This is a 3-part series! If you missed part 1, check it out here!  Or to skip to the third part, go here!

Well, we are officially in China — all four of us! Listen, I’m just as surprised as anyone else. I guess it’s good that I wasn’t worried about myself. In China, it’s a little scary to fly your pets in, because the rules seem to change and we couldn’t get a hold of the quarantine department at the airport beforehand (they hung up on Seth because they couldn’t understand him). We got a quote from an animal relocation company who wanted anywhere from $2,500 to $5,800 to help us get our furbabies here. If you fly into Beijing or Shanghai, American pets have to spend 30 days in quarantine at the Chinese facility, which you can’t visit. Guangzhou doesn’t have quarantine … unless you do something wrong (according to the mess of forums and articles I read obsessively over the past 3 months). Hong Kong doesn’t have quarantine, but if we wanted to fly them to Hong Kong, they would have had to go under the plane, and our cats are total wimps. So we took our chances with Guangzhou! Spoiler alert: it was a success.

I have to throw in a quick note that we did go experience a tiny piece of LA while we were in town on Thursday — because why not? After sleeping off our exhaustion from 2.5 hours of sleep on leg 1 of the journey, went to this AMAZING little Greek restaurant called Aliki’s near the airport in the afternoon. We inhaled warm pita smothered in a selection of roasted eggplant, baba ganoush, Greek caviar, spiced feta, hummus, and tapenade (plus some baklava for dessert 😍). Then we headed over to Sunset Boulevard and checked out the walk of fame for a few hours before heading back to the hotel to chill and packing before the hop across the Pacific. It was a pleasant last afternoon on American soil!

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Leg 2: LAX-ICN-CAN

We arrived at the airport in LA with about 1.5hrs to spare before the flight, waiting as long as possible to put the cats back in the carriers out of mercy. On our way to security, we were stopped by a TSA agent who pointed toward the checkpoint and said in an African accent, “You must wait. You have a dog, and they have a dog, so they cannot meet,” we didn’t bother correcting her. So we waited anxiously in a roped-off area next to the line (got to skip the line!) for about 15 minutes (not really worth it) before another no-nonsense agent came to retrieve us and guide us through security. Oh yeah, Lexie unzipped her carrier and almost got loose while we waited.

This time, the agent insisted on wiping our hands with his little explosive-detector swabs while we held the cats. Because my 7-pound fluffy Manx is the perfect opportunity to hide a weapon, right?

After going through the metal detector, it was confirmed to us that he was not a cat person. “Hold out your hand,” he said, which I was using to hold Winston. I did that — I held out my hand! “More,” he said. I laughed nervously and told him the cat was fine, to which he replied, “I DON’T TAKE CHANCES WITH CATS.” So with my left arm under the cat I extended my right hand from the elbow so that he could wipe it without coming near the scared little fluffball. Then he needed my other arm, which, as previously established, was occupied. He didn’t care. Anyway the point is, it was all very uncomfortable and for some reason they needed to run the carriers through the xray twice while Lexie squirmed all over Seth’s shoulders again.

The first flight to Seoul was long, but Asiana is a very nice airline so it could have been much worse (think 8 inches of room in front of your knees — in economy!). It seemed like a new plane with seats that slide forward and back, so you don’t piss off whomever is behind you quite so much when you recline. There was also a second deck for the really big spenders. Seth and I were not allowed to sit together because Asiana only allows one animal per section of the plane. We each got a window seat, and I sat next to a very sweet teen who was taking a week off from school to escort her Philippine grandmother home to Manila. She was stoked that Winston was with me, which was a blessing because he was NOT cool with his tiny space. Remember how I said I was going to keep the towel over the carrier so he could stay in his little zone the whole ride? Yeah, that didn’t work out. I spent about 9 out of 14 hours on the plane like this:

He got plenty of sleep, but I was terrified that if I fell asleep he would decide to go explore, so I got to significantly increase the number of mediocre movies in my mental database in a short period of time (actually, “Girl on Fire” was really good). We landed in Korea at 5:45AM local time after going the long way around Pyongyang, i.e. west over the Yellow Sea and then taking a hard left. Like this:

We got to Seoul and took a stroll down memory lane as much as one can in an airport: “Aw, Paris Baguette! Shinsegae! A hanbok!” (these are very Korean things). Then once we were at the gate, we took turns bringing one cat at a time to a closed-in handicapped restroom to try to get them to pee, drink and stretch their legs:

We also got to use a few of our $11 in Korean won from when we left Korea in 2014 to buy a little sandwich and some water. That was kinda cool. We still have like $4 though — not really enough to exchange.

The second flight was rough. We got on the plane, and the carriers did not fit under the seat in front of us (still separated). I tried to put it under my legs, but the flight attendant advised me that “regulations” wouldn’t allow that, and if he didn’t fit, Winston would have to ride IN THE OVERHEAD COMPARTMENT. I smiled and shook my head on the outside , but on the inside I said I am not putting my cat in the f**king overhead compartment, you crazy b**ch!! (To be fair, I was running on pure adrenaline and coffee at this point.) Instead, we shoved him under the seat ahead of me, bending the frame of the carrier so that it came down about 2 inches (soft carrier #ftw). This time, Winston didn’t complain and stayed in his crate; I think he was as tired as I was from all the new smells and sounds, and from being jostled around. *Edit: I’m so glad I was adamant that they didn’t put my cat in the overhead. I learned that recently a dog died on a US domestic flight, because he suffocated due to the lack of air in the overhead compartment!!! So crazy!!!*

Then we landed in Guangzhou and I was more nervous than I’d been in a long time. This was the moment when we were to find out if the rumors were true — is there no quarantine in Guangzhou? Should we have gotten additional cat immunizations? Did the vet give them the right rabies vaccine, and if not, would they take our cats from us?

We went through immigration, picked up our bags, and started to walk toward the exit. We were just about to turn the corner when an official in the “Inspection and Quarantine” area said, “hey! hey! What is that? Cat? Come!” and indicated a large red sign that said “companion animals” with an arrow pointing in the opposite direction. OK, they got us. We brought all our possessions to them and showed them our paperwork, then signed some forms saying we would keep the cats indoors for 30 days — no problem — and take them out of the country if they showed signs of disease (no idea how that would work). But then … we left! And were overcharged for a taxi. Ah, it’s great to be back in Asia!

We then got to our Airbnb in Guangzhou. Normally, I don’t seek out Airbnbs in countries where I literally get by through pantomime and google translate (Dear google translate, you are God) but that was the easiest way to find pet-friendly places. But it has been pretty great so far. Here’s a little pano shot of our Airbnb in Guangzhou:

Since I’m almost at 1500 words, I’ll be saving the remainder of the trip (Guangzhou-Shenzhen-settling in) for part 3. Miss you all!