Well folks, the fateful day has finally arrived - I'm headed back to China!
For those that don't already know, I'm making a fresh start this time. Last visit I met a nice lady in Guangzhou in what was a bit of an epic trip, I met her parents , went to a friends wedding with her, the whole nine yards.
However when back home the distance seemed to go farther and farther. We chatted less and less on msn and when i wrote her a long letter one day she wrote back say too long, boring, write shorter letter..I knew it was heading for the rocks. I cancelled my trip back to Guangzhou, which was to take place in June. We still chat occasionally as friends now though, shes dating a guy from New Zealand now that works in Guangzhou. Its funny, we find it easier to talk as friends than as a couple.
So, I started writing a few other ladies and as luck would have it I think I found "the one". Her name is also Ling !! We write and chat and sms every day. Its like night and day compared with the previous lady. Our conversations are full of emotion and fun and plans for our future together, I really feel for her.
She is pragmatic like myself and we both have agreed to wait until we have met for real before committing to eachother. I think I will find it hard to not like when we meet such is the calibre of our conversations.
She is from Tianjin which is around 120KM from Beijing, which is only 30 minutes away on the super new bullet train.
Shes driving to the airport to pick me up (swine flu checks on the plane permitting - man I'm seriously freaking about about those). We will spend a few hours in Beijing - she taking me to a nice restaurant to eat Peking Duck! and then will drive me to my hotel (which she booked for me) and is right beside the train station so I can easily commute to Beijing once I'm done exploring Tianjin.
Next week we fly out together to Malaysia and will be staying in Kuala Lumpur , Penang and Langkawi Island there before flying back to Tianjin where i'll be for another three days before heading back home. I hope to hook up with JimB when back in Tianjin.
So what's the backup plan if thinks don't work out?, well I'm gonna head back to Guangzhou and meet up with Ling (the first haha) and her friends and just have some fun. I enjoyed their company the last time and would like to get a sense of closure with Ling as well i suppose. I hope though I don't have to make that trip.
My "grand romantic plan" is to pop the question to Ling in Penang while we eat in a restaurant by the beach ..you know tropical sunset, exotic location...I'm hoping she'll go for it.
My flight leaves Dublin Airport at 14:30, I have a short 1.5 hour stopover in Amsterdam Airport before the long flight to Beijing which arrives at 09:50 Chinese time or 02:50 Irish time! (that's in the morning, I'm gonna be real tired but nerves will keep me wide away, I just hope they don't elevate body temperature too!). I'm flying with KLM all the way, have never flown with them before so not sure what to expect.
My China Mobile phone is charged and Ling put some new credit on the account yesterday, so soon as the plane lands, I'll call her, and again once (fingers crossed) I'm allowed out of the plane after the swine flu checks.
Wish me luck brothers!
