When most people suffer from jet lag, it's after returning home from a week-long vacation in a different time zone two hours ahead or behind. In those cases, you tend to fall asleep unusually early or unusually late. Returning to your home country after a year is another story.
I left the US in March 2013 to teach ESL in South Korea. I returned to California in July 2014. Living in a time zone twelve hours ahead for fifteen months made it much more difficult for my body to readjust. Every day for the first week, I would nap away the afternoon and be wide awake until the following sunrise. Most of my plans for visiting and sightseeing had to be canceled or postponed because I couldn't stay awake. Having never been overseas for longer than a week, I didn't know what to expect. Personally, I did not try any tricks or home remedies to help myself recover from jet lag. One week was how long it took my body to naturally readjust to the time change.
Of course everybody is different. Additionally, some other factors at play here that can determine your recovery time are the time your flight departs, the length of your layover, and the duration of the flight. For example, I flew out of Seoul at night and my layover in Taiwan was only one hour. After sitting in a plane for thirteen hours awake, I arrived in San Francisco around 8 pm, close to the same time I left Korea.
So my recovery from jet lag could have been shorter if I departed on a non-stop flight in the afternoon, slept throughout my flight, and arrived in the morning, refreshed.
But when it comes to traveling, there are so many factors we cannot control. We can only plan and prepare so much. Sometimes there are delays, changes, cancelations. Sometimes you just have to make like a plane, and wing it.
Tuesday, September 9, 2014
Layovers in Shanghai
The airport in Shanghai, China can be very confusing the first time. And if you're like me, it can also be confusing the second, third, and fourth time. In this post I will explain my traveling troubles there, and how to avoid them.
The first thing you should note is that there is a separate airport for domestic flights, which is quite a distance away. You may assume, as I did, that when you arrive at your layover from another nearby country like South Korea, you are in the international airport. When I made this mistake, I was returning to Korea (where I taught ESL) from my winter vacation in Thailand. I went to the information desk on the first floor, showed the woman my itinerary, asked for directions. She instructed me to go to the second floor. The person at that information desk told me to go to the third floor, and then that person told me to go to the first floor. The second or third lap of this wild goose chase, I showed my itinerary to a man, and explained what I just went through. It was only then that someone took a closer look at my itinerary and realized that a flight to Korea is international. I had to take the metro to the other airport, which was the furthest destination. When I reached the line to get my boarding pass, I was standing behind an ESL teacher who was also from the US. I told him about my situation, and he simply said, "Welcome to China."
For my next vacation in February, I went to Cambodia. My returning flight to Korea had a three hour layover in Shanghai, which sounded like enough time. My flight arrived right on time at 4 am. Standing at baggage claim, I observed that there was no where else to go. There were no other doorways or hallways to enter. It was not possible to go back the way you came. You could only exit the airport. This was my fourth and final layover in Shanghai, and it was all new to me. I asked the woman at the information desk where I should go for my international flight. She said a shuttle would arrive at 5 am. I wasn't too worried because I would still have two hours to board my flight.
When five o'clock rolled around there was no shuttle. I asked another employee who told me the shuttle arrived at 6 am, and takes an hour to reach the other airport. It seemed as if Priceline had designed this layover to make people miss their flights. What other explanation could there be?
I was told that my only option was to take a taxi. And if you think taking an hour long taxi ride is expensive, you are correct. That cost me $100. The irony here is that I only chose this particular flight because it was about $100 cheaper than the others.
Due to my experience, I would recommend booking a non-stop flight in order to avoid a stressful layover in Shanghai. But if you do have a layover in Shanghai, whether it's only a few hours or overnight, do your research. Look up which airport you're arriving in and the distance from your departure. You can never prepare too much.
I wish you happy flying and safe travels!
The first thing you should note is that there is a separate airport for domestic flights, which is quite a distance away. You may assume, as I did, that when you arrive at your layover from another nearby country like South Korea, you are in the international airport. When I made this mistake, I was returning to Korea (where I taught ESL) from my winter vacation in Thailand. I went to the information desk on the first floor, showed the woman my itinerary, asked for directions. She instructed me to go to the second floor. The person at that information desk told me to go to the third floor, and then that person told me to go to the first floor. The second or third lap of this wild goose chase, I showed my itinerary to a man, and explained what I just went through. It was only then that someone took a closer look at my itinerary and realized that a flight to Korea is international. I had to take the metro to the other airport, which was the furthest destination. When I reached the line to get my boarding pass, I was standing behind an ESL teacher who was also from the US. I told him about my situation, and he simply said, "Welcome to China."
For my next vacation in February, I went to Cambodia. My returning flight to Korea had a three hour layover in Shanghai, which sounded like enough time. My flight arrived right on time at 4 am. Standing at baggage claim, I observed that there was no where else to go. There were no other doorways or hallways to enter. It was not possible to go back the way you came. You could only exit the airport. This was my fourth and final layover in Shanghai, and it was all new to me. I asked the woman at the information desk where I should go for my international flight. She said a shuttle would arrive at 5 am. I wasn't too worried because I would still have two hours to board my flight.
When five o'clock rolled around there was no shuttle. I asked another employee who told me the shuttle arrived at 6 am, and takes an hour to reach the other airport. It seemed as if Priceline had designed this layover to make people miss their flights. What other explanation could there be?
I was told that my only option was to take a taxi. And if you think taking an hour long taxi ride is expensive, you are correct. That cost me $100. The irony here is that I only chose this particular flight because it was about $100 cheaper than the others.
Due to my experience, I would recommend booking a non-stop flight in order to avoid a stressful layover in Shanghai. But if you do have a layover in Shanghai, whether it's only a few hours or overnight, do your research. Look up which airport you're arriving in and the distance from your departure. You can never prepare too much.
I wish you happy flying and safe travels!
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