I often write about Murphy's Law and how it follows me everywhere and so I thought it appropriate to include it in the title of this little piece.

At the beginning of February I published 5 articles detailing my return to Australia from Baotou in Inner Mongolia, and today I will share a little with you of my return to Inner Mongolia and how Murphy's Law is still with me. (Can't shake the blighter!)

Fancy lights at Spring Festival time in Baotou

Prior to leaving Baotou, and given that my visa was still good till June, I agreed to return and live in someone's spare house, and teach their kids. This I am now doing, although without internet connection, it requires running to the internet cafe everyday to publish the day's crop of articles. [For those new to me, I am, while the real editor is away, assisting him to keep the Newspaper published everyday].

Since you will see, and no doubt wonder at their significance, a variety of night time photographs, let me start with the most recent example of Murphy's Law.

Chinese Spring Festival this year, ran from February 14th to 28th. Although I have lived in China a long long time, I never knew that the Lantern Festival takes place on the last day of the Spring Festival.

Lanterns in Gangtie Dajie in Baotou near the Government building and the park

When I arrived in Baotou, I was met by my friend, Sun Lemei [the 1st office manager I had at EET] and helped to settle into my accommodations. Then she took off for Beijing. She made an appointment to see me upon her return, and at the time the appointment was made, we were to meet at 6pm in my apartment.

Because this city is lit up like a Christmas tree at the moment, I have been wanting to take some night time photographs, and had intended to do that on Sunday 28th. Mid afternoon however, Mrs. Sun called me and said that she wanted to meet me for dinner at the Haide Hotel.

So off I went to dinner, without a camera, and not knowing that not long afterward, the streets would be filled with thousands of people, that there would be hundreds of lanterns floating in the sky, or that for hours on end the night sky would be filled with fireworks of all descriptions.

Shangri La Hotel in Mingzu Donglu - Gangtie Dajie is behind the camera

When we met for dinner at 6pm, everything seemed normal. Later I heard the fireworks but did not pay much attention since they are common here during Spring Festival. It was only toward end of dinner, when I turned in my seat, that I could see across the room through the windows, the throngs of people marching in the street. Apparently they were following a variety of floats.

And all of this happened on the night I planned to go out photographing the bright lights, but then had a change of plans. That my friends is Murphy's Law. So the photographs you see here today, were taken the following night, and as luck would have it, it was a cold and misty night that didn't do much to assist my poor camera or my poor photographic skills. [Yes I have been told that in emails. So who cares! Come over here and take the photos yourself!]

These photos don't do justice to the sight

Now back to the beginning - the return trip to Baotou.

It started off with a plan to arrive in China, then spend time travelling to see various friends, and then arrive in Baotou by February 22nd.

Now here's the thing. My [one way] air ticket home was organised by a wonderful lady who had to contend with the fact that my Credit Card was physically in Australia, and whose company required proof that the credit card was mine by the production of Identification. We overcame all of that.

Therefore, when I wanted to organise a return ticket to Baotou, I naturally sent her the request. I sent that on the Thursday, and by Monday had not received any confirmation. On the Tuesday I phoned their office, and discovered that she was on holiday. So they gave me someone to help me organise my ticket.

That person then basically ignored everything I said, and copying from the original trip to Australia, sent me a quote for a return trip to Beijing. That was my last resort strategy. By the time I got that email, a week had passed since I sent the first email. Time was running short.

Finally, I dashed off to a recommended local travel agent, who did a quick and through job of organising my ticket. By this stage I had less that a week to organise everything to fly out on my desired date.

That's when Murphy's Law struck. Actually it was my own stupidity that struck.

If I simply want to arrive in China, there are options. I can fly from Brisbane to Hong Kong Direct; go to Beijing via Tokyo; or I can fly to Shanghai via Sydney.

Firstly I didn't want to go to Beijing, because it meant backtracking to the south. Secondly I didn't want to go to Shanghai via Sydney because it is an absolute pain. I did a return trip via Sydney in 2008 and it was a nightmare both ways. "Never Again" I said.

So the final choice was to go to Hong Kong. There was no point buying a ticket to any of my post arrival destinations, because that would require returning to whichever city I first arrived at, when it comes time to use up the return ticket.

So I opted just for the return ticket to Hong Kong. The rest I could organise myself. That's when the 'Chinese thing' kicked in. Because my IP address showed up as 'Australia', I could not organise a domestic flight in China. It drove me crazy trying. I do it from within China on a frequent enough basis to be quite familiar with the process. But organising an internal domestic trip while out of the country, is not the same.

Finally I figured that I would just book a hotel in Hong Kong, and then organise my trip from there. That's when my stupidity kicked in. Fully cognisant of the fact that it is Spring Festival, and fully expecting higher prices, what I forgot was that Hong Kong is the last place you want to be stranded in China without an ongoing ticket at Spring Festival Time.

From Shanghai, I could fly or take a train. From Hong Kong, I could only hope to pick up a spare seat on a flight to several possible destinations. Normally this would not be such a problem but given that it was Spring Festival, the lowest priced hotel was more than 2000 Hong Kong Dollars per night. Even the three star North Point Ibis hotel was expensive.

I was finally left with a decision. Book a room in Hong Kong and hope that I didn't have to stay a second night and maybe pay 4000 H.K. dollars or just buy a one way ticket to Beijing from Hong Kong; something that my travel agent could achieve for me, and at an excessively inflated price for the foreign travelers. I chose the latter.

The big park in Gangtie Dajie opposite the government building

The next thing that concerned me was that since my first ticket was a one way ticket, I didn't know if I would have the time to collect my bags and make it to check in for the next leg. The travel agent however organised that without telling me. I only discovered the fact when I went to check-in in Brisbane.

On February 16th I boarded my flight to Hong Kong but did so with trepidation, because I had an underlying fear that when I got to China, my previous EET employers may have somehow managed to get my visa canceled. At least I had the return ticket if that happened.

That flight also presented me with a 'real first'. I was given the 'G' aisle seat, which meant I was in the 4 seat section. But get this - I was the only one in the row and so spent most of the flight laying down. It is the first time I have ever slept on a plane flight and that includes the 2 day trip from Brisbane to London.

Shangri La hotel and park

When I got to Hong Kong I made my way easily to the transfer point, checked in for the flight to Beijing and had lots of time to spare.

That trip to Beijing was the first time in 3 days, that I finally felt at ease. (For 2 days prior to the flight I had been a wreck wondering what was going to happen to me even if I managed to get back into the country. The reasons will appear in a later story.)

Once on that plane to Beijing I felt great. From that point on I knew that everything would be plain sailing. Oh Boy was I wrong! Murphy finally stuck his nose in.

I arrived in Beijing and phoned the Beijing Aulympic Hotel to get the bus to pick me up. together with a half a dozen Chinese, I was transported to the Hotel. Deciding to let the others check in first (by which I mean that I finally had a chance to have a cigarette), I stood outside in the minus 5 degree temperatures.

Park in front of the Shangri La hotel in Mingzu Dong Lu

When I went to check in however, they had no record of my booking, and this despite the booking agent charging my Credit Card a 10% guarantee of arrival. Fortunately, being OCD (or just plain wary of Murphy) I had all the paperwork with me. I had booked for 2 nights, because I didn't know if there would be anyone in Baotou to give me access to my accommodation earlier than I had previously arranged.

It had been my intention to get straight on the internet once I arrived in my room, but unlike the previous time, this room had no internet. That was going to make publishing the daily articles at Magic City a problem. But as it turned out, there was one public use computer available in the hotel.

The next day I tried to book my flight to Baotou. Firstly I couldn't use my credit card less than 24 hours in advance of the booking, which meant that I needed cash.

I had heaps of Aussie dollars, but that hotel does not change foreign currency and they suggested that I go to the airport. Instead I went to the ATM to see how much I had left in my local account. Together with what I had, I had enough to pay cash for the ticket, which CTRIP would deliver to my door, given that I had no way to print an E-ticket.

THE Government Building

Then we had another problem. The hotel was not a participant in the CTRIP arrangements for delivery of tickets, and so I still had to go to the airport to get the ticket.

Needless to say, I finally got the ticket and arrived in Baotou safely.

Now to end this article, I want to tell you about three funny things.

Fancy lights at Spring Festival time in Baotou

The first is, that having left Baotou when it was minus 20 degrees, according to the Stewardess on the plane, the ground temperature in Baotou upon our arrival was to be minus 10. My reaction even surprised me. I thought: 'Oh good! I don't need to pull out any extra clothing from my bag.'

The second thing is that the Stewardess throughout the flight, kept advising the passengers to keep their 'sheet belts tight'.

The final thing is that upon our arrival in Baotou, she announced: 'It has been a Pressure to serve you!' I hope she meant 'Pleasure'!

Best Wishes to one and all.

The Entertainment centre is behind the park on Gangtie Dajie - the street in which I now live. I wrote a story about this place. Link is below photograph.

Baotou Entertainment Center

R.P. BenDedek

Email: rpbendedek@hotmail.com

R.P.BenDedek is the pseudonym of the Author of 'The King's Calendar: The Secret of Qumran' (www kingscalendar com), and is a guest columnist at Magic City Morning Star News. An Australian, he is currently teaching Conversational English in Baotou, Inner Mongolia, China.

Stories from China at Magic City

"The King's Calendar" is a chronological study of the historical books of the Bible (Kings and Chronicles), Josephus, Seder Olam Rabbah, and the (Essene) Damascus Document of The Dead Sea Scrolls.