All I'm going to say is that Bill and I combined both had pretty horrible weeks last week and on Saturday we were heading to Hong Kong to get the visa he was suppose to have in January and things got even worse.
We started the day thinking that things were finally going to start looking up for us and we were finally going it get that visa in Hong Kong on Monday that would allow everything to fall into place here in China. Boy were we wrong!
Our first mistake was when we arrived at the train station we realized we forgot the camera. It's okay we have iPhones for pictures, life will go on. We then get in a massive line for train tickets. People are pushing and shoving, yelling back and forth. Bill gets in 1 line I get in another. It's a good thing I had a backpack on because I was able to box out the skinny Chinese man behind me in line and get to the ticket window before him! I finally get to the window and hand the lady our passports, phone with instructions and money and she tells us the train is full and throws our documents back at us. Ummm, no give me standing room only we say. She just keeps shaking her head. So we say next train and push the stuff back at her. She pushes some buttons and then throws back our passports and tickets. The next train is over 2 hours away! Off we go to find a place outside to sit. Thank goodness it's a decent day outside.
Ugh.
Well, we arrive at Shanghai Hongqiao railway station at 12:50 and our flight is at 1:50, in my mind I kept saying we had a chance but I just had this gut fleeing we weren't going to make it. We get to terminal 2, shit we need terminal 1. Take a bus, wait no , take the subway. It was a mad rush and a cluster and we finally get to terminal 1 and they tell us we need to check in 45 minutes prior so we have missed the flight and need to rebook at ticketing. Ugh!
We go to ticketing to rebook, sorry you have nonrefundable tickets and you can't rebook because it is 6,000rmb for a 1 way so you should go online and try again tomorrow! Not exactly what we wanted to here. We decide to hit the bathroom as we're both dripping wet with sweat, it's 81 degrees, we're dressed in jeans and then we take a seat on a bench. Lets start over, get out the phones, computer, see if we can rebook a flight online. We find a Hong Kong airlines flight that leaves at 7pm, it's 2pm but our phones won't let us purchase online so we head to our friend Jim Sweeny's restaurant which luckily happens to be on the subway line 10 we were on and not too far away!
A few beers and some food later we end up with new tickets booked online for the 7pm flight to Hong Kong. Whew, things can only go up from here right?
Of course not! We walk in and the first thing we see is that that flight is delayed!
Well I guess being early is better than late so we go sit for 3 hours and FINALLY the flight boards and we get to Hong Kong, only to try to get cash at an ATM and I find out my debit card is gone. Yep lost that in the mix!
The day from heaven in Asia.
Oh man what a day! I hope you are past that lovely experience and that you had a good time in HK. Seriously, bloody marys and chicken wings? Sounds like the trip improved I hope. :)
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