Back to China via CDG and Hong Kong 2019

I’m such a wally I should have taken two days off before we planned to leave. Leilei and I really wanted to take the train from Guangzhou to Pingguo and I suggested this to Tan and she came back with the realistic repost that if the plane arrived late what would you do? The trains get booked up weeks in advance. But Leilei really wanted to spend some time in Hong Kong and actually after the relatively smooth journey last year (well, stressless) I was happy to travel at a different time from the girls. So I’d booked them to fly out on the 23rd July and us boys on 19th as we saved over 300 quid on the air tickets although I knew the train tickets wouldn’t be free.

But what it did mean was that us boys could stay in Hong Kong for a couple of days and not worry about missing the train to Pingguo very much. Ok it did mean Leilei missing 1.5 days of school but I did email to explain and they were fine about it, plus I’d booked our Guangzhou to Pingguo tickets a few weeks before. I hadn’t expected such high hotel prices but due to work I had some points that paid 320 of the 340 quid it would have cost to stay in the Novotel on Nathan Road, near to the street markets that Leilei was keen to go to.

But that was the bookings. Now we had to actually get to the airport and annoyingly I had a meeting at 1pm when I’d hoped to be leaving at 2. So it was genuinely last minute. As we left the house to go to the train station I went for a last minute pee and found I’d forgotten my razor plus the interdental brushes I’d just got delivered from Amazon. I shudder to think what else I may have forgotten.

Anyway we rushed off to the station but Awl called to say he’d pick up our spare keys. He met us at Pitfold and we managed to get all our luggage into his little Yaris hybrid and that saved us three minutes and some stress getting to the station. Cheers Awl.

The trip to Heathrow T4 was not that bad but there were a few steps that would have made it awkward had we been with Tan and Xixi. But after a bit of sweating and choosing to take steps rather than wait for the lifts we got to the Piccadilly line and the 50 minutes flew by, and was definitely quicker than going to Paddington to take the Express, and 30 quid cheaper each.

We may have been 25 minutes early for the drop-off of luggage, and I was sorely tempted to go to the arrivals lounge for a bite to eat and drink, but we did the self-service baggage tags and when I asked the bloke how long we’d have to wait he said we could go along now and drop off at the VIP place. I’m glad I asked as we dropped them off good’n’quick and the gaggle of Chinese students only cottoned on after we'd done that.

Both of us enjoying some decent grub - makes the journey part of the adventure

Is that how much they really charge? Now I know it's worth it...

Security was fine except for me being an idiot and leaving the fourth laptop in a bag. That wasted 10 minutes but we were in very good time and we found the lounge after I bought some duty free presents for friends in Pingguo. I’m slightly sad that the kids have grown up for the last six years pretty much expecting lounge access. For me it’s still a luxury and I get a buzz every time we get accepted even though I’ve bloody paid for it…. I also know it pays for itself in so many ways, but this year was annoyed to get a fancy cardboard thing in the post telling me of the amazing new features (none of which apply to me) and in the small-print telling me the price has gone up by 125 quid. Why not save on the postage and up it by less, or at least give the option?

Anyway the short hop to Paris Charles de Gaulle was pretty much that and the short delay was made up for in the air. We probably had the time to have a quick drink in the lounge but thought better of it as the risk of missing the long flight was not worth thinking about. Annoyingly, after passport control we did have 50 minutes, and I wondered about going back to enjoy the lounge but thought better of it again. To my shame I hadn’t bought a neck pillow, and based on my recent experiences going to and from Egypt I wish I had. Now I was prisoner in an airport with the prospect of a 12 hour flight and all I could see were 30, 40, 60 Euro such neck pillows. I made a decision I may well regret. I paid a whole 40 Euro for one that could be squashed down to a fraction of its size....lord I hope I live to justify this decision...if only I’d done it on Amazon last week.

Leilei on the way to Paris

Gosh the mix of my noise-cancelling headphones and the neck thing did seem to help - I didn’t get through the first film and then after dinner I started playing “Who wants to be a Millionaire?” and after losing the first few rounds (well, making 32,000) I hit the jackpot!

I hit the jackpot, and probably no-one cares! Well I'll be in Hong Kong soon so there....

Thankfully Leilei and I were both so tired we didn’t need to make a fuss of things, and we both got to sleep for a little bit after about three hours. Hope it lasts.

Beijing delay is kids' ok

As I had stayed at this hotel before I hadn’t ordered breakfast as 1) it was crap, and 2) it would have delayed us. So much to their chagrin I got the kids up at 6am (at least they’d had six hours’ sleep as opposed to my three and a half), and got us checked out by 6.15 to get the 6.30 bus to the airport in preparation for the 9.20 flight to Beijing. As luck would have it for the first time in years the check-in went without a hitch and we got to the landside lounge in good time. Having said that there was nothing much to entice us in this lounge, though from experience I knew there was nothing much more in the airside lounge. So we took advantage of the lounge’s own security path and got through half an hour before the flight after the kids had had their fill of shitty sugary drinks and wasabi peas. I was hours away from wanting a drink so braved it onto the flight, which could have been worse.

Oh the lounge in Beijing is one of the best we’ve been to in the world. Great food, comfortable seats in our own area, and a decent choice of drinks. Well, by now it was well after 1pm and our flight wasn’t for another four hours or so. The kids were in their element, with wifi and electricity, but we still found time for actual communication. Tan was coming back a couple of days later so we made sure to video chat with her.

While we were going through our second course of food we got the “terrible” news that our flight had been delayed one hour, and the kids cheered! I’ve justified it a thousand times before but when you’re obliged to travel as much as me (and hate it) then these little luxuries (although paid for) become incredibly worthwhile - it’s like an insurance for delayed flights and indeed it somewhat literally is. And then when our flight was delayed another half an hour I joined in with the celebrations and got myself a G&T because why not?

Lounge lizards

The flight was stress-less, maybe because it was just the three of us, and we arrived at Heathrow more-or-less on time anyway so who cares? I was really tempted to go to the arrivals lounge but the kids were tired so after unsuccessfully trying to get a local cab we tried Uber, which I feared would be much more expensive, and got a price much better that we’d been quoted for the cab that didn’t turn up.

Well Pingguo was over for a year...we all accept and mourn it a little. My main concern is that the kids won’t want to come back next year. But it’s been another lovely summer and we should concentrate on that, and the fact that within a few days the kids will be back in school and it will be all go again…. But I really hope we’ll be back next year.