to accomplish our mission. Our Customer Service Agent, Paul, was then to take K and I to the main terminal for our ramp permits. Nobody said it was five miles away! In the main terminal it was pictures, passports, and lots of questions.

Arriving back at security point number one, we now proceeded to security point number two. At security point number two, the military scanned our bags, had us go through a magnetometer, and inspected the Air China truck we had. They also stamped our security permit, which also meant that when we left the ramp, we couldn’t go back unless we went back to the main terminal and purchased another pass! The bureaucracy didn’t stop there. As we approached OUR aircraft and unloaded the truck, I noticed an armed Private (or whatever) approaching. The Air China Customer Agent told us he really “owns” the aircraft at that point and we couldn’t touch it till a mechanic was there.

We called for a mechanic and of course there is another wait. When the mechanic arrived, there was a formal signing ceremony at which time the mechanic “owned” the aircraft and was responsible for all of us on OUR aircraft! All of this could possible even put the Russians to shame!

During our inspection we did find a couple items that needed fixing and made a list up for Air China. We also checked the FMS (navigation) extensively and ordered updated software. As it was now approaching 5:00PM, we had to get ready to go because we would have to have another signing ceremony and get back to the office because the entire plant closes then.

Wednesday was a very busy day. Our president wanted the aircraft washed, the Italian ordered a fourteen day check, Air China had to finish the requested items, final money had to be transferred, the 8 hour and ten minute flight plan had to be filed, catering had to be ordered, and most of all we needed 50,000# of additional fuel. Again I mention that K & I had also to get to the tailors to pick up our clothes. So, needless to say, this day will turn into one of those “lake stories!”

Private and Corporate jets must leave Beijing before 6:00AM, which required a very early pickup. I had planned on a 5:00AM takeoff to give myself some slack. After an excessive amount of taxiing, we did have a 5:10 takeoff. The flight was on its way toward the Gobi Desert, Himalayas, and then to the desert again. If you are not familiar with those items, we followed the northern Chinese border, west to Pakistan, down the Pakistan border with Afghanistan, over Iran to Bandar Abass, over the Straights of Hormuze (?) to Ras Al Khaimah.

The trip itself was uneventful but had extremely beautiful scenery. Not only was the Gobi interesting, but the Himalayas had a MOCA of somewhere around 32,000 feet. We were only cruising at 38,000 feet, so it was very interesting to be about 8000 feet above the ground. I will put more out on this trip to the aviation types later.

The arrival and landing at Ras Al Khaimah was as all the Navy friends would expect. The old touch is still there and I was “back in the saddle again!”

The joy of the moment was only tempered by the thought that I had to be in Bahrain the next morning.

Have a good week!