I had jokingly said to Ruhi that with my luck I would probably get to Hefei (合肥) just to find myself delayed overnight by the weather again.  Ironically it almost came true.

Workers at a Xi'an Airport cafe waiting for customers

My plan was to take a morning train from Fuyang to Hefei (3 hours), get my plane ticket at the e-Long office, and then catch my 5:20 flight at the airport, arriving in Xi’an around 7:00, and hopefully home in time to get some dinner and enjoy a bit of rest at home.

And it started out okay too.  I woke up around 7:00, cleaned up, packed my things (yay for being a light packer!), and then got a quick bite at the hotel’s free breakfast buffet (nothing to write home about) before checking out and catching a cab to the train station.

It looked like there had been a fresh coat of snow on the ground from the night before.  But the snow wasn’t falling very heavy, even though it was overcast.  And the snow was pretty minimal so I didn’t think too much of it.

At the train station I waited a few minutes before they let us on.  (I don’t really understand the huge rushing of people to get on the train, considering that all the seats are pre-assigned.  It isn’t like someone will swipe your seat, right?  Maybe it is for the overhead packing space …)

I know why they call them hard seats (硬座) now.  They are no gift to the lower back, that is for sure.  I spent a fair amount of time playing my Nintendo DS and thanked my lucky stars that I brought it along with me for some entertainment.  Thank you Mario Brothers!

Sidewalk eating in Shenzhen

I noticed as we were traveling that the snow level outside was getting  a bit deeper.  ”How come the farther south we travel, the thicker the snow?” I asked Ruhi rhetorically through SMS.  By the time we arrived in Hefei around 1:00 PM it was snowing pretty steadily.

I grabbed a taxi and gave them the address (intersection) of the ticket office where e-Long has their pick-ups.  It actually took me a lot of walking around to find the place.  If you didn’t know where it was, you wouldn’t know where it was.  And that was the case for me.  It was purely by accident when I got there and they handed me my ticket.  I had actually asked the person at the counter what their address was (bad labeling on the buildings) and the lady next to her handed me my ticket.

Getting a taxi from there to the airport took another 30 minutes, but I still managed to arrived about an hour before the scheduled check-in time for my flight.  The guy told me to come back at 3:50.  So I had a sandwich and drink at the airport restaurant.

3:50 rolls around and the ticket counter has plenty of customers but nothing is happening.  4:00 .. 4:20 … By 4:30 we’ve been told that the flight hasn’t left the city of origin on its way to Hefei due to weather conditions.  Once they know if there is going to be a plane or not, we will know if we are flying out or not.

I got on the phone and ASKED Ruhi to  help me book a hotel in Hefei for the night. Just in case.

Bill sticks his tongue out at the horrible tang su li ji

But as soon as I hung up the phone with her there was a flurry of activity and it turned out the plane was cleared to come to Hefei.  I stood in line and got my boarding pass.  Seat 20A on Tianjin Airlines.  My first time to fly with them.

Now, getting your boarding pass just means you have a seat assignment.  But until the plane actually shows up, who knows if you will actually get to where you are going.  We sat in the gate area for a long time waiting.

5:30 … 6:00 … 7:00 … 8:00 … 9:00 … And the same announcement over the intercom.  ”Your flight has been delayed due to weather conditions.  Thank you for your patience”.

And all the while other flights were dropping like flies.  ”Flight MU3948 to Beijing has been cancelled .. Flight CZ2349 to Tianjin has been cancelled … ” It was like waiting for the worst lottery ever …

At 9:45 we were suddenly told that we could board the plane.  We could board?  I didn’t even know it had arrived!

We scrambled to the bus which took us out to the tarmac and on to the plane.  It turned out there were only about 30 passengers on the flight, which means everyone had some nice room to relax.  I spent the time studying my Chinese flash cards and playing my Nintendo DS.  Oh .. and a bit of sudoku during take-off and landing …

My hotel room in Fuyang, Anhui

Now, this whole time I hadn’t told Ruhi that I had gotten on the plane.  Part of me, I admit, was scared that as soon as I said “I”m coming!” they would announce that the plane had a case of the measels, or it had colided with Santa Claus, or that gnomes had hijacked the airport and we were all going to be auctioned off as slaves in an underworld blackmarket operation.

The other part of me wanted to surprise her.  She was expecting me to possibly not be showing up at all that night. Especially considering how late it was.  Before we got on the plane I said that I was turning my phone off to conserve battery and that I would call her back when I got more information.

Then, after we landed in Xi’an, I called her again and told her that the airline was going to put us up in a hotel for the night and asked her to cancel the other reservation she had made for me.  (That could have been a signal right there, since airlines in China don’t really do that unless you are flying international and missing a conneciton, especially not Tianjin Airline on a 2 hour domestic route.)

I walked pretty much straight from the airplane, through the airport, and in to a taxi which drove me the 150 RMB (about $22) trip home (!!!!).  That might be cheap in the U.S. for 45 minutes in a cab, but here it feels pretty pricey.  As I was entering our building and going up the elevator I tried to call her but didn’t get through.  But she called me back and as I got off the elevator I said “Oh, hold on … I need to use the restroom.  I’ll call you back.”

Then I came in the front door and said “Excuse me.  I’m looking for a restroom?”

She was pretty surprised. ;-P

Train-side snow on the way from Fuyang to Hefei

And I was pretty tired.  Still a tickle in my throat, but for the most part none too worse for wear.  What was originally supposed to be a 2 day trip to Hong Kong ended up including a week in Anhui, a brush with the swine flu and the storm of the century.

The best part of the trip was that I pack well so I was prepared for what happened.  I had warm enough clothes, I had the ability to get food and lodging, and I even had flu medicine in my emergency travel kit (never leave home without it!).

Of course, the worst part of the trip was missing a week of wushu, being stuck in the middle of no-where (no offense Fuyang fans), and being the sickest I’ve been in a few years.  But these things happen and it isn’t anything that you can control.  Sometimes you just have to take things as they come and make the best of the situation.

Especially living in China.  Where you never know what is going to happen.

Related posts:

1. My F13 H1N1 … Ennoi in Anhui
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So, I arrived at the hotel, soaked in a tub and got on line to check my huge back-log of e-mails. While sitting there I noticed that my throat was feeling a little raw. At first I had attributed that to the fact I had been sitting in a train compartment with two smokers for the past 10 hours, but when my head started to feel that familiar fever tingle I knew something more serious was up.

Let me back up a little bit so that you have the full picture.

I kinda look sick here too ...

From the time I was a little kid (basically as early as I can remember) until I was 12 years old, I would get a monthly run-in with the flu.  Monthly.  As in, at least 12 times a year.  And not just a little flu.  These suckers would be in the 103 – 105 temperature range.  It was soak-your-kid-in-a-tub-of-cold-water-and-ice season in my home.

It turned out that it was due to a problem with my tonsils and when I had them removed in the 4th grade, the problem went away.  However, the one thing that it taught me was to be extremely sensitive to the physical signs of fever.  I get a very specific type of sensation in my head when I have a fever.  I never get it any other time and I’ve never had a fever without having that head tingling.

Its like those years and years of having my my head cooked from the inside out on a monthly basis gave me super powers.

Well, one super power.

The super power to tell when I’m sick with the flu.

Basically a really lame Spidey Sense.

And so, when I felt it come on around midnight as I sat in front of my computer I knew it was time to rest.  I crawled in to bed, but it had already started to work.  This sucker was QUICK.  Within an hour or two I was already in the shivering and sweating stage of sickness.  It laid me OUT.

Over the next 24 hours I would wander in and out of consciousness, trying to get as much sleep as humanly possible.  Whenever I woke up I would drink a bunch of water and swallow some homeopathic flu medicine that I carry with me in my emergency travel pouch (I was born to travel).  I had some melatonin with me which helps promote sleep and I pretty much spent most of the next day in bed.

Ruhi on the other hand was scrambling around our home like a mad woman.  She had e-mails out, travel contingencies worked out, calls to so-and-so, and had even contacted a friend in the town of Hefei, which is about 100 miles south of Fuyang.  He called me to offer his help, but to be honest, I could barely focus on any conversations I was having on the phone.  I could barely keep my dreams and reality straight.

It was a little surreal.

Worst. Surgical. Mask. Ever.

I knew from taking an 15 second online multiple-choice test (which is obiviously MUCH better than seeing an actual doctor) that I probably had the dreaded H1N1 virus.  The other possiblity was that I might have this flu that kids in China get.  When foreigners come and stay in China for a while they end up catching it and it really does a number on them (Ruhi had it a few years back herself), but I had all of the H1N1 symptoms and I knew how contageous it was so I didn’t want to get anyone else sick.

Besides, China can be a bit paranoid.  You can’t go around telling people you have H1N1 unless you want a quick trip to a quaranteen bunker somewhere.

Well, okay.  I’m exaggerating. But I knew from my extensive experience with a variety of flu’s that this wasn’t the worst one I’ve ever had and that, as the day progressed, it was getting slowly better.  Had it not improved at all by the late afternoon I would have asked the hotel to send a doctor up.

Fortunately, that was not the case and by the time the evening rolled around and I was rolling out of bed, I was able to put on a few layers and head across the street to pick up some of those stylish Chinese surgical masks and a bunch of fruit to cleanse out my system.

By the time 24 hours had passed I was feeling much better, although still not nearly 100%.  More like 50%.  But I was down to around 20% earlier so that was an improvement.  I crashed again for the night waking up periodically.

I’ll be honest with you.  Most of Friday and Saturday is a blur to me.  I remember bits and pieces of it, but it is like a dream that you are trying to remember but can’t quite get back to.  I remember talking to the hotel staff about stuff on the phone.  I even remember going go buy the fruit and extending my hotel stay by another day.  But I can’t remember on which day I did which thing.

But either way, by Saturday night I was feeling almost human again.  Unfortunately since I had pretty much slept for most of the previous 48 hours I was not the least bit tired.  So I just stayed up and puttered around, doing a few things online, writing a blog or two, but mainly just trying to keep my sick self relatively immobile.

I'm keeping my hot side hot

I got a few more hours of sleep in the early morning hours, but couldn’t take on much more than that.  I’m going to listen to my body on this one.  When it is tired, I’m going to sleep.  When it wants to move around, I will move around.  When it wants a McDLT I’m going to hop in my flying Delorean and see if I can find the beef.

In the land of the sick, the body is king, and I am its humble servant.

But aside from this battling with the flu, my first time in Anhui has been rather boring.  You don’t get much of a sense of things sitting in a hotel room all day long.  I can’t really be online for toooo long or else my head gets a case o’ the vapors.  So I putter around my room, read a book or two, meditate a bit, study my chinese flash cards, write up plans in my plan-writing notebook, set some wushu videos to upload, and maybe watch some Daily Show when I feel like it.

Due to the snow issues and travel problems I had to figure out a different way to get home.  With Ruhi’s suggestion, I booked a ticket out of Hefei to Xi’an for Monday evening.  I’m going to stay in Fuyang until Monday morning when I will catch a 3 hour train (hard seat, I’m afraid, but I can deal with that for 3 hours) and then pick up my ticket in downtown Hefei.  Then after a 2 hour flight I’m home-sweet-home again.  Yay!

But the real question is, will things actually work out the way they are planned?  So far planning has been the best way to make sure that I have no idea what is going to happen, so there is a good chance weird things might happen again.  You will just have to stay tuned to find out…

One thing is for sure though … This is one Friday the 13th I will not soon forget.

Except … y’know … for the parts I can’t remember ….

Related posts:

1. Planes, Trains and Automobiles: Anhui | 飞机,火车和汽车: 安徽
2. Be Careful What You Wish For …

Not for the friendships I made there, which were quite wonderful and heartfelt.

Nor for the experience it provided me with social networking and alivenotdead.com.

Not even for being the place where I picked up my limited Cantonese, learned how to jog, began to appreciate traditional kung fu, or discovered an affinity for herbal tinctures and naturopathic medicine.

Hong Kong has a special place in my heart for one major reason: The HEAT.

Before living in Hong Kong, I had never been around so much heat and humidity for longer than a summer at a time, maybe 5 months, max while in Shanghai.  But in Hong Kong?  Even the winters are warm and the summers are downright ridiculous.

It wasn’t until my second year in Hong Kong that I began to acclimate to the heat (even given my increased natural insulation), and when I visited Beijing the summer after leaving Hong Kong I was amazed at how much less “muggy” and “hot” northern China felt to me than in previous years.

However, all that seems to have changed, and my exposure to the winters of Eastern Idaho and the initial cold fronts (albeit rather tame ones) in Xi’an have made my body forget exactly what it means to be truly, uncomfortably hot and sweaty.

So, when I came to Hong Kong to get my visa renewed, I was struck at just how hot and muggy it still was, in November, of all months.  Beijing had already received a light snow a week or two before, but here in Hong Kong people were walking around with flip flops and shorts.

The plan, however was pretty simple.  Stay 2 days in Hong Kong, grab the last suitcase of things from Jack’s place, and take a train back to Xi’an, arriving in time to get to Friday’s wushu class with the Shaanxi Wushu Team.

And as much as I enjoyed my time in Hong Kong, seeing good friends, including the boys at alivenotdead, I wasn’t terribly sad to be heading back up north.  If for no other reason than to be heading to cooler climes and lower temperatures.

Now this starts to fall in to the “be careful what you wish for” category of stories, because it went from hot to freezing (Not to mention feverish), literally over night.

From Shenzhen, just across the border from Hong Kong, I grabbed a train that would take me the 34 hours up to Xi’an.  I didn’t realize it at the time, but this particular train took the Looooooong way up and we actually would go through Anhui province, which is closer to the ocean than it is to Xi’an.  Here is a map of the train route, to give you an idea …

Not exactly a direct route.  It looks more like the number 7 had a stroke.  Which would actually be accurate if it had gone through the same climate shift that I experienced during my travel.

As we left Shenzhen on the train I was lamenting that there was no a/c on the train and the staff had all of the windows on the train open.  But pretty soon it started to cool off.  In the morning I woke up and it was downright chilly on the train.  I could even see my breath when going to the dining car.  And not a small wisp of steam either.  I looked like a chain smoker with an invisible cigarette.

At around 10:00 or so we stopped at a station.  Wasn’t sure where it was.  The stations in China have very poor sinage, (unless you are standing across the street from the main entrance, which is kind of silly since most people entering a station from the front door probably know where they are) but my random guess was Wuhan (since I inaccurately assumed that we were taking a more direct route).

Practically Shandong Province!

I went to eat lunch in the dining car around 11:30 and the man who was sitting at my table said that we were in Anhui province in a town called Fuyang, and that we were stuck here because of the snow.

The snow?  What snow?  Wasn’t I just sweating to death the day before?  And what were we doing in northern Anhui?  That was practically Shandong Province!

It turns out that one of the biggest snow storms of the last 60 years happened during the night while I was sleeping and our train was stuck at the station until the tracks ahead of us could be cleared out.  Over the next 10 hours I would learn that, not only were we stuck, but our train, being a slower one, had a lower priority so we would have to wait until around 300 other trains had moved first.  (I was told that number by one of the people on the train, but I have a feeling it might have been an exageration.  Still … even 10% of that is 30 trains …)

By the time evening came around I realized that we would be stuck for quite a while. One of my cabin-mates (a nice young man from Qinghai) decided to disembark and try our luck in the city.  Actually, for him it was a matter of necessity.  He belongs to an ethnic minority in China that makes it so that can’t eat the food on the train.  He had brought enough food for the trip, but not if you factor in a day or two of waiting around in Anhui.

And you thought driving in China was dangerous in the summer??

We got out of the station, and froze our way in to a taxi.  He accompanied me to a hotel that Ruhi had been kind enough to reserve for me online.  For some reason, though, he didn’t join me in staying there.  Perhaps he just wanted to make sure I was safe? In any case, I checked in to the hotel, marveled that my room had a bathtub and soaked for about 30 minutes in a porcelain bucket of piping hot water.

All was going well so far.  I would check with the front desk on ways to go to Xi’an the next day and after a day or two in Fuyang I could be on my way back to Xi’an, hardly missing a beat.

That is, until I got a visit from one incredibly nasty case of the flu …

To Be Continued …

Related posts:

1. Planes, Trains and Automobiles: Anhui | 飞机,火车和汽车: 安徽
2. 48 Hours to Southern China
3. (Sm/F)og, Three Things and a Bonus (12/1)