Have been thinking of
how should i arrange the posts
because there were quite
some stories covering
different sides of the journey
will just start following
chronological order then
if i don’t start with something now
probably will not ever start writing
until one fine day
when finally i decide to
will have to start all over again
by then
half of the details will be gone
and photos are all over the places
touching down at 11 something
and thank goodness
the weather was fine
around 16 degree Celsius
the first impression of
the airport wasn’t really good
as there wasn’t any jet bridge
passengers actually
have to alight from the plane
and took a shuttle bus
to the main arrival hall
and the Wi-Fi service
actually requires
registration via
LOCAL phone number
was supposed to
catch an airport bus
which stop right
in front/next to/very near
my hotel opposite
Wuhan train station
but
when we walked out
from the departure hall
the place looked pretty empty
there were counters
for airport bus ticket,
for tourist service
for SIM card etc
and all counters were
apparently not in service
and the busy crowd
was suddenly dispersed
those on tour groups
hopped on to mini vans
some got picked up
it felt scary, suddenly
there was a signboard
which said
“walk X-meter for shuttle bus
to the train station”
I was not sure if
there was direct train to
the airport because
the route map i got
didn’t indicate
this new station
is ready for service
and i doubt
the train service
would be still available
at that hour
there were
less and less people
except a few taxi touting guys
decided to accept
the service from
one of the guys then
it cost 80 RMB to
Hankou Railway Station
with additional charge
for places in the vicinity
that would be 100 RMB
i guess
and while walking to the airport
he was telling me that
there was always police around
that’s why he had to
park his car a little far away
then he got a text in English
“Where are you now”
from someone called Marie
and he was asking me
about what’s the text about
and got me to reply
“We are coming now”
so we got to the car
it was a Honda City
and i tried to snap the
car with number plate
but failed to
there were two Georgian girls
already waiting in the car
apparently one of them
are Marie who
sent him the text
and the girls were
from the same flight
it was almost 12
yet the driver
was driving really slow
because he said
the toll would be free
after 12 AM
so we would be
going really slow
for the next 15 minutes
but he wasn’t sure
so he called his friend
i couldn’t catch half of the
conversation in Wuhan-ese
his friend said
nope, it will be free
on the day after
so he sped up again
then there we were
at the toll gate
and he asked if
it will be free
starting tomorrow night
the girl said
nope, it’s tonight
you are 3 minutes away
his friend probably
got confused
with the date then
12 AM on the
night of 1st April
was actually 2nd April
so we waited another 3 minutes
getting a lot of noise
from other cars behind
soon we were reaching
Hankou railway station
and i was keeping an eye
for our hotel
the driver
was asking me to
show him the address again
because he wasn’t sure
where the hotel is
thank goodness
i saw it!!
at the corner
of a road with
huge signboard
he made an u-turn
and asked if
i had stayed there before
or how would i know
hehe
my secret weapon,
Baidu map
was a little hungry
and had supper
right outside the hotel
see it’s pretty easy
to spot the hotel
or i couldn’t imagine
being a little blind at night
with my severe astigmatism
something hot and spicy
definitely helped
before we actually checked in
the lady and her husband
actually run their store
at night until the next morning
and there were a few people
hanging around with a
small cardboard which read
“accommodation”
then i saw
the airport bus
turning into the road
and stopped right in front
with quite a huge numbers of
passengers alighting
then only i realized
these passengers got here
from the domestic terminal
that’s not a fault of mine then
for missing the airport bus
our hotel check-in
was equally bumpy
waited for long
because the girl said
she actually can’t find
our booking
and they were left with
two not really good rooms
which we had to take
anyway
the one we got was
seriously remote
walking through
a maze of 100+ rooms
at a single level
i can’t imagine
when was the last time
someone lived here
because it was a bit dusty
but beds actually felt like
heaven after a long day
and the air con was spoilt
it was super cold at night
yet the heater mode
was not really working
thank goodness
we got to change the room
that was the first thing
we did next morning
despite being
almost the same
it was so much better
being close to the lift
and with loads of sun
overlooking the busy road
where we had our supper
the night before
p.s.
the post was first published on
12 April 2017
but was forward dated to 17th Apr
since i compiled the rest on 17th
Journey to Wuhan 01: Almost Mid-night
Journey to Wuhan 02: Yellow Crane Tower 黃鶴樓
Journey to Wuhan 03: Hubu Alley 戶部巷
Journey to Wuhan 04: Jianghan Road Pedestrian Street 江漢路步行街
Journey to Wuhan 05: Hubei Provincial Museum 湖北省博物館
Journey to Wuhan 06: Wuhan Museum 武漢博物館