Airport antics 

This airport is going to be fun, I can tell.

So on going for (what ye Olde English folk would say) a bit of a turn, here are the things I have discovered.

1) Wifi is free – somewhere.  I have yet to master this free wifi. 

The theory is simple.  Put in your phone number and you will get the password.  I put in my phone number on 15th March.  I’m still waiting for my password.

So I got impatient (completely uncharacteristic, I can assure you…) and paid for a one hour $4.95 via Boingo.

I swear I subscribe to these guys already?!  I remember doing something in London on my way to Nepal several years ago, but every user name and password combination comes up a blank.

So I pay, and the server of course continues to lose connection.

Fab.

2) There is a money exchange.

Brilliant!  

Except my money is mostly in Vietnamese Dong and the rest in Dollar.  Now, this includes emergency back up money.  Do I dish into the dollar and go for my 3 hours of Premium glory?  Do I swap my Vietnamese Dong for Yuan? 

I get so confused I decide to keep my Vietnamese pennies, not spend my Dollar and run away from Yuan.  Besides, they charge you 60 Yuan per transaction.

The most annoying thing is I have a cash card but nowhere to pull money out.  Never mind, it lasts for 3 years anyway.

I’m still deliberating on the Premium lounge.  (Besides this part for meer mortals is rather entertaining).

3) There are exactly 12 gates.  

I have lapped all 12 of them at least 5 times.

4) There is a moving walk way that runs through the middle of an otherwise very long corridor of gates (12, if you remember correctly).  

I suddenly realise that this is a one way system.  You can go down, but you cannot come back.

I guess coming back is for the active exercise types or something, not for us lazy walkway folks.  Rude.

5) There are many shops to peruse.

These range from the designer high end (yup, right beside the Premium lounge) to souvenirs to suitcase stores.  

This last one baffles me, surely people should have purchased a suitcase by now?  Perhaps it is to fill up with designer clothes or something.

I’m clearly not rich enough for this place.

6) The Book shop.

Oh my goodness, I literally had a ball here.  Honestly wish I could read Mandarin.  They tempt you with titles in English and once you pick it up to read the opening line, you realise it is full of pretty text and completely incomprehensible. 

However, imagine my excitement when I discover the English section!  I quickly cast my eye over the titles.  Not a bad selection.  Harry Potter, Twilight, Game of Thrones (entire series ladies and gentlemen), the Bible, a collection of Shakespeare’s classics, the Oxford dictionary.  Wait what?!  I know I’m a raving lunatic and all but purchasing the Oxford dictionary for light reading is definitely pushing it.

In the end I walk away (shock horror).  Let me eat first, then we’ll see many dollars are left.

See, I can be sensible!

7) Children like doing cartwheels no matter what country they come from.

8) They also like playing with bins. And crying when they’re not allowed to.

9) If you speak words really slowly and clearly, people still won’t understand you if you don’t speak their language.

Funny that.

10) And last but by no means least- There is a real and actual place called Haikou – how cool is that?!

Stay tuned for more Tiny gone mad at Guangzhou airport!

See you later no doubt.

Tiny