I Travel to a Tropical Paradise

Oddly, all my anxieties evaporated the moment I got into the airport. Some people are nervous in airports but not me. Once I actually get there, it's all old hat. Everything went so smoothly too; it was like clockwork. I didn't have to remove my belt or my shoes or my watch at security. They looked at my laptop, opened and sniffed my water-bottle (to make sure it was water and not alcohol) and that was that.

The service on the flight (Southern China air) was superb in an old-fashioned way--perhaps a sense that only the privileged have the means to fly, and so you are always treated as unique and important? I'm not sure, but in any case I thought the service was great. Dinner was abundant and tasty--but then I'm fine with airplane food, which puts me in the minority...

By chance I met up with another FB classmate on the same flight, and we agreed to split a cab to the place where the conference was--any vestigial traces of anxiety disappeared completely. Safety in numbers. We took a fast train from the airport to Kowloon station. It was clean and silent and not at all crowded. We crossed bridges over the nighttime sea. I was enthralled. It was gorgeous. From there we took a cab. Passing through the city, I felt it was so gloriously clean! and beautiful, so much green everywhere from the trees, a road all slopes and curves.

The cab driver spoke a cute Cantonese-accented Mandarin, and told us that the area we were going was "very beautiful, very beautiful." He thought it was hilarious when I apologized for not having small change--it's a source of great anxiety in Beijing; if you ask them to make more than ten or twenty kuai change they mutter and act sullen and sometimes just plain can't do it. I explained this and the cab driver said with great pride and smugness, "Ha! I have change!" He also told us we should have taken a cab all the way from the airport given that there were two of us. He gave us quite an exposition, all the sums and relative times. I found it endearing, and even when he charged a slight "luggage fee" I had no problem with it. It's in lieu of a tip anyway--tipping will be a strange habit to get back into, as it doesn't exist at all here!

Here are a couple photos from my first night.




I could tell immediately that the weather was different. It was beautifully warm and moist. I ditched my coat and stood around in my long-sleeve t-shirt--just right. The moon looked huge over the horizon. People socialized out on the terrace. I chatted with a history professor who works on Tang and Song China, a really neat conversation. I felt purely happy and fortunate, as if someone had just lifted me up and dumped me in Hawaii.