To China!

Backpacking again.

The sun set on JFK...

... I fell asleep looking at clouds...

... and I had this dream...

The Kunming Airport is filthy, but cleaner than most places in this far west in China. I stood still in the middle of the check-in area, a massive hanger type building, with people flowing all around me. A group of women wearing matching outfits of colorful traditional clothing squatted in a circle around a thermos of tea and played cards. My flight was delayed but I wasn't worried, mostly hungry. My checked bag was already lost in Hong Kong with the promise of its return by the airliner, and I had already made it this far, how could I not get there?


I was entering my third day (straight) of travel with all going moderately as planned minus the bag. I rank, but was in a good spirits. Finally after two hours the flight boarded when they concluded the weather in Lincang (Lin-sztang) was acceptable. The ride was an old plane probably retired from a higher end airliner, but still in good condition. The plane must have been from the 80's, six people wide -good size. We seemed to fly in a clouds most of the way, the plane shuttered and jumped during most of the journey. There is something I like about old planes. If there was something to go wrong, it probably would have by now. The pilots in China are rough, and I'm not scared when I fly ever, but... shit... did I grab on when we went down. 


Finally, the plane broke through the clouds in a shaking and rattling manor just a thousand feet above the land closing in on the runway. Water ran over the window, nothing was visable. We landed on a short runway for a plane of this size (and over shot it a bit too.) They used both the engine brakes (which is how I'm pretty sure planes normally brake,) and the wheel breaks, which made a loud noise I had never heard before. The airport was a mountain top they had pretty much leveled.The plane then made a 180 degree turn, drove back up the runway in front of the tiny airport.

After explaining, yet again, that my bag was lost, and making sure they had the whole story, everyone else had exited the airport. Lincang only gets a few flights a day, maybe two. When I went outside all the real cabs had been taken and only the touts where left. I hopped in a cab, did not negotiate a price, and the drivers buddy hopped in the back, layed across the seats, and fell asleep. When I arrived at the bus station the cab driver said 80RMB, I said 50RMB ($9), he said Okay. If you give the legitament price, the touts don't argue since they konw you know better.


The bus costed something like 25RMB ($3.80) for 1.5-2 hour ride. China, like many Asian countries, is a place of grinding metal, burning oil, and noisy, smoking, exposed engines. I had the seat in the middle of the back row sitting at the top of the aisle down the middle of the bus. On the way out of the station we got rear-ended pretty hard by another bus. I found a seat belt (surprisingly,) and clipped in, which made the two chinese guys I was wedged between laugh. The driver got out of the bus to check out the damage, then got back on unfazed by the whole ordeal and we drove off.

An hour and a half later I arrived at Yunxian station, had a bowl of noodles, and waited 2 hours for my next 1.5 hour bus. When I was moving again it was on a road that ran parrelel to the river, since it's about the only relatively flat place (the riverbed.) The water is always on one side, and the rock wall on the other from which they cut into the land to place the road. Goats munching on grass are stuffed in pockets of the rock wall.


It was a complete set up for a Miyazaki movie. On the river there are dredgers and backhoes are ever 100 meters as they are trying to move the river into a certain position then control it by keeping it there. We passed small hydroelectric dams every half hour or so. Rivers are impossible to control, and they flood occasionally, I doubt this will work out. However, for this year it will be fine, as Yunnan has been in a drought for quite some time. There is an incredible amount of errosion as they redirect the water.


We passed a billboard, the only billboard we passed, which was red, had a massive hammer and sicle, and had some chinese letter on it. But, eventually I arrived at my stop, which was not a real stop, you just tell the driver which town you want to be dropped off in, and wandered around until I found the school. As I walked in the kids were playing basketball but they suddenly stopped and stared at me, one kid dropped the ball. I guess there aren't to many white folks around here. After being redirected by a teacher I found Caitlin in her dorm.