I think I’ve used that title before… Meh. Who cares. Not even sure anyone reads this, either… Still, it’s theraputic and that’s the excuse I’m sticking to.
Got back to China after the holiday in England and what a palaver! The holiday itself was fantastic, but before the holiday there’s the travel…
Now I’m not the best traveller in the world and admit that flying anywhere usually stresses me out. The heavy bags, the idiotic airport staff and now… the airline!
We started our journey on June 12th. Our flight was due to leave at 9am Beijing time so we got up early, jumped in a taxi to the Bell Tower and got on the shuttle bus to the airport. Nice. No stress there… Then we got to the airport…
At the check-in desk, they weren’t able to print out our boarding pass for Shanghai as the flight times had been altered and it meant that there wasn’t enough time between landing at Shanghai and departure to London… That rang an alarm bell… But still, it could be done. We then had 2 hours to wait until boarding. And let me tell you, Xi’an International Airport is the dullest airport I’ve ever known. For international departures, there are about four shops and a toilet… One duty free shop that’s not much cheaper than outside; an overpriced souvenir shop; some strange clothing store and a coffee shop. Still, the plane boarded on time and things seemed to be going well.
Out on the apron, the stewardess came on the radio announcing that due to air traffic control, the flight will be delayed by about 30 minutes… Which was strange because there wasn’t that many flights at that time… Finally we pulled up to the runway, but nothing happened. Then we get the announcement that there’s a problem with the aeroplane and we have to return to the terminal. My first question: Why the hell aren’t the planes checked before they pull away from the terminal? This was the first problem with China Eastern Airlines.
Three hours later, we finally take off for Shanghai. We know that our connection has gone, but we were told that they should be able to get us on an alternate flight to get us to England. So two hours later, we land and find out that the England flight had been moved forward by almost an hour (which meant that we would have missed it anyway) and also they only run one flight a day to London. They didn’t provide an alternative option for us to travel that day and said we’d have to stay in Shanghai for the night. So that’s one whole day of holiday completely gone.
The hotel they put us in was a bit crap. They gave us a voucher for dinner and breakfast too. The hotel was old and the air conditioning was rubbish. The windows wouldn’t open more than an inch and there was some strange kind of stain on the floor of the shower. The dinner voucher, it turned out, was only for the value of 25 yuan. In English terms that’s about £2.50. That is nowhere near enough for people who haven’t eaten lunch or breakfast that day so we went to have a McDonalds which was just outside the hotel.
Still. An evening in Shanghai. Perhaps a little sightseeing. With the only problem that the interesting places were miles away and the nearest tube station was closed (what kind of underground system closes stations at 4pm? Stupid!) the busses didn’t go there and it involved a few changes (in rush hour… not an option) and the taxis (admittedly I didn’t see any) would have charged a fortune to take us to an interesting place. We went back to the hotel and went to bed early. Stressed out by the events of that day.
Morning came and were were up and ready for breakfast at about 8am… Unfortunately, breakfast was just ending and the remains of breakfast were cold, grasy pieces of crap with only a choice of orange juice or water. No more coffee… Pathetic. So we went to KFC. Much nicer and we could have a coffee. The shuttle bus picked us up from the hotel and the flight left just a little later than advertised. Fourteen hours later, we arrived in Heathrow and were greeted by my dad and sister. The holiday had begun!
Like I said, the holiday was fantastic! We were a bit knackered, but the next day we headed off to Derbyshire and a week of camping. Got there on Monday afternoon and dad & I put the tent up. It was quite windy, but as soon as the tent was up… the wind stopped. Comical, really. Decided to pop to the supermarket and get a couple of bits. The campsite also recommended a pub for food that was about 4 miles away. However, for some reason, they don’t open on a Monday… So mum cooked breakfast dinner on the camp stove… Due to the wind, it took about an hour and a half to make bacon and eggs with a cup of tea. Still, we had a beer or two and a good laugh and went to sleep. So ended the 14th June.
The next day was my birthday! Mum & dad had already given me my main gift as it was quite an expensive one and Spring had given me hers. She’d made a beautiful scrapbook of pictures and handwritten notes. Absolutely wonderfully thought out. It’s like the thousand paper stars she made me for Christmas 2008. So much time and love went into it. I opened my gifts in the morning (I was up at 4am… Was lovely to see the sun rise over the Derbyshire Dales, though) and had some lovely things and £90 of birthday money! Had a shower and changed into my new clothes. Managed to take a big chunk out of my finger with a Gillette Stelth razor… I’d put it in my jeans and as I went to take it out, I took a big bit out of my middle finger. Bled for ages. Also, the water in the toilets where I was shaving was cold and shaving oil doesn’t work particularly well with cold water… So my face felt quite raw. We headed out for our first day in Alton Towers and so began the attempt to hit all of the big rides in the park over our two day stay. We managed to do it all! Their new rollercoaster, Thirteen, was brilliant and managed to get on it twice. As we did with Rita and Air. Bought lots of keyrings and souvenirs from there. Mum even went on a particularly disorienting ride called Hex. That was cleverly done. The ride tricks you into thinking you’re rotating through 360 degrees, but you only move about 30 degrees. Mum even went on it twice! Getting braver! There was also Charlie and the Chocolate Factory which was quite funny. Especially the boob-jiggling floor. Also, I didn’t know it, but Alton Towers was also celebrating its 30th birthday this year! I’m as old as Alton Towers! Isn’t that cool?!
In the evening of the 15th, we visited the recommended pub for a birthday dinner. It was quite crap. The chips were overcooked, the mixed grill was a bit of a poor show (the steak was quite tough and they didn’t ask how I’d like it). The vegetables were a crap selection in a small bowl meant to serve three people… Ghastly. However, the next day we went to the pub that the campsite said didn’t have good food… It was bloody amazing! The steak was so juicy and tender, the chips were perfectly cooked, the vegetables were enough for everyone and the whole place was friendly. The campsite (Star Campsite) recommends the Plebs Arms (or something… can’t remember the name of that awful place) but the Star Pub (which is out of the campsite and turn left, walk for 5 minutes and you’re there) is a thousand percent better. We think that the other one is giving the campsite a bit of a backhander for the customers that they refer. We also went back the the Star Pub again for their Fish and Chips. Again: Wonderfully tasty!
On the 17th, we popped out and about. First: Bakewell. Home of the Bakewell Tart and Bakewell Pudding. Picked up one of each and they were lovely. Although I have to admit that Bakewell Pudding is a bit greasy. Picked up a nice leather hat there as well. It’s “Australian Style” apparently… Looks a bit like a leather trilby. I wore it practically non-stop from that point. I wasn’t sure about it before, but glad I grabbed it in the end. We also popped over to Matlock. There’s not much in Matlock, but we remembered the caves and cable cars… Couldn’t find them. Then we saw a sign which pointed in the direction of Matlock Bath, but we were too late to go up. Did see a signpost which worried the hell out of me: No unaurthorised vehicules… And that was from the company that operates the cable cars and caves…
The whole camping trip was fantastic. In the pub, we managed a few games of “Ping, Pang, Pong” and “Tits, Fannies & Arseholes” which caused laughter and drinking. And on Friday, we headed back to Essex to see Tina, Ben & Jade and open my birthday gifts from them. She’d also cooked us a roast dinner… It was a Christmas dinner (which might explain the bad luck we’d had in travelling). The next day was another one of fun!
June 19th and another early start. Off to Thorpe Park with everyone! Another day of theme park madness with roller coasters! We only managed the roller coasters in Thorpe Park. Probably due to the fact it was a weekend and there were so many kids. Queues regularly got up to 60-90 minutes. Saw: The Ride was almost a 2 hour wait and there were no Fastrack passes for it… Still, it was worth the wait. It’s an awesome ride. Again, lots of photos and Jade even came on Detonator with us! She’s quite a brave girl! Admittedly she didn’t like it very much, but she put on a brave face and gave it a go! Ben was too small for quite a lot of the rides. He wanted to go on Detonator too, but was just over 20cm too short. Maybe next time.
The Sunday was mum’s birthday and Father’s day so we went down the Legion for a pint and to do the tote and then a barbequeue in the afternoon. Had another lovely day and watched Saw in the end. Monday was a shopping day in Ipswich. Picked up a nice pair of Oakley sunglasses and Spring got loads of Body Shop stuff. Also nipped into Maplin for some electronic components. On the way back, we had fish and chips by the seafront and had a fairly early night in comparison to what we had been doing before.
Tuesday was a day to spend with Tina. We haven’t seen each other for ages and the times we’ve gone back before, haven’t spent much time together. So we had the day together. She took us to Colchester so that we could pick up a netbook for Spring. It was nice to spend time with my big sis. The kids also joined us in the evening for some games and fun. Wednesday we went to Southend to get the last bits of shopping and souvenirs (and a game of DDR) and then an early night because of getting back on Thursday. We stopped off at Tina’s to say goodbye to the kids before we left as well.
Thursday we had lunch with Tina, said goodbye to mum (she doesn’t like coming the to airport and offered to pick Ben & Jade up from school) and Tina took us up to Heathrow (dad came too as he was going to drive back). Then the problems began again…
First it was the traffic. The M25 was screwed up. The traffic reports mentioned a tree fire… Which didn’t actually exist on the motorway at all and then there was an accident that closed the whole motorway causing tailbacks. Got to the airport and said bye bye to Tina and dad. Went to check-in and were told the flight was delayed by an hour… Here we go again… Bag was overweight, so had to move bits out of it. Then there was VAT refund. Stood in line for an hour before finding out that electronic items can’t have their VAT refunded until after security… So we headed to security. My bag got stopped because of the microcontroller development kit that was now in there after having to remove it from my suitcase due to weight. So that was searched and checked over with swabs and X Rays… That took an hour because my bag was 3rd in line behind a couple of idiotic Indian women who’d packed loads of liquids and medicines in their hand luggage…
Got the VAT refund… much less than the VAT actually was, though. Looked around the shops and picked up a couple of magazines and drinks as well as obligatory bottles of aclohol (Chivas Regal) for some evening relaxation at some point. Went to the gate at the right boarding time… Nothing… Not boarding… An hour later… Still nothing… 30 more minutes and they start boarding. The plane took off three hours late! What a sodding useless airline! At least the food was good. Movies were crap.
Got to Shanghai with barely enough time to transfer. Because of the delay from London, we didn’t get to Xi’an until 11:30pm Beijing time… Now to put that into perspective, we’d got up around 8am on the Thursday. That’s around 3pm Thursday Beijing Time… We grabbed an hour’s sleep in the car to the airport and a couple of hours on the flight from London, but nothing else. We were shattered. To make matters worse, our suitcases hadn’t arrived in Xi’an. After speaking to Shanghai we were told they’d put them on the next flight which would arrive in Xi’an at quarter past midnight… However, this being China Eastern Airlines, that wasn’t the case. Spring’s suitcase made an appearance at about 1am on Saturday with mine coming out about half an hour later. We’d also found out that somewhere along the line, we’d left the DS on the plane. But the ordeal wasn’t over… Oh no!
We got a taxi about half two in the morning, and the driver wanted to wait around for other people to share the taxi because we were only prepared to pay 100 yuan for the ride back (that’s about the normal price). I have never been so frightened in a taxi in all of my life! The guy was falling asleep at the wheel! The taxi was serving left to right, slowing down and speeding up… Terrifying. We finally got back to the flat at around 3:30am on Saturday and discovered that the pipe which feeds water into the toilet cistern had burst. The bathroom was flooded. Managed to get it switched off and the water drained out. Had to put some things away from the suitcases (chocolate… With the temperatures here, it would have melted everywhere if we’d left it). Gave mum a call to let her know we were home safely at about half 4 in the morning Beijing time on Saturday and at that point, the jet lag had kicked in. Usually there’s a narrow margin where you can actually sleep and not get the jet lag effect but it wasn’t avoidable this time. It’s now Monday and I have a pretty bad headache and am trying to force my body back to the right time for this region… It’s not fun at all.
All in all, the journey back took us from 3pm Beijing time on Thursday and with work on the Saturday, didn’t get to bed properly until Saturday 11pm. Even then it was a struggle to sleep. It was 56 hours with only a few hours of sleep… It got to the point where I felt like I was going to collapse in class on Saturday night. Still, hopefully my mind and body is sufficiently knackered to have a good early night tonight and peaceful sleep. It’s a bit difficult in this heat (roughly 35 degrees centigrade, but feels hotter because of the pollution) but I don’t think that’ll factor into it tonight.
Many apologies to my friends in England whom I didn’t get to see during this trip. Especially to Phill and Kirk. Miss you guys! We are planning to return next year for good… But have to see what this stupid coalition government is going to do. Looks like they’re making progress in screwing up the country already only after a month or two… Fingers crossed though!
Wow! That’s a HUGE post. (Well, it’s got to be BIG). Until the next time (and after I’ve recovered from jet lag): Catch you ulater!!
) Until next time: Catch you later!