As usual, I have fallen far behind in my blog entries. I have not finished one story, but have many, many more to add. I will try to finish my trip to Yunnan and catch up on the exciting things happening in our college these last two weeks. I will give you a free glimpe...some new foreigners for the week and outdoor activities and of course His activities.

Okay finally day three. The plan for the last day in Luchun was to wake up at 6 am, go to the bus station and get a ticket to Gejiu, a city 4 hours away and then get another bus to Kunming and make the 7:45 train to Anshun and end up in Anshun on Monday afternoon and able to go to class on Tuesday. As I have learned, many travel plans in China are futile to have--there are so often changes that you cannot control, so I was prepared, but nervous for what those changes could be. As always I was very surprised!!

In the morning, I was actually not too tired, after just a few hours of sleep. I was sad to leave after a short stay, but I already had way too many things to carry: my huge hiking backpack (20 pounds or so) and two bags of Christmas present for family and friends and then my friend started collecting fruit to send with me (I remembered last trips 20+ pounds of fruit and food). I ended up giving much of it to the homeless people sleeping on the streets in Kunming. I had to plead to leave with only a couple pounds of food and we were off on the tiny scooter for the balancing act of a 20 minute trip to the train station. Luckily, most people were asleep and I was able to balance well, because we made it there without any accidents, but every time I adjusted the motorbike would swerve. We found that there was an extra bus added at 7 am, so a great blessing. I was able to go and eat breakfast and chat with my friends for a little bit before leaving. It started to rain once again and Roy negotiated seats for me so I could see the famous Yuanyang rice terraces along the route and I was ready. Because it was very early Faye was able to come and say goodbye also, she had a meeting on the history of the Hani minority at 8. She said her mother was going to come and bring me some of their family tea which I tried to decline (I had too much to carry as it was). But of course she insisted and said her mother would bring a small bag of tea (Ziplock size or smaller). I knew better and was not surprised when she returned with a huge sack with over 2 kg of tea (4.4 pounds). That is more tea than I could drink in a year and another huge bag to carry...ahh!! Then Roy came and told me to expect to have to stop near Yuanyang for a day or two because there are often bad mudslides there (he has had to stop and wait for the road for up to 3 days). So my leaving left me with many strange thoughts.

The bus ride was going along smoothly until we got near the Yuanyang area and the bus came to a screeching stop and I saw miles of cars backed up and people out walking around and talking and I was certain we were going to be stopping here for a long, long time. I, like everyone else, got out and wanted to check it out (how bad was the mudslide??). It turned out to have been a false alarm as their was a bad mudslide, but they now have heavy equipment and can fix it in hours and they were just waiting for one side to go at a time. We got past that area and had a chance to see some amazing rice terraces!! I was so excited to see the famous spot in Yuanyang old town where the famous pictures are taken--the driver said he would stop so I could take some pictures. I was sleeping a little but the girl behind me woke me up and opened my window wide open so I could get some pictures, until we got to the old town and it got instantly foggy and you could see nothing. At the spot, I could faintly see a sad man waiting with his huge camera for the fog to break and the driver continued on. On the way to Gejiu, there were many different kinds of fruit (banana trees, orange trees, sugar cane, and maybe some others). It was beautiful!!
We even stopped at the top of a mountain to buy some oranges (they were some of the best I have ever eaten.

It seemed like the trip was going along well without any worries. I made it into Gejiu almost on time (the roads were a little muddy still), but someone came and bought a ticket for me to Kunming and helped me find the bus. It was going well. I even left some of the tea with the bus driver for being a kind person. Gejiu is a very Muslim town in the south of China which was a little surprising. It is very modern and was the capital of the area for a long time. I am sad to have only had 10 minutes in the city. But I got on the mini-bus and we were off on the fast highway straight to Kunming. What could get in our way of getting there in time now??

The bus driver was on a serious mission...he was speeding past everyone and past many small and scenic villages. I enjoyed the new view (I have never traveled this way before). All of a sudden, we came to another screeching halt. Cars were stopped in each direction for quite a distance. I thought maybe there was a serious car accident and that was sorta true. What it turned out to be was a vehicle hit a herd of sheep killing 10-15 of them, except for the little kid. The farmers and villages were really upset and stopped the traffic yelling at the men and the police trying to get payment or something. I cannot imagine losing your entire livelihood and income like that in one accident. It seemed to take ages to figure this out but once again we were on the road again, until the vehicle started to smell bad and sound bad and we stopped to wait for another bus. I still thought, no problem we are close to Kunming, but it turned out that Kunming is much bigger than I thought and roads were closed and we detoured around the city for over 1.5 hours and so when we arrived, I rushed to the ticket counter at the train station and when I asked to get a ticket to Anshun the lady asked me Jintian?? (today). Yes!! She kept saying meiyou, I thought no seat, no problem, I will get a sleeper (meiyou--do not have), I will stand then (meiyou). Finally someone explained, meiyou train...Sadly, I said Mingtain (tomorrow) and got a ticket for 7:20 am.

That meant I had to stay the night in Kunming. I was prepared to get a hotel, but not sure where to find one that is close enough to the train station. I tried a place that had rooms advertised for 60RMB ($9) and they said no foreigners. Again I tried one for 80RMB ($14), no foreigners. 100RMB (the usual price we have to pay) and again no foreigners. There are often many places that foreigners cannot stay because the government deems them too dangerous or they are houses where prostitution is rampant and they do not want that to be seen. So I was out of easy options and a lady came and said she has a place that has cheap rooms for foreigners, I was immediately suspicious of course and said I did not want it. She was persistent and I said it was worth a try being very tired. She took me to another place that could not have foreigners before taking me to a Super 8. Super 8's are very cheap hotels in America but expensive in China though not fancy by any regards. In the end, I ended up getting a deal for 180 RMB ($25) and I finally went to eat supper at 10pm. I went to bed, set my alarm for 6:30 am. I got up expecting to take a shower get some breakfast and walk to the train station, but when I looked again at the clock and my ticket, it was already 6:45 and you usually get to the train station 30 minutes early, so I dressed quickly, packed everything and needed to check out, walk 4 blocks, go through baggage checks up many stairs and get on the train in less than 30 minutes. I rushed and rushed with my 4 bags of things down the street, through the train station and when I got to the gate for my train I saw no one waiting...oh my goodness--I must be very late. So I ran all the way to the train and at the train I again saw no one waiting getting on the train, but everyone already aboard and waiting to leave.

Then I looked at my ticket, car 17 and the car next to me, eight and saw that I needed to travel to the end of the train to get on. I was running down the train with everyone staring at the crazy foreigner with way too much luggage (Chinese are good at only bringing the essentials). I got there out of breath but relieved, found my seat and put away my bags. Surely the train will leave in seconds. It didn't, so I went outside to escape the smoke and to check the time. When I looked at the time, it was only 7am and I still needed to wait 20 minutes for the train to leave. I felt like an idiot, but the rest of the train ride went well and I got to Anshun at a reasonable time and was happy to be back home.

One very exciting piece of news that I will write more about is Patty's parents coming to Anshun. They arrived on Friday night, around midnight after having a Chinese travel experience of many delays, a knife found in their bag (Joe the terriorist), but funny it made it through Minneapolis, Chicago, Hong Kong and wasn't until China that it was found. We have been enjoying showing them around and our students have enjoyed meeting them. Many stories to come soon!! Many blessings to you and your families!!