Learning the Pains of Travel (part 1)

It’s strange but I have always loved to travel. I like the idea of travel, and I even didn’t mind the airport. I would even go so far as to say I liked airports and airplanes (minus the smells). I found a thrill in being in the airport, seeing many different people - where were they going or where had they been, going on a plane, the take off and landing and arriving in a new place. When I was younger, I used to envy how much my dad got to travel. As he packed his bags I would think “You’re so lucky. You get to see all these new and different places.” But he didn’t share the same enthusiasm about traveling - airplanes, hotels, etc.- as I did. And I sure had a taste for the perils of travel in Thailand. I’m understand his qualms with travel a little more now.

Days ahead of my much anticipated trip to Thailand I checked the weather forecast of Nanjing and saw that on Thursday February 11, my departure date for the trip I had been waiting for since I was 8, it would snow. Every day that week, the forecast was bleaker and bleaker. I thought for sure that this was some meteorologist mistake and that it would not snow. Alas, I awoke on the 11th to at least 3 or 4 inches of white on the ground all around.

Now, I’m usually late for everything, but I knew that I needed to get to the airport in plenty of time to await the chaos that was probably unfolding at Nanjing’s mediocre airport - I was two hours early for my flight! So you can imagine my distress when the flight board read that my 4:00 flight to Guangzhou was canceled. Panicked, I went to the ticketing agent, who then eased my fears and put me on an “earlier” flight that had been delayed until 4:00 with all the snow delays... But the panicking and the waiting would not end just yet.

I learned early of the importance of allotting at least 3 hours between flights when dealing with international travel and rechecking in for connecting flights. So when my 4:00 flight didn’t take of until 6:30 you can imagine the stress pimples that were forming since my flight from Guangzhou was to leave for Bangkok at 8:30. Needless to say, I didn’t make it. Panicking (again), I ran to the counter frantically asking the woman what I should do. Her reply: “Go back to the China Southern desk and get a ticket back to Nanjing.” Oh no.

In hindsight, I regret the expletives that probably escaped my mouth as this woman was crushing my dream of going to Thailand and telling me to just “get a flight back to Nanjing.” Maybe it was the language barrier or maybe it was her lack of understanding of proper customer service but I knew she was not going to be useful in solving this problem.

In about five minutes, I had called down, drank some water, charged my phone that had run out of money (yet another source of my complete distress) and then was back into a collected “I’m going to solve this” mode. So I called the travel agency who booked the tickets. “All flights leaving Guangzhou to Bangkok for Thai Air are booked for tomorrow,” he said, “Saturday too.” After a few minutes with a surprisingly helpful agent, I gathered that my chances of getting to Thailand in the next few days were growing slim. It was Chinese New Year and everyone was heading to Thailand.

Alone in Guangzhou and unknowing of when I would get to Bangkok, I called my brother bawling into the phone. I was alone in a strange city where no one “in person” could or would help me solve the problem. As far as they were concerned it was my fault that I missed my connecting flight to Bangkok. After feeling a little more reassured (and being talked into not just going back to Nanjing as the woman had told me to do), I decided I would just see if my friends who I was meeting in Guangzhou to go to Bangkok had made the flight.

I called Lisa, an old friend from my Shanghai days who is still living here, and the phone rang! And after two or three rings she answered! And then I realized they missed the flight too (the weather in Shanghai was equally as bad)! I was not alone! I met up with Lisa and Heather at the airport’s McDonald’s, ate a much-needed hamburger and we plotted on how we were going to get to Thailand. We found a cheap hotel, called our travel agencies to ask more questions and then passed out from what had been an exhausting, stressful day. Only to await the next day - which would be another day of stress and waiting.