We Should be so Lucky

In retrospect, closing up my classroom including grades, packing up and moving out of our apartment, and leaving for a seventeen-day jaunt through mainland China all in a five-day period may have been a bit overly ambitious. But we survived and we were on our way.

Up to this point Annika had only been to the mainland three times. Elise just once. In August we will be moving back to Chicago, so this is our family’s one big shot at seeing China.

When we originally put together our itinerary, we had four major regions that we wanted to visit: Yunnan province, The Yangtze River and the Three Gorges, Xian and the Terra Cotta Warriors, and Beijing and the Great Wall. But the more we went over our proposed itinerary, the more we realized it was just too much for seventeen days. After some agonizing, the three-day Three Gorges Yangtze River cruise ended up on the edited room floor. How could I live in China for two years and not see the fabled Yangtze River before I left? Oh well, I would just have to get over it.

I handed each of the girls their small-ish school backpacks and told them that we were traveling light this time. When the backpacks were full, they were done packing. Choose wisely.

We started by flying into Kunming, a major city in Yunnan province in southwest China. When we landed, we strapped on our packs, walked off the plane, and smirked as we walked past the baggage claim carousal in the airport.

We hopped in a taxi and communicated as best as we could that we wanted to go to the budget hotel that Julie had reserved for us. Twenty-five minutes later, the taxi pulled up in front of the Yunnan International hotel. It was quite luxurious. The girls surveyed the spacious lobby with it chandelier and granite everything. Elise declared, “I like it better when Mommy makes the hotel reservations.” Apparently my daughters haven’t forgiven me for that whole “Home Sweet Home” debacle in Cambodia.

We handed our email confirmation to the desk clerk. He looked it over and handed it back to “This is not our hotel. This is Yunnan International Hotel. Maybe try next door.” We hoisted our packs backs onto our shoulders and tromped next door. Sure enough, there was the Yunnan Kingworld International Hotel. Easily mistake to make; I can see why the taxi driver confused the two. And so, just like that we were down-graded from a five stat hotel down to a two-star hotel where we belonged.

Elise turned to her sister and I overheard her say, “It’s still a lot nicer than the Home Sweet Home.”