I leave in a week. I leave for China. I guess I have a lot of anxiety about it. Jane asked me if I wanted to come to China and at first I said yes. Because when she went to Cairns without me she said she missed me. So I thought I should come on her next trip.
She asked me where I want to go in China. I said Taipei. I've always wanted to see Taipei. Now politically themed debates about whether or not Taipei is in China are outside the scope of this thread. The point is it's within travelling distance of China.
Jane just dismissed it. She was like "Why would you want to go there"? I was surprised considering her best friend lives there.
I didn't like the way she asked me where I wanted to go in China and then just dismissed all of my ideas and yet also seemed to be incapable of coming up with her own plan.
Jane says planning is a burden and she would prefer it if I planned the whole trip. I'm more than willing to do that. But then she doesn't let me plan anything.
This put me off. What put me off more was her cavalier attitude of not knowing where we would go or what we would do. China's a big place after all. When I asked who would feed the cat for the two and a half weeks we were gone she had the same attitude. That we'll just "figure something out later".
I didn't like that. Taking care of pets is a serious responsibility. You don't just abandon your pet whenever it's convenient. I said I'd stay home to look after Maggie, the cat. But the real reason was that travelling to China without a plan or any plan to come up with a plan triggered my anxiety.
So then she comes up with a plan. She said she wanted to leave our daughter and her mother in Sipping while she goes off to explore Zhangjiajie by herself. She was surprised when her mother immediately said she wants to come too. She shouldn't have been surprised. Zhangjiajie is one of the best places in China.
How like Jane to think of a cool place to visit only after I had backed out. Jane said it wasn't too late. I could change my mind. She kept saying I could change my mind. So I changed my mind. The connecting flight to Melbourne was booked and I didn't really want to take the next flight and land at midnight. So I decided I would take a nice relaxing train ride to Melbourne. Give me a chance to do stuff on my laptop (too bad I can't use that. The repair guy said it would only take him 2 days to get it working and now it's taking him weeks. It probably won't be ready in time. Maybe I'll just play Pokemon instead. I recently picked up a copy of FireRed for GBA).
So a week in Changchun (boring) and then a week exploring the mystical mysteries of Zhangjiajie. I strongly suspect that certain parts of Journey to the West were inspired by Zhangjiajie.
Then Jane said she'd cancelled Changchun and we'd spend the first week in Shanghai instead. Even better. Disneyland, the Bund, I was really excited to see Shanghai. Until Jane mentioned offhandedly that she was annoyed that she would have to pay extra to get into Disneyland. Price hike for Golden Week because everyone has the week off.
This set off alarm bells ringing in my head. Never mind having to pay a few extra dollars to get in. I'd had enough of that problem when I used to travel with my grandfather. We'd spend a fortune on plain tickets to get somewhere and then when we arrived he'd refuse to let us do anything because because it costs $20 to get in. Who cares about paying $20 when you've already spent a lot of money to travel to another part of the world?
I wasn't concerned about the ticket costing a little extra. I was concerned about why the ticket cost extra. Imagine all of China having a week off from their 9-9-6 culture and deciding they wanted to do something fun? What's the point of spending a day in Disneyland when the lines are 3 times their normal length? We'd only be able to do 2 or (if we're lucky) 3 things once we actually got inside. Also Cassie is only 4 years old. She would quickly grow impatient with this state of affairs, forcing us to leave early.
But it's not just Disneyland. Every fun thing to do in China will be packed. I started a thread on r/China asking how bad it will be to be a tourist in the Golden Week? They used phrases such as "(every place) will be full, full like a bottle of water".
I'm not scared of crowds but when the crowds are so great that their mass physically prevents us from doing anything it makes me feel like I've wasted my money.
The anxiety of travel is that when you spend thousands of dollars places dozens of hours of leave to go to a place, fun is no longer optional, it's mandatory. It's your duty. If you don't maximise your fun with ruthless efficiency it means you've effed up.
For the native Chinese, they have to use this week because it's the only week off until October. For Jane and I, when we are able to take leave of work has nothing to do with when the Chinese can, so why do we have to do it in the same week? My boss would have happily given me the same amount of leave but with the start and end dates happening 7 days later. It would make no difference to him.
I told Jane this and she cancelled our hotel in Shanghai. The plan was back to to staying in Changchun (plus maybe some time in Siping). Except in a worse hotel because she'd cancelled our Changchun hotel when she changed it to Shanghai.
The second half of the holiday still sounds pretty fun but I was mad at Jane that we're spending the same amount of money to stay in Changchun and Siping, two of the most boring cities in China, if not the world instead of Shanghai, one of the most exciting cities in the world. What a waste of money. It's not even winter so I can't even build a snowman with Cassie.
Cassie has never seen snow.
Changchun and surrounding areas get magnificent snowfalls in winter. I've seen them for myself. But we're going in May.
I said Jane should give me a discount because she's taking me to boring places. Jane had initially wanted $2,000. Then she said it's now $3,000. That's nearly half my cash on hand and I need some left over to upgrade the desktop when I get back.
I tried to get Jane to go down to half price but I was only able to talk her down to $2,500. Also she got really mad about my complaints regarding her holiday planning skills. I get the impression she doesn't take criticism very well.
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The days are long, but the years are short
23 Apr 2025, 1:54 am
