Chengdu to Tengchong (via Lijiang and Kunming!)
June 28 – CTU to TCZ
Our last day in Sichuan province started by getting up by 9am and having breakfast with the others!
After June and Lee gave Tyler a dozen Chinese books, it was time to get pampered. June, Sue and Tom went out to get their feet massaged. Meanwhile Lee, Evie and Wendy went out to have their nails done. And the boys stayed home to play outside and on their devices.
Over an hour later, our hands and feet were happy and we all strolled back to the apartment where June set out to make us lunch. Somehow he managed to whip up twice cooked pork, stewed beef, bacon, rice, some dough ball things, and a salad in the time it takes for Tom to make a grilled cheese sandwich.
After a delicious lunch and a final meal selfie, it was time to head to the airport. June had booked us a DeeDee car and to our surprise the whole family came with us to the airport. Then at the airport, they came inside and helped us navigate through to the security line. How nice!!
We said our final goodbyes before heading to the gate for our flight that was delayed “maybe 30 minutes” said June the optimist. Turns out it was 2.5 hours late leaving. The 2 hour flight was uneventful until we arrived over the airport. We circled for about 30 minutes before making an attempt at landing in the stormy weather.
At the last minute, we pulled up and returned to about 10,000 feet. Another 15 minutes later the flight attendant came on to let us know that we were going to land at nearby Lijiang!? The rest of the passengers were despondent.
Around 9pm we touched down and sat on the tarmac. Around 10:45, Tom went outside and down the ramp for some fresh air. Shortly thereafter Evie came out to join him. They did some stretches before Tom said “Evie, will you help me clear the clouds?” “Sure daddy.” “It is 10:52, let’s have the plane load at 11pm. How’s that sound?” “Sounds good.”
They faced southwest and began chanting OM, holding their fingers in a circle. They chanted for 5 minutes, visualizing the clouds clearing. At 11pm exactly, the flight attendant told all the people outside to go inside and collect their bags as we are off loading the plane and going to the terminal.
Hmm, not quite what they had in mind! Evie and Tom walked up the ramp as dozens of people came down, bags in hand. They finally made it back to their seats when people started streaming back onto the plane. Apparently they changed their minds and we were in fact leaving. 15 minutes later we were taxing down the runway en route to Tengchong! Maybe the chanting worked after all!
If only that were the end of the story.
After flying back an hour to Tengchong and circling for 30 minutes they determined it still wasn’t clear enough and they re-routed us to Kunmin another hour away! Perhaps this is what you get for flying “Lucky” Air.
We landed in Kunming at 1am. By 2am we were standing outside the terminal waiting to be packed into a bus with a shocking number of travelers making their way through Kunming en route to who knows where. At 2:45am we were in our 1-star airport hotel with 135 of our new friends. Not knowing what tomorrow would bring, we fell asleep on our boards, I mean “beds.” At least the sheets were clean.