DIY Travel
This time last month, I was at Bifengxia Panda Base. It was my first full day there, having arrived the previous night. Mr Yang, one of the two co-owners of Xiao Xi Tian motel (actually, it’s more like an inn), was at the airport to meet me. I looked around for him and found him holding a large piece of paper with my name in both Chinese and English. The look of uncertainty on his face turned to recognition as he walked up to me and said, “You’re here again.”
After an almost 3-hour ride, we arrived at the main entrance and the same uneven path, complete with unexpected steps, leading into the inn. Having been there before, I should remember the path; well, I did, but not exactly where it dipped or rose. This time, I also had to deal with a path made slippery by rain that had accompanied us most of the way.
Compared to last year, the entire leg of the journey from Kuala Lumpur right up to the Base this trip was smooth. I still remember last year, the day before I was to fly, the airline had called to ask me to travel a day later as they were cancelling the flight I was travelling on. I kicked up a fuss, saying I had a connecting flight and accommodations already booked, would the airline compensate me for the missed flight and unused room booking? After a couple of phonecalls, they told me to be at the airport the next morning, and I was eventually put on a similar flight an hour later than the original flight. As a result, I would be too late for the original connecting flight to Chengdu and had to rebook a later flight, which the staff at KLIA assured me would be taken care of, except when I arrived at Guangzhou Baiyun Airport, I found it wasn’t and I had to do the booking myself. With the connecting flight sorted out, I was looking forward to getting on the plane and be on my way to Chengdu. Except the flight was delayed; in fact, there were so many flights delayed that day, which I think had something to do with the fact that the Olympics would be held in Beijing later that month.
The same part of the journey (KL – Guangzhou – Chengdu – Bifengxia) this year had no cancelled or delayed flights. I didn’t even have any paper tickets for the various flights, only my passport to show at the check-in counters for the staff to check my name against the passenger lists. I have to admit that was my biggest worry, that my name would not be on the list and I did not have a seat on a particular flight. As it turned out, my worry was unfounded.
So, with all the hassle from last year’s trip, why did I not book through a travel agent and let them handle everything for me? Why did I do my own bookings, going online to check flights, compare prices, etc.? Simple – my trip itinerary was not available as a convenient all-in-one package from any travel agent. At least, not from Malaysia. I know in Europe there is an organisation that handles similar itineraries but as far as I know, not in Malaysia. I did go through a travel agent in Chengdu for both my 2007 Wolong and 2008 Bifengxia trips, but only because I’d never been to either places and was not familiar with the available accommodation at both places. But having been to Bifengxia last year, I felt confident to make my own arrangements this year and for all future trips to come.
In the end, I learned something from this year’s DIY panda trip. I learned about the different online travel companies (all operating in mainland China) that offer discounted flights, hotels and tours. I learned about the different levels of discounts. I also learned that these discounts sell out pretty fast. I managed to book my Guangzhou – Chengdu flight at 68% discount, but soon learned that booking and confirmation are two different things. Within 30 minutes of receiving an acknowledgement that the company had received my booking, came a second email saying they could not sell me the ticket at that price because the airline would not sell it. That was really just bad English, because what it meant was the 68% discount tickets had been sold out. I then managed to book another ticket at the next level of discount at 53%.
The Chengdu – Fuzhou flight is another travel tale I’ll enjoy telling and retelling, mainly thanks to the current global economic situation, particularly the fluctuating currency exchange rates. I had to reschedule that flight, but because it was a discounted ticket, I could not just change the time of my flight. Instead, I had to cancel the first flight and book a new flight. I paid a small penalty of 5% for the cancellation and got a refund, but thanks to the fluctuating currency exchange, I ended up paying less for the new flight.
There were a couple of other lessons learned from this DIY trip. eTickets are as good as paper tickets, and online Chinese travel companies CAN be trusted. These same travel companies can also be trusted to refund any money from incomplete bookings (like my Guangzhou – Chengdu flight) or cancelled flights (like my Chengdu – Fuzhou flight) in a very timely manner.
So, after enduring a full day of travelling, a cold night and a room even worse than the previous year (the inn Xiao Xi Tian, which means “Little Western Sky”, requires its own blog entry), I woke up early the next morning, ready to say hello to the staff of the Panda Club office, the keepers from last year, and of course, my beloved black and white bears. By the end of day, I had visited with some friends from last year, and had to remind myself to slow down, as I would there for the next six days.
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Some of the cubs born in 2008 now live in the kindergarten – how they’ve grown since I saw some of them in August last year, when they were just tiny pink hairless and helpless creatures
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This one stood out from the rest for standing up and being restless and maybe a little reckless
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Three of the girls from the 2006 batch. The one in the middle is my adopted panda, Feng Yi. She had arrived late the previous month from Beijing Zoo where she had been part of the Olympic attractions with seven others from her batch. I thought she was looking a little unhappy that day. Life on the Base must be rather boring compared to the public display and crowds at the Zoo.
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Three of the boys from the 2006 batch. Two of them, Lang Lang and Tao Tao, had been at Beijing Zoo until late the previous month.
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These two are Funi and Fuwa, twins from the 2006 batch. Fuwa was in Beijing Zoo until late last month. Funi will be going to Adelaide Zoo later this year with Wang Wang, born in 2005.
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This is Gong Zhu who I helped to look after last year and also this year. She is a very special panda who appeared in the Disney movie, Trail of the Panda, with her 2007 cubs, Zhu Ling and Zhu Hai. Their scenes in the movie are very precious because Zhu Hai died in June 2008.
