Travelogue
Okay, we took this big ol' trip--okay, maybe it's not so big. But it doesn't seem small either. Okay, let's say we took this trip of subjective size. And now I'm back home and I think I should be blogging about it but I've got writer's block. I do have some notes in my steno book that I wrote on the trip, along with a lengthy account of my search for a taxi at 6:00 am on the day of our departure. The problem is that, upon further reflection, I doubt if anyone really wants to read about my quest. And then if I reflect further, I have to wonder if anyone really wants to hear about my trip. And, of course, that leads to the speculation as to whether anyone wants to read this blog. ... Ah, well, that never stopped me before.Anyway, the trip. Like I said, we started out by looking for a taxi. The shortened version of that tale is that there are very few taxis roaming our part of town at 6:00 am. The plan was for me to go out, hail a taxi and bring it back home to fetch the wife, kids and luggage. I ended up walking halfway to the bus station before I found one. But found one I did and we got to the station a half hour before our scheduled time of departure. That's a ridiculously early time to arrive for a bus in Yunnan, but I wanted to make sure I scored some space to stow our bloated suitcases. It also gave us time to touch base with our driver. I showed him two notes provided to us by our students. The first told him to let us off at the No. 1 Middle School in Midu. The second told him to call one of the students, Gail, and discuss our travel needs with her. He ignored the second note, which seemed okay with me. In our experience, bus drivers have been quite solicitous for our welfare and I had no doubt that he would make sure that we got off at the right spot.
This initial bus trip was quite pleasant. We were treated to a Jackie Chan movie at the start, and by the time it was over the sun had risen and there were better sights to watch. We passed by some gorgeous scenery as the bus snaked up and down the mountain roads. We have traveled this road a number of times, but this was the first time we did it when it wasn't dark. (We did try a daytime trip back in October of '05, but, well, you can read how that turned out.) I regretted letting the children have the window seats, but then, the pictures probably wouldn't have turned out well anyway. Because of a late start and some slick conditions, we were a bit late stopping for lunch. We had a decent meal in a little hole-in-the-wall restaurant. As I expected, the driver took good care of us. As we were finishing our meal, he signaled us that he was ready to leave. I was again impressed with the courtesy expressed in this country. Five minutes later, however, I realized we were getting special foreigner treatment. He had driven off without a couple of passengers, who had to grab a three wheel taxi and chase down the bus before he hit the open road.
As we headed for Midu, I was keeping a close eye on the road signs and the map. I still expected the driver to let us off at the right place but just in case I wanted to be ready. It was good practice for my recognition of Chinese characters (I don't know if you could call it "reading"), but it was, in the end unnecessary. As we ventured through Midu he suddenly came to a stop and motioned us to get off. Gail was waiting for us and led us to a local bus that took us to Hongyuan, her hometown. It was a pleasant ride through farming country and soon we were at our hotel. The first leg of our journey was successfully completed.
posted by John @ 6:32 AM
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