Going to Bangkok and horrid landing

Up at 9.30am, partly as I knew I had to get a flight at 5pm, but still I could have made it later if I’d tried. I should have packed last night but oh well...so that was my morning...well actually my afternoon too until I realised I was running out of time as there were no more places on trains going to Nanning. So I ended up going to Huang Lidan’s beauty shop and asking her for help, as she’d sorted out my taxi from Nanning a few days ago. Sure enough she made a couple of phone calls and said someone would call me within a few minutes. Shit that meant I had to sort out the rest of my stuff and withdraw money. Money withdrawn I got a phone call from the taxi driver who’d picked me up from Nanning to say he couldn’t pick me up, but that someone else would call me, which is what Huang had told me. Still, it was good to confirm. I rushed home and brought down my suitcase. Then thought I would have time to get lunch at Luwen’s as I hadn’t eaten, but as soon as that thought had entered my mind I got another call from the other taxi driver. This time I had to explain where I was and though I thought I’d given a good explanation he didn’t understand. Probably because I still don’t know the roads on which we live. So I gave the phone to the shopkeeper next to me and she explained and said he’d be there in a couple of mins. Of course, so I grabbed a couple of sausages from her shop, with some crappy crisps and some glucose water, and waited for him.

As I opened up the sausage a white car arrived and beeped at me. How the driver could have known it was me waiting for the car god only knows. Before I grabbed my suitcase I bit a mouthful of the sausage as it was the only thing I’d had today. Yuck..bits of stuff broke off in my mouth and I ended up spitting most of it out. The driver hadn’t been told I had a large suitcase and wasn’t prepared, as there were already three other passengers. At least they weren’t all in my situation and we managed to squeeze the suitcase into the boot by a spare tyre that should really have had somewhere else to sit. This is another reason I prefer a strong but not hard suitcase - they tend to fit in to places slightly better and are a tad lighter, and if I had had a hard case today I might have missed my flight due to this.

My first concern was that not all four of us would be going to the airport. My fee was 150 kuai, which was a bit steep if all of us were paying that - 70 quid for two hours work for the driver was pretty lucrative regardless of how many people he might be taking back. I started to get concerned when he was saying something about dropping people off. I guessed I would be dropped off to get another car or something and realised it could be tight getting the flight. I got out the sausage again as I was starving but I heard the in the front passenger seat say something negative. I wasn’t sure what, but I felt too embarrassed to take a big bite, so thinking it might not cause so much offence, took a smaller bite. Normally this would have been a stupid thing to do (and actually the reasoning behind it was), but once again there were bits in the sausage, and so the smaller bite meant fewer bits to spit out. Then I looked again to see what horrid sausage I’d bought and found to my chagrin it was not a sausage but a duck’s neck. And I’d bought two. My hunger would go on.

I think I could have been excused for thinking it was a sausage...

We seemed to be taking the appropriate turn-offs to Nanning airport until we pulled up by the side of the road at 2.30pm. I was about to ask what the hell when he told everyone else to get off and get into the taxi that was pulled up at the side. Ah...this was pre-arranged for them, who were probably going into central Nanning. It reminded me of when a driver was taking Awl and me to the airport for Awl’s flight home, but had neglected to inform us that he was dropping off people in Nanning first which added a good hour to the journey, and made him nearly miss his plane. Just telling us these things in the first place would greatly assuage fears but it seems that might be some time off.

I asked the driver how long it would be to the airport, and he said half an hour if we took the quicker road. So I said let’s take the bloody quicker road, to which he replied it would be 20 kuai on the toll. As if it mattered at this stage. He also told me he had to have the money first as he couldn’t be seen to be taking it at the airport, presumably as he wasn’t an official taxi. Car-pooling has grown as an unofficial business here since before phones had internet access, and I quite appreciate the organic, entrepreneurial way in which it has evolved. But I would like to know certain things up front.

As it was we got there shortly after three to find that bag drop would only start at 3.25pm - for a 4.55pm flight - it made me almost glad the lounge was dry. And of course I was quite far back in the queue so by the time the bag was dropped off there was only an hour till the flight and I still needed to do immigration. But I’d had an email that the first of my two flights back to the UK had been cancelled, so went to the China Southern desk to sort it out. I had been due to take a 6pm flight to Wuhan then spend the night there and fly the next afternoon to London, but that flight to Wuhan had been cancelled. Instead they wanted to put me on the 8.40am flight to Wuhan much much earlier, which I wasn’t happy about as it would have meant a hotel in Nanning (not to mention a very early flight). The woman was quite helpful although she spoke in Mandarin and I was too embarrassed when I didn’t understand but I did understand when she said I’d better go for my flight as it was due to leave in under an hour and I still had to do immigration.

I’d forgotten about that. Yes I was leaving China so there was customs and stuff, but I made it 30 mins before the flight which meant I had time for a quick trip to the lounge to stock up on water and lemonade. I asked the woman at the desk if it was time to board and she said no, she’d come and tell me when it was. At that time a woman was leaving the lounge for my flight and the desk woman told her she didn’t need to, but the leaver insisted. Five minutes later the desk woman came to tell me it was time to board, 20 minutes before the departure time. When I got there I saw the familiar “Closing” sign and no-one to be seen. I was clearly the last on board by some time and we were in the air 10 minutes later, ahead of schedule. The flight was notable only for the dreaded announcement that arrival would be delayed due to bad weather in Bangkok.

Almost immediately we were bounced into some of the worst turbulence I’ve ever encountered. Without shame I reached for my little carry-on bottle that didn’t contain a liquid pertaining to toiletries and poured it into what was left of my lemon soda water appropriated from the lounge. It took the edge off just enough, but it was a horrible descent (they didn’t even tell us we were on approach) until we could see the lights below. Then through the next cloud and we were plunged into a thunderstorm and you could hear the torrential rain hitting the plane, and a massive flash of lightning seemed to hit us. As we got lower the same happened again and I grabbed the leg of the pretty young lady I’d been talking to previously, and was almost as embarrassed as I was scared, as I moved my hand to the armrest. We seemed to be facing down as we came in to touch down and even the Chinese were making worried noises. It was quite a firm landing and took a bloody age to stop, but I’d survived the scariest landing of my experience. I mentioned to the woman to my left about the lightning, as if it excused my errant hand. Then lightning flashed again and I realised it was just the under-wing light, and I felt like a right tit.

England beat NZ and City win too...still feeling rough

Up 9.30ish still feeling pretty shit, and nipped out for jiaozi at midday, where the area was buzzing with school kids. Despite feeling shit still I forced myself to do some work to prepare for Monday’s presentation in Bangkok. I worked through the England NZ semi-final of the rugby world cup, and I suppose I was privileged not only that it was at 4pm my time, but that it wasn’t 9am in the UK, as I probably would have watched it there. I’m no expert but it looked like we edged it although we were tiring towards the end. But then everyone else said it was the most wonderful game England had ever played. Oh well - hope they haven’t peaked before the final.

Haiwei, earlier in the week, had told me that today (Saturday) we’d be eating at his place as his older son would be home and we could speak in English. However, after the rugger it was getting on for 6pm and I still hadn’t heard from him. This was quite annoying as there was no way I was going to call him to remind him to invite me, and moreover I was peckish. Worse that that though was that I wanted to watch City v Villa at 7.30pm in the early game and could have arranged to eat before, then come back and finished off work while watching that. To add salt into the wounds Chen had pinged me yesterday as he’d seen a video of me in town and had invited me to eat at 6pm, which would have been perfect if it had meant just an evening meal. More likely he’d have wanted me for most of the evening so I wouldn’t have watched the match. I even charged up my laptop in case I had to go out. But as it was I told Chen I’d be available at 9.15ish and he was cool with that and sent me a Weizhi showing me where to go later.

I was glad that I didn’t go out at 6pm in the end but this time got myself some fried chicken instead of jiaozi after the rugby and made good progress on the demonstration work till 7.30, when I justifiably cracked open a beer that I’d left from the summer and found a stream for the match. Ok, I actually cracked it open before 7pm but it had been a long day. The stream in question was quite crap as I’m guessing 7.30pm is peak internet here, and I had to turn off my VPN, which I wasn’t happy about. It was 0-0 at half time and I feared losing yet more points but we picked it up in the second half, as did the stream and it was an enjoyable 3-0 win in the end to put a tiny bit of pressure on Liverpool.

Tea before the football

As I pulled up the dian dong che outside Huang Lidan’s beauty shop I realised although I was in the vicinity of where Chen was, I wasn’t sure exactly where he was. So I popped into her shop and showed her the photo of the place and she knew exactly where it was and gladly pointed me in that direction. Chen was as happy to see me as he always is and met me at the door of the new music bar that just two days ago I was at with Uncle Yellow and Boss Zhou. But first we left the place to go to a tea place across the way where his wife and a friend were, er, drinking tea. He told them to accompany us but they appeared to me more than happy where they were and said they’d come later.

A toilet door at the music place...

Gradually a few more friends arrived as did beers, and it was a palatable evening. I was allowed to invite a couple of friends, but then for some reason we left and moved on to another place nearby. I think the reason was that Chen knew these people and maybe wanted to show me off to them. Nevertheless it meant a few more beers and food that we just couldn’t eat. Finally we left at getting on for two so went straight home, where for some reason I was up till nearly 5am..

Cough cough ill but managed to get out later

I woke up at 3am feeling dreadful, not even able to enjoy reading online. I assumed I’d sleep by 5am but no, indeed not at all. During the day I stayed in bed except when hunger forced me to get some jiaozi around lunchtime. I had the presence of mind to let work know I wouldn’t be up for much before attempting to slumber to the background of youtube videos of quantum physics. But as I was dropping off my cough would come back to wake me. This continued until the coughing was so bad I soon had my head over the loo like a drunken student at a party, and indeed had to keep the bin next to the bed for the rest of the day.

I really couldn’t face going out for a meal so got myself some jiaozi again as Waterman was asking me to go and eat. But I felt bad and at around 8pm I went round to his place with the same mates from last time. I managed nearly an hour and to drink just water until right at the end when I gan bei’d two small glasses of beer and made my good excuses.

Somehow I was still awake an hour later so I thought I’d at least see racist Huang for a quick drink. He was there and shouted at me when he saw me. He was in better spirits than me but I managed a couple of beers with him and got more light-headed than I would have normally, when I left an hour later.

I thought I ought to pop in to Boss Zhou’s at his place was literally a minute away, but when I got there it was empty. The sole waitress said he was upstairs so I popped up and entered the room she’d motioned me to but in fact it wasn’t him, rather some other boss I may have seen before, and an entourage of other drunken blokes. So I stayed for what felt like more than 20 minutes until I excused myself with the genuine excuse of being too knackered to carry on.

Three minutes down the road I happened upon A Wu and some mates eating out on the pavement. I couldn’t not stop off for a while so yet another bowl, chopsticks, and glass were pulled out and I spent the best part of an hour there socialising until I literally couldn’t any more. 2 or 3am welcomed me home with open arms.

Medicinal wine and a meal with Uncle Yellow

I've just noticed that someone has been in our house since the summer and left a bag of rubbish and a half-smoked cigarette...

Oh dear, I’ve started to feel pretty crap now and have an annoying cough that literally everybody puts to the changing of the weather. Uncle yellow IM’d me to go for a bite to eat at 6pm so I said I would. But first a newish friend Fen said I should take some wine as medicine and despite myself I went to some place with her and some mates and had some rubbish wine until it was time for a meeting that I ended up not being able to dial into as bloody NordVPN seems to be blocking Zoom.

I’d noticed I was somewhat crabbing in the dian dong che while on the way to drink “medicinal” wine, so I used this as an excuse to leave for a while to fix it. It was one of those horrible days when you suddenly don’t understand what people are saying...I was just so focused on understanding I didn’t relax enough to allow a few words to get by my brain and allow the general gist to be understood. All I was asking was where could I go to fix the dian dong che, but it took four people in total before I got to the place all had been explaining. I’ll put it down to being ill…. I left the bike with the bloke at the garage and said I’d be back in half an hour or so. This meant time for x number of glasses of shit wine where 3 < x < 8 to be inexact, at least they were small glasses.

Fixing a crabbing dian dong che

I really was feeling shit so told the people I was drinking (and eating with) that I had to go and pick up the bike and go home to work for a while. It was only a puncture in the end and for once the owner accepted 20 kuai for what cost 15, as this was a bargain for me.

Unfortunately at home I only had an hour or so to lie down as 6pm was dawning. So I straddled the dian dong che once again to go to the newish music place I’d been to with Li Kun in the summer with his banking associate. Strangely, Jiuma called me when I arrived and told me not to drink alcohol. Fair enough, good advice, but not when a mate has invited you out to an evening in the bar. Uncle Yellow was there, and his wife Xiao Chong was there for a bit too before going back to look after their new son. All things considered we had a good time but my condition was not getting any better and I excused myself well before midnight to get home to cough myself to sleep.

Good food and company that would have been better if I was feeling ok

Weird day at water cleansing powder factories and dog meal afterwards...was it a dream?

I was up at a ridiculous 5.30am and wide awake for some reason that only looking back on my last 15 years or so here will explain. Good to his word, Haiwei contacted me at 7am to say he was picking me up at 8am and we went to the new police station place to get me registered again this year and it only took 20 minutes despite having a new system that hadn’t saved my details from last time. I saw other foreigners’ names for doing the same thing but thankfully they were all Vietnamese, phew...at least they should look similar to the locals, but I wonder what business they have in Pingguo county.

Becoming registered for the second time this year

By breakfast it was pissing down and I was very, very tired. Haiwei took me to a place to eat after attempting to dodge raindrops, and we didn’t, but arrived somewhere I’d not been to before. It wasn’t just the tiredness, I was feeling positively on another planet. A woman walked in and for some reason I thought she was the prettiest girl on the planet (not sure if the same planet though) despite (looking back on the photo) her not being what I would generally call sexy. I was clearly not in my normal state of mind, but I needed to eat and had what Haiwei ordered for me.

Avoiding the rain on the way to breakfast

I must have had a fever - I thought she was the prettiest girl on the planet for a while

Actual breakfast

Even looking at a tiny mobile phone fixing shop fixated me

Then we started driving. And driving. And it just continued for a long time till I realised we weren’t going to somewhere just outside Pingguo but Tiandong, which was 60+km away. I really wanted to nod off but the music was doing my head in - at one stage “Jingle Bells” came on and I started seriously questioning my sanity. Haiwei was not driving and was in the back seat asleep the lucky bastard. I was too tired to make smalltalk to the driver, whom I’d not met before, and ended up sending some messages to the family WhatsApp group to check I wasn’t dreaming. Thankfully Cat was up in Canada and confirmed I was indeed dreaming.

It really was Jingle Bells

I later found out she was tricking me but I nearly believed it at the time...

Eventually we arrived at a factory, met a few people, donned helmets, then proceeded on a tour. There was a warehouse containing huge revolving cylinders, which were exposed at just one part of the circumference for a few inches, where some sort of dust was pouring off them down a small ramp to be collected on a conveyor belt. Had Haiwei not explained about water-cleansing I would have had no idea what I was looking at, and despite the explanation I still didn’t understand most of what I saw. But the upshot was that this red, dusty material, was being bagged and sold as the water cleanser.

Generating water cleansing powder

Working the water-cleansing powder

We left, but not to go home - we visited another factory where it was pretty much the same thing except this time apparently the quality of the water cleanser was so high you drink the result. Previously the cleaned water was not potable but able to be useful for watering plants. I actually found this quite interesting but it didn’t stifle my tiredness as much as some other subjects might have. Finally we went for lunch, and it was a pretty good huoguo despite the warm weather. Haiwei suggested a couple of beers as he said we could get a sleep afterwards...I was in total agreement but he’d spent most of the journey here asleep already.

It still seems strange seeing European cars in China

Lunch should have given way to sleep...it didn't

But post-lunch there was no bed, just a car to the next factory. Only when we arrived I realised this wasn’t the car I started the morning in; it was the other boss’s, and actually had been since we left the first factory. So was Haiwei’s being left in Tiandong? Should I even bother asking?

Haiwei inspecting something that shouldn't be photographed

We finally got back to Pingguo soon after 4pm to a restaurant with three dead dogs strung up outside it. I was so tired by now it hardly seemed to register, but this was apparently where we were to eat dog later. I said I’d first go back and grab a nap which was met with disagreement and the advice that I should just stay around. But I held firm and insisted so the boss said he’d take me back. It wasn’t happening though so I went for a walk by myself until I got the inevitable call to come back. At least they deigned on bringing me home, but in the hour I spent there I didn’t get so much as a wink of sleep despite lying on the bed all the time.

Er...dinner

I suppose it would be the same if it were any other animal...or maybe not

And at 5.25pm I got the inevitable call to hurry back to the dog restaurant, and at least I could do it under my own steam. I had forgotten this was a working day for me and by now people in Europe were up, so I had to be sending IMs during the meal, for which I apologised, but I needn’t have as it’s pretty much accepted here whether work or not. The meal was very nice, but would still have been without the dog. I still haven’t come up with an appropriate word for dog meat though, but I daresay even if I do it won’t get into the Oxford English Dictionary any time soon.

It looks better cooked (and tastes better)

Aerating the wine

I don’t recall exactly what happened next, but I made an effort in the meal with Haiwei, his wife and second son, and a couple of other bosses, to partake in the wine and the good wishes, and by rights should have collapsed in bed at 8pm. But Advertising friend had pinged me to go to “sing song” and I have this stupid reflex reaction to accept just about any invitation that comes my way, so after I received the location information I made my way soon after 9.30pm. For once it was not a great idea...there are times when going to KTV is not advised and beinge exhausted and becoming ill is one of them. She apologised after a bit as she had to sort out some business for half an hour but during that time I made possibly the only good decision of the day and made my excuses and left. Of course I IM’d her to explain and I guess she was a tad sad but my excuses were genuine, and I hope turning up for a bit was better than not turning up at all.

Toilet humour Chinese style

Unsurprised Luwen and boss meal

Got up at a reasonable 10am considering I was unpacking till nearly 4am last night. After finishing off what was not a great job of packing I went to Luwen’s to surprise them and for lunch. To my chagrin neither his wife nor Luwen were surprised to see me. Happy, yes, but not surprised. And I couldn’t ask them why. I wasn’t due to turn up for another nine months but here I was out of the blue and all they could say was “have you eaten?” Ha, I need to get used to this...they don’t really seem to do surprised here. Still it was a lush meal with only a half portion of fen and extra quail eggs which I love.

Nice lunch

Then I had the slightly mundane tasks of doing some supermarket shopping and going to the Jun Lin Tian Xia service place to pay the service costs for the next year. It was a rather exact 1629.61 yuan and covered four different types of service that I didn’t quite understand, but I called Tan and let her talk to the women as a mistake on my part here could be a bit serious. But it was done and we should have nothing to worry about till next year, except for paying for electricity which is done elsewhere. I also managed to pick up the dian dong che from Jiuma’s but it had hardly any dian so I just about got it back to charge.

I'll have to work out how many km it's done in my absence

Late 2019 view while waiting for lift...will it change much in the next few years?

As it was Tuesday I actually had to be working, so got home and did so. Thankfully Ling Ming’s internet was still working at our house. Back in the summer he had told me that he’d be changing mobile phone provider as his current one was too expensive, and that when he did we’d lose our internet as it was part of the service. Well thankfully he hadn’t. And thankfully Li Kun had put some money in my account so my mobile was also working meaning I should be able to tether if necessary.

And so I worked till it was time to join Haiwei and the bosses for an evening meal at their offices. It was like I’d never left, the only difference being nearly everyone is wearing long sleeves outside even in the day when it’s 20+ degrees. Haiwei was talking about his soon-to-be new line of business, which was industrial water cleansing. He told me that tomorrow we were to go out to see some factories at 8am. I somewhat suspected it wouldn’t happen, and would be a problem for my work, but said ok. I know I went out a bit later but don’t really have a recollection where, but it wasn’t too late as I was in bed soon after midnight.

A good old-fashioned boss meal

Three flights and a taxi to get to Pingguo

I’d been wondering what would happen at Sanya. We were due to fly on from there to Guangzhou, but the flight number was the same. Were we going to sit down on the tarmac for half an hour while a few people got on and a few people got off? I’d had this conversation with Adrian and Andge down the pub just a couple of days ago and they reckoned if you were going to Guangzhou you’d stay on the plane, but if Sanya was your final destination you would get get off - just no-one would get on as it would be a nightmare from a ticketing perspective.

As it was we all had to get off and take our hand luggage with us. Then in a rather unorganised way we were somehow taken through immigration, which made me glad I’d filled in my landing card on the plane, together with Waipo’s address, or should it be Jiuma’s now? That wasn’t too much of a kerfuffle, but then we were obliged to do security again, and they discovered two cans of lemonade I’d appropriated from the lounge in Heathrow. Had I known about a security check (and remembered the drink) I’d have left them in the plane. One for next time…. At least I managed to quaff the last bit of pre-mixed G&L before I got there...the last I had and still two flights to go.

Now we were put in a waiting room, from which we could see the plane from which we deplaned 45 minutes ago. I don’t know what the wait was for but I decided to try to connect to the wifi as my bloody Chinese SIM card, which was working seven weeks ago, no longer was. It was one of those landing pages where you had to put in your phone number to get a text with the code. It was pre-filled with country code 86 for China in very faint numbers. I added my number but it kept saying there was an error but not what the error was. I was frustrated but calmly swapped SIMs, as I’d just done an hour ago in the plane, and tried again with my English one. Ah, this time I found that the faint 86 was actually a drop-down field and you had to specifically choose a country code. The faint 86 was not pre-selected, but just somehow to give an idea - I would have had to actually select 86 from the list to make it valid. What a crap user experience but I doubt it will change any time soon. So at least I managed to ping Li Kun to say where I was.

We eventually got back on the plane and it looked like not a single person had got off at Sanya, so it was purely for immigration - that seems rather a waste of resources as they can do that at Guangzhou...I mean landing and taking off just for this. Quite annoyingly I was due south from Nanning and a flight there would be under an hour from Sanya, but we flew due east to Guangzhou and at least it was fairly turbulence-free. At Guangzhou there was no bloody lounge to sneak a snifter in, but also not much time. I did find a shop that sold beer but I had no bloody cash and my WeChat pay still wasn’t working. In hope I asked the information desk where I could find an ATM and they told me there was one landside. If I’d had a couple of hours till the flight I may well have gone through security again just to get some money and a couple of beers. Another annoyance that won’t happen once crypto becomes the norm. So I took my seat and managed a quick video call to Haiwei and his son before being called to board.

The flight to Nanning was quite calm and totally sober except for single I found in my carry-on at take-off. A Pingguo neighbour had put me in contact with a driver and for the first time in my life when I exited the airport customs there was someone with my name on a piece of card: “彭多明“ I was quite happy to recognise it but he recognised the fact I was the only foreigner first and called over to me. It was 12.30am so not really possible to find a car-pool to Pingguo from the airport so we’d arranged this at 300 kuai - which would have been less than a night’s stay in Nanning plus travel to and from the hotel.

To my sad surprise the driver and I got on a bus. I sincerely hoped it was not a bus to Nanning. Thankfully my fears were quashed when he said he needed to park near to but not at the airport, and the second stop of the bus confirmed that. We got my stuff into the car but there was a bit of a pause as I had picked up a bit of a cold during the three flights and fancied a bit of tonsil paint, as I think they called it in the Wild West, for the journey. It was the usual 90 minutes drive, made slightly easier with the drink and the conversation. I felt I was really back “home” in a weird but welcoming way.

We stopped off at the bank and I got cash for the driver and for the house service until next year. He was grateful and I told him to hurry home to his wife and family, not that they would be up at 2.30am. I dumped off my stuff and walked to the guangchang where I knew there would be something to eat, and indeed there was. It may have been 3am, and there may have been the tiniest chill in the air, enough to consider wearing long sleeves, but there were people, some turning up like me. I treated myself to a dish of lamb and a single bottle of beer. It was a bit sad to be alone this time, but it was good to be home.

Pushing button number 14 and feeling a sense of being home

3am snack...yum

Impromptu trip to Pingguo en route to Bangkok

Well it was rather unexpected but I had to go to Thailand for work from 28-31 Oct and I had hit upon the idea of popping in to Pingguo on the way to “pick up some stuff for the wife”. Actually the quotation marks were not necessary as Tan (before I left) had straightaway asked if I could pick up some stuff if I was going via that way. So it was I found myself at Heathrow on Sunday evening eight days before I was due to meet the new client, and my destination was China, not Thailand. I’d managed to wangle a week in China in order to adjust to the time zone and prepare with a colleague based in Singapore. It made perfect sense really, not to mention the trip in total cost £492 as opposed to a lot more going direct. But it did mean three flights to get to Nanning, and arriving there late. Still, after a bite to eat in the lounge I did manage to sleep a few hours in the first long haul to Sanya.

Back from Hong Kong to UK...just

My own snoring woke me up and Leilei a few times during the night so it was hard to get up at 8am but I managed it and he wasn’t too miffed at getting up when I’d had my shower. It would have been a 12 minute walk to Kowloon station to get the airport express, but the heat would have meant carrying on sweat with us so we took a taxi for a fiver and it was well worth it. We really should have done the same yesterday despite the queues.

I tried to buy two express tickets from the machine but it wanted 210 HKD for two adults. Then I thought I’d better ask someone how old an adult is and that person laughed when I said my son was 14 - oh no of course 11 years old is considered an adult here. I only had 200 HKD so went to the human place prepared to pay by card but the woman told me it was only 150 HKD for two tickets. Sweet. Then just missing the train was no issue as the next one was eight minutes later. Immigration and security were a breeze, but when we got to the lounge we were told it was 32 dollars to get in. I showed my Priority Pass but this was Plaza Plus so apparently a more special lounge. I was tempted until the woman told me it was American dollars, so turned away after she tried to sell me the fact they had premium services. Yeah sure. We headed next door to find there was a queue for the normal Plaza lounge. We assumed it was too busy and they were only letting people in as people left. I considered going to the other lounge by gate 40 but by the time I did I saw that the queue was just for checking people into the lounge. So a couple of minutes later it was our turn and as soon as I’d signed my name we found a table for two by the food counter. I looked around for a while but everywhere else was taken up, almost all by oriental-looking people. I guess this is a demographic of wealth around this area now.

I got myself scrambled eggs and chicken sausages and used a knife and fork for the first time for six weeks, but hadn’t forgotten how to do it. Leilei had nothing but a lemonade as he’d wolfed down almost a whole packet of biscuits we’d bought yesterday. I saw someone getting a beer, and a woman getting a glass of rouge, but it was still not 11am. At 11 I gave in and got a glass of Asahi beer. It was rather refreshing actually as I’m not a morning drinker by any means. Two more later it was time to board and it was done fairly effectively. Naturally we were among the last to get on but there was plenty of space for our bags.

It was a stress-less long-haul back to Europe, and I slept a good half of the journey thanks in part to the beers. We got to Amsterdam with a couple of hours to spare and nothing to do so went to the lounge I’d become ever so familiar with in 2016 while working on a Dutch project. I justified a couple of drinks as I knew that the landing in London City would be at 5 degrees, and therefore harsher than most airports. But it was ok. We got out without too much ado and after getting to Woolwich Arsenal got an Uber back home, and didn’t even get cursed too much.

Do not disturb

Healthy diet at Amsterdam

Coming in to City Airport

Later I found out Hong Kong airport had been closed about an hour after we left due to the protesters. I outwardly expressed relief when I heard this but inside I sort of wouldn’t have minded being kept in for another day or so. Oh well...here’s to next time.

Back in Hong Kong and oldest bottle of gin

Up at 6, then 8.30, then finally some more sleep till 10, when I knew we’d have to sort things out. Apparently we were able to check in at West Kowloon today, including baggage drop, so we ensured we had enough clothes in our hand luggage, had some crappy breakfast, checked out and decided we’d walk to the station. In a way I wish we’d taken a cab as although we missed the rain it was very muggy. But it was more interesting this way, and only took about 10 mins. I had anticipated going through immigration but there was nothing, so we got through security at 12.20 for a 13.49 train which was slightly annoying but hey.

I’d booked first class for some stupid reason, probably thinking it would give us more space for our luggage, but it didn’t, and probably just meant colder A/C. The annoyance started in West Kowloon where I thought we’d be clever and check in our luggage the day before as I’d read you can. It took a bit of asking but we found out this service was actually at Kowloon, not West Kowloon, but you could walk it over walkways in about 10 mins, which is a bit longer with large suitcases, and quite sweaty. And when we finally found the place to check-in we were told that KLM was one of the airlines that didn’t do day-before baggage drop-off. What a bloody pain - I’m sure I’d looked it up but it was probably more like they allow drop off from Kowloon but only same-day. If only I’d double checked. We agreed to get a taxi to the hotel which was only half a mile away but the queues, although not that long, did not have any taxis at the end, so we agreed to walk it. But I had the “good” idea of taking a free hotel shuttle bus to the hotels but although we were told which one to take it ended up taking us further from the hotel than where we already were. Sod it we walked the 15 mins and got there by which time we fancied a relaxing drink, but I had to pick up the laptop I’d left on 22nd July.

We did come across a car that Leilei thought was very cool though...just opposite our hotel...

...and Leilei even deigned to pose in  front of it

Leilei certainly wasn’t interested in coming so I took the tube four stops up to the place and confirmed they had indeed fixed it (a new motherboard at great expense and barely worth it over a new laptop but I do like this one). They only accepted cash so I had to go out to the now raining streets and find a cash machine. Annoyingly a bloke with a gun was standing outside one of them but I realised it was because they were replenishing it, and actually by the time they left I was able to use it after the bloke in front took out 10000 HKD. I needed a bit less but it was still more than Starling bank were allowing me to take out so I needed to send more money to Revolut via online banking so I would have enough. Jeez...crypto can’t become mainstream soon enough.

Back home with my new laptop I put it online and let the various apps update themselves - it was a joy to use after having used my old laptop for the last few months. Nothing against the old one but it’s getting slow and the screen goes off half the time when it’s not plugged in. Perhaps more importantly this one is louder so I can watch and listen to videos while brushing my teeth. But Leilei was hungry and so was I after my first 5% beer for a very long time. We found a really local place where a couple of old women who were eating there said the duck was great, so we ordered goose and pak choi with rice, and a bowl of soup for me. Leilei actually ate more than he usually would. I’ve realised since we’ve been in China he seems to have become my height, though I’m sure he was two inches shorter when we arrived in Hong Kong. When I ordered a beer the woman said “liang ge?” thinking Leilei would want one too. Well luckily he didn’t but that’s the second time he’s been offered one by someone thinking he’s of age. I thought the bill was a bit steep at 195 but didn’t argue, I just wanted to have enough to buy breakfast on the way back and get the airport express tickets tomorrow - that should be the last of the expenses.

But as I went for a wander I noticed an ancient half bottle of Gordon’s gin in the window of a “Wine shop”, so old it didn’t have the % alcohol on it, just 90° proof . I entered and asked how much for a half bottle of gin. The woman didn’t answer so I asked in English and she said 170 HKD. I looked surprised as even in 7/11 a half bottle is 80, and pointed to the front window. Ah, she said - 55. Well...I probably still had enough and the prospect of a couple of gin and lemonades with the City match in an hour or so was rather mouth-watering so I picked it up. The two shopkeepers were chatting all this time and I realised it wasn’t Cantonese and clearly not Mandarin, so I asked them and they said it was Nepalese. I quite felt like asking them about stuff but I had things to do like buying some zero sugar, fibreful Sprite for myself and some Pocari Sweat for Leilei, which reminded me of Japan 2003.

Pretty nice meal in HK

Oldest half bottle of gin in Hong Kong

Back in the hotel I managed to get Leilei to do some maths homework while my laptop finished updating, and found a decent stream albeit in Russian for the match. A really good display from City against a decent Brighton side who went for it. Leilei stayed up till 12.30 by which time I started watching the Liverpool match but before they scored the first of their three goals I was asleep after a knackering day.

Train to Guangzhou, meal with ex-colleague

So much for 8.30, but I forced myself at 9.30 and told Leilei to get up too, which he managed to for the first time this holiday. I faffed too much but did managed to take the dian dong che to Waipo’s house. Unfortunately A Heng, whom we’d visited yesterday to drop off the spare house key and had told us he’d be in, did not open the door. I was about to drop off the dian dong che keys at security when I had the better idea of just throwing them up to the first floor balcony. The first set was fine, but the second got stuck and were clearly visible in case anyone wanted to nick them, but that doesn’t seem to happen here.

Leaving the keys rather visible on the balcony

Finally filled up my charging card for the bike...just in time

Last pic of Pingguo while waiting for the lift

Recycling a load of Leilei's clothes...at least putting to good use

I walked back as the rain started pouring but I didn’t care. My spirits were already dampened by the thoughts of us leaving Pingguo. We really should have left before 10:50 for the 11:26 train. Most people get there an hour early, but I thought I wouldn’t waste that time and would order a didi che. I then found out the didi che section of WeChat is all in Chinese and if it wasn’t that important I’d have given it a go. But it was important so once outside I asked a neighbouring shop what to do and they suggested a san lun che. Well one was waiting, which was good, but there was no way it was taking us plus baggage like the one that picked us up five weeks ago. Except the people from the shop kept insisting one would be sufficient. It was one of those times I had to break in and tell them they were wrong and we’d get a second one (which had just turned up), and sod losing face. Leilei’s one decided to take a different route and we shouted at the driver to come our way, so he did until the next corner when he went his own way again. By now it was gone 11am and I was getting concerned as I remembered there is about a 100m walk after the drop-off point. Leilei had arrived a couple of minutes before me and had paid so I did the same and we got wetter walking to pick up the tickets. If we had had ID cards we’d have picked them up in a minute but I had to queue for nearly 10. Luckily security was quick except the woman singled out my hand luggage with a bottle of water in it. I asked her what the problem was and she said I had to drink a mouthful, and then it was ok. It’s only a bloody train...what about if it had been vodka - would I have had to have a swig at 11.15am? Almost immediately we were sent out to board, and the 4h17 min journey was relatively without issue except for the initial scare of not finding enough space to fit the luggage. I so tried to sleep and maybe I reached level one for a brief moment as for ages I couldn’t count to more than 5 in German.

Chasing Leilei on the way to the station

Guangzhou South station was its usual bustly self and I remembered to go to pick up our tickets to Kowloon for tomorrow. I would have done this in Pingguo if I’d allowed more time. This time we found a different place without a queue at all, so tickets in hand I had hoped to walk to the hotel but I had no idea if that was possible, so decided we’d get a taxi. There were a few touts who as soon as I said “seven hundred metres” turned away. Then I heard shouting and two blokes came running out of some entrance and jumped on another bloke and took him to the floor. Straight after that about a dozen blokes started running in another direction looking very angry. All this time I noticed there was a police building with a couple of officers, outside doing nothing. Rather disconcerting.

The sanitary bags are becoming more sanitary

We queued 10 mins or so for a taxi and when we got to the front of the queue and told the driver where we wanted to go he said no we needed to be on the other side and get a taxi there. Literally no-one was on the other side, so it appears everyone else was going further outside Guangzhou. As we went to the other side a bloke got there before us and put his large suitcase in the boot and got in the back. A moment later he got out and took his suitcase out. Didn’t the driver want to go such a short distance? No, apparently where the bloke wanted to go was covered by the queue we’d just been in. So it wasn’t just a foreigner making such a mistake.

Our taxi drive was fine about it being 700 metres away but didn’t know where to go despite me showing the address, but that was addressed by me giving them a call and letting him shout at them. We had a conversation over the next five minutes, four of which were spent at red lights, and I felt sorry for the 12 kuai fair and gave him 20. Only taxi drivers won’t refuse such a tip here.

We checked in to the serviced apartment and I contacted my ex-colleague to arrange to meet up in a bit for dinner to discuss business. I got some refreshments for us from a shop downstairs and this time when I tried to pay with WeChat I had some warning message I didn’t quite understand so I had to pay in cash.

We were pretty close to the train station...should have braved the walk

Leilei doing what all 14 year-olds would do in a hotel

Then I was contacted by a driver to come out. We descended to where we’d been dropped off a bit earlier but no-one was there. It was another game of trying to find someone without knowing what they look like but at least we should be obvious, and after another phone call and walking to another road we got a shout from a bloke wearing a tie and standing next to a nice looking black Nissan Teana. It seemed to be some sort of upmarket taxi service and during the 20 minute ride we had a nice chat about stuff, and as soon as we arrived and got out he drove away without asking for payment or anything.

It was good to catch up with my ex-colleague and his wife and kid, and the meal was very nice but so civilised compared to Pingguo. They even had two sets of chopsticks for each person; a white pair for taking food from the plates on the table, and a black pair for actually eating. I continually messed up and ate from the white and took food with the black, but it wasn’t an issue - even if I’d done it correctly it is very inconvenient.

I took the opportunity to ask why WeChat pay wasn’t working and he said that it had been decided to add more KYC security and you’d have to send a quick video of yourself saying who you are, as happens with banks here to be fair. But still, I had 206 kuai in my account and I effectively couldn’t use them now until Li Kun used my phone to confirm his identity. If this had happened just 24 hours ago it would have been ok. Yet another argument for cryptocurrencies.

Another bloke popped around too and thankfully his English wasn’t too good so I was able to have a last evening speaking some Mandarin, and we concluded with just a little beer and a discussion of a possible project in the near future. We had a similar service back to the hotel and I saw it would have cost 31 kuai, but it would probably be expensed, as the meal was.

Good to catch up with ex-colleague

Tired, I cracked open a beer and the two of us watched one of the Fast and Furious films...it was so crap but in my state I found it very watchable, but still didn’t get to sleep till threeish.

Boss Zhou meal and Li Kun metal ice cubes

Last proper day in Pingguo this summer. I didn’t want to be sad so got Leilei to come out with me to find something to eat. I had hoped to meet up with someone for a meal but I knew inside I needed the time to pack, so we ended up getting a portion of jiao zi, at least he did - there was only one left so I made do with two boiled eggs.

Boss Zhou had pinged people on a WeChat group to pop around for some food and drink after 7pm, so that gave me a deadline to sort out last minute packing stuff. I decided to leave a load more clothes this time as there is a possibility I will be back in a month or two and they’re summer clothes that I’ve had for multiple years in the UK anyway so are due to be replaced.

Of course the girls had forgotten a few things so I packed them in the space I had saved, then picked up Tan’s jacket from A Xia’s that she’d forgotten and picked up some food for the train journey tomorrow to Guangzhou.

As Leilei wasn’t that hungry I didn’t force any food on him but took him to Boss Zhou’s at 7.30. He was busy cooking for guests though so I said I’d take Leilei to eat elsewhere. This didn’t go down well so people eating at another table invited us for a bite and a drink, which we did, though Leilei ate virtually nothing, probably because he’d just had a cup of zhen zhu nai cha. Then he complained of a stomach upset which sounded like an excuse for going home, but I forced him to stay a few more minutes until Boss Zhou produced a number of dishes, mainly of lamb, but he still wouldn’t touch them. So I begrudgingly took him home knowing he’d be starving a little later.

Back at Boss Zhou’s I contacted Uncle Yellow, who said he was busy with his kid which was fine by me, but texted back later saying he would find some time. Then as per usual more people came and the beer flowed. Someone from another table invited me to go over and cai ma, so I couldn’t possibly refuse. But embarrassingly I beat him five times in a row after he insisted that each time the loser should drink a whole glass. Finally after trying hard I managed to lose, which gave me the right to leave the table and get back to mine. But I had to start the process again with Boss Zhou. He told me he’d wiped the floor with me two days ago which may well have been true, but I won the first four much to everyone’s delight, except me a little as I was getting thirsty.

Pretty decent nosh at Boss Zhou's

Then Li Kun called to tell me my ice cubes had arrived. Normally I can spin a conversation to make it mean I understand to some extent but this time I was flummoxed. He mentioned about the other day and I suddenly had a vague recollection of him having a medium dice-sized metal object in his glass of wine, and of course I wanted a set. Well he’d gone and ordered one for me of course. So I said to come over to Boss Zhou’s but he said no because he’d had too much to drink. I’m not sure that was the reason so agreed to go to his and he invited me to bbq. Now this was a bit awkward as there were still people waiting for me, so I got him to agree to compromise by saying I’d take him to bar 3000 degrees but would pop back first for 10 mins to say my goodbyes.

I was worried that there would not be enough dian in the dian dong che so we took it easy, and we made an order of bbq and beer, and I made an apology to the pretty boss for the other day in case I was in any way lewd after the wedding evening with Chen but she suggested I had not made any faux pas and I decided to agree. Then I got back to Boss Zhou’s only to find he was the only one at the table. Had the others thought I wasn’t coming back? Did they care at all? Well at least I could leave, so after a glass and many hugs with Boss Zhou I left him soon after midnight and got back to Li Kun at 3000 degrees for some nice nosh.

But I was aware Leilei would be hungry now so went up to see him and despite saying he wasn’t he asked for some beef bbq. So I went back down to order and have a couple of drinks with the manager, then back up to Leilei with his bbq at 1am, which he quaffed down, if you can quaff food, then back down for a final half an hour or so. Another goodbye to a good friend with a hug ensued before I forgot I still had to take him home, to his non-tea-drinking place around the corner before I went for a ride to use up the rest of the dian. After taking another friend back home it was gone 3am but I had the wherewithal to go to charge up the bike for a last time. But the bloke I woke up to do it smiled and said it was too late. I was annoyed but didn’t argue, and when I went down to park the bike found that indeed every charging space was taken. I guess he meant I’d arrived too late to find a space rather than too late in terms of time.

I really shouldn’t have had a beer when I got back but I put on a last wash and realised I should wait it out and put the clothes out to dry asap. In fact, I had two as I spoke with Awl for a while until I was just too tired to any more. But I remembered the clothes and made a massive effort to put them out to dry at around 4.30am, knowing I’d have to be up four hours’ later. Twit.

Girls leave and 2019 last supper

Tan and Xixi went back today (Leilei and I are due to go back separately in a couple of days). Predictably Tan had accrued more than she arrived with so she needed to buy a new suitcase to go back. Annoyingly this didn’t fit in A Heng’s car so he had to remove a box from it and I had to look after it until he came back. Annoying as I was planning on being out when he came back. But in the end he got back before I went out, but just as I was hoping for a siesta.

Leilei's hair needs some attention...yuck horrible food for the last time this summer

A Heng's low car, with Luwen's yellow-fronted shop in the background on the right

Well we’d said goodbye to the girls but were due to be back with them in a few days anyway. So, being free, I got Leilei some jiao zi for tea, although I only had eggs yet again. I left Leilei in the guangchang skating alone (even without Xixi) so I was very happy about that. Then it dawned on me I’d need to make tonight my last supper so IM’d all my mates to come to Huang’s Beihai place after 9pm and all replied in the positive. Don’t people have other plans here? Why am I asking that for the umpteenth time here?

Better late than never but now Leilei has his own key that cost about 3 kuai

Well, all except A Wu, who didn’t get back to me but I wasn’t going to lose sleep about him. I got there first of course, and made an order of some seafood stuff as one does. But while I was sitting with racist Huang and opening a first beer a pick-up truck drove past slowly with a tannoy attached to it blaring out something I couldn’t make out. But Huang could and within seconds his workers had brought in all the tables from the pavement outside. Clearly there was some police-like thing saying you couldn’t sell your wares for consumption on the pavement but when I asked Huang he just said “bu li tamen”, meaning take no notice of them. But that’s not what Huang’s servers had just done.  I really wanted to know what had just happened as it wasn’t the police who’d told them, but gave up on the risk of sounding rude, or finding out something that I shouldn’t.

The front of 北海海鲜

Anyway, we seemed to be allowed to put two tables together just outside the opening of Huang’s restaurant, as these weren’t on the pavement. Waterman was the first to turn up at 9.30, then the others turned up in dribs and drabs and it turned into a great night with my friends of from two years to 15, and I didn’t leave till nearly 2am (I did check on Leilei at home). The total bill was 1100 kuai, which considering it was for over four hours and included a lot of beer was ok (the last two years were both 900 though). On the way home I somehow happened upon Boss Zhou's place but didn't stay too long

The initial platters

Luwen, Uncle Yellow, Li Kun

Err...

I heard that the girls had arrived in HK from Nanning ok despite a delay, and were boarding the long flight, so everything was cool and when I got home I allowed myself a wee beer to drink slowly for a change, safe in the knowledge that I’d had another successful last supper and hope for another next time.