Today is the day we leave China, for the second time & enter our 3rd country - Nepal!
Our alarm went off at 7am, but we were both already awake, thinking & planning the day ahead. I still get a little bit anxious about crossing borders.
We eat breakfast, pack our bags & then listen to music while I finish off a couple more of the blog posts from Mongolia.
Our accommodation airport transfer arrives at 11.30am & we drive to Terminal 2. The Beijing airport is overwhelmingly huge. Regardless, we easily find our departure counter for the airline carrier, but are redirected to another counter that can check us in for both flights & check our baggage all the way through to Nepal. At the counter we are questioned about a Visa for Nepal & there is some reluctance for them to issue our tickets. We are quite frustrated & blunt with the lady. We can easily & it is recommended to apply for a Nepal Visa on arrival. She also wants to see our flight leaving Nepal, which we don't have because we are planning a land border crossing between Nepal & India. We explain we have a flight from India into Egypt & that we are leaving Nepal within 30 days. She wants to see our Nepal itinerary, we give her our big copy that contains our rough plans for the whole year. She remains unconvinced & there are a few tense moments.
She doesn't seem to believe us that we can apply for a Visa on arrival & that we don't need an exit flight, as is the case with China. We are then asked to step aside & she serves the people behind us. After a few more minutes she approaches us with a form to sign basically stating we will be applying for a Visa on arrival. We assume the form is a waiver for the Chinese airline in case our Visa is denied, they are not responsible for our immediate departure. The form is a mess of English & Chinese, it really doesn't seem legitimate, but we sign it & are finally given our tickets. It feels like everything in China is so difficult & they require & expect more than they are entitled or that is necessary. It's not the first time we have been questioned & asked for more documentation that isn't necessary.
With tickets in hand we go through the most intense security we have encountered in China. They empty our neatly packed carry on bags & are very articulate in examining our electronics & sending everything through the xray machine multiple times. We are also both patted down & have to remove multiple items of clothing & jewellery.
Finally, we are free of the check in & security procedures & can grab a coffee while waiting at our boarding gate.
We board our plane at 1.45pm & are informed of a delay before take off. Thankfully there is a few hours between flights & the same airline is taking us on our international flight, so the delay shouldn't impact us. We eventually start to feel the plane moving at 3.35pm, though it only moves to another section on the ground. The airport & the take off/landing strip is covered in pollution haze, visibility is at an all time low. The wheels of the plane finally leave the runway just after 4pm. We have definitely missed our international check in time for the next flight to Kathmandu. Hopefully because it's the same airline carrier, the connecting flight will be delayed or another ticket will be reissued for another plane, if not, that's what we have insurance for. I'm very proud with how Tom & I are able to accept these things now & just make our own adjustments. Both of us acknowledged the planes delay but are not stressed about it. Travel has taught us to anticipate the unexpected & that there's no point worrying about something if you can't do something to change it. Once in the air we are given free drink refreshments, Tom orders coffee & of course the free aeroplane coffee is better than the expensive one we paid for on the ground. We are pleasantly surprised to receive rather large meals on the flight & a refill of our drinks. We didn't expect any food as it's only a domestic flight, but are glad for it. Our plan was to buy food between the connecting flights at Guangzhou, which we probably wouldn't have been able to do because of the delays.
We arrive at Guangzhou at 6.55pm, our international flight starts boarding at 7.30pm. The peacefulness & acceptance of the situation slowly vanishes as we leave the aircraft and start running. At the end of the corridor a Chinese lady with a notice board confirms that we are on a connecting flight & running late. She slaps a big green circle sticker on us & tells us go directly to the transfer desk down the hallway. We run to the transfer desk & are directed to a queue of people waiting to be taken from the domestic terminals to the international terminals. We all load into a small electronic transport vehicle that took us through the airport. We then rush through customs & immigration at the time our plane is meant to be boarding. We can see several other sweaty, stressed people with green stickers rushing through as well. We finally arrive at the gate, to see it's not even started boarding yet. We have about 15 minutes to catch our breathe & exchange some CYN to USD at a currency exchange close by, before boarding. It's about a 4 hour flight & we are seated in the first row of economy directly behind business & first class with a Nepalise born American. We spend the first hour of our flight chatting to the American passenger sitting next to us before dinner is served. After dinner, we settle in to try and sleep. We arrive at 1am, Beijing time, which is 11pm Nepal time, feeling quite tired.
Going through the Nepal customs, immigration & getting our Visa was very easy. We didn't have to supply anything to get our Nepal Visa, they are very welcoming & happy to have tourists. The immigration & Visa officer's were chatty & smiling, something we haven't encountered yet. Something that makes the memory of China trying to withhold our plane ticket even more bitter.
Once we are free of customs with our bags, we walk towards the exit to organize a pre-paid taxi to our accommodation. We meet a very friendly man called Amrit who organizes our taxi, asks us about our accommodation & is bursting at the seams with advice and recommendations for us. Our taxi costs $6 USD, a bit steep, we literally drive less than a kilometer to our hotel. We booked our accommodation through an airline service at the same time we booked our Nepal flight, which we did in Australia. We were slightly concerned about our reservation, we had been struggling to get in touch with them & the airline booking website were not overly helpful. There was always the chance we wouldn't have accommodation here, despite paying at the time of booking. Thankfully it all worked out! Though they did try to get a second payment out of us, which Tom firmly refused.
It was just after midnight when we crawled into bed & fell asleep! What a day, travelling & changing time zones, still takes it out of us.
- Alli
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