It’s 4:30am. I think this may be a symptom of jetlag, or maybe I didn’t eat enough for dinner and my tummy wanted more food. Either way, I’m awake far too early in the morning for my liking. I arrived in Ulaanbataar on Friday January 5th at 11:00pm. It was a 1 stop journey from Toronto-to-Beijing-to-Ulaanbataar. 13 hours for the first leg. 2.5 hours for the second leg. Both flights were great – lots of food and drinks, enjoyable seat neighbours, not much turbulence. It was the Bejing airport that spun me around.
I started in one line up, went to a second, and by the third I started getting vocal. The info helpers did nothing to calm my nerves. Convincing myself that I was going to miss my connection and become stranded in the airport, I started panicking. At that same moment, a UK-ite (Ian) turned around in the line up and began to describe how the process worked, what was needed, and where to go. I heard a voice of confidence and certainty and felt my heart reduce its speed. The more we talked, the more calm I felt.
Before reaching the front of the line, Ian said he would wait for me to finish and we could go through the airport together (he also had a connecting flight on a different airline to Moscow and was in a similar situation as me). The rest of the time in Beijing, Ian and I got to know one another. I learned that he is a planespotter, an avid traveller, and takes great pleasure in helping others. I also learned that last year he flew through the Beijing airport on Christmas eve and he had a nightmare of an experience (the line ups were 5 times longer, he didn’t give himself nearly enough time to catch his next flight, and to top it off, the airline did not end up loading or transporting any of his luggage). When I asked him what airports are ones I should avoid, the ones he dislikes most, his immediate response was, this one.
In the end, I got all my luggage, checked it all back in, and found my way onto the plane to Ulaanbataar–all within the 4 hour layover. I’m not sure I would have made it through that airport and the Chinese bureaucracy without him, at least not without getting far more frustrated. Ian was my airport ‘guide’ and I was his lucky charm making it through customs and immigration in record time. I’m am so thankful we met and I won’t forget him anytime soon.