Through a Window Brightly

Travel day! Dunhuang to Chengdu via Lanzhou, sounds straightforward but ha! First flight delayed, delayed flight delayed, delayed delayed flight switched; new flight delayed, take off!, air congestion, landing delayed; thirty minutes till second flight, run to transfer desk, hasty goodbyes, run to boarding gate in different terminal, made it! When will we see our luggage again?
And then in Chengdu, a shout from S - ‘There’s my case!’. We couldn’t believe it, I doubt any airport in the western world would have managed that. We had a celebratory meal in the airport (normal prices) then grabbed a taxi for the forty mile drive into town. No problems until it came to paying, at which point good old Halifax f’d me over yet again and refused the payment, much to the taxi driver’s very loud consternation. Eventually RBS came to the rescue and the driver got a hefty tip for his trouble. Well, hefty by China standards! Of course it’s dark by now but a friendly chap directed us to our hotel which wasn’t our hotel at all but where reception called our hotel and their receptionist came running to fetch us. So we made it and it seems like a cracking hotel to stay at for the next few days.