Trips

Today's weather: High = 15 Low = 12
Cloudy

After having stayed put in Shanghai for two months now and really getting into the swing of things at work, I'm happy to say now I actually look forward to the next trip --- wherever that may be. It probably won't happen for ahwhile yet, but the fact that I actually want to travel again and hit the airports is a good sign. Earlier this year, in 2010 that is, I was going through some rather intense travel exhaustion, burnout, and the ongoing nightmare of a lost passport. It easily got to where I was actually *dreading* the next airplane, train, or bus ride. Thankfully, the excitement of travel has now come back.

There were two periods of relative stability this year. First was after the lunar new year where I hunkered down in Wuhan for about this same amount of time getting lesson plans together and taking another stab at attempting a social life. Sad to say, both those earlier attempts failed. I then went on a frantic travel spree starting around April and May, hitting the airports nearly every 2nd weekend, most of it to head down here (to Shanghai) and get set up for future jobs and social life situations which I am enjoying very much now. And so, this latest period of stability is quite good.

Ironically, I'm penciling in another trip to Wuhan sometime before Christmas. This is to retrieve 9000 RMB in old bank account funds. This was a fallout from the lost passport episode where I also lost the Wuhan bank card that had all my RMB cash from my previous job. I put in the request for a replacement card way back in August while there on a short trip -- they needed to see my new passport of course.

Unfortunately, they said back then it would take 2 weeks to process the card and I would still need to come back to pick it up with my passport. They couldn't mail it out to my new address in Shanghai. Of course, life got super busy so I haven't made any trips back to Wuhan yet. For all I know, the whole card application may need to re-processed. What I'll end up doing is proving that the account is in my name with the passport and just withdrawing all the cash on the spot.

The only question is when to take a day off work and do this. Friday is out of the question, because I'm then tied up with social activities and committments all day Saturday here in Shanghai and it's a waste of a trip to visit Wuhan in jsut a day. Sunday-Monday is a better option. If all goes well, I'll head in there, grab the cash, and leave a little richer.

The train system has now improved big time. The whole Shanghai-Nanjing section was replaced with a new high-speed track line so that particular section only takes 90 minutes. The Nanjing-Hefei-Wuhan section was already fast, so now they estimate it takes a mere 4 hours to reach Wuhan. But realistically, the total door-to-door travel time is still going to be 6-7 hours, compared to the 8 hours total it used to take. By comparision, the airplane total time is about 6 hours, or 5 hours if everything goes super well.

As mentioned in previous blogs, the first part of the problem is that all the flights to Wuhan leave from Pudong airport which is way out in the boonies. The new Hongqiao airport doesn't resolve things very much, as the Wuhan flights don't make use of it now, just like they avoided it in the past. The second part of the problem is that the airport in Wuhan is also way in the boonies, and the horrendous traffic (10 times worse than Shanghai) makes for long and tortuous journeys to the final destination.

So that's basically why I haven't been going to Wuhan much these days, and I shake my head at how many times I did this journey back and forth earlier in the year.

On a more exciting trip coming up, it's looking like India, India, and India again for the new year break! Really stoked about this one folks.