Swinging by the Motherland

I love traveling solo. A little bit because I only have to worry about what I want; mostly because of the incredibly quick and amazing friendships that can be formed. With people from all over the world.

You get to see people's true colors when you travel. There is no pretense, no expectations. Inhibition is lowered; they say what they mean, and do what they want. You get friendship in the purest form. After all, they don't have to ever see you again, and they wouldn't spend time with you unless they truly enjoy your company.

I didn't except it to happen this quickly into my trip though.

So anyway, for my one week of respite from 1st year medical school, I decided to escape to Thailand (woo food! Islands! Scuba!) The flight was impulsively bought last November after bombing a test, during which the professor projected a beautiful photo he took of Florence, taunting my wanderlustful soul.

The ticket included a 2 hr layover in Beijing, and I was supposed to be in Bangkok Saturday night. But the adventures began early. All thanks to, of course, the beloved airline delays.

So the flight from JFK to Beijing was super delayed. Nobody was notified, but I rolled with it, because I am on vacation, specifically the kind with nothing really planned so any random hurdle my way is just going to be a spontaneous adventure. The flight was uneventful - I watched the Revenant (damn Leo!), and slept the entire time except when food was served.

We got to Beijing - 2 hours late and 200 passengers pissed about missing connecting flights. The frustrated lady behind the counter promised me a ticket to Bangkok for the next day at 2pm, and a free hotel room. Cool! This is going to be way better than the $5 hostel I booked in Thailand!

A poor Thai lady being pushed in a wheel chair only spoke English and so I helped translate - it turns out, she really needed to make it to her village in Thailand to attend her grandmother's funeral! This turned into a 2 hour ordeal, during which lots of tears and curse words were exchanged.... and we still couldn't get her flights changed so that she could attend the funeral. :( it was heartbreaking.

A bus of us homeless delayers were shipped to check in at a nearby hotel, and while waiting in line I met some people:

Owen - who recognized me from JFK. He's a trader from nyc, and he was turning 36 that night. We have to go out and celebrate, I said.
Ali - 4th year med student from NYU. He's Palestinian, and he's spending 5 weeks doing research on traditional Chinese medicine in Shanghai
Wen - He's Philippino working in Jacksonville, trying to get home for vacation.

Turns out the rooms weren't free unless we roomed with another person, so Wen became my roommie.

Dinner was free!! we were joined by a couple from Florida, and a bunch of us new friends sat around the table and shot the shit, talking about our travels, and lives back home. I was thoroughly convinced that I have to get myself to Cuba before the country gets infested with Starbucks, but that's a separate story.

(Ali using my UV steriPen to sterilize his teacup of water)

Turns out it's also Meka (girl from Florida)'s birthday so we decided we had to go out! The front desk guy and his friend offered to take us to the bar district 30 min drive away AND wait to drive us back, for an extremely cheap deal!

So the group of us jetlagged travelers, dressed real sexy in smelly sweats and sneakers from the airplane ride (cuz nobody packed for Beijing, which is not 90 degrees like Thai beaches), hit up the Beijing clubs.

They dropped us off at the "bar street", and we went inside the first popping Chinese club - and found it full of white people.

People were REAL friendly in there. That's nice I guess. The couple from Florida, Meka and Jared, got some special attention real quick.

And we all made some new friends...who all seemed to be couples...who are trying to snuggle up to us.... wait...

Then we realized that we definitely weren't paying attention to the name of the place before we came in:

Oh it all makes sense now, we were in a swingers club. In Beijing. With old white couples hitting on us. YOLO.

But no matter, we sat our asses down and enjoyed ourselves anyway.

"He's my neighbor, I had a lizard in my apt one day, and i was freaking out so my friend called him in to help. That's how we met, 7 months ago."
"Aww that's so cute, did he catch it with his bare hands? "
"Yeah I did! "
"No you didn't, you didn't catch it at all that first time!"
"Yeah there were two times, but the second time I caught it! With a cup!"
"The second time was 2 days ago..."
<3

After that it's onto the next club, but not before we sat down for some old fashioned drunk street food. I had some pigs blood and pig intestine skewers! Good old Beijing.

Nobody needed my Pepto-bismol. Awesome sauce.

Then we hopped into the next place that was lit - happened to be a Chinese EDM club with people dancing on bar tables. So of course we joined them up there. Please excuse my pit stains in the pictures. I was excited.

This is Jared peeing on the streets. In the words of Ali, he had well-profused kidneys.

All in all a 100 night. Owen spoke my mind when he said he couldn't believe that we all just met a couple hours ago - felt like we've been friends forever!

After 4 hours of sleep, we got back up and I rode back to the airport with Owen. Remember when the Air China lady guaranteed me that 2pm flight? She lied, and they told us instead that we had to be on standby.

It was still Owen's birthday and he was REALLY set on getting his butt to Bangkok on the 2pm flight to be with his friends. So he flipped out.

I was all trying to be polite, asking if there's anything they can do. Owen straight up just started screaming:
"I already had to waste a day in Beijing, I NEED to get on this flight. It's it's my birthday and I already put down so much money in Thailand. I HAVE to get there!!"

"Let me see your passport," the guy said,  "oh it IS your birthday.... give me 5 minutes. "

And yup, sure enough, seats magically opened up, and because they thought I was his girlfriend, I got one too.  Thanks for being born, Owen! Moral of the story: there is ALWAYS something the airline people can do. You just have to rub them the right way.

So that's the end of my airline shenanigans. We got some airport vending machine beer to celebrate our flight success. Owen and I talked all flight, and when it was time to go our separate ways in Bangkok, it was a pretty sad time.

Separation anxiety is so real.

Thai humidity was a punch in the face, but I'm currently sitting on this air conditioned 12 hour overnight bus to Krabi, so I'm being spoiled until I get to the islands.

That's it for now. I'm glad I was able to spend some quality time back in my hometown though. Beijing, Beijing.