TAS - CAN - MEL - WLG
CZ3054, CZ343, QF173
The Anjir Business Lounge at TAS is the only Priority Pass lounge (out of the two lounges there are there) and also services Air Astana and Turkish Airlines pax who get priority entry during busy periods. They and Mastercard holders can use the upper level of the lounge, while the rest of us can only use the lower. I had to wait a few minutes for a seat to become available before they let me enter. There is a small buffet of hot dishes including plov, cold cuts, and standard alcoholic options.
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We departed 30 mins late. I think this is my first time with China Southern and the service was what I expected given it's a Chinese airline - slick and warm. I'm surprised all announcements were in Mandarin and English only though, given they speak Cantonese in Guangzhou, and the flight staff spoke Mandarin without accent. Safety video was weird, the accompanying soundtrack sounded melancholy. Limited English IFE options. I ended up watching a documentary on Belarusian cities.
We made up time in-flight but by the time I reached the terminal building, after a very long tarmac bus ride, boarding for the Melbourne flight had started. I was given an express connection sticker however got held up at security screening as there were only two lanes open and both were stuck on pax who'd, for some reason, not brought their passports.
I stayed at the Hyde Melbourne Place. I presume the hotel is modelled after the city itself. The room is dimly lit, like the frequently overcast sky and long winter days, with a colour scheme that reminds you of Flinders Lane. The staff were relatively young and extremely chatty, which made me feel like an old grouch, because it was 10 p.m. and I was still covered in Tashkent grime, and very tired.
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Welcome drink could be used for coughtails at the bar. Wi-fi was pretty much unusable. The lights and blinds in the room are electronically controlled. The genuine black-out blinds were appreciated.
The next day was reserved for a tattoo and a haircut - it's nice going back to people you trust to provide these essential services. Some things I noticed about Melbourne:
- there are more smoke- and vape-free zones around
- there are new bins in the CBD that are opened by stepping on a lever
- you can now, finally!!, pay for PT with a bank card
- Southern Cross still smells bad
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I'm at the MEL Qantas lounge now. It's fairly quiet. The Greek chicken stew is good, and Chivas at 12 p.m. is never a bad idea. Some poor pax have just had their flight to DFW cancelled due to engineering issues.
I'm waiting for the flight to WLG and a collapse into scratchy Ibis sheets afterwards. This has probably been the most physically gruelling trip I've done, eastward flying through 24 time zones capped by a few thousand kilometres bouncing along in a Jeep. I've lost weight despite the plov and probably the new deadlift I'd hit just before leaving.
But I guess I did recover some passion for travel again, and managed an unblinking glance at an Uzbekistan behind the romanticisation of the Silk Road and the lingering shadows of the USSR. There've been a lot of ups and downs, but I've seen a lot more than I expected to fit into two weeks. The only thing is, I never did quite manage to do my taxes.
Thank you for reading.
