Day 16
We woke up crazy early today (5:45am!) and quickly threw the last few things into our bags and headed down for breakfast. We actually had plenty of time to eat and we left for the airport at 7am with a van & driver Shiyan had lined up for us. Sadly, I am still only wearing a contact in one eye, but it is definitely helping!
We checked in at the airport and went to the business lounge for about an hour. Poppy enjoyed this quite a bit because she was able to eat some more noodles (she can never seem to get enough!).
We boarded on time, but our flight ended up being delayed. We just sat on the plane for an extra 30-45 minutes before finally taking off. This was bad news for us because we only had 1 hour to get on our connecting flight to Beijing... which we clearly weren’t going to make. We were told they might hold the plane, but to check with their “on-ground personnel” to find out for sure what we were to do.
When we got off the plane, there was a woman holding a sign with our names on it- she said we would not make it for our next flight and they had already changed us to a later one that day. We traded boarding passes (questionable) and then headed off toward the terminal with all connecting flights... which in Hong Kong apparently means we get to go through security again- really?!?? Our new boarding passes didn’t specify the exact gate, so we checked the boards and saw that our initial flight had also been delayed... there was a chance we could still make it! So, we busted our rears for what felt like a few miles through this eternal airport and saw them “now boarding”!!! We were thrilled! We explained what happened and were told... sorry, no dice... they cannot change the passenger list this late. I said, hold on here- we just got these new tickets only 10 minutes ago and we want our old ones back! We want on the plane we had booked!! And the result this time? She would check... and she found someone else who would say “no” with more authority. It turns out I like hearing that word about as much as my children do, and so I was ready to have a “little talk” with these people. So that’s when Andy said “no”... what?!! Not him too!! He reminded me that the airline had given us each a sizable food voucher and the next flight was boarding in about an hour and a half... there really wasn’t a reason to fight. Except that I could see our plane right there - that I had booked for us - and I didn’t want to be just killing time in an airport (with a 2-yr-old) when we could be on our way to our hotel now. Not to mention the fact that it was their personnel which robbed me of my chances of boarding when she “traded” with us. For me, it was a matter of principle. For Andy, it was nothing to make a big deal about and he just wanted to calmly move on. And sometimes I need a little nudge in that direction :) Thankfully, I know our flight time really isn’t important right now. We’ve got nothing to do (except bathing/bandaging, eating & sleeping) until 10am tomorrow morning when we take off for HOME!!!!!!!!!!! THAT is the flight we CAN’T miss! So, we kindly walked away and found some lunch.
We finally landed in Beijing after 6pm and quickly grabbed the hotel shuttle bus (back) to the Crowne Plaza. It was really nice staying at the same hotel so we didn’t have to learn anything new for these few hours!
Poppy had her bath while we yet again watched/listened to a favorite movie... this time it was the BBC’s Pride & Prejudice... yes, the 6-hour one... though we only got a few hours into it before we had to call it quits and turn out the lights :) For some reason, the hotel had given us 2 complimentary drink cards. So, after Poppy was sleeping, Andy went down and got some mixed drinks for us to enjoy while we continued watching P&P. He had a pina colada & I ordered a mimosa (which is supposed to be orange juice and champagne, but apparently they didn’t have any champagne so it was mixed with white wine instead- very interesting). I slept really good that night :)
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