I'm So Lucky, Lucky!

  Kunming, Yunnan, China
May 19, 2009

We woke up at a reasonable time. It has been raining during the night and is still raining. I guess our plans will be to lay low again this morning.

I had a shower and wanted to dry my hair, but the dryer is not working. It is a bit damp and chilly outside, that is something we are not accustomed to on this trip.

I shared my french toast, omelet with bacon and mushrooms and fruit with Bill again. He ordered the milky porridge. I had some green tea and watermelon juice. Bill had orange juice.

After breakfast I used the computer and am 100% up to date on the blog again. Bill used the computer for a bit and tried to get the mud off our shoes and clothes.

It is was after 11 am when I finished packing up. We our 6th meal in a row at the hotel (this place has made a lot of money off of us) had beef with fried noodles, Liquan Beer, water and spring rolls for 83 yuan. We were playing Rummy, but had to stop when our taxi arrived. The score is 460 to 456 and we play to 500.

It was raining hard when we walked to the taxi. Bill's umbrella dumped water down his lower back.

Our female taxi driver is letting the windows fog up. We can not see a thing, we hope that she can see. She is constantly on the phone and finally puts the defrost on, but leaves the air recirculation button on, it does clear up the windows a bit though. She keeps (as many taxi drivers do) stepping on and off the accelerator. Why?? It is making me car sick! Bill, the driver and I have our seat belts on. This is the first time since we left Canada.

When we arrive at the airport she wants to charge us 280 yuan, the hotel had told us 250 yuan. She makes up some story about taking the toll highway instead of the regular highway (no one asked or told us about this). I am not sure who is to blame, the hotel or the driver or both. The hotel had a way of ensuring that we could not go anywhere without paying. We were not impressed to be charged $10/day for the bikes without being told and breakfast was $6/person which is pretty expensive too. I enjoyed the location of our hotel, but not sure it was worth the extra expense and hassle, especially since both our room had mold and the first one really smelled musty.

We checked in for our flight and went through security without any problem. Our Chinese Southern flight was delayed, but only for 15 minutes. We all boarded and were backing away from the gate in 15 minutes. People had not even sat down yet! I guess they want to make those 15 minutes back.

An interesting French lady sat beside us. She said she used to be a tour guide. She sat by the window and 15 minutes into our 1 hour and 20 minute flight she had to get up and use the facilities. When she tried to come back the stewardesses were trying to serve sesame crackers and drinks. There was no way that she was going to be excluded! She is wearing plaid pants that are too short and already has her neck pillow on. She was quizzing us about our trip, where we were staying and how we were getting there. After having her snack she put her eye mask on and had a nap. Upon landing the stewardess wanted to open our blind (so they can see if there is a fire in the engine) and she refused. She claimed that she had a problem with her eyes. She later leaned over and said that people with blue and green eyes (she has green eyes) need to be careful of eye cancer. Meanwhile, she would open the blind a bit and peek out?! ((At this point someone is smoking on the plane and I am hoping that the engine is not on fire and we just don't realize it!)) So, I think that this lady really is: a) a librarian, b) an escaped mental patient, or c) a ticket taker at Euro Disney.

We went to the information desk after collecting our bags. We are trying to find the best way to get to the train station. We are going to take an overnight train to Dali. The girl directs us upstairs, which is strange, and of course there is no information about the train station. We did ask at a ticket desk and we can buy a flight to Dali tonight at 9:50 (around the same time that a train would leave, then arrive in Dali early tomorrow am). We did "odds and evens" to decide. Even it is, we are flying. So, for an extra $200 (flight and hotel) we are going to be in Dali a few hours sooner.

We had dinner at one of the restaurants at the hotel because we could not check our bags yet. They really wanted us to have the buffet for 55 yuan each, but we had a meat and vegetable dish instead. It was pork and green hot peppers. We had a Dali Beer and rice too for 50 yuan ($5). During the whole ordeal there was 3 - 6 people hovering over us. Very strange. One girl was particularly enthusiastic.

We were able to go to the China Post Office in the airport and mail the letter for Nigel to Karen's class. We tried to use our new phone card to call our hotel, but it would not work. We ended up using the phone at China Post for 1 yuan/minute. Bill was able to talk to someone, book a room for tonight and arrange for a driver to pick us up at the airport.

We thought about spending some time on the internet, but it was going to cost 25 yuan/hour, which is very expensive.

It was after 7:00, so we were able to check in. Our bag with the Purel and peanut butter that we checked set off an alarm. I was worried that he was going to chuck my peanut butter, but he inspected it and let it go!

We finished our Rummy game and I won!! Bill was being a sore loser and pointed out how many other times he has beaten me on this score card. After that, Bill won two more games and 1 game is incomplete.

Bill bought a Magnum ice cream, Viennetta and a map of Dali, Lijiang and Shangrila. I had a couple of bites of ice cream and ate one of my apples.

There is a lot of cleaning staff here. At one point there was 5 people mopping one aisle.

We departed from Kunming on Lucky Airlines five minutes late. Bill thinks the stewardesses smell nice. They are very pretty, except for the clumpy eye lashes (they look like Tammy Faye without the eye shadow). We did not get any drinks or snacks on this flight. Dang!