Do you know Forgetful Jones? A cartoon character in Sesame Street. Well, that’s the LEAST what my travel companion is. After loosing her passport, she still managed to give me few surprised. First, she have not prepare fiscal and airport tax money. She thought that she would withdraw it from the ATM machine in the airport with her new card WHICH HAS NOT YET ACTIVATED. So she ended up paying by her self. That’s forget # 1. Or ignorance to be precised. Unbelievable.

Forget # 2, she lost her ticket. As I walked confidently to the check in counter, I looked behind and was a little bit panic for not finding her. Apparently she was still outside, frantically search for ticket in her backpack. Fortunately, she has a thoughtful-well prepared-human behavior observer friend, which is me, who has anticipated that this would happen. I had printed an extra for her. I have also printed an extra hotel reservation as I was under the assumption that she would lost it as well. Fortunately she did not.

Forget # 3, she left her winter jacket at home. Oh well, there’s nothing I could do about it, could I? If she had frostbite, Company will still cover the medical cost. And she could always buy a coat using the winter clothes allowance provided by the Company. Yay! We have reason to shop!

Forget # 4, she left our souvenirs for our Beijing colleagues on our connecting flight! I was nearly fainted when I heard that. I just left her to the toilet, thus I forgot to remind her, and she left it underneath the seat. Fortunately the competent Cathay’s crew found it and fetched it for us when we about to board the plane in Hong Kong. Phiew…

So after couple of hours transit in Hong Kong, lots of laughter and jokes, we happily arrived in Beijing at 8 pm. Once we got off the plane, I could feel the cold air biting my skin. It was so cold and I still kept my winter jacket in the luggage, so we half running to the luggage belt, partially to get our winter coats as soon as possible, partially to keep our selves warm and stop our tooth from chattering.

We met the driver not long after. And soon I realized that they drive on the wrong side of the road in this country. I keep on getting the feeling that the other cars will hit me anytime soon. Fortunately we arrived safely in the hotel.

Around 10 pm, I was already in bed when I thought I heard the door bell ring. I peeped through the hole and nobody was outside. I returned to bed and thought that I must be dreaming. I heard the door bell again. I peeped again, still nobody. I started to feel foolish as well as frightened. This is not haunted hotel, is this? Could it be TV? And the door bell rang again. This time I jumped out of bed and opened the door so fast to catch whoever did that. I am not afraid of anything including Chinese spirits, ghosts or whoever. I probably would only faint. Still nobody. My heart has started pounding louder, and when I was about to close the door my friend appeared from nowhere! Apparently it was her. Press the bell and went away looking for emergency stairs (!!) like there was no better reason. She apparently forgot to bring toothpaste and afraid of melamine so she would like to borrow my toothpaste. Haiyaaa…can you not call before?? I felt like in a haunted motel. She was laughing her head off and so was I. This place was not haunted anyway…good night everybody…

To be continued