J40 - Good morning China!

Here I go, the Chinese border town of Hekou is just a few kilometers away from my hotel and I'll be in China in no time.

First frustration in the morning: I paid the restaurant next door 17USD for a bus reservation amd when they brought back the ticket, I realised that the real price was just 90RMB (Chinese Yuan Renmibi) ie around 11-12 USD. I don't mind people taking some margin on this kind of service but 5USD for a bloody ticket is too F***ing much! Since they would not refund me anything and keep pretending that they had really paid 17USD for the ticket, I leave Lao Cai and Vietnam rather pissed off.

Also, I had to take the 10.50am bus instead of the 9.30am one and this is gonna make me arrive very late to my meeting in Kunming! Moreover to the late start, the 9.30am is a brand new fast bus while the one I got probably dates back to the Ming period.

I eventually reach Kunming at midnight but my taxi from the bus station drops me in the wrong place and I have to walk 30 minutes until I reach The Hump. I was supposed to meet Djou & Franny there at around 6pm (ok, I was a bit late) but they're not there and  they have not checked in... No email either in my inbox, and nobody on MSN Messenger!

Shit, I was quite looking forward to a bit of partying with them tonight but it seems like it's not gonna happen today yet :(