Email No. 9

-----Original Message-----
From: Motti Mor [mailto:motti_mor@yahoo.com]
Sent: Thursday, August 02, 2007 12:19 AM
Subject: Trip to China (part 5) - a night bus to another world and back...

Hi,
I'm writing again after a long time. Soon you'll understand why.

First of all I wanted to write about my experiences in Hong Kong but it was a long time ago so I'll have to write about it in another time. I just wanted to let you know about the feelings we had crossing the border from China to Hong Kong.

We arrived to Shenzhen which is the Chinese bordering city with Hong Kong after a long 13-hour ride and walked our way out of China. It was so interesting: as you cross the border, you feel like you’re entering another world, a different world, much brighter, newer and faster. After traveling through China, the Hong Kong trains look like they are straight out a science fiction movie. No smoking and spitting signs everywhere (whereas in China no one will tell you to stop, in Hong Kong you'll have to pay $200 (US) for smoking outside of the smoking area). You cross the border and in a matter of seconds you are in another world.

After our eight days in Hong Kong we started to miss the China feeling. (I will write more about it in my next e-mail) so we wanted to catch a flight to our last destination of the trip together before Arik went back home. We booked two air tickets on the 21:30 flight to Shanghai from the Shenzhen airport. We arrived at the airport as planned and went to the counter to pick up our tickets. Soon we realized that they canceled our reservation and now the flight is full. After a long and unsuccessful argument we went searching for tickets in the many ticket counters around the airport. Finally an hour before the flight we found someone that said she might have a ticket for us. So she was making phone calls for 25 minutes and every time I gave her an angry look, she said wait a minute. After 25 minutes when I said I'm going because I have a flight to catch, she looked at me like it was the first time she ever saw me and said, "Hi, how can I help you?" (I guess she couldn't find any tickets and just didn't want to admit it!)

We went to another ticket counter and they said a flight got delayed for two hours so we should come back at 23:00. “I promise I’ll have those tickets for you by then,” he said. So we went to KFC and waited for an hour and a half. At ten minutes to 11 we went back to the counter. We looked around us and realized that most of the counters were empty. Suddenly the air conditioning stopped, the lights went out, and as we looked around us, we saw that all the counters were empty. They closed the airport at 23:00 so I guess the person who told us to come back at 23:00 didn't have the energy for us and knew that when we would come back, he would be long gone. His counter was the first one to close. So at 23:00 the airport closed, and we had no ticket, no hotel, and no clue.

Right then we saw a light in the distance. (We’re saved, so I thought.) There was one counter that was still open so we ran over there and asked for a ticket for the morning flight. The man said, “No problem. I can do it but it will cost you double." We said, “Okay, anything, just give us the tickets.” He started to write in the computer and then we took out our credit cards (Visa and American Express). He looked at us and said, "What is that?" It didn't matter to him that his counter was full of Visa and MasterCard and American Express signs in all shapes and colors. He continued: "Sorry, I can't. I don't have a key." Before we could say anything, he closed his computer and ran away into the darkness.

We didn't know what to do anymore when all of a sudden the terminal B sign flashed in front of our eyes. So we took our stuff and ran in the dark all the way to the far terminal. From afar we could see another distant light. There was another guy there writing in his computer. As we got near the counter, he was astonished to see two foreign, bald, and sweating guys running towards him. As he stood up, I told him, “Don’t go!! Sell us a ticket to Shanghai for the morning flight, please. We have credit cards. We want to pay. Just let us pay!” “Okay, no problem,” he answered. “Why didn't you come sooner?" (Smart guy.)

After handing us our tickets, he closed the lights and went home and we waited for 8 hours with no air-conditioning on the bench at the closed and dark airport for our morning flight. The night at the airport is another story I'll have to tell you about later.

Shanghai is an amazing city. I've been here for 5 weeks now and every day I still see and discover new and amazing things about it. When you live in one place for a long time, it's harder to write about it because every day you have another experience from the same background. So I guess one can best write about a location only when he leaves it. I will have to write about it in my next email because there is so much to write about. I'll just say that the amount of people you see in the streets, bus terminals, malls and metro stations is really huge and can't be described in words.

I'm now leaving Shanghai and will continue on with my travels alone. I'll be going to Yunnan province which is bordering with Tibet, Burma, and Laos and located at the beginning of the Himalaya Mountains. I'll write from there. Thanks for waiting (and reading). On the road again...
Motti

HI FOLKS: Marge here. What a fascinating email from Motti. Thanks, Motti! I am loving your missives and I'm sure everyone else is, too. Looking forward to hearing from you again soon!!!