Forgot to say that yesterday the kitchen ladies bought us a goodbye present. They were post cards, just like the ones we were given by Monkey Business. Lauren and Penny eventually came as they were showing the cards. Lauren had some post cards stolen right out of his pocket when he had gone to the marketplace, so when he saw them he jokingly made a remark to the effect of "Gee, those cards sure look familiar". As he picked one up he also said something like, "And I bet they've got addresses on them". But he honestly didn't think that they were his. Well, they were his! He had addressed some to friends and there they were. When the kitchen ladies understood the situation, they explained with great embarrassment that they had bought them for 400 toghrugs from somebody. Lauren offered to pay them 400 toghrugs, but they absolutely refused. I tried to reassure them that we didn't suspect any duplicity on their part, and we couldn't help but laugh. Can you believe that?!
Oh, guess who knocked on my door at 7am? Altansukh! And he had stirrups too! He wouldn't take money so I gave him a baseball. We exchanged addresses and he said that he might be in the US next year. Altansukh. He also had a haircut.
We got ready to leave, ate breakfast and waited. And waited. And waited. With just 55 minutes to get to the airport before our plane left I was starting to get nervous. I took all my gear to the lobby and started pacing by the window. Finally, the car came and we jumped inside. We sped away just like in those European spy movies, dodging oncoming traffic, passing vehicles, beeping pedestrians out of the way. And it was raining too. Lauren got so nervous that he decided to distract himself by opening up a piece of "Donald Duck" bubble gum, which comes with a little Disney comic inside. He opened it up to see that the last frame of the comic is Mickey Mouse driving a car, sliding precariously on a banana peel!
Unfortunately, we didn't get to the airport on time. We waited until it was apparent that we were not getting a seat which was basically when the plane taxied out onto the runway.
Since this was Shuren's fault they paid for an additional day at our hotel, booked us for a first class compartment on the train going to Beijing tomorrow (we didn't want to wait until Saturday for a flight out), and made sure that our visas were up to date. Lauren was even given a free phone call to Australia, since he had intended on being in China tomorrow to make an important call.
I was angry at first, then got over it. Lauren was the opposite. Penny was very happy to see her son again and even happier that he was leaving on a train now, instead of an airplane.
We went shopping for goodies for the train. I might have to go after dinner to buy a cup.
By the way, the name of Lauren's instrument is a didjeridoo.
I did buy a cup, actually a mug. Nice one too.
We saw Penny off at the train station. A lot of drunk people hang out at the train station. Penny hated saying goodbye to her son. She said that when we had left for the airport that she had gone to the store afterward. Some Mongol had come up to her, asking if she wanted to change money and she was feeling so miserable that she told him to "Take off! Piss off!", etc.
Tomorrow we have breakfast at 8am and leave for the train station immediately after. The train leaves at 9:30am. We will be riding deluxe, that is a 2-bed compartment with fine wood paneling, shower and victorian lamps. Oooh.
Lauren got in touch with his lover, Kristine. It really made his day. I hope I can get in touch with Tracy when I get to China.