The trip that almost wasn’t

Some of you have already heard this story in embarrassing detail…. for those that haven’t, sit back and enjoy a very Caitlin experience.

We were trying to figure out where we wanted to go this summer, and we were waiting to hear from the University if our trip to the US would be approved, so we waited until the last minute to book anything. We talked about Singapore, but the flights were really expensive, and talked about going back to Japan, but we wanted some where new. Finally we settled on Malaysia – but since our time was limited we would spend one week in Kuala Lampur, and save visiting different parts of Malaysia for a different trip. While we were deciding this, we got the approval and trip plans for the US had to be made too.

Now that the scene is set… I’m working on my first journal article, trying to find flights and hotels in KL and in the US and keep my soon to be home for the summer son on track for the last couple of days of school. I found decently priced tickets, go to buy them and they have sold out, go back and pick new tickets, ok crisis averted. I book a great airbnb, set up one of our excursions to pick us up there, and move on to planning the US trip before it gets any more expensive. I’ve never booked travel two weeks out, I’m more of an eight week planner, so this whole process was extremely stressful for me while I was trying to revise my paper.

Fast forward and it’s 4 days before we are set to leave for Malaysia, and I’m starting to pull things together that need to get packed (but in a very lazy and relaxed way), when an email pops up on my computer… saying that we can check in for our flight to Guangzhou tomorrow. I looked at it and thought, Mark just got back from Guangzhou, and why are they sending this to me anyway?? So I ignored it and went back to working. After about 30 minutes of it rattling around in my brain, I decided I should go back and read that more carefully. And yes, in fact, our flight to KL was the next morning really early in the morning, so we needed to get to the airport area that night to get to the airport on time.

I did not handle this with grace, I called Mark up freaking out because we couldn’t change the tickets, and the air bnb is now for the wrong days, and she won’t let us change them, so I cancelled it because she was so rude, and now we don’t have anywhere to stay plus we still had to pay the rude airbnb lady because you can’t cancel it for free. He came home from his meeting, ready to go, and like the amazing husband he is, telling me that at least I had caught the email and saved the trip.

I threw all our stuff together into suitcases and we decided that at least if we’re going to be in Shanghai overnight we could go get some good food before we take off. So we hop in a Didi and ride out to our favorite sesame noodle place in the city. From there we had another 45 minutes in another Didi to get to the hotel with an airport shuttle we could take early in the morning. It’s now about 9:45 and the plan is that we will watch a nova together and then go to bed, and we’re all pretty tired from an emotional day. As we check into the hotel, I ask about the shuttle, and the front desk lady asks me which terminal we need… I can’t remember and pull out my phone to check (have you guessed where this is going?) OH THAT’S RIGHT, TERMINAL 2 AT THE OTHER AIRPORT, TWO AND A HALF HOURS AWAY… THE ONE THAT IS CLOSER TO OUR APARTMENT IN HAINING!

It’s now so late, but we can’t wait until the morning to go because our flight left too early. So we try to get a cab to take us to Hangzhou, and we get one and he just keeps questioning “Hangzhou?!?” over and over. Turns out he can’t actually take us to Hangzhou because the license on his cab isn’t allowed, but he has a friend who can take us. While we’re driving, I try to book a hotel in Hangzhou for the night, but given that it’s now 10:30, rooms are limited, and I book the first one that is available and not too far from the airport.

We arrived at the Hangzhou Marriott at 12:45 in the morning, and it was such a nice room…. that we got to sleep in for 4 hours before getting up to head to the airport. I was such a nervous wreck that I couldn’t sleep because I was so afraid that the alarm wouldn’t go off and we’d miss the flight after all this. Again, despite being mad, my amazing husband told me that at least I caught it when I did instead of in the morning when it would be too late to fix. (Unsolicited advice– find a partner who can still find the best when things are so awful you just want to curl up and quit)

At least there is a happy ending, we got on the plane in the morning, flights were uneventful and we got to Kuala Lumpur. Our flight came in around 5, so we got to the new airbnb and dropped our things off and headed to our first food destination.

I don’t know how Mark found this place, but it was the first we went to and we all loved it. Alex has never been a big fan of Indian food, but with this place he finally tried some. His favorite was lamb Masala with double cheese naan and a pineapple lassi. The tandoori chicken was great, the nescafe was cold, and the dal was to die for!