Heavy departure

I don't think I could have asked for a better ending of my time in China. The last evening Senthil took Céline, Emilie and me to Shangri La, a hotel down town, to have the buffet. The food and wine was great, and so was the company. We had some laughs and I think we all enjoyed the evening. Afterwards, a bit to full, we took a walk down to The Londoner where we had a drink. Echo joined up later and it was nice to see the weird China-man before going home. I had to go home to pack the last of my belongings so we didn't stay to long. After saying good bye to everyone I was companioned for a chat and tea at my place. While talking about our memories in China it all felt so distant, and first then I realized it would all end. A bit sad, yes, but it felt like it was time to move forward as well. Saying good bye to everyone that evening was surprisingly easy. It felt like we will see each other soon enough anyway.

After a good bye hugs I had to continue packing with swift. I went to bed at 03:00 and my alarm clock woke me up one hour later, at 04.00. 50 minutes later I grabbed my bags and went looking for a taxi to take me to the McDonald's next to the bus station. This was the biggest mistake of that day. The coffee was great, but there was something fishy with the omelet, or maybe the chicken burger. Just a few minutes after my meal I felt ill. I had a 22 hour journey ahead of my and I was about to spend it being food poisoned. At this writing moment I am still not recovered. Maybe the stress had something to do with it. Not only the packing had been stressful, but also realizing that the time in China was over. Also the good byes took it's tolls of course, but I am about to come to the most stressful thing that day.

Just after arriving Shanghai I changed bus and headed for Pu dong airport, a one hour drive. At the check in desk they didn't say anything about the 2kg overweight of my check in luggage. However, I was  told to remove 2kg from my hand luggage. I was only allowed to carry 12kg, and that includes accessories like my camera bag. I took my bag and went around the corner to KLM's information desk. I asked them if they could keep an eye of my 3kg laptop for 10 minutes. The pretty lady behind the desk refused but after putting on a smile and bribing her with some of my travel candy (thanks Helen!) she finally gave in. I returned to the check in with one laptop less in my hand luggage. OK, 11kg and my bag got a tag showing that it was approved to carry aboard. I went back to the help desk and reclaimed my laptop and put it in the bag. At the security check a guard stopped me and asked why I was carrying 2 bags. He pointed at my camera bag that the lady at the check in didn't notice earlier. I explained with poor Chinese that one small bag is also allowed. Then he placed both bags on a scale and the meter shower over 19kg. I was screwed. The guard told me to redo the luggage check and get a signature from the check in that confirms my bags are in order. What was I suppose to do now?

I felt a bit silly when I handed in my laptop a second time at the help desk. But what about my 5kg camera bag? It was stuffed with several things. At this point I was glad I saved a small camera bag I bought in Beijing. I moved the camera over to the small bag along with some other articles. I managed to hide the small bag from the lady in the check in while she checked the hand luggage and my big camera bag. "Everything seems to be in order", she said and gave me the signature. Once I got all my stuff together I went back the security guard who saluted me and asked for the paper. Still he was not satisfied, since my luggage was over 19kg also this time. After a minor argument he took a note about my passport number, flight number etc and let me go. He was to check it out later, I was told. To my enjoyment I made it all the way home with my luggage without a 100 Euro fee.

The flight went smooth but it was a minor hell feeling like I did, because of a bad stomach. Funny, I made it without any problems for 5 months in China and I become food poisoned the last day. Due to my condition I could not sleep for more than a few minutes every interval. It made me feel worse, and I had to force myself to eat anything on the plane.
I promised the day before that I would smoke my last cigarette in Amsterdam and be smoke free in Sweden. That cigarette tasted so bad that I could only smoke half of it. It almost made me vomit so I threw it. I know what you are thinking and no, I have not started to smoke. For the past weeks I have been smoking every day, but not even during my long flight I felt the need of nicotine. I just enjoyed the smokes in China and my last time there was all about pleasure. Stupid, people tells me. Yes, but I enjoyed it, and that is my rock solid defense.

I arrived Göteborg at 23:00 and my mother with man picked me up. They saved me some barbecue at home but unfortunately I could not eat that much. I crashed at their apartment that night. I only had 1 hour of sleep in 37 hours so I was beyond exhausted and sick. For some reason I could only sleep until 07:00, so that morning I had a long chat with my mother in the balcony, along with a black cup of coffee.
I planned to write about my first day back home, but now I realize that the post is already to long. I chose to stop here and continue after the weekend. Now I must try a few of my dark suites and find a black tie. I have a funeral to attend tomorrow morning...