Lijiang to Kunming - clickety clack

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Geo: 25.05, 102.7

Last day in Lijiang and thanks to Lily we have a 2 pm late checkout. What a bonus! Gave me time to repack the luggage and restore some order while swapping winter clothing options for summer. We are leaving the cooler mountain regions and heading for warmer coastal climes...an expected 30C in Kunming tomorrow.

Lunch was at 3 pm in a restaurant near the Black Lagoon and we were driven there by Lily's husband Peter (previously known as FLNMWLTCSF) and as soon as we got into the car Lily informed us that Peter was a really bad driver. We thought he was great - a very, slow, careful driver. It never ceases to amaze me how much we can eat! But this was an exceptional meal that included duck and roast pork. We have been asking for smaller quantities in each serve so that we don't feel we are wasting as much.

The plan was to take a stroll around the Old Town and then get dinner and meet Lily at 8.30. So we set off on our own taking a look in some of the stores. We stumbled upon a coffee shop that sold cappuccinos and settled in to enjoy a tasty but expensive coffee @$12 a mug! The bonus was the great couches and the wi-fi. Across the alley was an elderly lady was selling "something in a cup" and it seemed as if every child on their walk home from school was stopping by to get one. This was the busiest sales point we had seen in the Old Town. When we asked the coffee shop attendant what was going on, she offered to buy one for us to taste. She joined the melee and returned with a cup that wobbled with a sloppy tea jelly that seemed to be filled with eyeless maggots. Not my cup of tea, but Mac put it all away with passion. Might be a winner for Mayfair.

We decided to make our way back towards the meeting point. While we were in the coffee shop, Mac had downloaded a map and a compass. So we set off with confidence....but surprise surprise, we were lost within 15 minutes. After 90 minutes of twisting and turning and lots of wrong turns we abandoned the map and compass, and armed with a very crude drawing of the waterwheel landmark we were looking for, we started to ask people for directions.

Bingo - we were out and broke all the self imposed rules and made a beeline for McDonalds and downed chips and an ice cream. The things you'll do to get to a clean toilet.

About the train ride. No axe murderer and no chickens but it does rate in the "not happy Jan" category. Imagine a half filled crumpled sack crumpled in a corner - well that's how I spent the night. We made a pretty smooth entry to the station and joined the queue early where we found ourselves enjoying a conversation with a retired Chinese gentleman who was working his way around the surfing beaches of the world. He became Mac's best friend when he asked if Mac were my son! So not funny.

The gates opened and the jostling began but we had been primed by Lily who said she was "nagging" Mac to make sure he was looking after me! We were doing great until we made the lefthand turn to platform 4 to be confronted by a mountain of stairs. I was ready to weep....when a young Chinese gentleman took my bag and started the ascent. All of Lily's instructions about personal belongings went out the window as I tried to keep up with my new knight in shining armour.. It all worked out well for me and I turned to see Mac doing his best impersonation of a Tibetan mountain goat grappling with the rest of the luggage and the general lack of oxygen.

We followed the crowd and after another passport check we were in our 4 berth, soft sleeper. By the time we hauled the luggage into the compartment the beds were full! We were getting excited as the clock ticked on thinking that we might have the room to ourselves. No such luck! With 5 minutes to go our room mates arrived.

Some train highlights

A. Within 10 minutes of sitting on my bed I was scratching my legs and arms non stop
B. There's no power outlet in the room so we had to run a lead down the corridor for Mac's machine
C. Mac burnt himself getting water for his machine and said a very naughty English word so loudly I heard him in the cabin
D. The man on the top bunk snores
E. It was midnight and I was still scratching
F. The name "soft sleeper" is a misnomer
G. We can't close the cabin door because of the power cord so the noise and light of the corridor is a feature of the room
H. The man on the top bunk wakes everyone up climbing up and down for the toilet
I. It was 2 am and I was still scratching
J. We were in the lower bunks 1 and 3 and thought this was convenient on the way in but soon learned it was adjacent to the smoker's room....seemed odd on a non-smoking train
K. It was 4 am and I was awake....scratching and busting
L. The toilets were sooooooooo bad that not even Sheeweena could save me...still busting and scratching ( can you imagine a rocking and rolling train, unisex squat toilets and the accuracy of the aim of all and sundry....the soles of my Merrills would have disintegrated)
M. 5am and the Carriage Supervisor wakes everyone up to prepare for disembarkation
N. 6.30 we are off (thank goodness) and have found a porter to negotiate the stairs with our luggage and a trolley
M. 7.00 am toilets (ahhhhhh, what a relief) and breakfast (Asian style).....still scratching....made more attractive because the tops are removed and the bites are bleeding. Um, just BTW, Mac who is bitten by everything and comes up in huge allergic welts....hasn't got one nip....go figure!

Beginning to think I may have caught something other than the train!

So after an 8 hour bone rattling, stop and start journey in the Lijiang to Kunming soft sleeper train......would we recommend it? Not to anyone! But again, you never know, if you never go. Had to give it a try.

And can you believe this ..... as we emerge from the train station, a crumpled, dishevelled mess, a Chinese man runs over to Mac and asks to take his photo. Got no idea why @LizMcPhee but thinking we might have a business opportunity going that could be more fun than g strings at the servo!

Pedometer reading: 16 843
Temperature: 26 C Lijiang to 30 C Kunming

@ScottDotWard ... OMG worried that some of the content may be PG Rated. Use your best fairy tale voice to disguise the horror stories from the boys��

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Comments

[MrsAngell]

Feeling your pain with the bites! @MissMJA says to run a metal teaspoon under hot water then hold it to the bite until you can't tolerate the pain anymore or it goes cold.