If it were too easy, it wouldn't be fun
After my first experiences traveling to and around China, I've grown to love the above phrase. It's a sort of Murphy's law that when you are traveling at any distance in China something will go wrong and you will need to be adaptable. I knew all of this, my classmates and new travel companions did not.
Our journey to the Middle Kingdom began at 4am on a Saturday. We were supposed to fly from Reagan to Toronto, have a two or three hour layover and then make the long haul to Hong Kong. Supposed to. Upon arriving in Toronto our connecting flight had already been delayed, which usually wouldn't be a big deal, but our connection in Hong Kong was only a thirty minute window that had just evaporated. I knew we were going to have to adapt, and my classmates were slowly realizing the truth to my adage.
After three consecutive delays of around an hour each in Toronto we finally boarded the always miserable 15+ hour flight across the pacific. We knew upon arrival that our best laid plans had already turned to feces and hit the rotating oscillator, but at that point we were all so ready to stretch our legs it didn't matter. A little stretching later (the distance it took to walk from plane to terminal, to be exact), we were greeted by a small, cheerful Air Canada employee with a small sign with what would have been our connecting flight number. She quickly explained that we had missed the last flight to Guilin for the day, and would have to try again tomorrow. Since all of this was Air Canada's fault, they were putting us up in a hotel in Kowloon for the night.
So with little hesitation we filled out entry forms and sauntered out into the incredibly humid Hong Kong air. They put us on a charter bus with other passengers who shared our misfortune. However, in a stroke of pure genius they had put pretty much everyone on the bus in different hotels. Of course, ours was the last stop. A two hour bus tour of Kowloon later, we arrived at our swanky new digs.
The front desk gave us our keys, explained that our evening buffet was complimentary and arranged a shuttle for us in the afternoon. Air Canada had decided to leave our tickets in the exact same time slot, just moved back a day. Jet lagged, dirty, and tired, we ate dinner, showered, and resolved to venture out into the metropolis of Hong Kong in the morning. Weary from an already long journey, I informed my loved ones and CLI of our misfortune and slipped into a deep and comfortable sleep. Two hours later I was awoken by our room phone going off over and over. I looked at my cell phone to check the time and found that another in our group was quicker on the draw and had answered already; they had moved our flight to 10:50 in the morning.
Once I had shaken the rust off my eyes, wiped the drool on my face, and regained full control of my senses, I realized that the hotel and airline were still planning to shuttle us to the airport. Problem was, they only started shuttles at 900am. Considering checking in, security, boarding, and our previous city wide bus tour, I decided to have a word with the staff at the front desk.
After about a half an hour of explanation and phone calls made and received, I was informed that cabs would pick us up at 830am. I went back upstairs, informed the group, and fell back asleep.
The next day everyone was punctual, and we convened in the lobby to catch our cabs. The cabs were punctual as well, but, there were only two of them. Now, having been in China before, I saw 9 people in two cabs as not only possible, but damn comfortable. So I told Roger, a classmate of mine who had taken a little Chinese, that he would ride shotgun in one and I would ride shotgun in the other, just in case. My classmates, however, were less accustomed to Chinese space requirements than I, and decided to order and wait for another cab.
This would have been fine but it split our group further, and with no means to communicate, we just sat at the front of the airport waiting for the third and final cab to finally arrive. Once it did, we headed to the Dragon Air desk to exchange our tickets and get our boarding passes. What I thought would be a simple process turned into another dilemma as they incessantly typed away with each ticket for several minutes before settling it and sending one of us on our way. Tick tock tick...
Because there were two lines helping us and because it was so slow we decided to use the tried and true buddy system. Allie and I went first through security and breezed our way to our boarding gate. Our classmates had 45 minutes to follow suit. Allie and I sat at the boarding gate expecting to receive waves of our classmates two at a time, as planned. 20 minutes went by…nothing. Preliminary boarding began…nothing. General boarding began, and ended, not a single one of our group had joined us. Allie and I magnanimously decided that at final boarding we would abandon our new friends and leave them in a foreign country to their own devices.
Luckily for us, with seconds to spare, the entirety of our group rounded the corner, Allie and I decided not to tell the others about our hastily made decision (sorry Allie, I realize the irony), and we boarded the plane to Guilin.
From there it was simple: quick flight to Guilin, get picked up in the airport by my old pals MingMing and MoLin, ride a bus to CLI for about and hour, and prepare for another chapter.
Well, it wasn't easy, but we made it, and looking back, it was a good bit of fun.
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