I had a wonderfully long sleep. It was cool and dark in my room and the bed was super comfortable. I finally left the hotel around 9:00AM to find some breakfast. I found a breakfast place not too far from the hotel on Baidu Maps.
I ordered a breakfast burger and sat in the window to eat it. Big mistake! People (mostly kids) were walking by and stopping and staring in the window. It was amazing. Twice, I put a big smile on my face and maniacally waved my hand hello. The two kids who I did this to were so shocked, they ran away. Ha! I still had yet to see another foreigner but that doesn't validate the behavior.
After breakfast, I went to a supermarket to wander around and look at food. I bought a few snacks and made my way back to the hotel. I spent the day going through my photos and uploading them so they were online. I went back to the noodle place for more noodles although I had a different dish from the day before. These noodles were even better! Yum!
I stayed in bed until the last possible minute. I took a nice, long, hot shower and finally repacked my bag before heading to the train station.
I had a soft sleeper for the 15-hour journey back to Lanzhou. There are four beds per room on the trains yet when I arrived there were already five people in the room. A mom was there with her mom and her son. They had purchased two sleeper tickets and one seat. The lady working on the train told them that only two people could sleep in the room but the grandmother and the boy shared a bunk for the night. The guy below had his wife or girlfriend in the room for some time as well. Talk about a full house! Those tiny rooms are small enough without having extra people in them.
I slept well and for most of the ride. The train arrived in Lanzhou at 9:15AM. It was lightly raining so I decided to go directly to the airport. There was a 10:20 shuttle train. There were no seats for the one-hour ride over but I was able to buy a standing ticket.
On the train, I got an SMS and I was able to read enough to know that my flight had been canceled. Crap. There was a website to cancel my ticket or a number to call to re-book a flight. I tried both but they were all in Chinese and I wasn’t sure that I could navigate my way around the simplified Chinese nor was I able to understand the options on the computerized answering service. I decided continuing on to the airport would be my best option.
Well. No one seemed to know what to do with me. It was as if they’ve never had to deal with someone with a canceled flight. What about the rest of the passengers? Granted, I was very early so perhaps everyone else would’ve dealt with the airline via their website or a phone call. That’s exactly what the ladies behind the counter did. They put me on the phone with an English service. It took forever to get someone but finally my flight was changed to the next morning.
I then set off to find a hotel near the airport. I found some sleepers in the hotel but they were like the capsule hotels you find in Japan. It was only 12:30 and I couldn’t see myself in that for the whole day and night. I knew there was a decent hotel across the street from the airport so I headed over there. They had no rooms. There was another hotel beside them which did have rooms.
The hotel was dirty and old and there were no showers. Who makes a hotel and doesn’t offer the guests somewhere to shower? I was so tired and feeling a bit defeated by that point and I knew my only options were to go back to the capsules at the airport or take a bus or train for the long journey back into the city and then what? What if there were no rooms at the hotel I had already stayed in. I would’ve been left wandering the city with my backpack looking for a place to stay. So, I decided to pay for the room. It was 168RMB.
I had to deal with the room I already had booked in Beijing to see if they would not charge me for the night. I used Hotels.com to book the room and they said I needed to call the hotel. I called the hotel and they said that I would need to provide proof of my flight cancellation so they would not charge me for the night.
I sent the hotel the SMS I got and told them that I was not happy to not be on that flight and that it was out of my control. I really hoped they could understand and not charge me for the night. I was booked to stay with them for four nights. They responded and said there would be no charge and that they would see me the next day!
I spent the day catching up on my journal and posting another blog post. It was going to be hard to stay on top of it so I suppose it was nice to have some forced rest. It did mean one less day of touring around Beijing which sucked but if the weather wasn't great, I most likely would’ve been stuck in the hotel anyway. At least it would’ve been a nice hotel … with a shower. Sigh.
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