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Published: September 4th 2006
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El Kitchen
Not sure how I'm going to cook roast turkey on two gas burners at Christmas, but I'll give it a shot. What a long, long way China is from other places, especially when you take the pretty route! I left Dublin at 5am, having been in Ireland for Jill’s wedding. I got to Birmingham Airport, met my cousin at a run with a trolley full of all the stuff I need for a year, checked in and stood in line to get through Security for 45 minutes. I got to Paris, a bit stressed and very hot after running to get bags, get through beeping machines and get on planes. Luckily, my flight to Shanghai wasn’t for 9 hours, so I had time to wander around. A lot of time. 9 hours drags a little when you’re just killing time. I had a little snooze, curled up on my bags, but awoke to find a very tall air steward standing over me. Not a pleasant wake-up! Apparently, they were a little worried about me, and asked when my flight was. When I replied it wasn’t for another five hours at this stage, he giggled, said ‘have fun’, and left me to it.
I conked out halfway through dinner on the plane, and didn’t wake up until the wheels bounced on the
El Sitting Room
Joe makes it look small, it is actually a proper size. Lovely green sofas too. runway at Shanghai Pu Dong airport. I whizzed through immigration. Sort of. And then the real fun began. I got into a taxi, asked him to take me to the train station. He refused to understand me, obviously as a foreigner I have no idea what I want, and have no ability to read the words ‘train station’ with the correct tones. I used his mobile to call Jocelyn, the girl who works at CCS, where I did my volunteer program before. I asked her to tell the taxi driver to take me to the train station, my train to Xi’an was at 8.28pm, so I felt I had plenty of time. Eight calls later between the two of them, and I got dumped out of the taxi at Shanghai HongQiao airport. Apparently, Jocelyn didn’t think I was capable of getting myself a train ticket, as Joe had had problems getting one from Beijing. And the taxi driver got worried about me, so took me to the airport so I could catch a plane. Because that’s what foreigners do. It didn’t seem to make any difference to them that I didn’t have a plane ticket either. However, the airport that
El Neighbourhood
Isn't it sweet. Plus very safe. planes fly to Xi’an from is actually Pu Dong. I heaved my 55 kilos of luggage into another taxi, eventually got to the trains, but had missed my train by about 30 seconds. Yay. There were seats on the 11.30pm train, but I didn’t really want to hang around for that long, it’s not a great area. And my shoulders were beginning to ache. Whose idea was it to take 55 kilos of stuff here?! Hmmm?! It’s not like they don’t have lots of stuff here themselves. So, I fell into the back of yet another taxi, with my backpack still on as it was now welded onto my shoulders, and made it back to Pu Dong airport, five hours later and fifty dollars lighter.
Only a tiny bit of hassle getting on the 10pm plane, I only got sent to three different ticket desks before going back to the original one and actually getting a ticket. I glared at the check-in bloke, daring him to challenge my 16 tons of garbage. I mean, luggage. Nothing was said, luckily, as I was itching for a fight. I traipsed onto ‘Hainan Airways’, with Robin Gahan’s last words to me floating
Yum
And it's cloudy in Xian. Again. through my head, about how you always read in the single paragraph news in the Indo about 200 people getting squashed in a crash in China. I phoned Jocelyn again, telling her my plans, letting her know that she was now responsible for my fate. She giggled and hung up, after asking why I wanted to get a train in the first place. Domestic flights in China I will keep to the absolute minimum, they tend to get the planes that the Turks sell to the Russians, who deem them unfit and flog them to the Chinese, and that even sparrows feel a bit uneasy getting into.
I was pleasantly surprised with Hainan Airways, no bits fell off, and we even got a sandwich. We were delayed for an hour, which wasn’t unexpected, pretty much fitting with my whole day. I was unceremoniously booted off the shuttle bus in the middle of Xi’an at 2.30am. Luckily, I was only five minutes from the Youth Hostel that we spent a lot of time in before. The underground walkway was closed. Of course. So I had to clamber over the barriers they put up so silly people don’t get run over, whilst being followed by about twelve taxis who wanted to take me all sorts of places. Welcome to China.
I collapsed into a top bunk, wondering how I was going to find Joe, as he was going to pick me up at the train station at 1pm the next day. I tossed and turned until 8am, got up groggily, and checked out. Just as I got my receipt back, Joe walked through the doors of the hostel. He only looked past me once! He had waited around for three hours the day before at Chang An University Foreign Affairs office, and had got the apartment and everything organised. Limped up the six flights of stairs (my legs are going to be beautiful after a year of living on the top floor with no lift). He had played around with the gas and electric, so knew which levers to pull, which buttons to push, and in what order to turn on the taps to get hot water, so I had my first shower in 48 hours, and put on lovely clean clothes that weren’t sticky and didn’t smell of aeroplane.
The apartment is enormous, especially when compared to Chinese apartments. The kitchen is twice the size of the one in the CCS apartment, in which they were cooking for 29 people over the summer. Two bedrooms, an office with two desks in it, a sitting room and a sunroom/balcony thing to hang clothes in when they’re drying. Sorted! It was absolutely filthy though, the last teachers who lived here mustn’t have cleaned all year. However, they also didn’t cook, so the burners and microwave were as new. We hiked out to the supermarket, and bought mops, buckets, bleach, scrubbing brushes, Mr. Muscle, and a new toilet seat. How romantic! We have cable as well, 65 channels of fab Chinese TV, so we got a DVD player as well. The only TV channel we don’t get is CCTV 9. The English language one.
Met up with Jocelyn and Joakim the Swede (her husband) for dinner. Noodles, dumplings, beer and a lot of talking. It’s like I’ve never been away.
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Luke
non-member comment
Hey ya, happy you made it safe and sound and have a place to live in that you are happy with. Have fun, take care and keep in touch! Luke xx