Trip To Jeju Day 0: The Friday that was not

Shanghay Pudong Airport: Terminal 1

To say that our departure from home was hectic is to say nothing.  Our flight was at 1:05am on Friday, September 20. We left home at 7:30pm instead of the planned 6pm. The drive down to LA was fortunately uneventful and surprisingly traffic-free, so around 10:30 we were on Century boulevard, where we got gas before driving the rental car to Enterprise.  LAX itself was a mess, the shuttle driver didn't even bother with trying the arrivals level - it was so backed up. The departures level was no better. At 11;05pm we were finally on the arrivals concourse of Bradley terminal, found China Eastern booths, and went through ticketing -  got a nice surprise - our luggage was free to check (I thought I bought tickets with no luggage allowance and was ready to pay), and finally went through security check.  

Things went smoothly from then on. Boarded the plane, and at 1:05am flew to Shanghai.  

This is where we lost our Friday. The flight to Shanghai is 13 hours long, and Shanghai is 16 hours ahead of us. So, 13+16 = 29. We touched down in Shanghai on Saturday, September 21, around 6am local time.  

Transfer in Shanghai was a much less stressful affair than our adventures two years ago when we flew from Melbourne to Lisbon through Xian and Beijing.   Shanghai Pudong concourse is nice, roomy, and was rather empty when we were there. It has a nice "family store" with cheap pastries, and a Chinese Starbucks which sells interesting drinks. The one pictured below is a pomegranate  bubble drink.

Fancy drinks in Chinese Starbucks.

And so, with boarding our flight to Jeju, ended the Friday that we never saw.