I didnt bother with having breakfast or lunch and instead I tried to see if I could take a day trip to visit Petra in Jordan when I am in Egypt. Apparently you can do it in one day from Amman for around US $140 but the best flight I could find online was another US $300, which when you add the airport tax, taxis to and from airports, entry visas, etc, etc, it was too much for one days visit even if Petra does seem a wonderful place to see.
I justified not going to see it as it was not on my original list of places to go ( purely cos i didnt do my research well enough before I left ) and being much nearer to Europe it would be very possible to do this an a long weekend as a seperate trip when I get back into funds. I still might do it if closer to the time I can find a last minute return flight for around half price but US $500 per day is just too expensive, especially when I am already so very far over budget.
The hotel was generous, charging me only 50 CNY for an extra half day in the room, and the taxi arrived to take me to the airport around 7:45. I had packed the hotel receipt for the return of the keyfob, and so I could not get my money back for it and the taxi driver has three other passengers already in his cab waiting to get to the airport too so he was in too much of a rush to let me go rooting around in my luggage to try and find if I still had it, which was 40 CNY lost.
Travelling in the Taxi I felt very calm and relaxed, despite having no idea where I was, where I was heading or how long it would take me, and I think that I have really learned to trust other peoples judgement and not feel the need to question every little thing.
Upon check in I was approached by a suited Air China representative who ended up giving me a card and selling me a very discounted flight from Shengzhou to Shanghai, so all I had to do was cross back over the border from Hong Kong to China and then get to the airport, including passport control both ends that should take no longer than a couple of hours and frees up about a day travelling up through China on the train or bus and at this discounted price costs about the same.
While I was waiting for her to clear it with head office and print me off the ticket I stopped for a bite to eat in one of the restaurants. I did wonder which restaurant to chose from, as there seemed to be quite a few, but she cut me off and settled it by saying that they all basically the same, with the same menu, price and food prepared in the same kitchen.
My flight was due to take off around midnight and board about 11:20, being the last flight on the day, yet somehow when it came to 11pm there was a red announcement that came up on my boarding gate saying that it was delayed due to air traffic conjestion. I am unsure how it can be conjested when this is the very last flight to come in or out for the night, but then I am not in air traffic control so, there you go.
As it was very cold in the airport and it did not have free wifi access, I instead chose to watch another dvd movie while I was waiting for takeoff, hoping that I could remain awake as my flight time would be less than an hour and then I had around a seven hour wait before trying to find my way to the trian station tomorrow morning.
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