After months of anticipation and talking about Kunming, our adventure has begun! Getting to Kunming was quite an adventure in itself. We started our journey from Toronto, and went to Taipei for 6 wonderful days, spending time with our 2 beautiful granddaughters, and of course Anthony and Vanessa!
Thursday we went to Taipei airport for our flight to Kunming, only to find it had been cancelled. After much negotiation in no particular language (we couldn’t understand each other) we finally managed to get a flight to Shenszhen, for the next segment of our flight to Kunming. In Shenzhen we had to collect all our bags, and believe me, we had a lot! Then, go through customs and immigration, and find the correct terminal for the next flight. We were given conflicting messages about which terminal our flight was leaving from. We did a lot of walking back and forth, and we know the terminals in Shenszen quite well now. The funny thing was, there were no elevators and we had to change floors several times, and the escalators did not accomodate our carts, so Howard carried our approximately 112 kilograms up the escalators while I stood guard over the rest of the luggage. Finally we found the right airline, and again we were told our flight to Kunming had been cancelled! A lot of negotiation took place, mostly not understood by either party, and we found another airline which would take us to Kunming – 3 hours later! Departure gates were constantly being changed, so we would walk from gate 58 to gate 2, then 46, etc. etc These distances between gates were the equivilent of short flights in themselves.You get the picture! I think we must have walked about 40 kms! We were to leave at 9 pm, and then were told the flight was delayed an hour! Several more gate changes and we boarded, and fell into our seats totally exhausted. Then there was another hour delay, due to traffic controllers trying to clear runways.
We landed in Kunming shortly after 1 am, and were grateful to see Olivia from the university who took us to our apartment. We arrived shortly after 2am, and the security guy opened the gate for us. Our apartment is on the 5th floor, and surprise, surprise, no elevators!! So we had fun lugging our very heavy suitcases up the 5 flights.Needless to say, we were out of breath, not only from all those steps and heavy lifting, but the very high altitude here – 1900 meters. Our driver did help, or we’d both be dead by now! The stairs leading up to our apartment are dark and dingy, but if you clap your hands, the lights magically come on! Hard to clap when your hands are full!
The apartment is very spacious with lots of light. The large windows in the kitchen look out over a courtyard, which describing it as beautiful or even charming would be quite a stretch! There is rain soaked laundry hanging from every balcony,like plaintive angels with flapping, sodden wings hovering wistfully over the expensive cars in the courtyard below!
We have lots of storage space, although no closet for hanging clothes. There are 3 bedrooms, and our king size bed is very comfortable, and very low on the ground. Sometimes difficult to get up in a hurry!
This morning our power went out, our stove didn’t work, and we had no hot water. However all has been solved, and we’ll venture out to find some groceries and definitely lots of wine. Already found a lovely fruit market.
It is a very different world, and other Asian cities we’ve been to seem much more “western”. People are friendly, but don’t speak English.
We have much to absorb, and the learning curve will be steep indeed! We have today and tomorrow to get better aquainted with this place, and then we’ll see what new experiences await us next week at the university!
We’d love to hear from all of you!
Cheers,
Maggie
Maggie's Musings 
Hi Maggie, It is so fun to read about your experiences. Thanks for sharing them. You two really are an inspiration. Say a big hi to Howard and we’ll look forward to hearing more.
Thanks for the update, Maggie. Wow, sounds like quite the adventure thus far! Five flights of stairs everytime you come and go, we expect to see you in fabulous shape when you get back to Canada!! Hope things at the university turn out to be somewhat as expected. All’s well here. Very busy for all of us, but that’s a good thing. Looking forward to more updates – be sure to send an email with link, since we don’t really follow blogs that much.
Lots of love,
Chas & gang
Another world indeed. You guys are amazing! It’s great to hear from you and learn of your adventures.
Love,
C and M
Hi Maggie, So glad to know that you and Howard made it to Kunming! Having seen your photo of the many pieces of luggage, I can’t imagine how you guys managed! Were the delays weather-related? It reminds me so much of my being stuck 2 days in X’ian in 1985 because of flight cancellations and delays. It was no fun then, and I’m sure it’s no fun now! But from now on, you will really enjoy your sojourn! All best, Joseph
Good morning Maggie and Howard! Your descriptions of your new abode and food sound very familiar, having received many similar ones from Stan’s sister Shirley and her husband a couple of years ago. We’ll follow your adventures with great interest… thanks for including us on your list!
It’s cold here this morning… but unusually warm weather is to return by Thursday. We’ve really missed winter!
Elizabeth (and Stan.)
Oh what a trip experience for you both. Gisella and I would go NUT if we were in your situations! I am glad the worst is over and enjoy your stay in Kunming!!!!