Some travel days just don’t seem to end. It seems that whenever I make plans, I wish immediately I didn’t. I can’t seem to learn this lesson.
In Shangri-la, after learning I couldn’t do the overland route to Tibet (altitude), I found a cheap $50 flight from Ligiang to Kunming. Because I had already done the fabulous overnight train on that route, I figured I would fly and just get on with my travels and get to Kunming in order to go somewhere new. Problem was this cheap flight came with a s***ty departure time (of course). Even so, I booked it and stayed with Mama Naxi until 8:30 pm where she put me in a taxi with another couple who also had a late flight. They, a young American guy (Fraser), teaching in Chengdu and his lovely Chinese girlfriend, (Veronica). We arrived at the fancy new Lijiang airport and I was grateful for Veronica’s Mandarin to get checked in without incident. I was to leave at 11:50 pm for a 50 minute flight; they were to leave at midnight for a one hour flight.
We visited and visited and were having some great ‘meaning of life’ conversations when Fraser figured I should have been called for my flight. He came back with a policeman who said the flight was delayed – thank God for translators cause there is no English…..so we kept visiting and talking, talking. Then it was nearly midnight and the waiting hall was very full. Out of the blue arrives the check-in guy – from 9pm when I checked in and he is with some official guy. He tells me something in Chinese and motions for me to come with him. Veronica intervenes and they explain that my flight is still delayed and I should go to a hotel with this official guy……hmmm……..
I ask her to ask him if he is paying…..he says yes and I ask Fraser and her if they think this is weird because I do. They agree but it is really late and there seems to be a free hotel (somewhere) and I don’t have a place in Kunming anyway until daybreak…so….I sadly bid farewell to my new delightful friends and follow this uniformed Chinese guy. Odd thing was I was the only one being taken out of the waiting hall: Fraser and I were the only foreigners. Another mini adventure for the white chick?????
The official guy walks me through the airport and I expect to get a taxi or a voucher – remember I cannot understand a thing……he finds three business guys and points away from the airport. They start walking so I walk with them. They say something in Chinese to me and realize I can’t understand them so they laugh and laugh…..hmmmm.
We walk about 200 m to a brand new airport hotel – very fancy -and enter the lobby. The clerks had us keys – the three guys get one and I get one. I mime “are you going to call me?” and I get a nod. I have no idea if the flight is delayed 20 minutes or two days – I am tired and just want a little bit of sleep but this seems a little unreal for a $50, 50 minute flight. Take note Air Canada!
Sure enough, the key works in the quiet (it is now midnight) hotel and I enter to find a fancy room and bathtub!!!! Not knowing how long I will be there – my bags were checked in at 9 pm so I just have my pack with my laptop, I strip off and get in the tub…….nice. Then, still no call so I go to sleep. About two hours later there is banging at my door so I get dressed, head down to the lobby, drop my key and walk back to the airport. No one else is leaving the hotel????? Get to the airport and seems I am the last to arrive. The airport guys seem relieved to have me join the full waiting area and gives me two cupcakes and a Chinese tea. We board the plane – I see two other foreigners and ask them if they went to a Hotel. They said they went at 8:30 when they arrived at the airport – they were told the plane was delayed and were taken to a hotel and then picked up about an hour ago……these two guys were from Yellowknife??? And were just starting a one month superfast tour of all of China….yikes……
The plane took off around 2:30am and I still have no idea if they put up the whole 737 load of passengers in hotels for a few hours over a two hour delay……wow.
So we arrived around 3:30 and there were no Taxis at the airport. I hooked up with the Canadian guys and we agreed – well I agreed and took them with me, to a scam artist who agreed to take us in his car….felt better because there were three of us. The guys were terrified - new to travel and they are from Yellowknife!!!! They were going to a different Hostel than I was and we told the guy to take me first. He did not – he went to the guys place – not near mine……hmmmmm.
We all got out and I told the guy to take a hike…not sure what he was up to….and headed down the 4 am street to find myself a real taxi.
The first one I found would not let me in the car. Kept walking. Second old guy was really nice and he deposited me at my place (thank goodness I knew where I was going) at 4:30 am. Had to ring the buzzer to get let in and then wait an hour to get a room. What an ordeal for a $50, 50 minute flight. Just a reminder of why not to fly if there are other options.
Then……stayed in Kunming and booked the train for Guangzhou as I changed my tickets to Paris so I could leave China and go to Bangkok for a bit. I know it is complicated but I pretty much hit the wall on the whole translation and difficult travel issues – warmer and easier in Thailand.
My train would allow me to see a lot of china – actually it is a 24 hour train across the whole bottom of China, leaving at 11:50 am and arriving in Guangzhou, near Hong Kong, at 11:50 am the next day. Perfect timing. I leave the Hostel, laden with groceries and drinks for the journey and take the bus (cheapskate) to the station…….lots of time as I had left this station a week or so before and it was really a nice place to hang and people watch…..
On the bus with my four bags – my pack, my daypack, my groceries and my purse. I looked like a Sherpa. The bus is packed and the train station doesn’t materialize…….eventually I think I am near and hop off. Ask questions….nope – same stuff – either ignore, or flee in terror. Time is running out so I go to a Bank. Everyone in China learns English from their first day in school….OK, we learned French too but…..nope – no help. Finally I have a bit of a tantrum and I draw a train…..one guy steps up and looks horrified and points the way I came. Now I am really confused and time is really getting tight. I then see at the end of the road (big road- far away) Train Museum….hmmm Train Museum should be on some train tracks….train tracks…train station……Thanks Detective……I haul my ass and my hordes of crap down the road, across the intersections, up the ramp and no entrance to any station, searching, searching, swearing, swearing….still not helping……finally backtrack to the Museum – show my ticket and they all gasp – call for someone. A lovely little young woman comes and says I am in the wrong end of town and I need to go very far to this station. I show her the 11:50 departure time and she and the others gasp. It is now 11 o’clock. She tells me I need a taxi and we run out to the street – the area in front of the museum is under construction so she says she will run to find me one and for me to follow as quick as I can. See, when nice – super nice. She flags down a cab, tells him my story and thanks me for letting her help me – so so nice. We set off and the clock is ticking, ticking…..again, it is one of the few times I have accommodation booked ahead – expensive accommodation too because it is a huge city and nothing was cheap there. We hit a traffic jam and sit and sit…..not going to happen. First, my expensive train ticket and then my expensive hotel. More swearing, not helping. The poor taxi guy, who could not drive aggressively if his car was on fire, meanders along but mostly it is just traffic. We get to the station at 11:49, I run into the massive station, get my bags scanned, head to the info booth, thrust my ticket, hoping that maybe, just maybe the train was delayed…..nope – already gone! More silent swearing. Then again – nice nice Chinese – the girl calls for someone to come and get me. No problem – takes my ticket, takes me downstairs, has another ticket issued for the 5:30 pm train, brings me to a fancy waiting room and leaves me. No extra charge, no problem. So I sit and update my blogs, upload some pictures and wait for the train. Somehow I think someone will come and get me because I see the same two girls come in and out and wave…….It gets to be 5 pm…..a few more folks are in this big room. I have eaten most of the groceries for the trip…..people leave, still I am waiting for a signal…..then the nice girl comes in and does an exorcist scream at me to get going- she is yelling at me in Chinese so I get rolling and she points about a half a mile down the track section to a zillion trains…..hmmmm, guess mine is one of them and ready to leave….who knew….what was I thinking???   Who could miss two 24 hour trains in one day???? I haul the load again, down the stairs, over the tracks, with the crowds, waving my ticket to each surely train staff person and get waved on further. Run the length of the train because I am in Car 7 and I started at the end of the train….the whistle blows just as I get to 7 and I hop on and find my cabin…..ahhhh……finally, and it all to myself!!! Then a Chinese guy, about my age show up along with a whole bunch of other guys……yikes……..then they leave the older guy with me and go find their own places. And here I am – writing this on my laptop as the scenery passes by. Quite delightful. Had a great sleep with the clickity clack – such a nice way to travel. Can’t talk with my cabin mate. We try now and then – he has a tea factory – showed me all the pictures and I showed him my pictures of tea plantations in Malaysia and India. He can write English and said those tea plants are only 10 -50 years old – his trees (which are massive) are between 500-2000 years old. Guess the only old things left in China are Tea Trees! He gave me some tea….I will let you know.