Travel Day - Flight to Guizhou Province - Bus to Kaili

Tai chi this morning and then breakfast at the fantastic buffet at the Grand Noble Hotel!  This is only a small portion of it...hot, cold, freshly made omelettes, fresh noodles and these condiments to add to whatever, cold salads, cheese, cold cuts....

 sweet rolls...

 hot east and west dishes...Eat up!

Then time to meet with luggage for our flight to Guizhou Province and the beginning of our Minority peoples adventure.  Luann is sharing the beautiful silk cover they received from their hosts last night.  It was great hearing about everyone's adventure last night...all VERY different!  Then the bus arrived and off we went to the airport.  But, about 2 kilometers from the airport we came to a dead stop.  Our guide hopped out of the bus and walked ahead to see what was up and sent word back that there was a serious accident and the road was closed for the time being.  He tried to get them to open one lane, but no go so he said we would probably need to walk it.

 That's why you travel light...thank goodness for wheels!

 and here was the reason why...a truck had turned over and

stuff was spread across both sides of the road..no one was moving.

There were only a few spits of rain and beautiful scenery...

and a kilometer down the road, when we got to the entrance gate to the airport there was a bus waiting!  These guides are incredible!  Beautiful sight...the road to that point was level, but there were overpasses etc that would have been challenging with luggage.  You guys rock!

 Never dull on a Road Scholar tour!

 Got checked in with no problem and had a smooth flight

and the bus was waiting for us in Kaili.

 We passed a truckload of baby water buffaloes...

 and lots of car transport vehicles..this was double wide!

 and a fair number of these smokestacks...

that's not steam coming out of there.

 Almost to town..many of them have colorful murals on the fences.

 Ah, another nice room...

 and bathroom...

 and view...we're on the 17th floor!  Lovely roof gardens.

 We had dinner at the hotel and someone jokingly 

said ice cream would be nice for dessert...

voila...5 minutes later we all had ice cream bars!

 Then a quick walk to the grocery store in the mall...

along with the Tupperware store...

 Lots of bulk foods - this was salt...

 and prepared foods...cases of it...

and eggs..these are quail eggs, but there were many kinds!

Headed back to the hotel and a good night's sleep.  Interesting day!