Travel Day to China-March 5, 2006

We left for the RDU airport Sunday morning at 5:30am, our neighbor and friend Don Patty was kind enough to take us to the airport. We left from the RDU airport to St. Paul, Minneapolis to Tokoyo and then to Guanchong, China. What a long plane ride especially the leg from Minneapolis to Tokoyo, 11.5 hrs. Our total flight time was approximately 21 hours arriving in China a whole day later-Marh 6th at 11:30PM. We are not looking forward to the loooooooong flight back with a 20 month old. We were met by a guide Bob who took us to the New Century Hotel. Once at the hotel we checked in and exchanged money and made arrangements to have a van pick us up and transport us to the airport the next morning for the start of our tour in Guilin.

One piece of our luggage was left on the ramp in Tokoyo and will be delivered to us once we get to Guilin. Unfortunately the suit case that did not show up was the one with Bill's medications. Thank goodness all the other luggage showed up. The people here are very nice and they try to be helpful but they don’t speak english and the ones that do speak a broken English and are difficult to understand. What an experience and challenge trying to communicate with people who don’t understand what you are saying.