My Crazy Traveling Experience

This is Ryan with my update on my crazy travel day yesterday.  I am home now.  After little sleep over concern of Bo's low blood sugar, the day started innocently enough with Alison and I going over the fact that I would not need money for my travels to the Beijing Capital Airport (per our guide's instruction), but we both decided that I should have a bit of Yuan to take care of tips for the guide and driver, so I took $40 yuan (approx. $5.75 American) and had $35 American on me.  I also had a cell phone that had a dead battery as it was accidently turned on while in my bag at the beginning of the trip and was completely drained of batteries.  Once at the train station, which I knew was rather bustling based upon our train ride to Shijiazhuang, I followed each of my fellow passengers onto the platform and made my way to the expected waiting area.  No sign of my new guide in the area where people are holding up signs to meet with others, so I decided that they might be a bit late and waited in that area for about a 1/2 hour.  I then did a once over at a few of the passenger pick-up and drop-off points outside the station, and decided I should choose a particular spot and wait there for another 20 minutes, etc.  After I tried this at a few locations I attempted to communicate with the Information Desk to attempt to have my guide paged, and this failed miserably.  While at the desk I did find a very helpful man who was able to tell me that a taxi ride to the airport would run me approximately $300 Yuan/RMB (about $45 American), and I decided that my efforts to meet the guide were helpless at the 1 hr 45 min point.

I decided to make my way over to the ATMs to withdrawal enough money to catch a cab to the airport, only the ATMs were not accepting either of my two cards.

I tried the payphones outside the train station, but they would not accept credit cards and I did not want to spend 10 of my Yuan to buy a phone card from the vendor (besides, I did not have either my previous or new guide's cell phone numbers on me).

The ladies at the Information Desk pointed to the dozens of buses outside the train station when I mentioned the airport to them, so I made my way to the buses and tried to speak to the drivers and discern who was going to the airport.  I was unsuccessful with this.

Frustration began to gather more and more as I decided to wheel my luggage over the walkway to the hotels across the street and hope that I could find an English-speaking employee or an ATM that would work.  As I was wheeling my way just outside the hotel a cab driver came up to me and in broken-English asked if I needed a ride.  I pulled out the money that I had, 40 yuan and $35 American (in total about $41 bucks - a bit more than 275 Yuan/RMB) and explained to him that I would be willing to give that money to whoever could get me to the Capital Airport to catch my flight back to MeiGua (America).  The man shuffled me over to one of his buddies and we loaded my luggage into the trunk while 4 or 5 cab drivers stared at the American money with doubts of its' authenticity and its value in comparison to the RMB.  I grabbed a piece of paper and tried to illustrate for him that $1 dollar = $6.75 RMB, and I did the math for him to show him that the American money was worth approx.  $235 RMB.  After a bit of reluctance, the driver and I loaded into the cab and we headed to the airport.  

During this drive we made stops at every bus stop while the driver tried to find someone who could translate English and was familiar with American currency.  At the second or third bus stop we tracked down a twenties looking woman who jumped into the back of the cab and began to explain his doubts about my money that I gave him.  I suggested that he take me to a hotel where I could exchange the currency (but looking back I don't know how well that would have turned out for me).  What really threw him off was the fact that the one $10 bill that I had was in the newer format, while the other $10 bill was in the old style, so I had to point out that the years were different and that the money design changed.  He seemed OK with this explanation and the fact that looking at the currency in light shows the transparency of the money, and he offered me a cigarette as we moved along once again.  Looking at his fare meter, I believe it ran about $170 RMB, so the driver eventually made off with a sizable tip (if he could figure out how to unload the American money).

Every other part of the trip seemed to go swimmingly, as I was finally able to find a phone that would allow me to dial out to Alison and Josh in order to get word out that I made my way to the airport.

I arrived in NOLA a bit before 10pm, was picked up promptly and was home by just after 11pm to see the dogs.  Everyone/thing is one piece still and Boo even looks as if she gained a bit of weight during our trip.  I need to start taking bets on the amount of weight that Boo gains during Bo's first month in the states.

Ryan