After an intense 1.5 week of getting to know Chengdu and the colleagues there, it was time to depart again. But not before taking care of two important issues.
First of all taking stock of the ridiculous amount of soaps and shampoos and such that you get when staying in a hotel like this. If you open a soap or shampoo, and not even touch it further, the next day it will be thrown away and replaced with a new one. Such an environmentally unfriendly waste. So every day I put everything in my suitcase and only got it out when needing to use it, saving the rest up for use later.
Secondly, and far more importantly, we took off our rings. Despite it having been coming for a long time, it still got very emotional when it really happened. I tucked them safely away, to look at some time on a rainy day.
We then went to the airport, had our final coffee together, and shared a mooncake. We both departed from separate terminals, so we waved goodbye and went our separate ways. Veronika back to Seoul. Me back to Melbourne.
A long but pleasant couple of business class flights was ahead of me. With a 6 hour layover in Bangkok. Departing Chengdu it was amazing how visible the pollution layer was when lifting out of it with the plane. And when we approached Bangkok airport a rainbow appeared, and the lounge was also still there (surprise surprise! ;) ) so it was quite survivable. Eventually we landed back in Melbourne with some clear skies allowing me to have a great view of Victoria from the sky for a bit.
I swiftly went onwards to home. Took out the nice tea sets I bought in Chengdu (One traditional one for me, and one a bit more western-sized as wedding present for Andrea & Jon. Because next stop: US and A! Very nice! High-five!
First of all taking stock of the ridiculous amount of soaps and shampoos and such that you get when staying in a hotel like this. If you open a soap or shampoo, and not even touch it further, the next day it will be thrown away and replaced with a new one. Such an environmentally unfriendly waste. So every day I put everything in my suitcase and only got it out when needing to use it, saving the rest up for use later.
Secondly, and far more importantly, we took off our rings. Despite it having been coming for a long time, it still got very emotional when it really happened. I tucked them safely away, to look at some time on a rainy day.
We then went to the airport, had our final coffee together, and shared a mooncake. We both departed from separate terminals, so we waved goodbye and went our separate ways. Veronika back to Seoul. Me back to Melbourne.
A long but pleasant couple of business class flights was ahead of me. With a 6 hour layover in Bangkok. Departing Chengdu it was amazing how visible the pollution layer was when lifting out of it with the plane. And when we approached Bangkok airport a rainbow appeared, and the lounge was also still there (surprise surprise! ;) ) so it was quite survivable. Eventually we landed back in Melbourne with some clear skies allowing me to have a great view of Victoria from the sky for a bit.
I swiftly went onwards to home. Took out the nice tea sets I bought in Chengdu (One traditional one for me, and one a bit more western-sized as wedding present for Andrea & Jon. Because next stop: US and A! Very nice! High-five!
