I woke up with under two hours to go yet again. Thanks to drugs basically. I managed to watch most of a film I've now forgotten and barely noticed the landing. Had I managed to get the flight I originally intended I'd have had only had 2 hours to change, including immigration, and that almost certainly wouldn't have been enough. So I leisurely filled in my immigration form in Chinese until I forgot how to write Chuan Chuan's name so had to put it in Pinyin to my chagrin. And this time, unlike a few months ago, they let me take my duty free through security and I didn't have to re-check-in my big suitcase. It doesn't sound like a big deal but it's massive if you're bringing in "yang jiu" as presents and you aren't able to take it through. This summer we only managed it as Xixi hadn't checked in hold luggage and we were able to put four bottles into one of our hand luggages and check it in in her name. Pure luck.
Anyway, so far so good, and I found the CHUM lounge where I enjoyed a couple of servings of won tun soup washed down with a little vin rouge self-served from a tap that was attached to a bottle in a fridge that didn't open, so you had to hope they would refill them which they did. Thankfully my phone and laptop connected to the wifi and the laptop VPN was still working so was able to ping a few people. Then after a couple of drinks I started video-calling some friends in Pingguo to tell them to watch out for me in the coming days. That made the 5 hour layover go a lot quicker and before I knew it it was time to board again. I'd once again been given seat 49B for some reason, but this time in a Boeing, and the next thing I knew there was an hour to go before landing. As I went to the loo one of the flight attendants asked if I spoke Chinese so I answered in the affirmative of course and she preceded to inform me what the menu was. I realised I'd slept through the sitting and she kindly suggested I could have both options so I thought why not? And a minute after sitting back down I was served my excellent meals.
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| Not the first time I've seen this in a Chinese lounge...why? It's the equivalent of the Red Light District in Amsterdam showing its wares but saying you can look but not touch. |
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| But the won tun was excellent even if the rouge was a bit froid |
Li Kun had arranged a driver for me and topped up my phone so as soon as we touched down and flight mode was disabled I received a call from an unknown number and indeed it was the driver telling me to go up to the third floor when I had my luggage. Not 5 minutes later mine was one of the first so I hopped into the lift but when I got there all the doors to the outside were locked. I wasn't the only one in this position and it took a couple of minutes and another call to the driver to realise I had to go down to the 2nd floor then outside and up an external escalator. I think it was because that was Departures and there were no more flights today as it was midnight hence they'd locked the doors. Whatever, it didn't take long for him to find me and we spent the next 100 minutes or so chatting as we drove up to his home town of Pingguo.
We pulled up outside Li Kun's office where he was sitting with Meng and Luo (the guy who does compering at weddings etc). It was like I'd never left, and somehow we managed to chat and drink beer for over 2 hours when I realised I had no duty being up at 3.30am, save for the snooze I'd had on the flight. But I did remember my duty free and dutifully gave Li Kun his bottle of single malt I'd picked up in a rush not knowing if it was any good. He wouldn't let me wheel my suitcase the 300 yards home and got me a didi che. So at nearly 4am I was finally home only to find that there was no running water in the flat. Well I found out after taking a number two so it really wasn't convenient. Hey ho, there was no-one else around to witness so I dumped my stuff and was asleep within minutes next to a half-drunk bottle of beer appropriated from the lounge 6 hours previously.
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