opinios

More Tales From The East

No updates for a while because I aint been doing much. The lifestyle in Far North Queensland is pretty laid back, and when in Rome...

Instead let me relay some stories from China that didn't make it into the travelogue, while in the background I sit on the beach and order my little elves around to organise things for the up and coming wedding (I wish!)

On our last day in Beijing we had an early flight back to Tokyo. We booked a taxi and a wake-up call, and thought that our trip home would be relatively smooth.

Unfortunately we forgot about China's departure tax.

We did have some yuan left, but it wasn't quite enough. No problem, I thought, we'll just change some more yen at the airport.

Nope. The currency exchange isn't open until 9am. It was 5:30.

No problem, that's what ATM machines are for, right? Well, yes, if you can remember your PIN. Unfortunately I had been living in Japan for a few years, and hadn't used my Aussie credit card for quite some time. But I had a vague idea and it was worth a shot. Hell, we were getting desperate.

* YOUR CARD HAS BEEN FROZEN *

Hey, wait a minute! I thought you were supposed to enter an incorrect PIN number three times before it swallowed your card! Gimme my card back! Hey, somebody! This ATM has stolen my card!!

Nobody had any sympathy, they were all still only half-awake. The bank that owned the ATM wasn't open yet. Now we were really screwed.

And then came the money man. An ultra dodgy-looking scruffy man who had obviously been watching my situation from afar and waited until now to plunge like a vulture on its prey.

"You change money?" he asked me under his breath, and pulled out the thickest wad of cash I have ever seen. He had everything: US dollars, Aussie dollars, Japanese Yen, English Pounds... heck I think I even spotted some Kroners in there. We haggled for about five minutes over the rate - he wanted desperately to trade but knew I was desperate. We agreed upon something that was well below current rates, but not so exorbitant that I felt like I was being completely ripped off.

And we begrudgingly paid our tax and got on the plane.