April 4, 2011

Memory #4

China--January 2004

Amy and I had the opportunity to go to China to visit my college roommate, Bekka, and her family.  I kept a travel journal while we were visiting, so I will share one of the first entries I wrote on the trip:

January 14, 2004 
4:26 am
In a plane somewhere between Tokyo and Beijing
We are about an hour away from Beijing.  We had quite the adventure in Tokyo though when Amy lost her plane ticket.  We were already an hour late because our flight to Tokyo was delayed.  We had to take a bus from one terminal to another, and Amy (the self-proclaimed responsible one) left her ticket on the bus.  So I, the ever calm one, took control of the situation, while Amy panicked.  We tried to run back out to the bus, but there was a guard at the door who spoke no English and wouldn't let us back out.  After countless frantic questions, like "what are we going to do?" from Amy, all of which I responded to with a simple "shut-up!", we found the connection counter.  While Amy ran around in a frenzy checking the departure board, seeing how long lines were, and occasionally running back to me to make sure I knew we were going to miss our flight, I took care of business.  I didn't wait in the line at the counter, because I knew we'd never make it.  So, I went to a lady behind the counter and told her the situation.  She was very distressed over the situation and at that point, I thought we might be spending the night in Tokyo.  They couldn't issue us another ticket because our tickets were American Airlines, and we were flying Japan Airlines.  They called the bus, but found no ticket.  Then they told us we had the option of paying for a lost ticket.  We decided to go for that option even though it was $100.  So, right as we are about to pay, they got a call that they found the ticket.  So, they issued both of us our boarding passes and escorted us to the front of the security line.  We then had to take a train and when we got off the train, there was a page over the loudspeaker that said report to gate 88 now.  Of course it's the gate farthest away, and we sprinted with all our bags.  It was quite an exciting experience.

I am laughing out loud right now remembering how panicked Amy was.  She was on the verge of a nervous breakdown. 
But, we did make it to China after all that. Here are some highlights from the trip:

The Great Wall
The Hospital
Our trip was not free from hiccups after our first little plane incident.  After buying train tickets to travel from Beijing to Shanghai and onto other sights around China, Amy got a bad migraine....a really bad migraine.  We had to take her to the hospital twice and cancel our train tour of China while she was fed medicine through an IV.
Shopping
We did, however, get to enjoy endless shopping....especially since it was way too cold to spend any significant amount of time outside.
Hong Kong
And we did end up getting to take a train trip after all.  A 30 hour train ride with triple high bunk beds and dirty sheets and toilets that were holes in the floor of the train so you could pee right onto the train tracks.
Hong Kong was the most amazing city I have ever been to.  I fell in love with it.  And it was so amazing to be in warmer weather.  The climate there is very similar to southern California.  It is a BEAUTIFUL city right on the water.
There are thousands of little islands all around Hong Kong, so we took a boat to one of them and spent the day there.
We spent our nights shopping.  Shops there don't open until the afternoon, and they stay open until late into the night.
We had to buy these bags to put everything we bought in.  Everything was so cheap, it was hard to resist.

China was quite an adventure (and I am itching to go back and see all the sights we didn't get to see....and do some more shopping)
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Today's wish list item:
                                                                                           Source: urbanoutfitters.com


4 comments:

  1. Well obviously I have a lot of comments for this one... First and foremost, one thing you need to know about Mindy is that she tends to over-exaggerate (a lot) when she tells stories about people's reactions to things. I can assure you there was no nervous breakdown and no frantic running around. Of course I was a little worried (no one spoke english so no one could help us - and the guard who wouldn't let me back on the bus got me a little fired up) and I'm sure my all too caring and patient older sister didn't help the situation by yelling shut up at me. Somewhere there is video footage of me telling the real story on the plane afterward... maybe you should find that for the non-exaggerated, truthful version Min :)

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  2. You also forgot to mention that you too admitted yourself to the hospital... Where is the lovely picture of you looking so terribly ill lying on the exam table? (really she is lying there smiling looking the picture of perfect health)

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  3. Oh this one is just too good! Ha! You girls did some serious damage on those shopping sprees - what all went into those bags?? :) sounds like a great adventure!

    -tany

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  4. mindy. really? a $250 present? be realistic..

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