If our memories are archived with tags, then September 15, 2010 will be tagged with the day spent in the airport.
It all started at 6am. I and a colleague from our consignment team decided to leave the hotel early for our 10:25 am flight because we were told that the airport is two hours from the hotel. We wanted to be sure that we won't miss our flight because we have another flight on the same day to reach our destination: Tianjin, China.
The check out went smoothly discounting the fact that the front desk officer does not speak English other than thank you and welcome. Then, it was my colleague's turn. It appeared that they are taking their time because several minutes has passed and they haven't completed the check out process. The front desk officer picked up the phone and talked to the person on the other end of the line sounding a little bit worried. I'm guessing something was wrong and she's worried how to tell us the problem. But the front desk is clever. Instead of telling us the problem, she handed the phone to my colleague (and maybe leaving the other person at the end of the line surprised and worried).
It turned out that they are looking for the hair dryer bag. My coworker told them it should be in the drawer as she did not take anything. The person on the did not accept it as my coworker added "It should be in the drawer. The hair dryer is in the bathroom but she should find the bag inside the drawer in the cabinet". This discussion and repetition took about more than 3 minutes. Finally, my coworker responded that she'll go to the room to show the housekeeping personnel where the bag is. That's where the discussion ended. Maybe they finally understood what my coworker is saying.
So we were able to check out then I requested for a cab going to the airport. This time I was ready. Anticipating, she would not understand, I used Google translate the night before and stored it in my phone. Here's the translated text.
I'm glad it worked. She told us to wait ten minutes and by 6:43am we are inside a cab going to Hangzhou International Airport.
Hangzhou International Airport
Since we missed our breakfast, we decided to look for a restaurant here. There aren't many. I saw a starbucks logo and I was happy. Not because I love starbucks but because whenever I'm abroad, I don't like trying out foreign foods so my strategy is to look for an American fast food chain and eat there.
As I approached the store, I realized how not wearing my contact lenses affected my vision. The store has a logo that looks like Starbucks from afar.
I really thought it was a starbucks brand. But since they have a logo that's a rip off of the starbucks logo I decided to get my breakfast here thinking that since they are imitating starbucks, there's a possibility that their coffee is a rip-off as well (hehehe. I don't know if you get my logic.)
I entered and ordered one meatball spaghetti and mocha coffee. I asked for the receipt and the lady gave me a blank stare. I searched through my head the mandarin of asking for a receipt and blurted 'fa piao'. Alas, it worked since i saw her nod. Once again, i'm so proud of myself.
Now, i wanted to eat it out so when the waitress brought spoon and fork in my table, i told her I'll have a takeout food. She was a bit rattled and has a expression in her face saying 'why was i so unlucky that you chose to call me among all the waitresses here?' She listened intently to my instructions pretending she understands but her face show she's not getting any word. Good thing, one of their staff speaks a little bit of English so with a bit of demonstration, she understood what i meant.
I got my food and here's Janeth Nieva trying out the other resto.
By 9:45, the check in counter opened and at exactly 10:15 we are already sitting in our assigned seats. The second problem happened here. The flight attendant announced in the speaker words in Mandarin. I listened intently hoping I'll pick up some words but failed. (If I had my twitter, I could have twitted #fail). After the long Mandarin speech, she said in English, "May I have your attention please, our flight will be delayed and we will inform you as soon as we got an update". Great! I now knew that our flight will be delayed for reasons I don't know.
Looking at the other passengers, they don't seem to care that our flight was delayed. Everyone is chatting and taking pictures. It seems that everyone knows each other. I thought that if this is in the Philippines, the situation will be entirely different. Everyone will be complaining by now. I was trying to figure out why people are not complaining and Janeth told me that maybe airplane here is like the regular bus. They use it often like a regular transportation. Well, yes. It maybe the reason. Most of us when travelling in the Philippines are out for vacation or for some important business and a minute of flight delay eats up precious minutes of our travel time so it is perfectly reasonable to complain. Besides, we paid to get to our destination on time and not getting there as promised is totally not a good customer service.
We waited patiently in our seats as the flight attendants started giving drinks and cookies to passengers. By 11:30 am, the plane started to move. I was expecting an update from the flight attendant explaining what happened but did not get one. Never mind. At least we're already moving.
Qingdao International Airport
By 1:00pm, we landed in Qingdao International Airport. In my mind, I was a bit thankful for the delay because it shortened our waiting time here in the airport. Our next flight is scheduled on 5:05pm in the afternoon so the delay earlier shortened our stay here in the Airport.
To kill time, I read the book by T Har Eker but just after 30 minutes, my laptop battery gave up on me. Made a mental note to myself to try asking for a new one once I get back since my laptop only gives me 30 minutes of juice even if I fully charge it.
By 3:00 pm, our energy started to dry up as well.
(to be continued. )
I'm still trying to find the right words how to narrate the next experience. Janeth was so nervous last night she thought we are being kidnapped. We were able to laugh it off today but yesterday was really scary for her).
(P.S. This is a same day post so pardon for typos and/or grammar errors)
