Terminal case in the Terminal

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Dick whack of a Chinese official told us we could get free accommodation at the airport hotel. Just finding it was a chore in itself with all of our heavy stuff. Another Aussie family were in the same boat as us. After wandering around trying to find the hotel we got there and the receptionist said that we couldn’t check in with out a voucher. It took them ages to find out from Southern China Air that only First & Business Class had this service. Meanwhile the other family decided that they’d check in anyway. The cost was $120 and another Aussie said the rooms were wonderful for the price and it was 5 star. By this stage I was VERY tempted. But after deciding that we had already anticipated spending 14 hours in the airport anyway and ad got food etc. and had to leave again at 5pm to check back in we decided to go back to the airport. Not before changing my underwear, pair of pants, socks and brushed my teeth in the very flash toilet that had couches. I already felt better and wished I had a spare shirt as I was all stinky even with deoderant. Ours was the first flight arrival for the day and they hadn’t even turned the air conditioning on. It wasn’t pleasant trapsing around with all our stuff in the humidity. At the gate the official told us we couldn’t go in and sent us back to where people were checking in their luggage. We thought this isn’t right and asked and info lady what to do and she sent us back to where we were in the first place. After carting all or shit and it was fuckin’ hot as haides I was becoming very frustrated. When we went back to Gate A Brendan just flashed the boarding passes very quickly so they couldn’t even see and barged ahead, no one stopped us and they obviously didn’t recognise us from the 5 minutes before when they turned us away. The most frustrating thing was the security officials were even more diligent than the USA ones. I also had to take off my shoes (never had to in Perth). Then I got frisk searched in front of every body (by a female), who was very diligent and even checked under my hair band! They made us unpack everything out of our checked luggage (we had a lot of it) as there was something they couldn’t identify. I painstakingly packed that to prevent breakages and now it was all over the fuckin’ place. When I eventually repacked everything with hundreds of people waiting behind, the fuckin’ zip broker all because the stupid wanker told us we could stay at the airport. We wouldn’t have to have gone through all this rigmoral if we were just transiting as per the original plan. I guess the promise of a nice hotel with showers and a bed was all to consuming to the tired mind. Our 14 hour transit turned into a 17 hour transit. Use your imagination on what we did for 17 hours!

In a nutshell, I really think my grand parents emigrated to the wrong country. I will miss America for its food, it’s exceptional service everywhere you go and being a pedestrian in this country makes you feel very special. Even if you think you might want to cross the street or hang around the kerb for a split second the traffic will stop for you even if it’s not on a Ped X. LA has a terrible reputation for its traffic but for the wrong reasons I think. People stop if there is an emergency which doesn’t help traffic but it is safe. Drivers are all polite and let you change lanes even in LA, and stay out of the fast lane at all times.

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