Rain Delay

We woke up early for our flight to Hailar, packed up and headed for the subway. Our plan was to get off at a station close to the smaller domestic airport we were flying out of, and catch a taxi from there.

The foreshadowing came as soon as we stepped out of the subway station.

Morning thunderstorms had flooded many intersections. Hailing a taxi was difficult but we managed to get two. Getting to the airport proved more difficult. Turning onto the road towards the airport traffic came to a complete halt. Our taxi driver managed to get word from a car coming in the opposite direction who told him that the water was halfway up the side of the cars and no traffic was getting through. Our driver quickly figured out a lengthy detour and we phoned the other car to tell them to change routes. I don't think the water reached more than the tops of our wheels as we drove into the airport. The two cars arrived at the airport at almost the same time, still in time for our flight.

Except for the fact that more thunderstorms were in the area and no flights were taking off. We checked in, cleared security and settled in for a long wait. A very long wait.

Actually we were quite lucky. About half the flights were cancelled today, ours was only delayed by 7 hours. The kids broke out their cards and played game after game. Some of the passengers loaned them a couple of fancy tea boxes to use as a card table. We watched a near riot as one airline employee tried to hand out food to hungry passengers. When we looked back later he had a police officer helping keep things a little more orderly.

Our plane finally boarded and we had a bumpy but uneventful flight to Hailar, arriving to much cooler temperatures and brilliant blue skies.

On the tarmac I tried to take a photo of the kids by the plane, but was quickly admonished by a young fellow in uniform that I couldn't take photos. I looked around at more than a dozen passengers with everything from phone cameras to iPads to big SLRs snapping away. I simply shrugged. And snapped my photos as soon as we were away from the grumpy officious guard.

And then we were greeted by our guide.

Then on our way. The original plan was for an afternoon of sightseeing on our way to the first stop, Erguna, close to the Russian border. It was a pretty drive, with lines of thunderstorms in the distance. We arrived quite late, but happy to be here and looking forward to our adventures.