On the plane and beyond...

Whilst on the plane, I fidgeted like crazy. Not only was I distracted by the excited kids's HK holiday, I also had a young active 4yr old who kept kicking into my seat in his protest to be seated while the plane taxied to the runway. All these were minor discomforts compared to the emotional turmoil growing in my mind. Every tiny thought of my father would evoke tears to my eyes. Even the air stewardess seated across the walkway cannot help noticed that I kept wiping the tears away.

I had some cash on me which I changed from the money changer as well as the ATM machine, since I cannot sleep nor rest properly in my seat, I quickly went to the loo to "sort them out". I had a GREAT pouch which was almost thief-prove. Its from Pac-Safe. It was one of the items which I had to dig out from our travel gear box in the wee hours of the morning while trying to pack for the trip in like 10mins and I'm truly glad I found it. I bought the pouch as I found it cool but it gave me complete piece of mind on the whole entire trip.

This pouch has wires through its strap which can be padlocked to its end which prevents cutting of the strap. The entire covers of the pouch has got wires woven into it to prevent knief slashing. Read it for yourself to find out if its suitable for your own use when you travel in a foreign land

The plane arrived as scheduled in HKIA once the plane stopped taxi-ing towards its gate, all the passengers on the plane leaped from their seats to get their bags from the overhead compartment, I did the same thing as well. Being in the first row, I was going to be the first to depart from the plane, cool.... adrenaline from all the anticipation was building up in my blood stream, I was going to be almost uncontrollably emotional at the slightest tinge of conversation regarding why I'm in such a hurry or why am I here in HK in the first place.... not good to be in any form of conversation now... hmm....

It was raining heavily outside the plane, while we expected a short wait for the aerobridge to be connected to the plane, the wait grew to be a painful 15mins wait, legs going wobbly liao. With the growing impatience in the air, the plane captain was compelled to find out what was going on. Shortly after, he announced that the airport crew has notified them that they would be unable to connect the aerobridge until the rain slows down. It was raining too heavily for the connection to occur!!!! Can you believe that? In a country where they experience tornados and hurricanes, this tiny amount of rain was too heavy for the aerobridge connection??? Oh man!

We all took our seats unwillingly and as for me..... I could chose to stomp my feet and be loud about why I should leave the plane like almost immediately or chose to conserve my energy for the journey ahead.... I chose the latter. I sat down and tried to search for a good reason why the rain would give us such delay (as this is the first time in the many flights I've taken that it has happened and especially on such an occasion.... totally unbelievable). With the wait, the adrenaline from my anxiety seems to thin down, my heart is not beating as crazy as it was before after a 50min wait, I was actually very calm and left the plane in a more composed manner than I would have 50mins ago.

I guess that was a real blessing, I would not be able to make it across Guangzhou on the bus if I was washing my face in tears from the moment I depart the plane.

I zoomed passed the immigrations by approaching one of the officers who was trying to distribute the crowd to the different queues and told her directly that I was in a hurry to depart as I wanted to see my father for the last time, having said that sentence, tears welled up in my eyes, I never imagine to be saying this. For the last time. Suddenly, this moment was very significant to me. To say goodbye. She quickly understood and with no further questions gestered me towards a short queue (bypassing all those behind in a long long line). The lady in the queue must have felt/overheard our conversation, without any hesitation, she invited me to overtake her position in the queue. I could not thank her enough for being so understanding. I had to act tough and stand infront of the custom officer for what felt like an eternity to get my passport chopped. Thereafter, I raced out towards the chartered buses towards GZ for the earliest bus to depart, it was 1125am. I think there was one that leaves at 1130am.

There were some counters with pretty counter sales girls who tells me that their buses are the fastest. All takes 3-4hrs to reach GZ, departing at 1130am, 1145am, 1200pm etc. But at different rates of 200-300HKD. I took the one that leaves the earliest and yet the cheapest. I chose the bus option over the train option based on a few reasons.

1. bus is a direct route, I just need to sit on it and it'll get me to GZ, Garden Hotel which is very central in GZ to reach both the hotel/hospital. will arrive at about 2-3pm

2. for the train option there's a few routes available:

a - train to Hong Hom Train station in Tsim Sha Tsui to get onto the half-hourly train
- the train to Hong Hom will take about 20-40mins
- once miss the half-hourly train will take another 30mins before the next train arrives, the next train due was 1230pm, I was not sure if I can definitely make it for this one
- it will take another 1.5hr from Hong Hom train station to GZ train station
- assuming that I was lucky to get onto the 1230pm train, i will reach at 2pm if not, 230pm. this is not factoring the time required for clearing customs....

b - train to Luo Wu Train station, cross over the border towards Shenzhen and find the train to GZ on my own (train leaves half hourly or on the hour depending on the timing)
- the train ride to Luo Wu will take at least an 1-1.5hr
- unsure custom times, if peak may take up to an hour to clear the customs
- ShenZhen-GZ train will take at least 1hr
- finding the train station and locating the correct ticketing offices will take time, leading to getting lost, increasing my exposure to pickpocketers/theif etc
- ETA will b around 2-3pm

going through my options rapidly in my mind, I decided to just take the bus. I want to reduce the hassle of finding something in somewhere which I'm not familar with and laden with loads of pickpockets/theif etc.

After I bought the bus tickets, the sms in the hp kept pouring in, the Singapore embassy officer whom I called during the night to inform her of the situation, sent me information for a GZ office which she promised. I also quickly got a call from our representative in HK MFA office, giving me information on the train times available, she felt that I would get to GZ faster with the train method, but I felt it was safer otherwise. Nonetheless, she was very helpful over the phone and kept asking if there was anything else which I would require assistance on. I could not think of any.

My friend Al from Singapore also sent sms on our MFA office in GZ, I felt relieved that we have such special privileges as Singaporeans. We can be assured that efficient communication of relevant information is available. I felt very "safe". Shortly later, I recieved a call from one of the officers in the GZ office Mr. Wong. He was quick to provide a list of the services he can provide on behalf of his office and hearing a Singaporean accent in a totally foreign land is very re-assuring. I told him that we'll remain in contact as I was unsure of the details and the developments to my father's situation.

By then, my hp was overwhelmed with sms, phone calls and one of the first sms that I received was from my cousin whom we seldom communicate. She sent her condolences.

I knew I was too late.

My heart sunk.

My sis's sms came in to say that she had to let father go. they've tried resuscitating him 6-7times through the night manually. It confirmed my suspicision.

Things will be different now. How's mum doing was my first reaction. If she's not doing well either then we'll have a double whammy....

Sis said that mum has returned to the hotel with some of our relatives from our hometown. HUH?? Where do they come from??

Uncle Sunny contacted our hometown relatives on the first instant after receiving the news and told them to come over to our hotel/hospital to check on the status at 7am in the morning. By 4pm, when I arrive in the hotel to check on my mum, there was already 5 of our relatives in the room, discussing the varies approach to the situation.

Being mildly jetlag and deprived of sleep, I could hardly figure out who was who. All I was relieved of was that mum's looking better than I expected. I guess having some crowd around her helps to keep her momentum up. I doubt if the truth of the situation has sank deep into her mind yet. I could see that she was struggling to keep the conversation alive with her sleepy eyes. I suggested for her to take a short nap to recoup some lost energy. She gingerly agreed.

We left the group to discuss the strategies and went to rest. Mum was quite shaken and had to rely on some sound advice to get a good wash up, change into some fresh cloths, take a hot drink and rest in a warm bed. I kept talking to her to keep her mind onto something positive to look forward to instead of gloomy thoughts to go to bed with. I guess it kinda helped, as she was not in a agitated mood or showed signs of stress.

Sis returned from the undertakers who has been assigned by the hospital to embalm dad's body. She came back with an astonishing figure for processing dad's body, air frieght him back to singapore with the relevant paperworks. Its 60,000RMB! convert to sing dollars..... 12k!!! my goodness!

family jen travel