As I waited, I noticed a few other foreigners waiting with me and the longer we waited, the more passports were added to the pile behind the immigration desk. After half an hour of waiting, I returned to the counter and started asking questions.
It turned out that they were holding our passports and tickets until such time as we had a confirmed booking on an outgoing flight from China. In order to pass immigration, either this or a visa is required. The problem was that no one had contacted our airline to arrange this, so it appeared that we were waiting indefinitely. The sea of people waiting to pass immigration certainly hadn't diminished so it didn't looks as if the immigration officers would be helping us any time soon.
I took matters into my own hands, hoped that my passport and ticket were safe where they were and went looking for China Eastern Airline representatives. I found them near the baggage claim looking harassed and overworked, as I'm sure they were. No one from immigration had notified them. I took a representative back upstairs with me and she collected a stack of about fifty passports and took them into an immigration office. We camped outside the office on the marble floor for the next five hours. There was nowhere else for us to go without our passports.
A group of people transferring to India got taken care of. The people leaving for Hong Kong got their boarding passes. Some guy from IBM came in and yelled a lot. At times it was like watching some twisted reality TV show, watching people come in and out, hearing their flight dilemmas, filling in the blanks where people were speaking Mandarin with our own imaginary subtitles.
Finally, the woman rushed out of the room. "Get your bags, you're leaving now." Our bags? I thought. I have no idea where my bags are. No time to think, we were rushed downstairs and someone put yellow stickers on us. I frantically tried to put my contacts, so I could see and find my bags. One went in, the other went on the floor. Hands dropped as people helped me find it. With one eye, I found my monster bags and a trolley and raced after the other people heading for Bangkok. We had to clear customs, then grab random boarding passes for a Thai Airways flight, then we were racing through security and immigration again and onwards to our boarding lounge.
The flight was called and I boarded and sank into total relaxation in my first class Thai Airways seat upstairs. It had a huge seat, enough leg room, a big pillow and warm blankets. I got a BioTherm bag full of cosmetics and a brush. I had champagne before lift-off and a delightful Cabernet Sauvignon with dinner. The appetizer was a spicy salmon tartar, and I selected a delicious dinner of roast duck with potatoes Lyonnaise and steamed asparagus tips. After dinner there was cappuccino with dessert. I almost wish I could have stayed away to enjoy it more, but I sank into a delicious and much deserved sleep.
It sounds like a happy ending, and I only wish it was.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment