Arrival in Huang Ping City/County and checked into Royal Le Grand Large Hotel

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Traveled from Hong Kong to Guangzhou on Wednesday morning, July 16, 2014 at 8:55 am. Supposed to catch a flight to Guiyang at the Guangzhou airport leaving at 10:20 am. Baggage claim and customs took about 30 minutes after disembarking and then walking from baggage claim with all bags upstairs to departure terminal counters took another 15-20 minutes. Stood in a long line to check in and when I got there they had closed the flight (it was 40 minutes before departure). They sent me to several desks, told me that I had missed it, that I had to get a certificate from Dragon Air saying the flight was delayed, that I would have to purchase a new ticket and pay extra, that the flight was full, etc. etc. Finally someone from Dragon Air came to the China South airlines counter and explained that their flight was not late, that they were ontime but that you need at least 2.5 hours between flights to change at Guangzhou airport -- there is no communication or agreement between airlines if flights are delayed or if the process takes longer. He spoke English, thank God, and was kind enough to intercede for me with the counteragent and then we went to Hainan Airlines, which issued the ticket booked on China South. The young woman there said that I might be able to go standby on the 12:55 flight but that I would have to come back at 11:20 to see if there was a seat -- at that time there was no seat. I searched the airport for a place to recharge the China mobile phone that I had purchased the year before and every station that I went to (only about 4 in the whole airport) had no working outlets -- no connection in any of them. Finally at about 11:13, I realized that I should go to the counter but then I realized that I didn't know which counter so there was a mad rush to figure out where Li Yue the counter agent was seated. Finally reached her at 11:18 and she said, "No seat. Wait a moment." Then she talked to her manager/coworker and he said, "Follow me." We went to the Duty Supervisor, got some form/card with my passport, ran all the way to another counter to get approval and ticket, ran back to the Oversize baggage desk and they checked my bag through, ran down the airport to the gates...long lines...ran to end and he walked/ran me up to the gate askin people to let me go through (protests from some), raced through security and got checked -- had to open bag run it through 3x -- had bought key chains for teachers (metal) and an extra internet cable, and a camera, had to recheck my iPad, had to be body searched...by that time I was crying saying that I was going to miss the flight...didn't think I had a seat...then finally got dresssed, packed,and started running -- the gate was what seemed like miles away -- I remembered from times past...then a cart was passing and I hailed the driver and asked if she could take me...10 yuan...she said. thank god I had some cash from last trip and I paid her and she got me to the gate at the last call. I was seated in the emergency seats --- and almost got bumped. The flight attendant came and said anyone sitting there would have to speak Cinese. She asked me if I did and I said, 'a little" .. then she spoke to me in Chinese an dof course I couldn't say anything. She hesitated for a moment and then the woman sitting next to me -- Lesley is her English name -- spoke up -- not sure what she said but the attendant let me stay. The next flight wouldn't be until 8 pm that night and it wasn't sure that I would be able to get on that one either. I didn't breathe easy until the plane was backing out and on the way to the runway.

Lesley was so kind. She works in Human Resources in an alternative medicine pharmaceutical company. We talked and I felt a little more relaxed. I explained that I was going to Huang Ping guizhou to teach teachers etc. She had kindly called Xiao Ni, the Zigen program director in Leishan who is the liaison for our program in Huang Ping and talk him that I would be late. Actually she called Duke and Duke called Ni and Ni called her, etc. They explained that someone would be waiting at the airport for me with a sign and would take me to Kaili. When we deboarded she joined her friend and said good-bye. Then she saw the young man who was waiting for me an dhe explained that we would take a taxi to the bus stop to get to Kaili -- she kindly offered for her driver to take us to the bus stop. That was great because the bus station was mobbed with traffic and people and it was raining cats and dogs. He bought the tickets, got us on the bus, and then brought out a Zero Coke...I am famous for drinking diet coke here....I have to say I was happy.

The bus ride was long -- 3 hours -- but thankfully I slept most of the way. Good thing because by that time the restless leg syndrome was kicking in in my left leg. Every time I woke up I could feel the tingling sensation in that leg -- so I immediately forced myself to go back to sleep.

When we arrived in Kaili, we got a taxi in the pouring rain to take us to the Jia Tao Hotel in Kaili and Xiao Ni met me and we went up to my room. the rest of the group was upstairs having dinner. Mr. Gu, our Miao guide, who studied Ethnic Minorities at university and specializes in Miao culture, was our guide and had set up this little tour for us to visit the miao festival that day and then then dinner in a beautiful miao restaurant, and then a performance at a Miao art and culture center, welcomed me and herded us quickly to a taxi to catch the performance. I have to say that I passed out a couple of times but what I saw was quite beautiful...always a story in these performance, like a legend, and bright lights, festive costumes, dancing, singing, and love, romance, war ... it was delightful and a beautiful way to begin the trip.

When i went back to the hotel, I immediately showered, took out the wet clothes from the suitcase, and tried to clean up some items that had leaked into the plastic bags and then just crashed. Woke up early, needless to say -- about 4 am and went downstairs to the lobby because there was no internet in the room. Managed after some time to get online but couldn't get on to Google. could access aol and bmcc website but not google. After several tries and about an hour later finally able to access gmail and respond to some emails before being bumped off. Not sure what the problem was...

Breakfast at 7 am...they had a table set up for Foreign Guests and there were packets of Nescafe there -- no milk -- that is first time that I have seen coffee offered at breakfast in this part of the country. We also got a plate of fried eggs...very special. the rest of breakfast was buffet style with the usual fare -- vegetables like bok choy and beans, noodles, rice porridge, and hot soy milk with peanuts and other condiments like fermented tofu. There was however a special treat of watermelon and local grapes that tasted more like muscadines (in the south).



After breakfast we checked out and traveled by van to a miao village -- Langde. It turns out that we had visited this village in the past -- we went there 2 summers ago with Yoyo and WenXin and Emily. I bought the embroidered wall hanging that I gave Lauren there in the village. Again we were 'assaulted' by the women selling embroidery and fake silver jewelry...this is what they do because so many tourists come here -- but we walked up to the village center, saw a pool of water int he middle of the wooden houses and Gu explained that this pool of water is kept in case of fire -- it is not used for drinking water or sewage but is kept for safety purposes. He pointed out the storage houses in the middle of the village, different from houses which had windows...the storage houses had no windows to cut down on rodents entering and eating the grain. He also explained that they stored grain in the middle of the village even though it posed a greater threat of fire because if the village were attacked by neighboring tribes and their houses destroyed or taken or burned they would at least have food to survive.

There was also a museum set up in this town and Gu explained some of the rules of etiquette that were displayed...e.g., never step over the portable cooking stove (bad luck), don't sit in the wooden stap at the entrance to the house.

We had a meal in the local 'restaurant' -- really a house (and exactly where we had eaten before), and then we boarded the van and went to a Gejia village. On the way we saw a water buffalo fight in theneighboring village and we got out in the rain and strained over teh people and umbrellas to catch a glimpse of the buffalo fighting. It was a long process...the owners have to keep pushing the buffalo towards each other, they lock horns for a couple of seconds, and then back off, and then are herded back towards each otehr. The ring is quite large and the processis slow...at one point we saw one buffalo running after then otehr. One of them was limping...not sure waht happened next. There were also ethnic minority groups presenting a performance -- dancing and singing and playing the lusheng, a wooden bamboo flute. The Gejia women wear pointed hats (like the little Dutch girl) and very short skirts and a band around their calves. They danced and sang while the young men played the lusheng.

We drove to Gejia to a central house where there are artifacts set up, posters of Mao and lots of old pots and iron artifacts displayed. The woman there apparently does batiks but it was still pouring rain and she was at the buffalo fight so we looked around and then we all got into the van and came to Huang Ping to the hotel. The others went to dinner at 7:30 but I just crashed.

Woke up at 3:30 am this morning and had to figure out how to get online and tried to access gmail with no luck for about 1 hour...still intermittent access.

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Comments

[Laurens Wiseman]

journey
Cynthia, Sounds like you had quite a journey in getting to your destination. Seems everything these days is so complicated. Glad you arrived safely and thank God for the help from the lady on the plane. An example of why we should all be hospitable to visitors in our country. Jason Wells came to visit us for a week. He left Jackson on Thursday and had to fly through Houston, TX. Terrible storms on Thursday in Dallas, and his flight to Dallas was cancelled. He ended up on a plan that got to Dallas about 9:00p.m, but his luggage then came in on a flight at 10:30p.m. The luggage conveyor belt jammed and they had to call for a maintenance man to come to fix the belt. It just goes on and on. We finally got home around midnight. Lindy took Jason to work with him on Friday, and the real estate company that Lindy and I work for hired Jason to do work while he is here. So, Jason now has something constructive to do during the day. We are going shopping today and to a movie tonight. he'll be her with us a week! Hope you are doing better today and have gotten some rest. You need to just rest a little and try to get more sleep! We look forward to seeing you in Greece! It is going to be really tough for us to get out of town, with all the work that we have to do, but we are gearing up to leave. See you and Linda soon! Love, Laurens