Guilin or Bust – Busted

Our first domestic vacation in China started out way too early and entirely on the wrong foot.

Originally I had thought that I was booking the flights for 7:30 in the evening on Friday but it turned out they were for 7:30 am. When I realized this on Tuesday this started a series of time compressions as I had to rearrange my Friday schedule and rush to get everything done in time;  things weren’t leading up to our travel day well.  Friday was demo day in Seattle and I had a lot to get ready for it. Demo day is a chance for a developer to demonstrate they work they’ve completed in the past month.  I’ve been filming the developers here in China talking about their projects and then editing them together and uploading them for Seattle to view.  This is not typically that big of a deal but it does take a couple of hours to complete.  My last demo day editing experience was my first time editing on a Mac (my wife’s since our PC still was in transit from the US) and was interrupted by a trip to the “ER” with my wife for a Migraine; I was hoping this time would be smoother. The fact that I had to finish the night before we departed when I also had pack wasn’t too bad but then my iPhone ended up dying on me!  The battery went flaming hot for the past two days and the entire day Thursday it wouldn’t charge past 2%.

I sent a “Help” email to the GM of the Apple Store in Beijing who I’d been introduced to by Robert (a gentleman that works for the agency who provided our driver) and rushed home.  Robert called the GM’s home and his wife said he was flying to the states but to go down to the store and she gave him the name of the managers to ask for.  I hoped in a cab and rode down to Sanlitun to The Village where the Apple Store is located and at the front door asked for the manager.  The employee quickly grabbed the guy in charge and he pulled the serial number and immediately went to swap out my iPhone.  My experience with the service at the Beijing Apple Store has been phenomenal.  After completing the switch I started back home riding in one of this enclosed little tut-tut motorcycle cabs. We’d settled on 20 rmb before leaving, which was double the price of a normal taxi but I didn’t see any around and didn’t feel like waiting.  I should have waited. The motor-cabs are slow. I’d told him I lived near Chao Yang Park (think big like Central Park in NYC) and as soon as he saw the park he kept asking me how much further.  When we finally arrived at our apartment complex he complained how far it was and when I gave him a 20 rmb note he asked me for 50. I refused telling him we’d agreed on 20 and that not only was his cab slower but it was more expensive.  He asked for 30 rmb and I just shook my head and walked off to our building.

Arriving home I re-synched my iPhone and started editing the demo video; I finished around 11 and then started finishing my packing and all the extra stuff that had to be thrown together : charge cords for the various electrical devices, camera gear, tripod, running clothes etc.  I finished up around midnight and crawled into bed, not looking forward to the 5 am alarm and our 5:45 am departure.  The klaxon alarm woke me up and everyone rushed around to get ready and out the door.  Mr. Wang drove us to Terminal 3 and we went inside to check in for our Air China flight to Guilin.  We waited in line and were at the counter in a few minutes.  The attendant who spoke a little English told me that my kids tickets were open but that Stac’s and ours was closed.   I had booked them on Ctrip, it was easy and quick.  I had sent them an email asking for any special details required for flights inside China but I never heard anything back.  A coworker said I should print out our flight confirmations, just like we do in the States, and that should be sufficient.  The site confirmed they were purchased and I’d already seen the charge show up on our statement, but something was wrong.  I dialed the phone number from their website and pressed two for the English service.  “English is not available until 7am”.

Uggh…  The attendant had called over another airline representative, you know those ones that stand in front of the check in counters and help people.  I asked if she would help me and I dialed C-trip and handed her the phone. The time was 6:37 am, the counter closed at 7 and our flight was to depart at 7:30.  She spoke with someone for several minutes and then said it would be ok and please wait 5 minutes.  I stood to the side of the counter while everyone else checked in; five minutes later I asked the attendant to check.  Stac and I’s tickets were still closed.  Another 5 minutes passed, still closed.  I called C-trip back, it was still too early for English so I got an Chinese speaking agent on the phone and handed it to the airline attendant.  He talked with them for a minute or two, raised his voice at them and then hung up.  He said 5 more minutes. After three more “5 more minutes” and two more phone calls with the airline attendant trying to talk to C-trip on the phone and check people in he finally hung up the phone in disgust and handed it back to me.  At 7:15 he told me that I would have to buy tickets for the next flight and he pointed me to the ticket counter adjacent.

C-Trip called me back and started rapid fire Chinese.  I told her that she was speaking too fast and I didn’t understand.  Rapid fire Chinese continued.  By now I was a little upset to say the least so I just started speaking to her really fast in English.  We got someone in English on Stacey’s phone and I asked them if they could fix the problem. She said her supervisor wasn’t there right now and so I said take care of it ourselves and I wanted her to refund my money.  We went up the counter to enquire about tickets. The next flight was 8:30 am, but it was in Terminal 1, we were in Terminal 3.  It was 7:30.  The ticket agent went through the process of purchasing tickets, which seemed awfully slow given we were in a hurry, but she had to input our passport numbers manually for each ticket.  She told me there was only first class tickets available for the adults, which were only about 500 rmb more expensive than our original tickets.  So I said yes, I just wanted to get underway. Finally at 7:40 we had our tickets in hand and we went in search of a taxi, we didn’t have enough time to wait for the shuttle bus.

We waited in the taxi line agonizingly watching the minutes slip by.  At 7:50 we got in our taxi. I could tell he wasn’t happy that he had waited in line all that time and now was going to get a cheap fare to the next terminal. I told him don’t worry I’ll pay you.  The terminals were quite some distance apart and we didn’t arrive until 8:03 am.  The meter read 12 rmb but I gave him a 50 for his trouble.  We butted at the front of the line; apologized and checked out one bag.  Even though they’d told us first class we all ended up with economy seats at the rear of the plane.  Every seat was in a different row, no one would be sitting together but at least the kids wouldn’t fight. We made it through the security and to the gate by 8:15.  We boarded at 8:20 and then sat on the runway for 30 minutes.  Finally at 8:50 we were in the air.  Let the vacation begin.  Hopefully things get better. 😉

[Since arriving in Gulin Ctrip has called me back and to their credit they paid the cancellation fee for the flight we didn’t take and they gave me credit in their system for the difference paid for the flight]