Alex's Asian Adventure

Background: I have (or, I should say, had) a duffel full of climbing & trekking gear that I intended to ship to Hong Kong, pick up there, and take with me to Delhi.

Friday, April 21: UPS tells me they can only hold it in Hong Kong for about a week. I say FUCKKITY FUCK! DAMMIT! I DON'T NEED THIS CRAP!

Friday, April 21: Alex, with the assistance of Kim @ Project Himalaya, resolves the quandry by arranging for the travel agents in Delhi to hold the stuff for a little while. Alex will ship the gear on Monday morning.

Monday April 24: The Adventure Begins.

This morning, Katie (see previous post) & I went to the UPS office, her with an envelope, me with a big duffel of stuff. Katie needed to urgently send something to the US. That was no problem. My turn at the counter comes.

UPS Girl look at my bag, says "oh very big, need box" and points to the biggest box in the house. The size-weight of the box is 30kg, and she says it'll cost me about $511 CAD to ship this to Delhi in "Indoo". My jaw drops. She says "go to China Post" & gives directions.

At China Post, they give me a slightly smaller box, but my duffel's dimensions are such that it won't quite fit. I take out Ice Axe of Trotskyification, and creatively compress the duffel using my two pieces of webbing. Ice Axe of Trotskyification will come with me through China. I figure it'll frighten anyone who gets the idea of robbing me. Besides, it's really light.

Anyway, I get the package ready & sealed up. I fill out paperwork. I take everything to the counter where they tell me "too big" - apparently it's oversized for these guys. I don't know what that means, but frankly shipping this stuff with China Post already frightened me a little bit and by this point I was ready to throttle someone. The fact that I was with a very nice girl was a moderating influence on my state of mind. I said "FUCKIT! I'm paying UPS, at least I can trust them"

So, back to UPS. The box is smaller. We figure it'll save me $150-200 off the $511 bill. UPS Girl is surprised to see us again. She rifles through her paperwork, does some calculating and measuring and comes up with a bill amount of....... $461. AHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I have no choice in the matter anymore. I can't haul this stuff around without losing my sanity. I bite the bullet.

Total operation: 3 taxi rides, 1 subway ride, three cups of coffee from Starbucks (including a double espresso for me, thank you Katie!), and a big UPS bill. At least I can be more or less confident that UPS won't fuck this one up too badly. Still, I'm ready to Trotsky someone.

Oh, and to add insult to injury, I missed my checkout deadline at the hotel by an hour and they said they can't override their computer. I call bullshit but you can't argue with these people. I spend another 140 kuai (about $20) for a late checkout.

Oh, and this afternoon I'm planning to make my way (by subway, which is dirt cheap here) to the Beijing Photo Mall to buy film for the trip. Then I catch an overnight train to Xi'an. I think I'll sleep with my ice axe cradled lovingly in my arms.