Thailand 10 - China 0
The coup in Thailand may have been frowned upon by the international media but the Heywoods in Shanghai were delighted. Not for political reasons you understand, but because we had been desperately trying and failing to book tickets out of Shanghai for the October public holiday.
Our initial plan had been to go and stay with a childhood friend of Jamie's who has a house on Lantau in Hong Kong but his generous offer of hospitality had obviously not been cleared with his wife who was expecting not only a baby but her mother the weekend we had planned to visit and the offer was withdrawn a couple of days after we had booked our tickets.
I had sat in the travel agent for several hours trying to find an alternative. Strangely, the agents are very keen to make sure you pay a good price for your ticket. "What about Vietnam?" "Fully booked" "How about Thailand?" "Fully Booked". "How do you know it's fully booked?" "Fully booked, waiting list only." "Can you check?" "Yes, fully booked waiting list only." "What, every day during the week long holiday?" "Maybe not on October 1st." "OK then, October 1st is fine." "No, not fine, ticket too expensive!" "How much is it?" "Too expensive."
I had given up and we had resigned ourselves to an uneventful not to mention dull week in China when those thoughtful generals decided to stage a coup. We called the travel agent again and a couple of days later, had tickets to Phuket.
We found everything about Thailand charming. Somehow, when we first arrived in Bangkok, we were surprised that everyone raved about how nice the Thais were. It wasn't that they weren't nice, they were but it didn't really seem to impact on us. Coming from China, however, the continual smiling, the gracious gestures, the politeness, the soft tones of the language, were so striking that within minutes, we had acquired that slightly befuddled, gormless grin that tourists in Thailand so often sport.
We had four fantastic days in a hotel which we would have poured scorn on pre-kids but which managed to be both child friendly and tasteful - open aired and lush with tropical greenery. The food was great, the weather was mixed but we didn't care.
We landed back in Pudong airport and were greeted by the unsmiling customs officials (OK, I know they are not the best representatives of a people) but I quailed. As we cleared customs, two girls in blue uniforms intoned "Welcome to maglev. Welcome to maglev. Welcome to maglev" - maglev being the super high speed train which goes from the airport to nowhere in particular.
As I said to Jamie, we will look back on our time in Thailand with sighs of nostalgia and on our time in China, with wry smiles.
Our initial plan had been to go and stay with a childhood friend of Jamie's who has a house on Lantau in Hong Kong but his generous offer of hospitality had obviously not been cleared with his wife who was expecting not only a baby but her mother the weekend we had planned to visit and the offer was withdrawn a couple of days after we had booked our tickets.
I had sat in the travel agent for several hours trying to find an alternative. Strangely, the agents are very keen to make sure you pay a good price for your ticket. "What about Vietnam?" "Fully booked" "How about Thailand?" "Fully Booked". "How do you know it's fully booked?" "Fully booked, waiting list only." "Can you check?" "Yes, fully booked waiting list only." "What, every day during the week long holiday?" "Maybe not on October 1st." "OK then, October 1st is fine." "No, not fine, ticket too expensive!" "How much is it?" "Too expensive."
I had given up and we had resigned ourselves to an uneventful not to mention dull week in China when those thoughtful generals decided to stage a coup. We called the travel agent again and a couple of days later, had tickets to Phuket.
We found everything about Thailand charming. Somehow, when we first arrived in Bangkok, we were surprised that everyone raved about how nice the Thais were. It wasn't that they weren't nice, they were but it didn't really seem to impact on us. Coming from China, however, the continual smiling, the gracious gestures, the politeness, the soft tones of the language, were so striking that within minutes, we had acquired that slightly befuddled, gormless grin that tourists in Thailand so often sport.
We had four fantastic days in a hotel which we would have poured scorn on pre-kids but which managed to be both child friendly and tasteful - open aired and lush with tropical greenery. The food was great, the weather was mixed but we didn't care.
We landed back in Pudong airport and were greeted by the unsmiling customs officials (OK, I know they are not the best representatives of a people) but I quailed. As we cleared customs, two girls in blue uniforms intoned "Welcome to maglev. Welcome to maglev. Welcome to maglev" - maglev being the super high speed train which goes from the airport to nowhere in particular.
As I said to Jamie, we will look back on our time in Thailand with sighs of nostalgia and on our time in China, with wry smiles.
posted by The Heywoods at 3:45 pm
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