China 2014 – Day 13

Our last day of an epic trip about the middle kingdom began with a small hiccup – our bus driver lost his keys.  However, it turned out to be a good thing (albeit a bit of an omen for the rest of the day) because we got to travel to the markets in local taxis and that was an experience in itself!

When we arrived at the Markets we found that two-thirds of the shops were closed – the Markets were raided by the police the day before and about 20 people were taken away for selling fakes (although that is what the Market specialises in, so on the surface of it, a bit strange on the part of the authorities).  However, the good thing for us was the the shops that remained open were desperate for business so we got some absolute bargains!  Coco also shouted us a free lunch, which for some was another stroke of good fortune as cash was a bit tight!

After filling every nook and cranny of our suitcases, we left for the airport and checked in.  It took a bit longer than it should have due to the international flight being “closed” about 8 hours early.    However, we all got checked in and said goodbye to Coco.  As we were going towards customs, a few of us were “excited” to see a Chinese celebrity lapping up the attention of about 50 screaming girls – I tried to help by showing other girls where he was headed and they sprinted off after him, screaming.  Unfortunately (or not), we had absolutely NO IDEA who he was.

The next interesting part of the afternoon was that our flight to Guangzhou was delayed by a couple of hours. Instead of taking off at 4.45 pm as scheduled, we finally took off at close to 6.30 pm, which meant we weren’t going to land in Guangzhou until at least 8.30 pm. Not too much of a problem, except that we were due to begin boarding our international flight to Brisbane at 8.30 pm.  Paul and another lady from Queensland who also happened to be travelling on the same flights, spent a good deal of the two hours trying to explain to the flight attendant that we would be late for our flight and could she please try to help us get off first.  We eventually took matters into our own hands and pushed our way to the front of the plane as soon as the wheels touched down.  We got off the plane at 8.53 pm.

From there, the sprint began.  We were met at the top of the airbridge by two China Southern Airlines staff, who ushered us straight down the stairs and onto a bus.  The bus took us across the airport to the international terminal, and we began to run through the terminal to the baggage scanning area (we went through first), then through customs (thanks to the people already in line for allowing us all to push in) and then onto another bus that took us out to our plane.

This whole process took us to 9.18 pm and we took off!  China Southern staff were brilliant!  Now to see if our luggage made it – we weren’t confident.

When we landed in Brisbane, our luggage had also arrived, which we were very grateful for.

So, 13 days, 4 cities, newly forged friendships and countless unforgettable memories later, we went our separate ways, safe in the knowledge that we had just experienced a trip of  a lifetime!