Day 201: Flying from Hong Kong to Beijing — Meet Up with Lobsy!
For discipline these days we’ve been handing out “five minutes off” (time penalties on precious flight screen time) for offenses like shoving, not listening, whining (biting gets 10 minutes — rare but it happens).
So at any given moment, they have a number of “minutes off.” They can earn them back for good behavior.
This morning James woke up with a balance of 10 minutes accrued in Hong Kong. The first thing our calculating boy did on this travel day was write a letter on hotel stationery that said “Mom dad, love James” with a bunch of hearts. A shameless attempt to earn back some minutes. Didn’t work!!
We did Day 2 of the Splits Challenge — this time James joined.
Today saw yet another midday flight. We always prefer morning flights at home so the travel doesn’t kill your whole day. But on this trip we’ve got time to kill and it’s much easier having a leisurely morning, breakfast at the hotel then make our way to the airport with time to spare.
By 10:30 we were headed to the airport.
Air China baggage check-in desk ladies are scary efficient. Machines. Usually these are among the slowest people working in an airport. Not this team. Noticed when we got here and today on our way out. Bravo, ladies.
Boarded the 12:45 pm flight to Beijing.
I was seated next to a mom and young girl about 8 — and the mom spent much of the flight picking at the girl’s bare feet. The girl was also watching a Chinese cartoon on top volume with no headphones.
Across the aisle, Teddy was getting this…much more pleasant:
Fortunately I still had Season 4 of Queer Eye to distract me. Really needed it toward the end of the flight, too, when things got turbulent. Definitely our bumpiest/scariest flight of the year.
This time we stood in the right place in the airport for baggage claim.
We made it out of the Beijing airport at last and were greeted by Nancy, a 33-year-old tour guide and lifelong Beijinger. She rode with us in a van to our hotel in the old city, where Lobsy was waiting for us!
In the van ride, Nancy was very concerned that Teddy’s 70-something mother had flown by herself so far from home. It would be unheard of in China, she said.
She hadn’t met Lobsy yet, obviously. Lila had flown direct from DC and landed two hours earlier (without incident). Her fifth visit to see us this year! She’s come to Peru, South Africa, Madrid and Copenhagen so far. It’s her first time to Asia.
Nancy also told us that she spent her honeymoon in the US — Boston, NYC, Vegas, Grand Canyon and San Francisco. She described being terrified of the people she saw with so many tattoos and piercings in NYC — she said she thought they were all gang members who would hurt her.
She was also stunned that we’d spent nine weeks in Africa. People here think you will be killed right away if you go to Africa, she said. Too scared. Ha!
Our hotel is a boutique situation located in the hutongs, or alleyways, of old Beijing called The Orchid. Not fancy at all but safe, clean and most important, air conditioned!
We ate dinner at the hotel’s small restaurant — interestingly, a Mediterranean spot called Toast — and caught up with Lobsy over hummus and white wine.
Big day of touring tomorrow, so we got to bed early.
