In the Beginning
In typical Gou fashion, grandfather Yeb’s Suburu station wagon was all packed and ready to go the night before our big day—an oversized body bag strapped to the rack above, and two flattened dog crates and three 70-lb. suitcases crammed in the back. I squeezed into the backseat with Remy and Martin. Somehow they knew this was no ordinary car ride to the DP (dog park but don’t let them hear you say it!).
Per my parents’ suggestion (i.e. order), we arrived at Dulles three hours early… even though the airline had recommended only 2 1/2 hours. The skycap helped load all our belongings, and we hurried inside (it was extremely windy) to set the dogs up in their crates. After arranging the water bottles and food cups on their cages just right and applying all the necessary stickers, the manager came by and said, “We can’t let you take these crates.” Say that again?? I had spent HOURS researching crates for international travel—they had to have vents on four sides, needed to provide x inches beyond the dogs’ dimensions, had to have the solid floor, absorbent bedding, etc. These were supposed to be approved for international travel! Not by United. Our fold-able crates were considered unsafe. What can you do: first day out, not even onto the flight and we had a glitch. Fortunately, United had approved crates for sale. Problem solved and we got the babies on board. Sadly, I was forced to part with my super-cool fold-able contraptions. At least United donates the reject crates to a local shelter.
Security at Dulles was a breeze. I have to say, it’s quite painless once you get beyond the line at the ticketing counter. I was thinking of the pups during take off and landing. Fortunately, they emerged relatively okay on the other end. Martin had an accident and both were panting and somewhat distracted. But after a few minutes, they had forgiven us and we were given the wagging tails approval. Two vans transported us to the Red Roof (always clean, cheap and dog-friendly), and that night the pups drank a lot of water (I don’t think they ever figured out the water bottle setup) and slept like babies in the king-sized bed.
San Francisco Stayover
At SFO, the security process is dreadfully inefficient. We had a tough time getting the pups into their crates this time– we practically had to shove Martin in. The flight from SFO to PVG was killer. 13:30 hours, with a one hour delay (of course). We watched about six movies (including the horrible Charlie’s Angels 2) and still had plenty of time to spare.
Arrival in Pudong, Shanghai
We arrived at Pudong at 8pm Thursday evening. No pictures here of course. John would like to thank United airlines for the Irritable Bowel Syndrome (He chose Beef, and chose poorly) while waiting in line for customs. Thanks for making that such a memorable experience. 🙂 Though there are not many pictures to document the long and enduring journey from East Coast to Far East, these are the few that were recovered. All in all, we watched a total of about 6 movies during the flights, and still had extra time to belly-ache about the long flight and nasty salad greens.
Once our visa paperwork was accepted, we went to the baggage claim area. It wasn’t long before Remy and Martin came cruising along. Once we got them off the conveyor belt, the pet importer rep quickly located us. Thank goodness for Jialiang Kennels. They met us in the baggage area upon arrival, zipped us and the dogs through customs (the paperwork was taken care of while we waited for baggage!!) and off we were to the kennel… which ended up being about 40 minutes away. But the facility is awesome– an animal lover’s paradise with hundreds of dogs, plus cats, pigs, rabbits, and 40 horses (it’s an equestrian center too).
We left the pups and headed out to our hotel in two taxis—I wrote down all the taxi driver license numbers and plate numbers and started thinking up an escape plan just in case (see what happens when you have paranoid parents?). We arrived safely at the Howard Johnson’s downtown—this ridiculously posh place with a 20 ft xmas tree and monster gingerbread house in the lobby. They don’t even celebrate xmas in china. Oh well, at least the room was clean, the bed was soft, and we had our high-speed internet.