Beijing 13

I've officially been in Thailand for almost exactly a week now, but I didn't arrive without several minor diversions along the way. The first leg of my journey from Chicago to New York was quite smooth, with only a minor sense of foreboding as I handed my bags (RE: all of my worldly possessions) over to the baggage handlers. Once I arrived at JFK, I raced through the airport, knowing that an hour was enough time to make a connection, but just barely. I arrived at the Air China desk only slightly flushed to discover that my plane would be delayed two hours. This would leave me a twenty minute layover, basically guaranteeing that I would miss my connection from Beijing to Bangkok. I did try in vain to reason with several Air China representatives (I was still naive to Air China's reputation), but they insisted there would be no problem with me making the connection.
After grabbing a quick bite I settled down comfortably near the Air China terminal to wait. After an hour and forty-five minutes and no sign of an airplane at our gate, I had a feeling the delay might have been extended, but there was no way to know for sure since Air China feels no need to make announcements in any language other than Mandarin, even though a large majority of the Chinese people (not to mention the 15-20 non-Chinese passengers) don't understand Mandarin at all. After a whopping 3 and a half hour wait and much confusion, I was off in the air, finally on my way to the correct continent, if not my exact destination.
Air China in the air turned out to be no better than grounded Air China. Luckily, when I was not in the bathroom barfing up what must have been an "expired" vegetarian meal they gave me, I slept peacefully knowing there was nothing that I could do now about missing my connection. If I had waited 10 weeks to see Joe, I could wait one more day.
As we landed on the snowy tarmac after 13 hours in the air it occurred to me that it must not be summer in Beijing, and that maybe my tank top and linen/cotton cardigan just might not be enough in this type of weather. The plane appeared to stop in the middle of nowhere, only one random guy riding his bike through the snow, and we all disembarked, not sure what we were waiting for. As we shivered (some decidedly more than others) those of us for whom Beijing was not our destination discovered that we were all going to Thailand, and decided that it would be best to stick together. A bus finally came five to ten minutes later, gathered us from our confusion, and delivered us into the hands of some very un-reassuring Air China employees.
After taking all of our tickets an putting stickers on them, then peeling the stickers off, then leading us through the (cigarette) smokey deserted customs, and finally to the baggage claim, I discovered that BOTH of my bags were missing. Luckily, I was not alone as one other downtrodden soul discovered that his two bags were also not amongst those randomly grouped next to the carousel. After briefly meeting with the lost baggage personnel, it was discovered that our baggage was not lost, it was simply in the lost baggage room, waiting for us!
Unfortunately, Mr. Downtrodden's bags were both there, but only one of mine was. The bag that did make it to Beijing was full of nothing but books and tampons; neither of which are readily available in Thailand, but are still far less important than my clothing, toiletries, and small computer accessories that no one would want to steal. I returned to file a lost baggage report, assuming that I would have to buy a whole new wardrobe in Thailand (this is me thinking positive).
Mr. Downtrodden and I rejoined our fellow travelers just in time to add ourselves to the list of those planning on taking the next flight to Bangkok in the morning on Thai Air and just in time to ring in the New Year. Yes ladies and gentlemen, I celebrated the coming of 2007 in a smokey, empty Beijing airport with twelve other weary wary travelers just trying to get to Thailand. After hanging out for about an hour while Air China got its act together, we were issued a ticket. No, that's not a typo, the thirteen of us were issued one ticket and when we protested we were told that it wasn't a problem, we just needed to stick together. Gotta love the communists. We were then again directed outside (brrrrr!!!) to wait for a bus (with no heat) to go to the Air China hotel (if they have enough stranded travelers to warrant their own hotel...).
The hotel was fine for the most part, although I did get a few minor glimpses into the Chinese culture. We were told to form into groups of four, and as all the other ladies were traveling with husbands or boyfriends, I ended up in a group with four other guys. I didn't really see a problem here, we had been talking all night, two of them I had even met at JFK before we took off, so I wasn't worried about any monkey business. The woman at the check in desk was appalled. For a second I though she might insist that I take my own room (jackpot!), but we assured her that the situation was ok, and we were comfortable with it, so we traded our passports for room keys and called it a night.
Before hitting the sack for a few hours, I decided to try and let Joe know when to expect me. When I inquired about using a computer, I was led down a hallway to a small locked room where an employee booted up an ancient computer. I could not read email for some reason, but I could write, although it was a little difficult with the employee standing right behind my shoulder, reading every word.
All of us were awoken the next morning at 4:45 am, apparently they bus everyone over at the same time, regardless of when their flight leaves. After that it was pretty much smooth sailing. From the second I stepped aboard the Thai Air flight, I could feel the difference in professionalism, and I knew I would arrive safely.
Although I landed with only my computer and many books and tampons, Joe was there and that made everything perfect. As for my baggage, it still took a week of phone calls to get it delivered to Bangkok and then flown to Khon Kaen where Joe and I had settled down into our tiny efficiency overlooking not one, but two seven-11s. Welcome to Thailand.