The Start of Something Good

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Today I believe marked the official start of my “Walk About ‘08” adventure…and a slightly auspicious start it was. To explain that first let me digress one day to Saturday the 29th, which until today, was the day I thought I supposed to fly to Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia thus marking the start of WA08. I got up at 6AM, caught a taxi at 7 for a 9:30 flight, and sat back for the one hour drive to the airport. Upon trying to check in I was asked, rather shyly and phonetically, by the cute little Chinese girl behind the desk, “uhm, very sorry sir, you know today Saturday…you know your ticket for Sunday”? To which I responded, rather stupidly and phonetically, “uhm…oh…ah….sheshe”, and left for what would be a one cab ride back to Xintiandi.

Now all this would be fine except that Saturday night it began to rain, heavily mind you, and continued on into Sunday morning. So deja vu, I got up 6AM, down at 7 for a cab, and…

Now here’s where things started to get dicey for the day, I know having lived in Shanghai that roughly half of all Shanghai taxi’s are aquaphobious, at the first sign of water, poof, they vanish, thus making finding an empty taxi for hire the urban equivalent of a sasquatch hunt. Now knowing this you might be asking, “why did Scott wait to 7AM to get a cab”…and the answer is quit logical really. You see I’d never experienced 7AM on a Sunday in Shanghai, rainy or dry, I mean I figured the rules must be different that early in the morning on a Sunday? So anyways, I get in my cab at 7:30 for the hour ride to the airport…but it’s raining, so the ride takes an hour and twenty minuets…so yeah, I arrive at the check in counter at 9AM for my 9:30 flight. Now anywhere else in the world, when you have to check bags, go through customs, clear immigration, pass security, and make it to the departure gate of a behemoth airport, this timeline would spell doom. Luckily for me the Chinese are the most efficient baggage handlers in the world. So after the cute little girl behind the counter looked at me, looked at my ticket, looked at the clock, smiled, yelled something to a not so cute, not so little woman a few counters away, who then came over, looked at me, looked at my ticket, looked at the clock, looked back at me (rather disgustedly), said something to the cute little girl in Chinese (which I’ll assume was akin to stupid moron), I got my boarding pass and headed to imigration!

My Flight connected through Beijing so I grabbed my bags on the domestic side of the terminal (efficient baggage handlers the Chinese) and checked in over at the international counter for Ulaanbaatar. All things go! Boarded the plane and then for reasons never fully explained sat on the tarmac for 4 hours. No problem! Eventually took off and landed in Ulaanbaatar at what was about the tiniest airport I’d ever seen and then waited for my bags at was definitely the tiniest baggage carousel I’d ever seen…and waited…and waited. I’ve developed two possible theories as to why my bags did not arrive with me in UB: either my bags had tired of waiting on the tarmac and decided to retire to the terminal lounge where they most likely enjoyed margaritas alla Alan and Sharon, then actually pulled an Alan and Sharon and sat in the bar while their plan took off…a feat the Tracey’s have pulled almost as many times as I’ve had my water shut off, or the Chinese are simply the least efficient baggage handlers in the world!

After much discussion amongst the 15 or so other passengers who’s bags also did not arrive and a very confused looking Mongolian man in an Air China shirt, I left with a strong suspicion my bags would be arriving on a flight tomorrow sometime between 10AM and noon. So through customs I went and out into the receiving area to look for the “Scott McDonald” sign I was hoping, after arriving 4+ hours late, I would still find in front of a smiling face. Sure enough I saw the sign and met the girl named Esther who would act as my guide for the next 20 days. We then drove into Ulaanbaatar and I checked into the 4 star Byengol Hotel. In 1939 the USSR successfully defended Inner Mongolia against Japanese invasion and from this point forward up until perestroika in 1990 Mongolia operated predominantly as a Russian satellite nation. In 1992 a new constitution was introduced, election were held and Mongolia made the peaceful transition into a truly western style democratic, independent nation. I can tell you though after checking into the Hotel Byengol that while the Mongolians may have liberated themselves politically, they still operate fully under the old Soviet hotel rating system. But enough, a crappy hotel room was not of my concern, after a long day of travel I simply wanted a nice cold beer. So out to diner we went, Indian fare, my advice to any of you who travel to Mongolia in the future would be to stick with the more local cuisines, and as the waitress handed me a menu I seized the moment without hesitation and said, “I’d like a cold beer please”. To which she looked at me, with a look reminiscent of the one the not so cute, not so little woman behind the Air China counter had given me 12 hours earlier, and said, “today vote day, no alcohol.”

This of all the events of the day would be by far the most painful and deflating…I could think of no crueler words than “no alcohol”, luckily, and trust me here, I would not be hearing those words together again in Mongolia!

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Comments

[Gigi]

Nice one
I think the way you wrote this article already turned this so call "painful day" into a funny one, and i can picture the way you rushed in the airport. Pls post more pictures next time so we can all see what you see there, while without experiencing the tough time, drinking cold beer in an ac room. haha....

[Alicia]

So Timely
Typical Uncle Scott late for his flight.. =]