Tan was her normal stressed out last day self, but pretty much all was packed and we didn't have to leave till 1ish, and only then because A Xia's husband, who was taking us, had to do some stuff in Nanning - otherwise we'd have left a couple of hours later. I knew A Wu wasn't taking us back this year as his office's grand opening is Monday. I'm rather disappointed that we won't be here for that as it would be fun, but hey ho. I was more concerned that A Wu thought A Xia's husband (who is also called A Dong, like the husband of A Hua) would be able to take us all in a saloon car with all our stuff. I had told A Wu yesterday that one such car would never fit us all in but it was all "mei shi mei shi" (no problem).
I took the kids for jiao zi again and sadly recognised it would be our last such meal for a long time. Even the owner, who rarely smiles or engages in conversation smiled and talked a bit when I mentioned we were going. Well at least the kids ate a reasonable amount. On the three minute walk back home I deliberately slowed down to make it five minutes just to soak in a little more Pingguo.
 |
| Making the walk back from the jiao zi place a little longer by going the long way round |
When A Dong arrived he saw what I'd been telling people for some time, that no way would we get all our stuff into even a large saloon car. But as is the wont here, a few phone calls were made and within 10 minutes a large, if rather aging Japanese people carrier turned up outside our house. Apparently it was one of Er jie's old cars. Well at least it was big enough but I couldn't help thinking we could have done away with the need for last-minute phone calls if a tiny amount of thought had been put into how to transport four people and seven weeks' worth of luggage in one vehicle.
We went to A Wu's office to say goodbye. We did the now customary western hugs with him and A Ni, and A Hua who was there too so I gave her a hug too. Then that was it. For the tenth time in my life I was leaving Pingguo. I didn't even bother taking photos this time.
We got to the airport as ridiculously early as Andge and Awl had been ridiculously late for their returns: 2.30pm for a 7.30pm flight. At least they let us check in. But not before searching my check in luggage as they'd sensed something. Yes, I'd decided to try to take back the Zippo-style lighter that A Wu had given Andge even though he doesn't smoke. I thought it would be better than leaving it in Pingguo as it is quite nice looking. But I'd left it in its gift box so when I found it and showed it to the customs woman I explained that it was a present. She took it apart, then put it back together again and lit it. She waited a few seconds and then said I could take it back. I have a feeling that a few years ago that wouldn't have happened - it would have been strict adherence to the rules. I was grateful to her for that.
It's times like these that having lounge access is really appreciated. But as soon as we were comfortably ensconced Leilei wanted to play on the ipad and Tan realised she didn't have it and we worked out Leilei had left it in the car. Bugger, we knew A Dong had matters to attend to in Nanning and Tan did not want to disturb him. Leilei was distraught and sat on a chair at the other end of the lounge refusing to sit with us but looking almost too sad to cry knowing that it was really his fault for not having it. I really felt for him and explained that there wasn't much we could do about it and sometimes things happen and we learn from them. Whatever the inconvenience it might cause A Dong I thought I'd call him anyway to see if he could make it back with the ipad. The problem was I had two A Dongs in my phone and I had no idea which to call. So I guessed and called the first one. Whoops, that number now belonged to someone completely different and I begged their pardon. For the second one it was A Hua's husband, so I said thanks for coming last night for the seafood meal but actually sorry I meant to ring someone else. Then I rang A Xia herself and mentioned about Leilei's loss in the car her husband was driving and she told me that Tan had just been on the phone to her. Tan had told Leilei that we wouldn't get it back today but I guess had had a change of mind. So I checked with her and she said yes she'd called A Dong and that if he had time he'd come back with it. And yes, at around 6pm he did come, and it had been left in the back of the car, and yes Leilei was a happy boy and yes, hopefully he has learned a lesson.
 |
| Tan improving her putting skills during the four hour wait for the plane |
The flight to Beijing was ok I suppose...it's never without turbulence it seems and I guess I'm getting better at dealing with it. Thankfully, unlike with China Southern, we didn't have to pick up our luggage and re-check-in, so we found the only lounge we could get in after 10pm and had a nice bite to eat and a proper G&T before the 1.30am flight to London. The kids were ok and Tan was ok, and even the flight was ok enough that I got some sleep after the meal until half way through the 11 hour flight.
I was waiting for the loo when some rather dishevelled white man walked past me and blew a drunken raspberry, as if to emulate the vibrations of the doors of the overhead storage space. I thought nothing of it and had a wee and went back to my seat next to Leilei. A few minutes later we heard a great scream coming from two rows ahead of us. A Chinese man and his wife were punching and kicking the hell out of the drunk white man, and the woman was shouting "he touched my daughter, he touched my daughter!". Then ensuing minutes were very difficult and violent as other passengers tried to intervene and the melée spread down the aisle that split Leilei and me on the right (he was by the window) and Xixi and Tan on the left (Xixi on the aisle side). I tried to calm the Chinese man down a bit as the white bloke obviously wasn't fighting back. I couldn't tell if the Chinese man was also drunk but he was drunk with rage, as I probably would have been had the accusations of his wife been true.
Eventually, after about 20 minutes it seemed to have slightly calmed down and I was sure we were on our way to the nearest airport to make an emergency landing. The drunk was sitting at the back of the plane in that curtained off area with an attendant and the Chinese bloke in front of me was being encouraged to sit down but having none of it. Then the attendant walked up the aisle to start to talk to the Chinese man. So much for the calm...a minute later there was a scream from behind me and then the bloke sitting next to Tan leapt off his seat and jumped on the drunk man, who had got up from his seat at the back of the plane and apparently been ogling some girl a few rows behind us and was just about to jump on her. So again there was almost the same situation with people jumping on him and others jumping on them to pull them off. Most of the plane was standing up wondering what was happening, women in tears and men trying to help out but not knowing what to do. I just kept Xixi away from falling adults and told the Chinese man that enough had been done and the drunk was not worth it.
Somehow, very slowly, it became slightly less chaotic but everyone was on tenterhooks for the remaining five hours. One of the attendants came up to me later and asked me, in Chinese, to write a witness statement. I had to be honest and say I'd not actually seen the accused touch either of the girls. But Tan had and dictated her statement for me to write as she was still shaking. Apparently the man sitting beside her who jumped to grab the drunk the second time was the father of the girl about to be jumped on.
I was quite relieved that it appeared we were actually going all the way to London, though that was surely wrong with such an air rage incident. What was stranger, though, was that with half an hour to go, with the two Chinese dads of the daughters in deep discussion with one of the attendants, another attendant bought the now slightly soberer but dishevelled and black-eyed drunk over to them to shake hands. I could hardly believe it. With such accusations I can't imagine just shaking hands if it had been my daughter. This is surely a very serious criminal offence. My only reasoning was that maybe the Chinese men could theoretically have been arrested too for violent behaviour and decided against spending some time of their holiday in prison. I wonder if the police will get in contact with us about that statement - surely Air China have to report this incident.
And there it was. My kids treated to some shocking behaviour as soon as they got back to the western world. Well, that's a bit unfair...but I've never seen anything approaching such a violent incident in Pingguo, whatever the levels of booze involved. Anyway Da Yong was there waiting for us to drive us back and we appreciated being at Gatwick rather than Heathrow and drove the 45 minutes back to dump off our stuff and catch up on some well-needed rest. And that was it till the next time. I feel like I need a holiday!
No comments:
Post a Comment