And then we arrive at our transit hotel in Beijing. It had a nice exterior. They assigned us to rooms, and I thought for a moment I had a room all to myself. I locked and chained the door took a shower and there was a banging at my door. I decided I didn’t care and just let the guy bang and bang away. I then went to sleep, ignoring all banging at the door. I woke up at 11:30, stomach filled with hunger, got dressed and started to wonder around for food. I found my American friend, and we headed together to the Lunch venue. He told me he didn’t lock his door and was given a roomate, but the his roomate, a Mongolian man, was a nice chap who spoke very little English. The two of them were heading to the same place, Chicago, so it turned out well for him. After lunch, we quickly got ready and headed to the airport via a bus.
At the airport, The American, The Mongolian and I had filled our forms. We had to help the Mongolia, as he was clearly lost. We then proceeded to check in, with a plan to re-connect at Starbucks after the Security check. I headed to check in, and then lined up for Passport control where I realized I had lost my denim jacket. Sigh. Not sure where I last had it, probably on the Bus. Sigh, no matter. Passport control was easy, no comments on my looks, but this time security was alittle funny. I had placed all my belongings in the x-ray machine, and then passed through the metal detectors. The thing beeped, probably because of my silver chain around my neck, and so I had to be manually scanned. There were 2 police women there, and they both asked me to come to them at the same time. “I’ll do it”, said one in Mandarin, “No,I’ll do it”, said the other. I smiled and asked them , “So which one of you ladies wants me?”, they both giggled, and gave each other shy looks. “I’ll do it”, said one. And I replied ,”Ah, somebody wants me”. She scanned me, and as I collected my stuff, I looked back, to see both of them giggle and look at me, probably surprised I could speak Mandarin.
I headed for Starbucks, bought a drink and a muffin, and waited for my two friends. It wasn’t long before they arrived.
We discovered the Mongolian was a professor of Law in a local Mongolian university, and that he was on his way to see his daughters Graduation from Law school in the states. He was as proud as he could be, and had many questions to ask us. We comunicated slowly via a phrase book he had, which believe it or not was very helpful. It had phrases like ,”Open Luggage”, and “Passport Please”. Very useful. Then it started to “Rain cats and dogs”, as we pointed to the book, and the Mongolian guy laughed and laughed as he read the Mongolian translation. We looked through the book and we realize there was a 2 letter Mongolian word for “Castrated Camel”. Wow. How often enough do you have to see a “Castrated Camel” that it deserved a two letter word?? Even Dog and Cat are 3 letters. Hehe.
Then came time for their flight, and so we parted ways. I however, had to wait much longer. My flight was suppose to leave at 1700 hours, and though the rain had stopped a long time ago, and all other airlines had taken off, My Air China flight was delayed. The plane that was suppose to fly us to KL had not left some airport in China. Bad weather was blamed, but I strongly doubt it. They made us change Gates, like 3 times, and they didn’t give us any Estimated time of arrival. They didn’t even change the plane status to “Delayed” on the board. After about 3 hours, finally the plane was ready for boarding.
It was another crappy old smelly plane, with NO entertainment system whatsoever. A 5 and 1/2 hour flight and NO movie, NO headphones, Lousy food, the smell of mildew. Really really bad flight. The only good thing about it, was that I had a good seat, very close to business class, so I could stretch my legs a little and got my food pretty fast.
We landed at about 1:30am, got my bags, and finally reached home at 3:30am. Finally, I slept on my own bed.
On this day in History..
- Of Wireless Internet.... - 2005
- If Daddy or Joey doesn't come, would you give me away.... - 2005
- Naadam : Traditional Costumes Galore - 2006
- Mongol Pride - 2006
- Blast From The Past Meme - 2006
- Sydney is glad to be back at Home! - 2007
- The Journey that was a wea bit too long :- Part 3 - 2007
- Desperado - 2007
- The state of our boys in blue - 2008
- Now I know which flag this is! - 2008
- Fighting morning sickness - 2009
- Nathan Day 160 :- First time on the high chair - 2010
