Yunnan Province

Monday, July 7, 2008--Huaihua and Train Trip (Continued)

The rain had ended and the sun was out at 17:15 when I left the Internet cafe. How nice! I went to the hotel to get my luggage, and opened it in the lobby to rearrange a couple of things that I would need on the train. I looked up and a huge group of kids (maybe 10-12 years old) had entered the lobby and were staring at me. I moved my things to more convenient locations and closed the suitcase. When I looked back up, they were still there staring. I said, "Bye-bye," which all Chinese seem to know, and in unison, they replied, "Bye-bye." I think they were intriqued by the fact they had run into a foreigner.

When I got to the train station, there were plenty of seats in the waiting room. What a surprise. Of course, as the time approached for catching the train, people were pushing in so that 3 people were seated where there were only 2 seats.

I was a little worried as I got on the train. On sleeper cars, they take your ticket and give you a plastic card to keep during the ride. Then they come back by just before your arrival and give you the ticket back and take up the plastic card. (I've been thinking about this system, and the only reason for it must be to control the long-distance travel of local people. The plastic cards are never used for anything, but the paper ticket is needed to exit the station. Could they go through this effort to make sure that local people do not buy tickets to one location and get off at another without their knowing about it?) Anyway, normally, the exchange takes place on the train after it is going. But the lady was trying to do it as people were boarding the car today. It was taking too long, however. Starting with the people in front of me, she took the paper ticket and motioned for them (and me after taking mine) to go onboard. So I was sitting in a space I knew I had paid for, but I had no proof. And to make matters worth, some people seemed to be contesting spaces within my compartment. Fortunately, one one was claiming my place. It all passed, however. The woman came through the train and gave me my plastic card. And just behind her were policemen checking the IDs of the Chinese (which seems to confirm my speculation about the purpose of these cards).

No one spoke English around me on this train, but it was no problem. Everyone was friendly and helpful. As usual, they looked after me.

Tuesday, July 8, 2008--Train Trip and Kunming

The train trip was miserable. It was over 18 hours long!! The car, although supposedly air conditioned, was warm all night. And there were heavy jolts of the train throughout the night--jolts that were strong enough to cause empty bottles to fall off the table and to constantly awaken people. In the middle of the night, a baby started crying and the mother walked up and down the halls for about 30 minutes with the baby continuing to cry. (Why didn't she go to the toilet and lock themselves in there?) When the baby quieted down and I tried to go back to sleep, I realized that someone nearby was watching a film on an electronic device. I could hear the sound just enough that it annoyed me and kept me awake further until I remembered I had some earplugs in my shoulder bag and pulled them out and put them in. My eye was still watering all night, and I had to use my pillow case to dry it. In addition to all of that, I had a horrible headache just behind my right eyeball. My Advil was in my suitcase under the seats, so I could not get to it until this morning and had to just accept the pain until then.

Fortunately, my allergy situation doesn't seem so bad today. The eye is dry and my nose, although a little runny, is not dripping the way it was yesterday. I guess the climate change may be helping. But I have had to continue taking the Advil today due to the headache that is above and behind my right eyeball.

Kunming is a crowded city. There was hardly room on the sidewalk for me to get through with my luggage. Part of the problem, however, is that they let bicyclists and motorcyclists park their vehicles on the sidewalks. But there do seem to be lots of people here--at least on the main street I was going down.

I stopped at the Thai Airlines office to confirm my flights to get me from here to Chiang Mai and from there to Bangkok. They had been "open" date flights when I bought my ticket, so I wanted to make sure the dates I had set later were still reserved and that the times had not changed. Everything was fine.

I'm staying in a hotel that is over-priced for the room, I think. But it is only for one night. I will stay at a different place when I come back to here in about 8-9 days. It's fine though--clean, big room with nice bed. It's just that the rate seems higher than it should be based on my experiences.

I have to go to bed early tonight. My flight is at 7:30 tomorrow morning, so I must leave the hotel around 5:30. Yuck! I hope I have a reserved room in Shangri La, however; I wrote an e-mail requesting one at a place that seems nice.

Various topics about China:

1. China has so many tunnels for its railroads. And they can be very long. Sometimes it is just tunnel after tunnel after tunnel! I wonder if they are built to be earthquake proof?

2. Women in China seem to prefer wearing high heels. It is so strange to me. Two of the three women in my train compartment were wearing heals last night. Even on one of our outings from the Yangtse Cruise in which everyone knew we would be taking dragon boats and then hiking, women were wearing heels as they climbed steps to the top of the mountains!

3. Chinese people tend to be loud, and they seem to yell at each other a lot. There have been so many times on this trip that I have wished that a loud group would lower their voices. And several times a day I hear people yelling at others. It's not nice at all.