Day 1 - 30th November

An incident packed start to the challenge. Just the day before we learnt that out Thai airways flight has been changed to China Southern because of the instability at Bangkok Airport, which means we then had to fly out 12 hours earlier at 10.50am, so it was panic stations because I had to pack on Saturday morning because the rest of the day was busy with social engagements. We were told to just go to China Southern to check-in as they would have our details, but of course they didn't and I was told to go to Thai first to get the ticket. When I got there they said that some of my group had already collected all the tickets and China Southern already had them and to ask for the supervisor, Jerry. On returning I found Jerry, who then told me to wait with the other people in line who all happened to be caucasian so it was easy for me to work out that they were also part of my Oxfam group and were in fact the group who had just flown in from Melbourne. After what seemed a long time we finally got our boarding passes and by the time we got in there was only about 50 minutes left before scheduled take-off. I was getting worried because I wanted to claim GST back on my new camera and the rule is they won't process it less than 30 minures before take-off. There was a fairly long line and you guessed it, I was just 3 people away and they announced no more processsing for 10.50 flights, so I duly left the queue and got to the boarding gate, where there was then an announcement that the flight would be delayed at least 30 minutes, so I rushed back to the TRS desk and told them and got my GST back. First time I've been happy about a delayed flight.

Quickly met all my fellow adventurers, Barbara Khalifa and Philippa Masaoka from Sydney, Sandra Evans, Leesa Swan and Sue Leppan from the South Coast, Sarah Bromley, Adam Deverell, Angela Meyer, Melissa Trevorrow and Tanya Wilson from Melbourne and Rowena Yeomans from Adelaide. Our flight to Guangzhou was uneventful but extremely boring as all the in-flight entertainment was in Chinese and the hosties weren't terribly friendly or helpful, I certainly wouldn't choose to fly China Southern again for an international flight. I met an Aussie from Sydney on the plane who was going to a media conference in Guangzhou and by coincidence he was my sister Debbie's boss at SBS and they are good friends, she even went to his wedding in Melbourne, small world we live in.

The plane ended up arriving an hour late which meant that it was cutting our connection fine as we then only had an hour to change to our China Eastern flight to Kunming. To our pleasant surprise there was a China Eastern representative at the planes exit there to escort us to collect our bags, go through customs (no baggage checks at all) and then check-in, but he said we were too late to get out bags on the flight and that they would be on the next flight to Kunming but they still wanted us on the original flight so we all had to rush onto the plane just 5 minutes before take-off.

It was just a 2 hour flight and we were all a bit confused as to what to do about our bags. Turns out one of the girls, Melissa, speaks Mandarin so at least she was able to communicate with the authorities about our concerns. Meanwhile our tour leader Kim Moyle was outside also ringing up and talking to the airport authorities. In the end we all went out and were taken to the Camellia Hotel and Kim said she would return to the airport, wait for our bags and deliver them to our rooms, which was really good of her. My room-mate is Adam from Melbourne who is bound to attract some attention in China as he is 6 feet 5 inches (I'm 5 feet 4 inches) so we're the tall and the short of the group. I should mention that we are the only men in the group, but needless to say it's a great bunch of people and already we're acting like a group. Its great fun getting to know each other. Got to bed about 11pm and Kim delivered our bags at about 12.30.