David's AW News: A Strange Night in Guangzhou… and a Warm Welcome in Kathmandu

Greetings from Kathmandu,

Last week I was in Yiwu, China. This week, Nepal. If you missed the Yiwu update, you can catch up HERE.

My newsletter has a slightly different format this week; it's a cautionary tale..

Sandra and Bryant (who were in China with me) are safely back in the UK, while I took a China Southern afternoon flight down to Guangzhou, planning to connect on to Kathmandu. Except (again)… my onward flight had been cancelled and replaced with an early morning departure the next day.

No great problem, I thought. I remembered there was a rather nice five-star hotel somewhere in the airport complex. Oddly, I couldn’t find it on Trip.com. Expedia, however, showed me a hotel just eight minutes’ walk from the terminal. The room photos looked familiar. I even found the location on Google Maps. That must be the place..

Then came the first warning sign: the price. Seventy-five percent off. About £16. Too good to be true? Almost certainly. Did I book it anyway? Of course I did.

So off I went, wheeling my suitcase through the humid Guangzhou night, looking for this bargain luxury airport hotel. Only… there was no hotel.

I checked and rechecked. Nothing. So I went to an enquiry desk at the airport entrance, where a very helpful young lady took pity on me. She called the hotel, spoke to them, and told me not to walk there at all — apparently I needed a hotel transfer. She gave me the vehicle registration and said it would arrive in a few minutes.

I waited at the pickup point.

And waited.

Lots of vehicles came and went. Not mine. By now it was getting close to midnight, hot, sticky, and I was starting to feel a bit stressed. So I called the hotel myself and attempted, in truly dreadful Chinese, to explain that I was still standing there and beginning to doubt the whole arrangement. The girl on the other end, calm and patient, told me I was at the wrong pickup point and needed to go elsewhere.

Eventually I found the vehicle. It was not, let us say, a gleaming hotel limousine.

More an elderly van with hard bench seats. In the front sat a man in a hoodie, hunched over, and the driver had the kind of mafia tatooed look that does not immediately inspire confidence in a tired traveller after midnight.

Now, Guangzhou always had a bit of a reputation years ago. I remember the old days when taxi drivers sat in protective cages and hotels advised you not to wander out late at night. Surely those days had passed, I told myself. Still, as we drove away from the airport — and not in the direction shown on my Google map — I did begin to wonder.

“Maybe eight minutes by car,” I thought.

I leaned forward and attempted to ask the driver how long it would take. He responded by turning the radio volume up to full blast.

Not ideal.

Thirty minutes later we were still driving, now through what looked like a distinctly less polished part of town, and I began to think that perhaps my bargain hotel booking had not been the masterstroke I had imagined. Mugging? Scam? Organ trade? One does wonder where the mind goes at that time of night.

Then suddenly, relief.

We pulled up outside a building that looked exactly like the one in the Expedia photos.

I got out, collected my luggage, and stepped into a brightly lit lobby with modern décor and rather arty furniture. Behind the desk stood five young women in a neat row, all smiling, giggling, and operating with extraordinary speed despite patchy English between us. One handed me green tea in a paper cup. Another scanned my passport. Another made the room card. Another checked my flight time so the return transit van could be organised.

Within moments I was in the lift and on my way upstairs.

Now the room…

Large. Bright. Slightly surreal.

There were no normal light switches, only motion-sensor lights. A huge bed. An oversized chaise longue. A yoga mat. A set of weights in the corner. The shower room appeared to double as a karaoke room. At this point I did begin to suspect I had not checked into a standard airport business hotel.

And on the back of the door was a rather alarming police notice, sternly warning about secret filming, privacy violations, hidden cameras, indecent material, and various associated criminal penalties.

Haha, you can google translate the picture text, strange and unsettling.

 At one in the morning, with a 5.30 wake-up looming, this was not especially soothing reading.

Still, sleep was needed.

Unfortunately, outside the window there was thumping music, and after a while I realised I was also being eaten alive by mosquitoes. So it was not exactly a restful night. But at 5.32am the bedside phone rang: the transit bus was waiting. Downstairs they handed me a packed breakfast, bundled me back into transport, and delivered me to the airport.

And do you know what? In its own strange way, it wasn’t too bad

Yes, I had clearly been lured in by a misleading booking. But for about £17 I got a bed, two transfers, a bizarre room, a memorable story, and breakfast.

This is China.

From there I took the early China Southern flight to Kathmandu.

And what a contrast on arrival.

The hotel here had sent a car for me, but everything moved in a completely different rhythm. Not brutally efficient, as in China, but softer, warmer, more human. The luggage belt had broken down and apparently no one was available to fix it. In practical terms, less efficient. But somehow nobody seemed panicked. The driver was delightful, the hotel staff were wonderful — “Welcome back, Mr David” — and within moments I felt something I always seem to feel in Nepal.

Relief. Warmth. A kind of gentle embrace.

Then Mr Padam, our shipping agent, invited me to his niece’s wedding the very next day, which was a lovely reminder of how personal and generous business relationships can be here.

The wedding was in a posh part of the city in a White House copy building.. It was amazing. Most ladies wore red and looked stunning, the groom's side all sported red scarves. The wedding is a full day starting at 8.30am and ending late. It involves a rolling series of mini-ceremonies and rituals, plus endless catering (and, refreshingly, no alcohol). Fortunately, other than close family, the guests come and go as they wished. We stayed for a couple of hours enjoying meeting all types of people and eating from the huge buffet that had just opened.

Then the time came when we (Raul from KL is here with me) were ushered in front of the happy couple. (I know the bride a little; she helps at the shipping agency.) We wish them well in their future life, photos op, then hand over our red envelopes (interestingly, these must go to the bride), and our job is done; we are free to leave.

So after the hard edges, bright lights and strange adventures of transit China, it feels very good indeed to be back in Nepal.

More news next week.

Namaste

David