We woke to hard rain & I thought again about how blessed we’ve been in our travels. It has been overcast since we got her & we never did see the top of the Jade Mountains, but the sun has peeked through the broken clouds now & then, and we haven’t had to cope with more than short periods of drizzle. Today, our only agenda is getting to Kunming and ultimately Changsha, and maybe a little last minute shopping.
Our bus to Kunming left directly from the hotel, stopping at a couple other points in old Dali before getting on the highway. The trip was uneventful other than an accident between a truck carrying fruit and some kind of liquid container truck. The one rammed the other from behind, dumping fruit all over the highway. Given the way people drive, it’s amazing that we haven’t seen more of this.
It rained the entire way to Kunming. When we got to the bus station, we decided to go straight to the airport rather than wander in the downpour with all our bags. We got there with 4 hours to spare before our flight, and were unable to check bags for 2 hours, so we stopped at the airport restaurant. Big mistake. The food was 3x what we’d paid anywhere else, and what we thought was an exorbitant price for a pot of tea (45 yuan, usually free) turned out to be per glass. $6. Something over an hour later, we left the most mediocre meal we’ve had in China and it cost 455 yuan – more than we’d be paying for 2 hotel rooms that night in Changsha. Live and learn.
We finally got on our flight, arriving at Changsha Airport at 11:20PM. Then a bus ride to the downtown bus station, followed by a couple of cabs to the Hua Xia Hotel, which Dan’s friend Steve (next year’s WorldTeach director) had reserved for us. We checked in sometime after midnight & the hotel staff was waiting for us. We were disappointed that they didn’t take MasterCard & surprised at the high room deposit (1,000 yuan, compared to the more typical 100), but the rooms were lovely and spacious. We had fresh watermelon on the nightstand, and our room even had a Mah Jong table (which we learned later that Steve had requested, just for kicks). Too bad we don’t know how to play!
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Olver family on the Great Wall
Who are we?
I'm Jim Olver, from Williamsburg, Virginia. My wife Judy, sons Adam & Chris, and I travelled to China to visit our third son, Dan, who is teaching English in Hunan Province for WorldTeach. This is the story of our trip.
What's "Laowai?"
Laowai literally translates as “old foreigner,” and can be somewhat pejorative. Another term for foreigners is waiguoren, which literally means “outside country person" and I guess is more neutral.