Touch down! Though the long flight had been fairly comfortable, since we both had three seats so we could stretch out, it was good to be on land. We scrambled off the plane and tried to follow the few signs we saw. The first order of business was to go through customs and then exchange our crisp new $100 dollar bills for Chinese currency. Now, if we could just find where to catch our next flight for the last leg of our journey, we would be all set!
Long hallways leading to and from various terminals shot off in all directions. The signs were poor at best. I know we looked completely lost. Our eyes darted back and forth as we tried to figure out where to go and what to do. A Chinese man dressed in what appeared to be an official airport employee uniform approached. No doubt he smelled fear oozing through our sweaty pores. He spoke to us in very broken, no, shattered, English. I’m sure in reality he was saying, “You look like a couple of suckers. Let me see your tickets and I can profit from this situation and, by the way, get you to your gate.” We gladly complied, the big X on our foreheads pulsating along with the beat of our hearts. He pushed his way forward, said some magic words to a Chinese airport employee, and led us to the front of the line. We quickly went through the crowd. As he left us at the gate, he held out his hand. How much should we tip? I had no idea. I wasn’t sure the value of the currency I had stuffed in my purse and pockets. I gave him what I thought might be a good tip and asked if it was enough. Only then did he grin and indicate that it was. Later we found out that we had given him the equivalent (plus some) of a month’s wages. Well, if it got us where we wanted to go, it was worth it. My imagination had already dreamed up several scenarios of us being lost in China amid myriads of people, horrible drivers, and not knowing what they were shouting at us.
I wouldn’t feel satisfied until we got off our next flight. We sat there a while anxiously waiting to hear an announcement to board our flight. There was no such announcement – at least in a language I understood. An airport agent approached an American couple seated several rows from us who was traveling to the same destination. The couple grabbed their bags, headed through the door and down the hallway. We sat there a few minutes more and then decided we had better follow.
Entering the corridor, we were consumed by a sea of people. I wondered if that was how cattle felt being pushed through a chute into a trailer to be hauled off to the slaughter. We slithered through the crowd until we got beside the American couple. They told us we had to take a bus to where our small plane waited on the tarmac. We packed like sardines onto the bus and quickly jumped off when we neared our plane. It was evident they were waiting – impatiently – I might add. The flight attendants looked really perturbed, but we made it on, to our seats, and squeezed in past the passenger who glared at us as he sat back down in the aisle seat next to us. Whew! That was an ordeal! Now, if we could just relax a bit before we landed in Chongqing!
It wasn’t long before a flight attendant came around to take our order for food. I had already looked at the menu online, so I quickly placed my order. My husband? That’s a different story. He tried to play 20 questions, asking her the various selections. On the first flight, we had Chinese food and he said he had already had enough, so he was very curious about the ingredients that were in whatever she was offering. She was already “put out” with us because we were late, so this didn’t help. I told him, “Just take something.” The guy sitting next to us was clearly not happy. He finally spoke to the attendant and basically said, “Don’t ask him what he wants, just give the guy something!” There may have been a few expletives inserted as well. She quickly handed him whatever she had in her hand. He may have eaten one bite.
We were sure glad when the flight was over. All we had to do was to find our son-in-law. When we walked out, there he was! “Now,” I thought, “I can relax.” We hopped in the taxi and off we went. Our son-in-law turned our direction and chatted away. I stiffened, clinched my teeth, and held on for dear life. You haven’t lived until you’ve ridden in China traffic in a taxi going supersonic speeds, horn volume on high, busses whizzing by within a half inch of you, on a four-lane road crammed with eight lanes of traffic, cars, buses, and motorcycles weaving in and out, none in a straight line. Getting through the airport to the next flight had been a breeze in comparison!
I wasn’t sure we would survive until the taxi came to a stop in front of our hotel. There to meet us was our daughter and our small granddaughter, our China Doll. When that little girl with big sparkling green eyes, blonde bouncy curls, and a sweet smile on her face ran and put her little arms around me and said, “Maga” (pronounced Mah Gah), I melted. The trip was already worth it!
