2005/1/8: Bangkok to Kunming

Bangkok was hot, as usual, on the day we headed out to the airport. Patchara's sister had given us some new "North Face" jackets, which we had packed along just in case China would be cold.

What? Freezing in Bangkok?

Standing around waiting in the Bangkok airport, everyone was craning their necks looking for the China Eastern jet that just wasn't showing up. Some well-dressed Chinese lady was shouting into her cell phone in the waiting lounge, and after a while I took notice. Finally she turned out to be some exec from China Eastern, chewing out the Bangkok airport administrators about an Air Uzbekestan jet that was blocking the gate. "Don't let it happen again!" she kept shouting into the phone.

Finally, the other jet shoved off and the China Eastern jet trundled into view. Good thing we brought our North Face jackets - The plane was COLD. Obviously it was an AC thing, since nothing in Thailand is naturally cold. Must have been a precursor to what was coming in China. Patchara quickly put on her North Face as we took our seats.

Dali Beer in Flight

Back on Khao-San road, we had been rather passive about getting any Chinese phrase books. We had just assumed that people would speak English in China. Hah. Even now, on the airplane, we were beginning to re-think that reasoning. People on the plane didn't seem very Anglo-able, even the flight attendants. So when they served the drinks, Jesse took a long hard look at the characters in "Dali Beer". Somehow, it seemed now a very good idea to start memorizing place names of destinations we'd have to reach.

Kunming Airport at Night

As we landed in Kunming, the full reality of not knowing any Chinese was starting to reveal itself. The airport was a dark, small, lonely building in the middle of a barren late night landscape. There were no jetways, no fancy lights, just a row of empty airplanes parked out in the middle of a field. Our airplane pulled up, stopped in the field, and then shut down. Everybody off!

We piled out onto the field and made our way into the little building. The airport was empty at this late hour. After getting some passport stamps, we found ourselves at the front door looking at the street. Hmm... We were able to get some money out of an ATM machine but I have to say, that was VERY lucky. The Kunming airport was otherwise deserted, except for a bunch of taxi drivers standing around.

We turned and looked behind us - nobody. So we started asking the taxi drivers to go over to the train station so we could make the midnight train to Dali. Should be a piece of cake - I had seen the train station just on the other side of the airport from the air, seemed less than 2000 meters but now on the ground was a different story - Which way was it? How could we get there? The taxi drivers had no clue what we were asking for. One or two seemed to have some vague idea but they were keeping it to themselves so they could charge double.

What should have been an easy jaunt over to the station turned into a late night crisis. Not a single person there could help us. Out past the taxi drivers, we could only see cold, dark, empty city streets.

After a while, a lady came over and started pulling our luggage off to a corner. We went with her to discover her own taxi, parked away from the others (apparently she was not permitted to pick up at the airport). She hustled us into her cab and took us to the train station.

0.001% of China is still a Million People
"What do you mean we can't buy tickets?"

Arriving at the Kunming train station was another cold dose of China. The station is absolutely massive - an imposing "communism meets modernism" building done in steel and glass. We lugged our stuff up the long escalator to the departure lounge, to find (seriously?) a few thousand people crowded into a giant hall, waiting for the night train. To use a USA analogy, it was a football stadium sized crowd.

We singled out someone who could speak English, he said we wouldn't be able to buy tickets on the spot. We followed him downstairs to the ticket windows, and it sank in like a ton of bricks: You can't get tickets without an advance reservation.

With no other choice, we tugged our luggage out into the dark streets and started walking in hopes of finding the Yuntu Hotel. A friend had given us the characters to look for, and someone at the station told us it would be down the main street.

Late Night Tea Bricks and the Yuntu Hotel

The streets of Kunming are empty at night. Broken sidewalk slabs heave luggage wheels while occaisionl passers-by on bicycles slow and stare. All the shops were closed at this late hour and the lights were off. The owners of one tea shop hadn't yet closed up, they heeded us along after we showed them the name of the Yuntu Hotel - Just up the street a little further.

The Yuntu Hotel is hidden in a small alley off the main street. A neon sign hangs above the alley entrance, done exclusively in Chinese characters. In the tiny office, we bargained the price down to 100 and checked in.

That China Chill

Inside the hotel room, we got our first exposure to how heat works in China... There's no heat in the room, just high walls all around. Heavy curtains drape over a large window. A rickety table supports our hot water - a tall metal flask with steam held down by a cork plug. We pour hot water out into little tea cups. That's our heat. Oh - and the beds each have heater pads that plug into wall power. We turn in for the night - finally - shivvvvering.