This morning was crazy. Everything was going fine at first. I got to the airport at 4:15am for my flight to Beijing. Once I got to the check-in counter there was a problem. I did not have a visa for China. I guess I can get a 72 hour visa on arrival but my stay was going to be 77 hours and that was not okay. Anyways, they refused to let me on the plane because they said China charges their airline when they let people through who do not qualify for the visa. The manager got involved and I tried to find a way to get on the plane, but it was not happening. Embarrassingly, I starting to cry like a baby at the check-in counter because I was frustrated, mad at myself for not figuring this out sooner and because I thought it would cost a lot of money to fix this mistake. I think Joanne, the manager felt bad. She was really nice and said I could take the same flight tomorrow free of charge. Then I would be able get the 72 hour visa on arrival.
I finally accepted I was not getting on the plane and I had no other choice so I took the flight for tomorrow. I kept tearing up all morning though. I don't know why I am so emotional today. Maybe it is the fact that I have only had 3 hours of sleep 2 nights in a row.
So I went back to the Heratige Hotel and had the breakfast buffet with Sarah because her flight was not till the afternoon. She was surprised to see me. The buffet was amazing, anything you could ever want. We went up three times. I don't think we will need any other meals today after that breakfast.
After breakfast I had a nap while Sarah went to check out the pool. The nap was well needed.
Then I just got some stuff done on the wifi and skyped my family. I emailed my private tour guide in Beijing and she was so accommodating with the changes. She is going to pick me up at the airport tomorrow at 11:10 when my flight arrives and we will go straight to the Great Wall of China so we do not waist another day. I am just going to stay at the same hotel again tonight. It is a little pricy when not sharing with someone, but I like the pool and fitness center and I don't really want to go anywhere.
Everything started to come together and I realized I may have overreacted this morning. My flight was changed free of charge, my tour was still going to happen tomorrow but I still had to pay for my room in Beijing because it was already prebooked through Expedia. So in the end, the only additional cost was the room at the Heritage for another night. In the end, I was sure lucky that my screw up didn't cost me more.
I just lounged around the hotel all day. I went swimming and used the desktop computers. I thought about going to see a movie at the Mall of Asia but there was nothing playing that intersted me. I had another great workout in the fitness center. Then I walked across the street to McDonalds for a healthy dinner. After dinner, I packed up and went to bed early.
I really enjoyed my time here in the Philippines. The philippine people are nice people and they speak very good English for the most part.