Monday, April 17, 2017

Journey to Wuhan 01: Almost Mid-night

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

illegal cab :p

 

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

a supper stall outside my hotel

 

something hot and spicy

definitely helped

before we actually checked in

sour & spicy noodle

 

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

Gle Hotel, Wuhan 乐动快捷酒店

 

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

Gle Hotel, Wuhan 乐动快捷酒店

 

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

Journey to Wuhan 07: Changchun Taoist Temple 長春觀

Journey to Wuhan 08: Flight Cancellation