I was reading the colourful prose of Neruda in contrast to the dull grey skies that greeted me as we touched down at Baiyun Airport.

It was actually a blessing that I had two and a half hours to kill during transit there. The airport is HUGE, and some bits are still under construction. Finding my departure gate turned out to be a bit of a treasure hunt as the signs were few and far between, and I even had to take one of those golf cart contraptions and it went down this long and windy corridor that would have passed off as an expressway back home, except that it was indoors! I actually attempted to walk down that corridor at first, but turned back after a minute or so when I realised that the cart driver wasn’t kidding when he said it was very long.

The boarding gate turned out to be this comparatively tiny holding area in the bowels of the airport. It was one of those rooms where you wait for them to ferry you to your plane in a bus. It was raining outside, so I was all prepared to brave the wind and rain for a brief spell, and trying to be thankful that I had at least found the departure gate with lots of time to spare.

Then, the next thing I knew, this announcement blared out that the departure gate had changed. A horde of people swarmed out of the waiting room and I kind of got swept along into a lift and along to another departure area, this time within a more mainstream part of the airport, which seemed to smell of stale cooking oil (can’t have ‘em all I guess). On the bright side, I would be staying high and dry as this boarding gate had a sky bridge, so I wouldn’t have to break out my goretex jacket.

I’m not sure what the temperature was in Guangzhou, but it got very cold, even inside the airport terminal. I’m glad I brought my puffy michelin-man style jacket. I suspect it will come in handy at some point.

My thoughts on having to put my rusty mandarin to use after all these years? Still barely manageable, though the locals speak a bit too fast for me to understand them on the first try.

The other revelation of the day is that I’m getting soft with age. After trying to mentally and emotionally prepare Clare for my trip over the past week, I surprised myself by almost bursting into tears at the gate when I saw what a brave and wonderful little girl I had. Apart from asking me a few times why I needed to get on the airplane “all by myself”, and that she wanted to go with me when she got older, she didn’t kick up a fuss or cry. She even waved at me as I quickly walked away before I started to cry.