The Amazing Race!

WOW! What a day!

Our last day in Lanzhou was bitter-sweet. This was indeed the place where we received Julianne and it was her "hometown" but we were ready to move on. We bid "Avior" to the wonderful French couple Xavier and Arielle with their little Max (Julianne's friend from the orphanage) as they head back to Paris. They were absolutely WONDERFUL to spend time with! We'll miss them!

We ate at KFC for a quick bite. Luckily they had a picture menu to use so we pointed to the pictures and soon had chicken sandwiches, mashed potatoes and fries. As always, the Chinese put their own twist in things. I took a bite of the chicken sandwich only to discover little bits of peas and carrots hiding in the patty! They put veggies in my chicken!

On the way out of town to the airport, we left the BIG city behind and headed toward the dry, desolate mountain region of the Gansu province. All along the expressway, there were workers dressed in orange wearing dust masks using homemade brooms to SWEEP THE DIRT OFF OF THE HIGHWAY!? Every 200 meters or so, there was another one, sweeping dirt. Uh, yeah...

We got to the airport, said goodbye to our guide, and found our gate. Help for us has taken many different forms for us along our way and this time our help took the form of an 83 year old former college mechanics professor from the local university. He was a delight to talk to and he helped us while we waited for our plane (delayed 1 1/2 hours!).

Once we were on our way we encountered a strange and comical series of events. Our plane landed in Xia'an (home of the terra cotta soldiers) and we were told some people would get off and others would get on. We waited in our seats while people filed off only to be told we TOO needed to be rushed off the plane by the attendants so they could clean it. We were now confused. Outside it was cold and damp, we were hurried to an awaiting sardine can of a shuttle bus, the lady there asked for our boarding passes. Where were they? Mrs. South and the baby got on the bus (as did everyone else) I ran back on board to look in our carry-on bags. Nothing! Panicking, I ran back to the bus with no pass, we sped on to the terminal, and we're both freaking out about our lost passes. Without those, we don't get back onto the plane! I knew I didn't throw then away! Were they still on the plane in the other bag? Would I be let back on to go check? No one here speaks English! Where are we anyway? Who do we call? My phone has no bars! Last place we looked, we FOUND them! The bus stops ready to unload to mass of humanity off of the shuttle into the terminal. There is no "women and children first" policy here, oh no. We frantically ask the one English speaking worker there please tell us what is going on!! Take this ticket, stand here and get on this shuttle quickly when they call you. When they call us IN CHINESE you mean? Not three minutes later, someone screams over a bullhorn for the passengers of flight 9554 to get back on the bus and head to the plane to board again. Are you kidding? We just got here! Clutching the newly found boarding passes for dear life, I squeezed near Mrs. South who was clinging onto a cold and tired Ting Ting. We re-boarded the plane, and sat down trying to process what just happened.

Our flight ended up being delayed two hours once we landed in Guangzhou, our final destination. We got off the plane, found our luggage (thankfully) and began to sweat in the hot, muggy airport. Now, if only we knew where our guide was. Looked left, looked right, and again, and again, no one there to greet us. Great...

15 minutes pass. Frustration had set in HOURS ago. Mrs. South went the Starbucks in the airport, (this city is more Western than Lanzhou) and began to use the free Internet to Skype our contact person to find out who is supposed to meet us. I stay put. Good thing too because here comes a woman identifying herself as someone from our agency here to take us to the hotel. We must have just missed her.

We get taken to the hotel (5 star hotel - Lah dee dah) with a SPECTACULAR lobby with fountains, marble stairs, the works. We get to our room, open the door and it smell like a musty basement. Of course it does! It's now midnight, we left Lanzhou at 1:00 and were supposed to be on a 3 hour flight. Hey, we're here, all is good. Well, we never have to repeat this day again.