Saturday May 27th -home sweet (Beijing) home

We had a busy schedule a head of us this day, which started off with me conducting the most important interview of the whole trip. I was making my final interview with Elisabeth about the project, the aims, the purpose and the future. In other words: I had to do well. And I did. But it took us about 2 hours more than estimated to complete all the chatting, document exchange, photo cd-burning, and final goodbyes. We also had a meeting with a woman selling those handicraft purses that the women of Daxi makes (on sunny days only) so we didn’t arrive in Kunming city (from where we were flying out that night) until 2 pm. We had made plans to do some sightseeing, like visiting a museum and a lake, but all those plans vanished when we realized what we really wanted was food and rest. So we headed to the city center.

We ordered some food and despite us telling the waitress 3 times that I didn’t eat meat, I still received a plate of tofu and HAM. When we asked the waitress about it, she said it was only for the taste and that I should look at the ham like a spice. However, pink pieces of meat have never done the ‘spice’ trick for me before, so the tofu was left untouched while we finished the other stuff (which was more than plenty anyways).

After the feast we decided to do some chilled out pleasure walking in the Green Lake Park of Kunming, which Panda entered with great happiness when she found out there was no entrance fee (since when do u have to pay to get into parks?!). It was warm and nice and the park people certainly proved to be true Kunming-residents: calm, laid-back people that enjoy playing card and drinking tea in the sun. Actually, they looked so pleasant and relaxed that Panda and I decided to join in: we bought play cards, lemon juice and sunflower seeds and spent an hour chilling in the park and enjoying a clear blue sky (something you never see in smoggy Beijing).

Afterwards we had time to do some shopping, however, I wasn’t feeling too fresh and when I entered the shops and was greeted by those petite and pretty little shop assistants that were kind enough to still ask me if I wanted to try on a pretty dress (which I, of course, was dying for, but couldn’t do, due to feeling like a dirt-bag), so we soon gave it up. We decided to look at some flowers instead (as Kunming is the city of flowers -and man, there really was flowers everywhere so that was a well-deserved reputation) and when that became boring we went tea shopping instead (no undressing needed for that one!). I was amazed of how cheap Yunnan in fact is! Both me and Panda bought more than we could carry (the shop assistant was beaming!) and eventually we had to rush off to the airport so we didn’t miss our flight.

I then had to experience another take off and landing together with restless Chinese that were so eager to get off in Beijing that they just couldn’t sit down a moment longer once we hit the ground. Once again, angry stewardess came running from everywhere, telling every one to sit down (This might just be the Chinese ritual?) and once again people didn’t listen.

When I eventually was on my way home in a taxi I felt both tired exhausted and happy about what I had experienced during those last few days. I’d certainly been in situations my normal life doesn’t even come close to. (Not even my dreams do?!)

I was so thoughtful for a moment I almost forgot to keep track of the taxi meter (strongly recommended for traveling with a driver that doesn’t speak any English in Beijing). However, when I glanced at the meter I saw that we were way above the limit, and that the taxi driver, as always, was happily driving without having any sort of idea of where we were going.

I had to call my personal rescue person Panda and hand the taxi man the phone so she could direct him right. About 20 RMB later we pulled up outside the right building complex and I could finally go home…. But first I had a fight with the taxi driver about the price of this long fare, which ended up with me paying too much (I was honestly too tired to argue) and him driving off with my map/note with directions of how to get home (despite me running after the car and waving). Darn! But the fact that I could finally have that shower that I’d longed so much for made up for everything. And, it was great to crawl into a clean bed without having to worry about bugs anywhere. I had about 20 minutes of wonderful relaxing until I felt a sudden hit in the stomach and had to rush to the toilet. I spent the rest of the night on the toilet being sick.

Welcome back to Beijing!