Well, at least it's isnt Shanghai.
Our arrival to Beijing quickly reminded
us that this was China. We got way too comfy in our
English-speaking, business oriented paradise of Hong Kong. Worried
about business hours and getting a ticket to Mongolia on a weekend we
went straight to a reputable travel agent from the airport. But
before we could do that we needed to get the address of the place in
Chinese for the cab driver. This is the only way to get around in
China unless you are navgating yourself by subway and foot. But it
is harder than you might think. The website only had the romanized
address, so we had to find a dual language speaker to translate this
back into Chinese. Ok, we're at Bejing Capital Airport, the largest
in the world, and soon to be the gateway for the most international
event in the world, the Olympic Games. Should be no problem, right?
HA!
Clear customs, dodge the gypsie cab
touts, find the desk with the big “?” sign. Noone there, “Do
you need information” someone trots up! Ok, yes, yada yada “I
have nice cab take you to great hotel, you know this hotel?”
Damnit. We ask at the hotel reservations desk, “Will you translate
this for us?”. No, not my job apparently, but there is an Tourist
desk upstairs. I park, Susan heads for the tourist office. “Can
we call them and they can tell you the address?” Supposedly, the
phone's not working. Will you translate this? Well, it was out of
her jurisdiction, but she would translate the building name. The cab
driver should know from there. Ug, fine. “Thanks” and a smile.
But the cab driver didn't know from
there. The problem is that when you go Chinese to Roman the only way
back to Chinese is phonetic. He calls someone, we sit. Ten minutes
later we're rolling. Hopefully, we're going to the right place?
After 40 minutes or so he points to a big, anonymous office building
with a vaguely soviet feel to it. Well... OK. We dispair when the
building directory makes no mention of our place, but turns out he
did indeed get us to the right place.
The travel agency is staffed by some
very nice ... kids. Their English skills were solid for a second
language. Unfortunately their travel agent skills... After 2+ hours
of calling and instant messaging back and forth to their Shanghai
office we get price quotes for our roundtrip to Ulaanbataar. We push
our luck and get quotes for Kathmandu and Bangkok. Finally, all set,
we're happy, have tentative reservations. Oh, but we can't buy them
now because the Shanghai office has closed and they run the credit
cards. With very little faith that this is going to work, we leave a
signed authorization form, a copy of our passports, and our email.
“The tickets will be delivered to your Hotel on Monday”. Here's
hoping. We have one of the kids “Sunny” write our hotel address
in Chinese and spend 30 minutes trying to hail a cab.
After some brief drama we do in fact
find our hotel. As we check in we see their sign board “need
tickets to Mongolia? We can arrange for you!”. D'oh.
