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Anoop, Reshma and Aaron reached Beijing from Singapore at 4pm Chinese time. 16May2025. They had flown to Singapore from Trivandrum via Chennai.
According to Anoop the airport was heavily crowded. Like a busy market.He had the impression at least 5000 people were there to go through customs and immigration. It was very slow. At the immigration they were questioned threadbare why they were visiting China. Why they were going to Macau. And why to HongKong. He says it was a very tough questioning. The grilling over they stepped out to claim their baggage. But the baggage claim area was very far. They had to catch a train to reach there. The queue for boarding the train was very long. They could get into it at the third trip only.
Once they were there, their luggage was not in sight. The conveyor belt kept on revolving. Then they checked at the unclaimed baggage counter. When they showed their baggage card issued from Singapore at the counter their baggage was fished out. Obviously when the baggage was going round and round unclaimed it must have ended up at the unclaimed baggage counter.
When they had the baggage they couldn't locate their driver at the exit. Fortunately they had his number. But they didn't know each other. Wisdom dawned. They exchanged their photos and with that they managed to locate each other. On the road as they seemed tired, the driver helped them get something to drink and afterwards took them to their Hotel, Holiday Inn. However the traffic was dense in spite of the 10 lane road. Vehicles were literally crawling. It was 7pm when they finally reached the hotel. They were allotted a double room with an additional bed.
They took some rest and were going out to find food as the food at the Hotel was very expensive.
They said they'd go out and check out street food since they had seen such shops on their way to the Hotel.
Anoop says this is the only way to learn to move around.
Later Anoop spoke to us about their driver at Macau. They had taken the Bullet Train to Shanghai after they had visited the historical landmarks at Beijing. It was from Shanghai they flew into Macau. There was some hiccup in locating the driver. The moment they could meet him the driver began abusing them for the mix up. They didn't reciprocate. But once they reached the hotel, they contacted their travel agents and and sought a replacement of the driver. It was at once done.
Once Macau was explored, they travelled in a taxi to HongKong taking the 45km sea bridge, an engineering marvel. They were stopped at the gateway to HongKong. The grilling was severe. Though Reshma and Aaron were cleared, Anoop was made to wait for 45 minutes before he was cleared after a barrage of questions.
After HongKong, they returned to Trivandrum via Singapore and Chennai.
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