10 OCTOBER 2006

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We spent our second night in the Hornki Great Hotel and woke up to a warm day with a pale blue Beijing sky. After breakfast we set off for the airport in the mini bus with the professor, Jia and his son who had kindly offered to take us there. We knew we were somewhat overweight with the luggage and gingerly approached the check-in. Ged was sent in to apply the charm tactics on the check-in girl but not to great effect (Must be getting too old!) We were stung for about 20Kgs which thankfully is not too disasterous in China (540 Yuan = £41). It was a good job that she didn't weigh our hand luggage though. Our carbide generators attracted the usual attention at the check-in x-ray machine and Bruce and Ged had to explain them away.


Hornki Great Hotel

We were pleased to be frisked down by a rather attractive security girl beyond the metal detector but most of the team cruised straight through. The security checks for hand luggage were stringent though as Eddie found out to his cost. Being his first time on an international flight, he wasn't well prepared for the general procedure and was seen flustering with the many items on his person that needed to go through the scanner. Of course the buzzer on the metal detector sounded too and he was duly frisked down. The x-ray operator then detected items in his hand luggage and his diabetes vials and syringes were scrutinised and this required further explanation. Ed eventually rejoined his amused friends with his feathers rather ruffled.

The flight lasted about 2 hours and the scenery below was largely obscurred by cloud below. We had a welcome noodle or rice meal and sponge sweet to follow. On arrival at Guilin, we spotted Ed's bag on the baggage conveyor and were dismayed to see it open and several items missing. It looked like we had lost some vital equipment and we reported these to the lost baggage office which we had visited before on a previous trip. Zhanghai from the Karst Institute was there to meet us and was able to help out. Fortunately later inspection suggested we probably recovered everything.

The drive to the Institute was not long and we were shown to our accomodation in the student quarters where we could grab a quick shower before heading out for some street food and a few cold beers. Ged turned up later and we moved on to another cafe where we bumped into Eddie and Tony.