On Wednesday, I needed to go to Hong Kong because my Visa is only for 30 day stays so I have to get stamped out of China and then I can legally return. I have no limit on the number of re-entries I make but I have to go by the 30th day. Wednesday was the 29th day so I went and planned that in case something got messed up I still had one more day to leave.
My flight was at 9 AM. I left my apartment at 6:45 for the 45 minute trip to the airport. Even with Shanghai's reliable transportation, it took longer than expected due to large crowds on the trains. I arrived at the airport counter at 8 AM when Jerry Seinfeld appeared in my life. I had a ticket and seat on the flight but found it was taken away and given to someone else. (Jerry has a car rental reservation but the company had no car, so Jerry says, "You know how to take a reservation, but you don't know how to keep a reservation.") Of course, I was stunned by this and asked if there was any way to get on the flight. I was told the flight closed 45 minutes before the departure, but of course, this was 60 minutes before departure and I got the blank stare, the call to the supervisor and the standard answer which was, "We can put you on standby for the next flight in 2 hours". Being resourceful, I asked about a different flight to Taiwan which left 20 minutes later or 1:20 minutes from that point and again was told no. A call to the supervisor and another no but I could go to the ticket counter and maybe they could help me. Of course, my thought was, by the time I get there and ask my question, that flight would be closed too. I went anyway and was told I couldn't use my ticket for Hong Kong to go to Taipei because they just couldn't do that (even though they bumped me, they had the cash for the HK ticket, etc.) Then I asked about going to Taipei on a separate ticket and was told it was too late to buy a ticket for that flight! Doh!
So, it was now wait two hours for the next flight on standby and see what that brought. So, I did get on that flight, Exit row, no less. The flight required waiting at a terminal gate for a buss to take us to the airplane which of course slows everything down. Decent flight, arrival was later than expected, customs was slow so I get out of security at 2 PM. My return flight was at 5:30, requiring an airport appearance at 4 PM. Since it's 25 minutes by train each way to downtown, I decided to stay where i was and hang out in the airport, have lunch and just take my flight home. Good plan. I got enough HK $, different than China $ to pay for my meal. After that I decided to check in early, like 2 hours before my flight to guarantee my return. No problems there until it came to the final step and I was told I needed to pay a HK airport tax of HK$120 ($15). Could they take China $? No. Could they take US $? No. So it's back to the cash machine for more HK $.
Okay so its off to the terminal for my wait and I had my Mandarin flash cards with me and learned some verbs, to arrange, to make, to cut, to sign, etc. I'm up to 500 words but can't really speak yet. I'm just sitting there minding my own business but at 5:15, I'm starting to think, I missed the boarding for my 5:35 flight. I go to check and find that it's now 6:15 but at this airport, we will load through a jetway so we can relax and just wait.
Easy flight, slept 2x, refused the food, except their little Dixie cup of ice cream they serve for dessert. Easy pass through customs and on to the Maglev. Hoping that at 9:20, they were still running. Maybe things were starting to go my way, despite being late arriving and having to walk across the entire airport, there was one more Maglev trip at 9:40, so i just made it. Here's the Wikipedia quote on Maglev... "Maglev, or magnetic levitation, is a system of transportation that suspends, guides and propels vehicles, predominantly trains, using magnetic levitation from a very large number of magnets for lift and propulsion. This method has the potential to be faster, quieter and smoother than wheeled mass transit systems." This is amazing. Smooth and fast. It got up to 300 kmph (or 180 mph for those of you stuck in the non-metric world). The top speed this can reach is 450 kmph. This $7, 10 minute ride is like being on a rocket ship! Very cool! It takes you to a connection to the Metro train so my return trip home was very smooth.
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