T 28 January South to Guanxi Province
day 8.
Today is a time for travelling.
We wake at seven and go to breakfast
of toasted egg, bacon, lettuce and tomato sandwich with cucumber slices and
tea. Back at the room we complete our packing and get to the east lodge common
room at almost nine. A few moments conference with the staff and we are on our
way to the airport. The driver is our musician friend who seems to manage that
portion of the operation and along the way we tells us that he has been at Red
Lantern since 2007, that he is a long term resident of Beijing (40 Years! ) and
that living in Beijing is expensive : perhaps 2500 rmb for room and board.
These he gets a part of his pay, so 4,000 rmb is enough to live comfortably.
He drops is of at terminal 2 and we
take the elevator to the 2nd floor (domestic departures) where we get our tickets
in about ten minutes and then line up for security.
The line is quicker than I
anticipated and the staff are efficient and good matured. Once more I am
impressed by the professionalism of the security checkpoints-- there is none of
the intrusive confrontation one gets from the Americans, rather just a thorough
and gently apologetic demeanour which goes a long way to keeping people happy.
Through security we discover that the
departure gate had not yet been assigned so we slip down to the lower level for
coffee. Elizabeth has a cappuccino and I down an Americano. Very quiet and laid
back. After this respite we return to the main floor and camp at gate 38 until
departure.
Luggage stowed, we have a bit of a
wait on the tarmac and actually takeoff at about 1:10. At cruising altitude
Elizabeth is fascinated by the mountains and the glaciation thereon . China is so
dry that there is less atmospheric humidity than we are used to (hence the
pervasive dust) but it makes for great visibility if there is no pollution in
the way. It is becoming clear that global warming and melt offing the Himalayas
will have a major negative impact on Chinese agriculture and life. No wonder
they are trying to buy up huge swaths of sub Saharan farm land They are
probably counting on increased heat and regional increase of rainfall in those
areas, which will discourage the local maize production but work for a lot of
Chinese dietary items.
Lunch is a small carrot and pea
salad, a hunk of chicken , noodles and red sauce for Elizabeth and rice with
mild curry for me. There is also bread, and yogurt for dessert. Yum. By the
time we have demolished this meal and cleaned out the rubble we have only about
ninety minutes before we land. So far, so good.
Landing is smooth and we deplane
without incident. A driver for Win-Win is waiting for us :a tall young chap
with a nice new van. We roll south to Yangshou through a rich agricultural belt
of orchards, vegetable farms and grain fields. The vehicles here have their own
character - - especially the old - style home made three wheel pickup trucks
with the motor mounted in the low above the front wheel. Cute and efficient.
There are many more has powered bicycles and scooters and lots of honking and
smiles,
It's warm here and we are excited by the thought of being outside
without thermal undies but try not to get our hopes too high.
The Li River Retreat is simply
delightful. We have a room with balcony on the third floor and we are excited
and pleased as we unpack and settle in. Showers!
Dinner in the dining room becomes
a bit of a victory party. I accidentally order more wine than we planned, but
we make it upstairs without incident and fall in to bed
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