John and Charles Robinson

It strikes me that people may not know where to see our pictures, other than the very few that have been included in these posts. So, in case you're still reading and want to see more:
John's China 2010 photos
Charles' China 2010 photos

5:30 AM wakeup call for a 6:00AM breakfast, for a 6:30AM departure. We finally get out of town by 6:45 -- guess who we were waiting for?

The drive back was, if anything, even more ponderous than the drive out. Lots of construction & lane closures. At one point, we got stuck behind a huge military convoy. EVERY time we'd try to pass them, we'd be foiled. The bus driver even went into the (closed) right-hand lane to try to blow past them -- but then he'd come up on a section where the road was REALLY not passable, and have to push his way back into the line. Or we'd come up on a stopped truck with a flat tire or smoking brakes. It drove us nearly mad for almost half an hour, until they pulled over and stopped.

But we got through it; stopped at a filling station and I got a Coke to perk me up. The Russians bought any number of odd-looking packaged snack food -- judging by the way they poke and prod the packages, they're not always 100% sure what they are getting!

On the outskirts of Kunming, we got off the bus, said goodbye to the Russians and waited by the side of the road for our van -- our next destination was The Stone Forest, a 90-minute drive from here. Saved an hour by not going back into the heart of the city, just to drive out of it again.

Mr. Li made very good time on the highway, driving with a "take no prisoners" style that Charles & I remembered from our driver on the previous trip. We made it to The Forest, and got a taste of "Tourist China", which, after Mojiang, felt rather pedestrian and safe. Still, lunch was good, and the forest -- a large area of granite "karst" formations, was beautiful. Michelle kept us moving along nicely, and also did a good job of keeping us (mostly) away from the crowds. This is Kunming's top tourist attraction.

We found, to our dismay, that we'd accidentally grabbed one of the Russians' garment bags when we piled out of the bus. Fortunately, it was just some performance costumes, which they don't need for a while, and they'll be in China for another several days, so the stuff can be mailed to them domestically -- that is, quickly and cheaply.

Supper at "Colourful Yunnan", another pre-digested touristy bit of China which I'm sure Michelle's travel agency has some kind of agreement. We did a little shopping, so as not to come home to spouses/family empty-handed from our travels. Got back to the hotel in Kunming after some VERY vigorous driving by Mr. Li. "Let go, and let God,", I told Doug (or was it Ross?). You just have to trust that you won't die when he crosses the center line to push between the big slow truck on the right and the big bus rushing at you from the oncoming lane. Or that when he turns right and cuts off that scooter coming up fast on the right, that the driver of the scooter will NOT die in a horrible pileup against the side of the van.

We got settled into our hotel (we had to change rooms, as our toilet wouldn't flush and nobody could fix it until later), then went out to walk once more around Green Lake Park. Not nearly as full of people and activity as it had been on the Thursday before the holiday weekend, but still beautiful, warm and friendly. Music wafted across the water, and people walked their dogs, or held hands, or sat together on the park benches. We decided to sit at an outdoor bar and have one more beer together. The place we chose, alas, had no local beers, so we each got a warm bottle of "Carlsberg Cool" for 18RMB apiece, and had a subdued conversation, as we were all extremely fatigued. The past few days where a whirlwind of activity -- go here, do this, stop and get your picture taken, sign this thing, participate in that ceremony -- all very fun, but when it stops, you realize how much energy it took out of you!

Back to the hotel and bed by 11:30. Tomorrow, it's up early, and out to the airport for a 9:30 flight. If everything runs on schedule, we'll be home after only 26 hours of travelling. Oof!

A traditional celebration among the Hani people is the Long Street Feast, in which tables are lined up in a very long row in a street, and everyone has a meal together outside. In 2005, we dealt with a lot of confusion about where to sit, and the food (for once, not being controlled by our guide) was "challenging", to say the least. That in mind, we were braced for a "difficult" evening. It didn't work out that way at all! When we arrived at the end of the street, we found musicians playing, people in beautiful traditional garb dancing and singing, local officials waiting with smiles and handshakes. We were taken to our seats near the head of the table (tables 006, 007 and 008 -- the numbers went into the 600's), serenaded with a welcome song, and invited to enjoy our meal.

It was delicious! The food was already prepared and waiting for us on the table, covered in plastic wrap to keep the heat in and the bugs out (although there aren't too many bugs in Mojiang). We ate our fill, and drank many more toasts (with a powerful, POWERFUL rice wine) than perhaps we should have.

Here is what I wrote in my notebook about the Long Street Feast, shortly after the event:

"HAMMERED! The Long Street Feast was delicious, fun, a great time. the locals kept plying us with more toasts. Pork fat, beef with peppermint, carrots/greens (of some kind), yams and onions(?), rice, a wine made of olives, and some super-strong stuff in a bright red bottle.

"LAUGHTER, smiles, toasts, music, dancing (not us), such a good time."

Early wakeup call today, as we have a lot on our plate. After breakfast, we find ourselves sitting in the lobby: "we wait a few minutes for the Russians" (AS USUAL).

We rode the carts to a groundbreaking ceremony for a new "International Twins Town" being built on the other side of the expressway from the main part of town. Watched a few speeches, some firecrackers went off, confetti bombs explode overhead, and we pitch a few shovelfuls of earth into a pit. Then, we inked our hands and pressed our palms on a long paper banner, signing our names to them. I'm told that they'll eventually be immortalized in stone or concrete, somewhere inside the new development.

From there, to a consecration ceremony over by the Hexi "twin wells" (if you drink the water from these wells, it is said, you are more likely to have twins. Mojiang has an unusually high twinning rate, and twins are considered a good omen).

Then, back into the carts and up the hill to North Tropic Park. We were given new locks to attach to the fence; Charles & I locked our new lock through the hasp of the old lock. Cool. The new locks are brass; much less likely to corrode than the chrome-plated steel locks, which suffer when the engraving breaks the shiny surface. We then placed fertilizer on the ground around our three trees from 2005.

After the ceremonies were done, we walked down the hill (no desire to wait for the buses), to hit the markets. At least, that was the plan -- it's too difficult to get anywhere quickly in this town, looking the way that we do. Mr. Chen met us at the gate and gifted us with shirts (promoting the website), and some delicious bubble tea. After some pictures of us in our new shirts straddling The Line, we tore ourselves away to take a break before lunch.

After lunch, we took a long drive south to the Hani village to watch the water games (tug of war, etc., in a field knee-deep in water). We walked through a desperately poor village, to a huge sporting area. Found an unobstructed view at the top of a wall, and watched for about an hour as the TROPICAL SUN POUNDED DOWN ON US. Then, we had to get out of the heat. Walked through the rice fields back to the cart, which took us back to town where we hit a few shops. Stopped by The Beer Lady one more time for the standard deal (5 cold, 1 warm). Then, after some pleasant conversation, we took a break before the Long Street Feast that evening.

We started our day with a trip to the Mojiang County Stadium, for a little ceremony where the twins pledged their support for drought relief. We listened to some speeches, signed our names on a long banner, and dropped a donation into a bin. On our way there and on the way back, MANY MANY MANY pictures were taken. We went to Sun Square to meet Lucy and to play a game sponsored by the website, where each twin is given a number and has to find the other twin with that number. Match and win! Lauren & Lashauna won, but it was difficult to play the game as we kept being stopped for pictures. Eventually, we made our way back to the hotel for lunch; the Russians had bought two bottles of Jack Daniels -- one was 1/2 gone by the time lunch was over.

After lunch, we hustled out to the parade staging grounds. Although we'd been hurried, we ended up waiting quite a while before the start. Thank goodness for the shade of the cart! Many more pictures, many more smiles. As the parade progressed through town, we changed our minds about an earlier decision and decided that we WOULD like to participate in the traditional "good luck" ash-smudging activity in the square. It's a good thing, too -- because otherwise the decision would've been made for us! As we approached Sun Square, a kid ran up to the cart and tagged Lauren with some ash. Pretty soon, all six of us were fair game, in spite of the police's strenuous efforts to hold the perimeter. We became completely blackened as we laughed, the kids laughed, everyone laughed. Complete mayhem for 15-20 minutes. We eventually had to retreat, not having made the pre-arranged connection with the China Daily reporter. It was just too chaotic.

Walking back to the hotel, we were subject to frequent attacks by smudgers, and even more frequent photo requests. People seeing us go by just pointed and laughed -- we really were quite a sight! We made our way to our rooms and managed to clean up a bit with lots and lots of scrubbing (you have to get it all off; if you're smudged, you're sending the signal that you're ripe for more)!

Freshly cleaned up, we walked through the happy, frenetic, festival-time streets of Mojiang to North Tropic Park. We had to stop and rest a couple times on the way up the hill, as the heat and humidity were really oppressive!

At the top, we looked at the locks on the fence around the sculptures and FOUND OUR LOCK FROM 2005! They had told us that they would engrave ours and put it on for us, since it hadn't been ready in time for us to do it. We hadn't really thought that it would happen. After that, we had to look for the others. We found Jean & Jill's, but were unable to find Nancy & Sara's.

We also found our names carved on the stone tablets. They're so high up that we couldn't get a picture of us and the names legible in the same frame. We also found the trees! One of them had an old nameplate stuck in a crook of one branch, but the names had long since corroded off of the metal plate.

Following the line through the park, Charles & I geeked-out with our GPS's to confirm that the line is indeed at 23 degrees, 26 minutes, just like it says on the plaque.

The rain chased us out of the park, and we made our way through the markets back to the hotel. We stopped at the "beer lady" and bought her full complement of cold beer bottles for supper (5 cold in the cooler, 1 warm from the shelf). 24 RMB for 6 beers = about 60 cents for each "tall boy" bottle. Beer with dinner is A Good Thing.

The Opening Ceremony at the stadium was quite a treat; production values have increased tremendously! Pyro, fog, subwoofers, giant video screens! Boom camera! (the whole thing went out live on Mojiang's TV channel.) Fireworks going off over our heads and raining cardboard shrapnel on us!

After the show, we went out with Lucy and the rest of the website team, including her boss, Mr. Chen. They took us to a bar just off of Sun Square: 1949 ("New China" was formed on 10/1/49). They bought us SO MUCH BEER. Popcorn with powdered cream; french fries; deep-fried yam patties. "I'm eating french fries with chopsticks -- in China!" Lucy giggles: "I am drunk!" (she had about two glasses of beer). What a great time we had.

We wandered the streets of Kunming for an hour or so in the morning before we had to leave. We found a very scenic old market street; the kind that's getting harder to find as the city modernizes. At 11:30, we checked out, packed our things into the van, and drove to lunch. We met the Russians (from the Vladivostok Twins Club) outside, exchanged greetings and took a few pictures together. We were shown to our own room for lunch, so we didn't see them again until afterwards, when we moved all of our stuff over and packed into one bus for the long drive to Mojiang.

We had hoped that the drive would be more efficient, with just one bus -- but the highway is riddled with lane restriction; 52MPH was our maximum speed, and most of the time it was slower. The Russians, however, are a generally amiable bunch -- so we drifted along, alternately freezing cold and sweltering hot, as cheesy Chinese Karaoke videos played up front. We stopped at a gas station along the way where the register was out of commission -- so the girl was taking in cash and making change by just digging in a cardboard box. The Russians passed around cups of Johnny Walker Red after we got back on the road.

Along the roadside, you'll see single people or groups (sometimes a whole family) waiting by the side of the road, hoping for a ride. It's illegal, but still it happens.

After we passed over the Red River on The Tallest Bridge In The World, the bus stopped so we could get out to take pictures. We were struck by two thoughts:

1) WOW, are we up high over the valley!
2) OH MY GOD, but it's hot and humid outside. Shorts & T-shirt, keep hydrated and pray for AC in the hotel.

As we approached Mojiang (our 3 hour ride more like 5), Charles & I were like giddy children, recognizing landmarks. Lots of new construction, new steps on the hillside up to North Tropic Park from the "outside" of the mountain.

Our hotel is across the street from the one we stayed at in 2005. It's pretty nice! No internet, of course, but clean and comfortable, western toilets, AC. Our windows look out over a side street with plenty of noise and activity. Shortly after we sat down for dinner, a thunderstorm passed through. Fortunately, it didn't last long -- and they can really use the rain. After dinner, we walked down to Sun Square, took lots of pictures and had pictures taken of us. We danced for a bit around the bonfire, and Doug & Ross were (predictably) the main focus of the peoples' attention.

We went for a long walk later that evening, and loved it! Lots of smiles, waves, "hello!"s and pictures. As we were heading back to our hotel on the main street, Lucy found us! She was sooo happy to finally meet us after all of her work getting us here, it was sweet to see how her face just shone. She invited us out for "Chinese Barbecue", but we were too tired to walk back to the square.

To our chagrin, the grocery store across from the hotel was closed, but Michelle helped me to find beer from a local vendor around the corner. 4 x 660ml bottles (big ones) and 4 cans = 30RMB. Compare that to the previous night's "57RMB for two 330ml bottles" debacle in Kunming! We had a nice time talking together in our room. Now it is time for bed.

With the evening to ourselves, we decided to go for a walk in Green Lake Park. It was just a few blocks away, and we found it easily. The place was full of people! Couples on park benches, parents and little kids, clusters of musicians playing on corners, groups doing different dances to recorded music... there was stuff going on everywhere. As the sun set over the lake, lights came on to outline the pagoda-shaped park buildings, and they reflected beautifully in the water.

We saw a couple with a pair of kids, who must've been less than one year old. They looked like twins to us. There was a bit of a crowd watching them as they fed a cluster of goldfish by a pond. Eventually, Lauren or Lashauna called out the word for "twins": "shang bo tai?" The mother looked up, nodding, and then saw us standing together. Great smiles and laughter! She kept asking us a question that we didn't understand, and eventually was able say the word "husband" as she pointed to Charles. Great smiles and laughter as we explained that NO, we WEREN'T married to each other.

We had been told that we could go "Bar Hopping", but all of us were afraid that if we had a beer, we'd fall asleep -- besides, there was so much to see that we just kept walking. Eventually, we turned out to have walked several hours, and boy did we have sore feet. We went back to the hotel to kill a couple more hours.

Doug & Ross arrived at 11:25, and boy, was it fun to see them! They were understandably a little wigged out; jet-lag plus "where on earth have we gotten ourselves?" but we went with them up to their room and had a nice conversation, after letting them figure out that the key card is a proximity card, (not a swiper), and watching them as they tested their rock-hard mattresses. Eventually, we decided, "hey, maybe a beer would be nice after all!" One of the women seemed to think that there was a bar in the hotel, on the 2nd floor. Well, why not give it a try?

We arrived on the floor. A woman was standing behind a little podium. We could hear conversation and loud music from around the corner. Not sure what to do next, we say "English?" She shakes her head, smiles, indicates that we should wait and disappears around the corner. We stand there, waiting for the next move. Another face appears from around the corner, sees us and disappears quickly with a smile and a burst of giggles. Eventually, a woman comes out and we indicate that we'd like a beer. "Sing?" she says, and we figure that it's a karaoke thing and indicate that we just want to listen. She takes us down the hall as a crowd forms, and leads us into a room with shelves full of beer bottles. Yay! They're all warm, but they have prices indicated on them. Most of us go for "Happy Hours", eschewing the more-expensive Heineken. Then, taking our warm beers to a counter, we pay for them. 57 RMB for a pair of beers? About 4 bucks; okay. Now we're standing around with beers and I indicate opening the bottle. Nobody has one! A man goes off down the hall as we stand there feeling foolish. Everyone is so amused, we end up having them take a picture of us all together, 6 westerners with their unopened, warm bottles of beer. Eventually, an opener is found and we all get our bottles opened. We are led down the hall, and we realize that it's just full of private rooms. "Um..." we think.

Sitting down on comfy sofas in a room with a large TV screen, what appears to be a computer touch screen in the corner, and a couple big speakers mounted overhead, we uncomfortably laugh amongst ourselves as we wonder what we've gotten into. The woman with a little English comes into the room and says, "ah... this room... two hundred." The reaction is dramatic and immediate -- we all spring up out of our seats and say "no thanks.. let's just go back to our rooms". Out we go, with the crowd following us to the elevator. A man shouts out "one!... one!... "

Eventually, the elevator arrives, we smile and say "thank you", and get the heck in the door. We go back to our room, sit in a circle on the beds and chairs, and have some lovely conversation. The beer was okay, but the experience...well, that's something that we'll be able to laugh about together for a while.

Charles & I woke at 7:30 AM this morning, after a wonderful nearly-five-hours of recumbent sleep. After a quick e-mail/facebook check and a shower/shave, we decided to go for a short walk before breakfast. We went out into the streets of Kunming with no translator, no guide, no nothing. I had a stupid grin on my face most of the time: "dayum, we're wandering the streets of a city in China!" We set a few waypoints in our GPS's along the way, so we can find them again later, via Google Maps etc.

We met Lauren & Lashauna at 8:30, and went down to the "Western Restaurant" on the 2nd floor (my suspicion is that "Western" means that the food labels have English translations. Noodles & spicy beef, watermelon, sausage, hard-boiled "spicy" (but not really) egg.. yum. A friendly Canadian took our picture around the table, complete with lazy susan.

At 9:30, Michelle and Mr. Li drove us out to the Ethnic Minority Villages park -- pretty much a theme park showcasing some of the many (54!) "ethnic minority" cultures, which are particularly concentrated in the Yunnan province. We saw lots, and had a relaxing day strolling through different cultural exhibits. We ate in the park; delicious and filling! Then, we drove back into the city and saw some more sights, and made our way to the Bank of China branch to deal with some financial stuff.

Because we've been stuffing our faces so much, why stop now? Off to a fancy-pants hotel for an absolutely delicious supper, which was set up in a private room. Michelle and Mr. Li were going to eat in a separate room, but we told them "don't be silly! Eat here with us!"

Then, back to the hotel and we were given our freedom until tomorrow morning at 10:30. We hope to meet Doug & Ross in the lobby at 11:30 PM (their flight is expected to arrive in Kunming at 10:20 -- then they have to get their luggage and make their way through the city to the hotel). The plan tomorrow is to tour Green Lake Park, then meet all of the other twins for lunch -- then the drive down to Mojiang.

(this means that online updates may become much less frequent; we've been blessed with Good Intarwebs here, but who knows whether we'll even be able to get online in that town?) I'm being pestered to stop typing so we can leave this hotel room and get back outside; more later!

Our new flight finally left Beijing around 9:05 PM. The plane was full of people who seemed to be flying for the first time; this could be because we're coming up on a big national holiday, and Kunming is a big holiday destination. People were taking all kinds of pictures, leaving their seats back, their trays down and their seatbelts unbuckled... but it wasn't too bad of a flight.

The GPS screens on the plane showed us information that was slightly jacked, so it wasn't always easy to tell how we were doing. But we dozed on and off, got some juice and a horrible-tasting hot beef (or pork?) sandwich, and generally just waited for the trip to be over.

Finally touched down in Kunming, about 25 minutes behind schedule. The tarmac was wet, but it wasn't actually raining at the time. The cool air felt kind of good; the airplane was uncomfortably warm. We stepped on a bus, which took us over to the terminal building. MASSES of people waiting for their luggage, but the crowd eventually dispersed, we found our bags, and were located by "Michelle", who will be our guide while we're in Kunming. I don't know whether she's going with us to Mojiang, but I'm getting the feeling that she will be.

Drove through a city with not much traffic -- however, it was 1:30AM. We are checked into the Green Lake View hotel. After putting down a 100RMB deposit for the minibar in each rom (which minibar I can't even find, BTW), we signed a few pieces of paper and made our way to our rooms. After a little internetting, we'll settle down to try some sleep. We have set an 8:00AM wakeup call, and will meet Michelle in the lobby at 9:30, after breakfast. Signs in the lobby said "Chinese Restaurant, 4th floor" and "Western Restaurant, 5th floor". In the elevator on the way up, we decided that we'd like to poke our heads into the Chinese Restaurant first, just to satisfy our curiosity.

The day in a nutshell:

3:48 AM wake up -- travel alarm hasn't gone off, but I'm not late. Yet.
4:00 AM downstairs for breakfast, and see that Fiona is just pulling up to take me to the airport.
I grab some yogurt & a banana, pick up my bags and we go to get Charles.

4:30 AM we're checked in, dropped our bags off and are headed to the security checkpoint when I realize that I forgot to change into my shoes -- I'm still wearing my Crocs! I call Fiona, who's on her way to work, and she loops around to go back to my house. Finds the hidden key, and brings me my shoes.

5:10 we're through security. TSA found the Leatherman that Charles wasn't able to find earlier. Unfortunately, it's too early for the mailing center to be open -- so he has to surrender it.

6:00 the flight to Newark goes without a hitch.

At Newark, we meet Lauren & Lashauna and have some lunch together. The plane is late on its way from Houston. We board over an hour late, but we're reassured that they can make up the time in the air. Then, we sit on the tarmac for another half hour or more while they work on some kind of technical problem. FINALLY, we take off. The plane is chock-full of people.

We make up almost an hour in transit, but then spend a lot of time taxiing to our spot. When we finally hit the Jetway, it's 3:20 and we obviously will miss our 4:05 flight to Kunming. We grab our bags and frantically push to the front anyhow. Inside the airport, a woman holding a sign saying "TRANSFERS" asks us for our destination. "Kunming!" we tell her. She directs us to another woman who presents each of us with our modified itineraries, stapled to a sheet that explains in English and Chinese, why we are late. Our new flight leaves at 9:10 (instead of 4:05), and gets into Kunming at 12:35AM. Yikes! At least we don't have to hurry much for now.

We CRAWL through immigration, take the tram to the terminal for baggage claim, and get checked in for our new flight. All "twinned up" as we are (L&L are wearing matching outfits, as are Charles & I), we get some attention.

Having checked in, we pass through security for Domestic Departures, and decide to get a bite to eat. But that means that we need Chinese money, and all of the currency exchanges are outside security. After 15-20 minutes of searching, we figure out how to get back out, exchange some money, and come back through security.

After delicious meals of curried pork, spicy pork, or VERY spicy beef & noodles (each meal accompanied by a Tsing Tao beer -- we figure that we've earned it), we made our way to the Business Center to get our individual passwords for free internet access (internet access is closely logged). Our flight should be boarding in about 45 minutes; then another 3.5 hour flight.

Oddly, we don't feel as completely exhausted as you'd think we might!