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Published: December 27th 2005
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With New Year's holiday announced last week Kay was very happy to receive four days off work, and by some higher power it appeared that both Joanne and I would be able to take time off at the same time. Such an opportunity cannot be missed out on and we immediately got down to discussing where we should all meet up, Bangkok being the master plan. Where to continue was not really obvious but the main challenge as always, is finding a ticket to Bangkok from Scandinavia on short notice (short notice in this case is anything under three months time...). Needless to say it looked rather grim, Thailand being a premier getaway for Swedes tired of the dark and miserable November, so after a customary check verifying that all the flights were full I started look at alternative routes.
Beijing looked like a decent option, as Scandinavian offers direct flights there on their spanking new A340s and that would also mean teaming up with Joanne en route for the final leg down south. However, as is always the case when more than one person is involved in travel planning, something came up to invalidate the whole arrangement. Joanne had to cut her holiday short and could not join us, which was really sad news. After brainstorming a bit Kay and I decided that we were not really that interested in the sunny beaches of the Andaman Sea or the pulse of the greater cities in the area, and we instead came up with the brilliant plan to go to Beijing. If Muhammed can't come to the mountain...
This immediately resulted in my travel plans being automatically sorted and I was happy to let go of my temporary itinerary seeing me sit on my duff for 12 hours watching the concrete walls at Beijing Capital Airport waiting for a connecting flight. Unfortunately the challenge now shifted to finding a flight from Bangkok to Beijing and guess what, Kay got the notice that they were all fully booked... This frustrated me quite a bit as I had been online at Thai's website and checked out the availability, and going back online the target flight still showed up as available. Time for an experiment. I logged in and made a reservation through the website, the economy section of the flight showing up void like there had been a new SARS scare or something, with maybe 10%!o(MISSING)f the seats booked. I picked a good one and confirmed the reservation, and it went straight into the
AMADEUS booking system. I asked Kay to check with Thai again and they confirmed that the booking I had made for her via the website was indeed confirmed, and the one she reserved earlier through the local Thai ticketing office was still on waiting list. Just how bizarre is that?
Next obstacle to overcome is the visa application procedure. Normally not a problem for China (even though they keep turning down my pleas for a multiple entry visa) but I noticed the
Consulate had tightened their rules a bit since last time around, inserting more disclaimers and requirements, as wells as changing the structure of the application form, nullifying my convenient storage. It became a last minute application, just like they always are. Sometimes I wish I lived in a capital city.
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Kay
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time to pack, man...
SARS scare? hahahaha...hey someone suppose to pack stuffs soon...mmm or..my suggestion is just throw everythings in ur bag...faster and you'll get all you need...