Off I went... I have to admit that I was a bit nervous about leaving the airport. I met some Canadians at Starbucks who thought I should go to the silk market. This sounded very cool indeed, and I was tempted... but it meant taking three different subway lines, and walking on my own in Beijing without directions and with no ability to speak Chinese. So... I stuck with the easier option. The subway came above ground shortly after leaving the airport and I had about fifteen minutes of scenery before being plunged into darkness again. The landscape that whizzed past my window was oddly familiar... it reminded me of my days in Kyrgyzstan. The stark, barren landscape dotted with wooden carts pulled by horses and Chinese farmers with their long beards, wool coats and hats brought me back to my time in Asia... I half expected the merchant at the subway exit to speak to me in Russian. But as I emerged from the Beijing subway station in the middle of the shopping district, I was hit with a wall of cold air. I looked up at the tall skyscrapers on all sides and looked for the "great shopping" that I had been told I would find. I spotted a shopping centre on the opposite side of the road, but saw no clear way to cross to the other side. It was then that I realized that here, like in Kyrgyzstan, the safest way to cross the street was to use the underground tunnel. I spent about an hour and a half wandering around the mall, looking for anything of interest... the reality is that the stores are always the same! Swatch, Zara, Nike, fancy handbags and shoes, jewelery... nothing that really interests me. I should have gone to the silk market. Ah well, too late by that point, so I headed back to the airport.
I found a spot to have some dinner, looking for something other than fast food. Then I went to line up at the ticketing agent, trying to be first in line for check-in. Even though it was still over an hour until the check-in would be open, I was not the first to arrive. There were several others in line, so I joined their ranks and pulled out my book. When the agents arrived and I stepped up to the counter, I was so relieved! The ticketing agent asked if I had any luggage to check, and I let her know that it had been checked through from Vancouver to Bangkok, and that I just needed a boarding pass. She asked for my confirmation number, which I promptly showed her. As she picked up her phone and began speaking to someone very quickly in Chinese, my heart began to race. I waited patiently for her to address me and, when she finally did, she asked if I had changed my reservation. I calmly explained the situation to her, telling her how I had originally been scheduled to take a connecting flight within China but had realized that I needed a visa to do so (which I didn't have) and so the Air Canada agent had kindly changed my ticket for me less than a week before (for a fee, of course). She looked up at me with sympathetic eyes and said, "I'm sorry, but the agent only rebooked the ticket. It was never reissued, so you don't actually have a ticket". I looked at her unbelieving and said that there must be something we could do about it. She apologized again, saying that there actually wasn't anything she could do. I immediately asked to speak to her supervisor who came over and quickly washed his hands of it, saying that it was an Air Canada issue and not theirs. He directed me to a counter several rows away where the Air Canada agents were checking in their passengers and said that I should go and speak to someone there.
As I walked away, dumbfounded, I felt the tears start to roll down my cheeks. I saw myself in China, more than twenty-four hours later, being arrested for not having a visa and being thrown into prison. Amazing how the worst case scenario always passes before my eyes! I tried to gather my wits together as I walked towards the Air Canada desk. When I got there, the line of people waiting to check in snaked around and I knew that I didn't have either the time or the energy to deal with that, so I marched up to the nearest agent and told them I had an emergency situation that needed their immediate attention. My tears must have given them quite a scare, because they ushered me through, past the line-up, and brought me straight to the counter. I blurted out my predicament, as best as I could between sobs, and the man had pity on me. He explained that there was nothing he himself could do, but that it was an issue for Aeroplan Canada and he would try to contact them immediately. He picked up his phone and dialed, passing the receiver to me. I listened as a woman's voice told me the hours of operation, asking me to call back during regular office hours. I tried to reason with him, explaining that I was stranded in China without a visa, crying harder and harder as I tried to get his help. He apologized that there was nothing he could do, unless I wanted to buy another ticket. Buy another ticket? Perfect! I looked up with hope in my eyes and said that would be perfect, knowing that I had a good case for Aeroplan to reimburse me when I got back to Canada. I would have to buy the ticket from Thai Airways, he explained, and so I headed back to the Thai Airways desk with a small glimmer of hope in my soul.
Thai Airways confirmed that there was still availability on their flight, and that they could get my baggage on the flight with no problem at all. It wasn't cheap, though, and I wanted to be sure that this was the right move. So... I went over to the phone to try and use my credit card to phone Matt in the middle of the night back home in Pender Harbour. To my credit, I did cringe while dialing, knowing that I would be waking him from a deep sleep, and that he wouldn't be able to get back to sleep for worrying about me all alone in China (or at least I hoped he would be worrying!)... but the credit card wouldn't work anyway. So, I carried the laptop to a free WiFi zone in the airport, after entering my passport details for the Chinese government to be granted permission to USE the "free" WiFi, and I attempted to open Skype. Of course not. Forbidden application, apparently. I was beginning to panic. Back I went to the Thai Airways desk, having decided to complete the transaction. I handed over my credit card, and the look on the agents face said it all. "Oh, I'm sorry, but our machines don't accept chip cards. Do you have cash?" I couldn't believe my bad luck! I pulled out my Mastercard, but it is also a chip card. I only had about one hundred USD in cash, so that wouldn't do... so I went over to the bank machine to withdraw cash. Nope. Of course not. No way CIBC was going to cooperate in my moment of crisis. The tears started to pour down my cheeks again, and I went back to the counter to see if there was ANYthing they might be able to do for me.
By this time, one of the agents actually took pity on me. She came out from behind the counter and asked me to come with her, telling me she had a plan to help me. She told me that Air China had a flight to Bangkok and that they were able to accept chip cards, if she wasn't mistaken. She led me to the Air China counter and, sure enough, they would be able to accept my credit card. They also had space on their flight, leaving at almost the same time, and were willing to sell me the ticket. The good news was that their ticket was cheaper, but the bad news was that I would now have to find my luggage and recheck it in the little time I had before the flight was scheduled to depart. I realized that I would need to do this before paying for the ticket. I had about an hour... I was now hyperventilating with worry. Picture a tall, white foreigner in the middle of a Chinese airport sliding to the group in front of the check-in counter to pull out her inhaler and deal with a stress-induced asthma attack. Yes folks, I was stressing out. A couple puffs on the inhaler helped me back onto my feet and off I went to the baggage claims area, friendly Thai Airways woman at my side to explain my predicament to the agent downstairs. The two women exchanged dialogue and then the agent made a phone call and came back with good news. My bag had been located and they would be sending it up shortly. The woman from Thai Airways told me not to worry and said that she should get back upstairs.
She was the first person to show kindness to me that day and so, despite the obvious taboo involved, I leaned down and embraced her. I pulled away and apologized, saying that this was how I would say thank-you to someone in Canada who had been as kind as she had been to me. A shy smile crept across her face, and she turned and left me there.
As the minutes ticked by, my stress level began to rise once again. I was under a deadline, and I still hadn't spoken with Matthew to tell him what was going on. The tears started to fall again. This time the other woman asked if there was anything she could do to help. I told her that I would feel so much better if I could just speak with my husband back home in Canada. I told her about the various roadblocks to speaking with him and she offered for me to use her line. I was so relieved! I told her the number and soon heard his groggy voice on the other end of the line. He was indeed awoken from a deep sleep, but he quickly sobered up when I explained what had happened. He tried to calm me down and assured me that he would be on the phone to Aeroplan to try and sort things out as soon as their office opened the next day. When we got back to the baggage claims office, my bag had arrived. I hugged this small woman as well (hey, why not?) and quickly headed back up the stairs to the Air China desk to purchase my ticket, check in, make my way through customs, find my gate and board the plane. I made it just in time.
As I settled into my tight little economy class seat, I could feel the stress moving from my lungs into my sinuses. That, combined with the recirculated air on the six hour flight to Bangkok gave me a wicked sinus infection as a sort of "welcome to Thailand" present. Fantastic. Nothing a little antibiotics won't fix though. I arrived in the middle of the night at Olivia and Jean Noel's house and crawled into bed. The next morning, Olivia and I wandered around town a bit, got our nails done, and I tried to think happy thoughts to get rid of my sinus headache, but it was to no avail. I caught a taxi to the nearest clinic and was in and out of there in record time (half an hour if you can believe it) with an army of medications in my hands to fight my infection. Just in time for me to hit the sack again and prepare myself for the full day of interviews that I would have the next day.
The story only gets better from here (how can it get any worse, right?), and I am happy to say that I somehow pulled through. I managed to make a good impression on the school I was most interested in and signed a contract with them on the morning of the second day of the job fair. I am fairly certain that I bombed the other interviews. There was one moment when I was asked a question and I literally looked the woman in the eye and said, "I'm sorry. Could you repeat the question?". I'm fairly certain she put a big black X on her paper. But, with a contract in my hands, I had two days to explore Bangkok. I was still concerned about the congestion in my sinuses, but I was trying not to worry too much about the journey home. My dear friend Olivia and I explored Bangkok, heading to parts of the town she had not yet seen, visiting the lucky Buddha, eating delicious Thai ice cream, walking through the zoo, and getting a bit of a sunburn while doing so. It was a perfectly delicious time, and I was so grateful to unwind after the stress of it all.
The question that remains is... was it worth it? Absolutely. Hindsight is always 20/20, or so they say. Matt and I have both signed contracts in the same country for the upcoming school year in Tanzania. We are excited about the prospect of living in Africa with Emily and Zachary and are looking forward to a new adventure as a family. I guess the saying holds true for this situation: What doesn't kill you will make you stronger. It will most certainly make me triple check my plane tickets, especially when transiting through unknown lands.
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