Gordon's arrival x

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I got up early to finish tidying my room and flat before heading to Shangliu airport to pick up Gordon. Leaving in plenty of time I managed to get a taxi pretty quickly that took me to the airport for about 40rmb. The taxi driver was really friendly and I ended up speaking to him in my basic Chinese and his basic English. He helped to calm my nerves as I was excited and nervous about seeing my boyfriend after not seeing him for over five months.

I got to the airport in about 30minutes and was pretty pleased I had made it in plenty of time for the plane's arrival. With the flight number from Amsterdam at the ready I figured I had between 30minutes and an hour until Gordon's flight arrived. Making my way to the International Arrivals Gate I was confused to see a massive crowd of Chinese teenagers, kids, airport staff and some adults. I couldn't for the life of me figure out what was going on until I asked a girl what was happening. It turned out that the Hong Kong flight that was arriving at the same time as Gordon's flight was full of 'Stars' like S.H.E. I just thought 'typical' the one day I go to the airport and it is packed with crazy fans. I was really worried I wouldn't be able to see Gordon when he came through the gate and he would be scared by the huge crowd of Chinese teens.

After about forty minutes of waiting and trying to see what was going on I managed to get to the front and stand beside the people in charge of crowd control. They seemed a bit confused to see a Lao wai waiting to see Chinese pop stars so I had to explain I was waiting for a pengyou (friend) who was arriving on the next flight. After I explained this they seemed happy to let me stand beside them and wait. When the flight did arrive when any foreigner came out the gate they asked "is that your friend/boyfriend?". I was a tad insulted when they did this with the middle aged, not so good looking men! When Gordon did come out the gate looking a little bedazzled I managed to grab him and pull him out of the crowds.

We headed back to my flat and I got lots of goodies from the U.K like Irn bru, Green & Blacks Chocolate, Lemsips, face masks etc. We then got ready to head to the Sheraton Hotel where we were staying for the weekend. It cost the equivalent to staying at a U.K travel inn for the weekend, this is like well cheap for a 4/5 star hotel. It was Gordon's treat which was pretty nice. That weekend we headed out for a curry at Namaste with Brad and Claire who we were heading to Lhasa with on the Monday morning. We didn't do much else expect chilling out, ordering breakfast in bed and using and abusing the Sheraton swimming pool.

After a pretty relaxing catch up weekend we had to get up uber early for our flight to Lhasa on Monday the 22nd. We got picked up around 7am ish and headed to the airport with Brad and Claire. Our flights which we got from Dave (Dave's Oasis/Hostel) cost about 1550 rmb and included the Tibet Permit (this is pretty fictional). When we arrived at the airport our driver checked us in and then took us through customs showing the customs officer our Permits which was effectively our names on a piece of paper. We then never saw this again.

Our sleepy group then waited in the departure lounge until our flight was ready to take off.

Next blog....Lhasa arrival x

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Photos

Sleepy me at the Sheraton
Early start for our morning flight to Lhasa