Wednesday morning it was up again early to pack and have one last trip to Old Town. We got packed up and, again, the bellboy showed up earlier than scheduled for our bags. We were almost finished when he came, though, so we finished up and let him take them down to the van.

We went again to the first floor restaurant for breakfast, which was much the same as the morning before. I was looking forward to coffee to get woke up and going, but this time it wasn't to be. Once again we ran into the cheap attitude of the hotel, because all the lights were off in the restaurant. And when I went to pour my coffee, a Chinese lady ahead of me started to pour some in her cup and said something and put it down, not sounding happy. I realized the coffee pots were cold, and so was the coffee. She said something to one of the staff nearby, and I put my hand over the burner and it, too, was cold. I checked that it was plugged in, and it was. I turned the knob up but it didn't warm up. One of the staff turned the lights on then, and the burner started warming up.

I took my food to our table, and told Greg what I'd seen. He wasn't surprised. He then happened to see one of the staff go to the coffee pots, pour the contents of one into the other, and take the empty pot away. Silly me thought this meant we'd get some fresh, hot coffee soon. Nope. Not only did no hot coffee arrive, but as soon as she got back from taking the empty pot away, she turned the lights back off so even the coffee that was there had no chance to get warm.

Such a cheap, stingy place to be more concerned about the electric bill than the comfort of their guests. Should we ever go back to Lijiang, there's no way we'll stay there again, nor recommend it. More like, warn people away from it. No, I'm not going to publish the name of it here, but should anyone be going there, just ask. ;)

By this time we had seen all of Old Town, multiple times, but back we went again. We did make a few more purchases, such as some carved, wooden, fan-shaped decorations for family and one for us, and some painted Chinese zodiac signs, a rooster for me and a tiger for Greg. Then it was time to head back to the van and go to the airport to return to Shanghai.

As we got back in the van, the guide asked if we would mind if another guide rode along with us. She said she needed to meet her guests but the van had already left for the airport. We said sure, we didn't mind. So a young Chinese lady met us at the van and rode along. We got to Lijiang airport in plenty of time to catch our flight.

The guide asked us to fill out a questionnaire on how well the tour was for us. (Will in Dali had had us do the same). We rated the hotel as low as we could and complained about the lack of heat. The guide got medium rating, the driver got an excellent rating as he was very good, polite, and a safe driver. We also gave the guide and driver 200RMB each as tips. I told the driver in my poor Mandarin, "Thank you, you did a good job."

Then we checked our baggage and headed through security. There was no line, and we were through and seated, waiting for our plane, in 10 minutes or less. I walked around looking at some of the things for sale, since I had a better idea than when we came in of what I was looking at. I didn't buy anything, though.

Our plane ended up being delayed by almost two hours, so we got a later start than planned. The flights back to Shanghai, with a stop again in Chunming to get off the plane and back in, was pretty much uneventful. The only thing worth mentioning was, once we were in the Chunming airport, I realized I had left my sweatshirt from the circus on the plane. I went to one of the desks to try to ask what to do about it, but neither of the girls there spoke any English.

I didn't want the airplane staff to leave my sweater at the Chunming airport lost and found, for me to never see again. So I went over to one of the security guards who was at the door we'd come in upon arrival. He didn't speak any English either, and I was about ready to go try someone else when a Chinese girl standing at the door, waiting, said to me in English, "What are you looking for?" I don't think I'd been that happy to hear my native tongue our entire trip! I told her I'd left my sweater on the plane and wanted to see if I could get it. She translated to the guard and he waved me to follow him.

I was so glad to have the chance to get my sweatshirt back I almost forgot to thank the girl, but as we walked back down the tunnel I glanced back and remembered and waved to her and said, "Thank you!" Sure enough, the flight attendants had my sweatshirt at the front of the plane and handed it back to me. The guard walked me back to the door and back inside, and I thanked him as well.

Addendum: I remembered after I posted this, something that may amuse some of the people reading this. On the plane from Chunming to Shanghai, we were given newspapers to read. I was rather amazed at this, because on all the other flights they only had Chinese language newspapers available but this time they had one in English.

Seeing as how this was the week before Chinese New Year and the beginning of Spring Festival, there was a big article in this paper about it. One of the sidebars of this talked about how many couples were planning to get married after Chinese New Year, because the upcoming year, the Year of the Dog, was considered a very lucky one for getting married. There was even the joke that many couples postponed getting married until then because the present year, the Year of the Rooster, was considered bad luck for getting married and said, "I guess you could say they chickened out."

I commented on the bad joke to Greg, and he read some of the sidebar, too. Then he said something about, "It's going to be a lucky year to get married, huh? Maybe you should find some guy and get married." :D To which I replied, "Well it *would* be a lucky year for it!" :D

Not long after that we got back on the plane and headed for Shanghai. We actually arrived on time, in spite of the delay boarding at Lijiang Airport, so they must expect that kind of thing to happen! Once back to Hongqiao, we again had to take a bus from the steps off the airplane to the terminal. Then get our luggage. Then the longest wait of all -- to get a taxi from the airport back to the hotel.

There was a long, winding queue outside for taxis, with a couple hundred people already waiting. It was very organized, though, with airport guards directing people to what taxi to get and taxis driving in four abreast. We got to the front of the line, asked the driver of the taxi we were directed to if he could take us to the hotel. (We had a hotel taxi card with us, still, for just this reason.) He didn't seem too positive but waved us to get in.

Once out of the airport traffic, he pulled off to the side -- which was amazing enough; all other taxi drivers had read the directions while still driving full speed through traffic! He figured it out, somewhat, and off we went. It took a few times of him doing this along the way, but we got there.

We checked back in, and once we had our luggage up to our room, we hooked up the router and got online to let family back home know we'd made it back to Shanghai just fine:

We are back in Shanghai, back from the towns of Lijiang and Dali in the Yunnan province. We have many many pictures and stories to share, but for now are quite exhausted. We're quite happy to luxuriate in our posh hotel room, which has working central heat and a Western style bathroom with an unlimited supply of toilet paper. You quickly learn what is really important when traveling in the hinterlands. Greg is writing up a post now about his adventures with the credit card companies freezing all his accounts because he's used them in a foreign country...

We had room service for supper, hamburgers and french fries, the closest to real Western food we'd had in five days. Then we were very soon soundly asleep!