41 hours of endless travel finally comes to a halt
Jul 29th, 2007 by Peter
28th July 2007 Beijing – Amsterdam – Copenhagen – Aalborg
Woke up a little past 5.00am. C was already up after a coughing ride and I felt rested out anyway. I actually managed to pull out some quality sleep in the train. The extreme noise from the rumbling train was not enough to keep me awake, and I slept pretty tight.
C had a cougher most of the night yet again, but we expected that. I had asked her before going if she was ready to go or not, as I was prepared to go alone and let her follow one week later if her health was not up to it. She insisted that she would be ok and she really started to miss home anyway. I’m happy that she does, since it was a bit difficult for me to weather her feelings about going back to Denmark and loosing her family yet again. I think she got some sleep on the train nevertheless, so that’s good, right? At least that’s what she told me.
I went and bushed my teeth and had a quick face wash. Then I decided to write a bit on my laptop. The laptop has short battery time, but until now I had been doing ok. One hour of battery is about what I need a day for writing the most essential stuff down and there was never far to an electrical outlet in Yilan.
I really look forward to going home. Especially after hearing the husband of the couple we share our coupe with, snorting and spitting inside the coupe early in the morning. At least he spits in a paper towel and not on our suitcases or on the floor. Better start packing my stuff so we are ready for the taxi ride to the airport. Our plane leaves at 10.55 so we should have enough time. Guess most of it will be eaten waiting in line and hanging around at the gate anyway.
The train arrived and we scrambled out into a crowded Beijing train station. We headed for the taxis and found a ton of people doing the same. One taxi in pole position wanted to take us, but he demanded 180rmb to drive us to the airport. When I insisted that he used the taximeter instead of just “what he thought would be ok”, he declined to take us there. So did I. What a jerk.
We walked towards the taxis behind and found yet another idiot who thought he could fool us. 180rmb exactly, which you didn’t have to be a genius to figure out was arranged between some of the drivers. He too suddenly had other plans when we insisted on using the taximeter. That sort of behavior pisses me off. I find this comparable to stealing. That’s exactly what he was trying to do: Take our money because he thought we were easy prey out-of-town ignorants. Maybe it was because I am weiguren or just ordinary business? I don’t know. But I must stress that I take strong offence against such types. I told C that she should be happy that I didn’t speak Chinese, since I would have made a scene right there. Fucking assholes.
A little father back in the row of taxis we finally found a female driver who instantly agreed on using the taximeter. Also she used the seat belt herself and had made sure her passengers could as well. This was a good sign to me, so we instantly agreed on using her.
The ride to Beijing Airport was eventless except for the one time where the driver incidentally turned wrong and drove to terminal 1 instead of number 2. It cost us about 5rmb extra, but who cares. We still managed to keep it under 90rmb. Just underlines how big morons those other taxi drivers were demanding double the fare.
At the airport we grabbed some breakfast at a KFC (C wanted to eat there, not I), but otherwise it was business as usual. Well almost. Except at the check-in where our suitcases weighed 5kg too much. The employee agreed on us taking off 3 kg and then we could proceed. C ended up finding 3 kg worth of food stuff that she had packed in our suitcases.
This was my “I told you so moment”. When we (read: C) packed our backs I stressed that she should not exceed the maximum weight as it could be punished. C said “No problem, last time I flew to Denmark I had way more than allowed”. I of course pointed out that either she was lucky, or was allowed 23kg which some airline companies do. C just shook her head and said “No problem, don’ worry, I’ll fix everything. You just go and relax in the other room and leave me at packing” (read: fuck off, I can’t concentrate on packing when you are here). I said: “ok, but we’ll have to pay extra if we can’t have it all, you know?” and left the room.
The 3 kg of food was some bags of spice and a tin can of spam. I already told C that we could buy spam in Denmark, but she insisted that it weren’t as good. This was one of those times, where I rolled my eyes, shook my head and sighed. What more was there to do?
So the extra shit was stuffed into my laptop case except the spam. The spam C managed to put in her knapsack, which was already on the verge of exploding. We stood in line at the passport/flight tickets control for a long time. The line moved slowly and when we got through we had to do the security control procedure including putting my laptop through the scanner. I didn’t like it much but the security officer insisted that it would be ok. Fortunately it was no problem. The only problem was the stupid can of spam which C afterwards willingly agreed to let go. It was a small price to pay for getting our extremely overweight luggage through to the gate. So far so good. I just fear that we may get problems at Amsterdam, but we’ll have to worry about that when we get there. According to the check-in in Beijing, our suitcases are sent directly to Copenhagen. Not sure that’s following the international law, but guess it will be alright as long as we pass security/toll control in Copenhagen with those too. Cross my fingers.
At the gate I found an electrical outlet and had a chance to write a bit. C found a comfortable sleepers chair and attempted a nap. Still 1½ hour until liftoff.
The time for departure was due and we found our seats. Pretty good compared to what I have experienced other times. The bonus was that we were at a 3 seats row and only C and I had seats there. This meant that C could sleep a little lying down, and that we had enough space to lay blankets and pillows at the empty seat when we didn’t need them. Only minus was the guy in front of me, who insisted that his seat had to be in sleeper’s position, no matter if he slept, ate or played around with his laptop. Idiot. His excuse was that the guy in front of him did the same.
The flight was possible the easiest long one I ever tried. It was all during daytime and it helped a lot not having to sleep to be fit later. I know I will be incredible tired when we have to make the last stretch in car, but that time, that worry.
We arrived at Amsterdam 45 minutes ahead of time. The weather was with us all the way, so that was cool. Way better to sit in the airport, than to be sitting crammed in a plane, eh?
Passport control in Amsterdam was a breeze compared to the endless lines in Beijing. Also the control of bags went more swiftly with less staff. This is how you know you are in Europe again. Ahhh. I received my first frisk search done by a real pro. Only thing he didn’t check properly was my “piece” (maybe the “ahhh” should have been here instead, what do you think?). He even removed my belt, so he was thorough. Still way easier than in Beijing.
Now we just have to wait for our plane to Copenhagen. 2½ hour from now until we can board. Sigh.
Plane arrived a bit late, but managed to catch up and left on time. Before This C had been so tired that she couldn’t keep awake sitting in a chair. She was also still ill, felt chilly. At the airplane she tried to sleep, but it wasn’t easy.
At Copenhagen everything went smooth. The luggage was a bit slow to show up, but we walked right through the tolls so that made it up. The Kojak met us outside. We walked and had a quick sausage in bread, since we were both a bit hungry. The last flight offered no food or drinks unless you wanted to pay unreasonable prices. Then to the SAS counter to cash in on our money voucher from back when we went to Beijing 1 month ago.
We followed The Kojak to his car and drove towards Aalborg. I was surprisingly fresh and not at all jetlagged. I should be extremely sleepy, but felt ok. At least until the last hour, where I just couldn’t stay awake anymore. C on the other hand dosed of into a half coma-state and slept 3 hours of the 3½ that we drove. Even though she couldn’t lye down or relax her head, she still pulled it off.
Finally at home at our apartment, where we had to search our luggage to find our key. After some time we managed though, and were finally at home. We had a long warm bath and went to bed. It was almost 1am, but 7am in my head (Chinese time). I calculated that we had been on the road (planes, trains and automobiles) for 41 hours all in all. That’s too freaking long.
I slept until C woke up at 5.30am and felt ok. This is the last day of vacation and we have time to go and sleep again later.
This was the last long diary style post from China. Happy now?