Departed LCC Terminal at Kuala Lumpur. Upgraded via Optiontown to Business Class (they call it Premium, but it is much much better than say Air New Zealand’s version of Premium). As usual Air Asia blow everyone else out of the water. Sure it’s a low cost budget airline, but the value for money is excellent.
Flight to Xiaoshan City (morphed into Hangzhou City) close to Shanghai was uneventful, slept well, as you would on flatbed seats. This was the first time I’d travelled like this, when was the last time your airline upgraded you? Lines were processed very quickly, none of the Air New Zealand or Jetstar issues of thinking people love to wait in queues. Landed, got our luggage, processed through immigration and biosecurity in 20 minutes, all inside a beautiful terminal. Got scammed a little bit on the outside with the typical Taxi scam, ie. just a local’s car. Paid 3 x too much we worked out later, but not a biggie. Just use a metred taxi and see what you are getting into first. Taxis in China are a bargain, more on what isn’t later.
Exhausted Zina sleeping on Air Asia flight to Xiaoshan
So have you ever heard of the city, if you are like me you will be feeling desperately ignorant, this is hard for me because I think of myself as very well read, well travelled and with significant general knowledge. The Hangzhou/Xiaoshan City has a population of 8 million people. Although it must be remembered that it is in a general area (Shanghai area) that is much richer than other places in China, the area appears rich, or becoming so fast, I say this in comparison to New Zealand ie. richer, yes richer.
Arrive at our hotel, New Century Grand Hangzhou. 5 Stars, and a bargain at 764 Yuan, about $145 NZD ($118 USD) per night using booking.com, and there wouldn’t be too many hotels in New Zealand as nice as this. Breakfast was fantastic and included, free internet (although I’ll have a discussion on this at a later date… stops working on odd and suspicious times).
