First things first: Happy New Year and welcome back.\u00c2\u00a0 A lot has happened that would merit an entry, but this is a travel blog and such it will remain.\u00c2\u00a0<\/p>\n
I’ll admit to less than perfect planning of this trip.\u00c2\u00a0 I didn’t for instance double-check the flight reservations but just assumed they’d all be on Star Alliance partner lines.\u00c2\u00a0 It turns out China Southern Airlines, the carrier that got me from Guangzhou to Sanya and will\u00c2\u00a0get me to Beijing on Thursday, is a\u00c2\u00a0Skyteam member.\u00c2\u00a0 In fact, they just recently joined, beginning a new challenge which, as their on-board magazine editorial had it, required “bold stratagem, deep wisdom, and a large bosom,”\u00c2\u00a0whatever that means.\u00c2\u00a0<\/p>\n
But I’m getting ahead of myself.\u00c2\u00a0 The trip started with a misunderstanding.\u00c2\u00a0 My parents had offered to drive me to the airport, which I thought was remarkable, considering the distance and how traffic in Zurich can get snarled up at times.\u00c2\u00a0 They did drive me there, which was even more remarkable, because they’d thought I was flying out of Basel.\u00c2\u00a0<\/p>\n
I checked in at the business counter but wondered if it was worth it.\u00c2\u00a0 The economy queue seemed just as short, and at least there people queued.\u00c2\u00a0 After I had checked in both suitcases, but retained the large one to have the Carnet A.T.A. stamped by the Swiss customs, I realized that I’d mistaken the latest time for check-in as the departure time.\u00c2\u00a0 I was a good two hours too early.\u00c2\u00a0<\/p>\n
At least that provided a convenient excuse to invite my parents and Janet, who’d also come along, for a drink each on the company tab.\u00c2\u00a0 After all, they’d saved me the train costs.\u00c2\u00a0 We chatted about languages, barefoot running, and pressure cookers.\u00c2\u00a0 Of course, they couldn’t stay much longer.\u00c2\u00a0 I accompanied them to their car, mostly because I’d forgotten my hat there, and said goodbye.\u00c2\u00a0 For the first time in a long time, I was leaving someone extra special behind.\u00c2\u00a0<\/p>\n
The Carnet A.T.A. formalities went well, although I think I passed for an incompetent because I didn’t know I had to fill in a certain form.\u00c2\u00a0 The official was kind enough and helped me through it.\u00c2\u00a0 He didn’t check the contents.\u00c2\u00a0<\/p>\n
I went to the lounge, where I drank plenty of liquids, ate some peanuts and the Faschtew\u00c3\u00a4ije Mom had given me, and read George MacDonald’s wife’s adaptation of the second part of the Pilgrim’s Progress.\u00c2\u00a0 It’s an odd bird of a dramatic piece.\u00c2\u00a0 I wanted to like it better than I did.\u00c2\u00a0<\/p>\n
In Frankfurt I got a bit annoyed that we were sent through a door with a No Entry sign on it.\u00c2\u00a0 I can’t just ignore such a sign, so I stood perplexed in front of it and walked to and fro, confused, until someone else just walked up close and it opened.\u00c2\u00a0 I then followed, but I do wonder who’s responsible for that signage.\u00c2\u00a0 Otherwise it was pretty smooth sailing, except that I had to inquire at four different stores until I got earplugs.\u00c2\u00a0 The plane was going to\u00c2\u00a0leave on time, but five people were turned back for lack of proper visa documents and their luggage had to be unloaded, resulting in a delay of about fifteen minutes.\u00c2\u00a0 Normally, I wouldn’t care, but I was a bit worried about the Guangzhou connection, where I had to get my luggage, go through customs with the Carnet A.T.A., and check in again for my last leg.\u00c2\u00a0 Fortunately, I was tired enough to\u00c2\u00a0ignore those worries\u00c2\u00a0and go to sleep.\u00c2\u00a0<\/p>\n
The customs official in Guangzhou was at first confused why I was in the “goods to declare” line when my official form showed a “no” to all the pertinent questions.\u00c2\u00a0 Then I pulled out the Carnet A.T.A. sheet and he understood.\u00c2\u00a0 I now knew how to fill in my part, but they made me write “Exhibition” above where our chamber of commerce had pre-printed “Ausstellung – Messe.”\u00c2\u00a0 They, too, didn’t check contents.\u00c2\u00a0<\/p>\n
I transferred to the domestic side of the airport and took my luggage to the transfer desk, where I expected to have to pay a significant weight surcharge fee because the microscope suitcase alone weighs over 20 kg.\u00c2\u00a0 The woman at the counter involuntarily suggested another idea by asking how many cases I was checking in.\u00c2\u00a0 My clothes were in a suitcase small enough to pass as carry-on, and by moving scissors and tweezers from that case to the microscope case I could check one bag at legal weight and saunter on the plane with a ridiculous allowance of carry-on luggage.\u00c2\u00a0 While re-packing I also discovered a letter that had been secreted in my suitcase.\u00c2\u00a0 Like I said, someone extra special.\u00c2\u00a0<\/p>\n
By that time it was getting dark.\u00c2\u00a0 I hadn’t had a lot of sunlight and wouldn’t enjoy much more.\u00c2\u00a0 Leaving Europe at 10pm has the advantage of making me sleepy, but the disadvantage of arriving just before local nightfall.\u00c2\u00a0 The flight to Sanya took place in the dark, in an MD 82<\/a> with\u00c2\u00a0hardly any leg room.\u00c2\u00a0 It was short, and I read the inflight magazine (see insightful quote above) and the China Daily while periodically trying to re-arrange my legs.\u00c2\u00a0<\/p>\n In Sanya, everyone’s luggage came out on the same belt.\u00c2\u00a0 As soon as I had mine, had it verified,\u00c2\u00a0and walked out into the main entrance hall, a man walked up to me and asked if I needed a taxi.\u00c2\u00a0 I remembered Beijing in 2002 and told him I needed the taxi line, which he couldn’t or wouldn’t understand.\u00c2\u00a0 I could spot no signs pointing to the taxi line, so when some other guy walked up and confirmed that the first one was indeed a taxi driver and I saw the badge around his neck, I relented.\u00c2\u00a0 They might rip me off, but I’d get to the hotel.\u00c2\u00a0<\/p>\n We walked outside, across the street and through a screen of palm trees.\u00c2\u00a0 Sanya is the southernmost city in China and on the latitude of Puerto Rico, which is why I was quite warm in my jacket.\u00c2\u00a0 I’d at least had the sense to pack my sweater in my carry-on before the last flight.\u00c2\u00a0 As I waited near the parking lot exit for my “taxi” I spotted cars with lit triangles on their roofs – real taxis.\u00c2\u00a0 They had been hidden by the palm trees, and I wonder if the signs are no clearer and the taxis out of sight for the express purpose of charging tired foreigners arbitrary sums for their hotel ride.\u00c2\u00a0<\/p>\n It turned out I paid about 25 francs for a 40-kilometer ride – certainly overpriced by Chinese standards, and pretty harrowing, too, though I suppose one could argue it was reasonable by Swiss standards and a free sampling of local thrills.\u00c2\u00a0 The roads are mostly well lit, but not the pedestrian crossings, some trishaws drive without lights, buses pull out at will, and everyone honks in blatant disregard of the no honking signs.\u00c2\u00a0 My driver drove fast, slowing down for places where he knew there were speed cameras, and at one point buckled his seat belt, crawled past a zone lit by spotlights, and unbelted again.\u00c2\u00a0<\/p>\n