I’m up way before the sun because I need to catch the early flight to Shangri-la. I’ve spent the night in Kunming arriving at the hotel at about 7pm so I’ve only just caught a few hours sleep before I’m up again.

I didn’t really sleep,  I guess I was worried about sleeping in, but I shouldn’t have been because I got an early morning alarm call.  I had organised the bus to pick me up to take me to the airport.

When I awoke this morn there was a strange smell and taste in the air and I’m not sure what it was, but it tasted foul. It reminded me of my trip to Harbin earlier in the year.  The air there was thick and heavy with what seemed to be coal dust,  this smell was a little different. I would say this had more of an oil based smell or tar or something similar. I arrived in the dark and I left in the dark so I have no idea what was around the hotel. 

The area my hotel was in seemed old and the roads were in poor condition.  When I left just after 4am there was already businesses preparing food and washing dishes out on the street. 

The hotel itself was old but comfortable. A throw back to the communist era. The foyer was big and golden. The furniture was huge but looked ok in the space.  The wifi worked surprising well and so that was a bonus.  I didn’t have a shower because the water was too cold so I’ll just blast on more smelly stuff to cover up any odour.

So now I’m at the airport waiting for my flight to Shangri-la and I’m hoping that I can check into my hotel when I arrive so that I can hopefully have a hot shower and then a snooze.