Flight to Beijing to Kunming to Mandalay, and Chairman Mao

En route to Mandalay, Myanmar we would have an overnight stopover in Beijing, and a connection in Kunming. Before boarding our Air China plane in Ulaanbaatar, the agent told us we would pick up our bags in Beijing. However, after arriving in Beijing Airport and speaking with the 24 hour transfer desk, they looked at our checked baggage stamp and told us not to worry as our bags had been  checked all the way to Mandalay. Score! No need to wait around to pick up checked bags at the conveyor belt and no need to recheck them in.

We stayed at the Beijing Corbis, which I thought was inside the airport but turned out to be a bus ride away. At 6:30 a.m. the next morning we boarded the bus back to the airport and flew to Kunming.

On that flight I sat next to a female Chinese screenwriter who was heading to Kunming to do background on a funeral home for a storyline in a TV show she was writing. Because the plane had only two seats per side of the aisle per row, it gave us the opportunity to talk somewhat openly. On that flight, at a low volume level, I learned that China’s one child policy had ended and was largely recognized by the Chinese people as having been an economic and societal mistake. In addition, the people have a bi-polar relationship with Mao Zedong, the Chinese communist revolutionary and founding father of the People’s Republic of China. While publicly they extol Chairman Mao, privately they laugh about him, his importance, and the policies he enacted which set back China for years and resulted in the starvation of millions of Chinese people. The Chinese seem to understand what’s going on, but fear speaking or acting about it publicly.

In Kunming, we somehow almost missed our transfer despite having a lot of time between planes. It turns out that you don’t just walk down the jetway here. You take a large bus out to the planes, and you need to be in the boarding area much, much earlier to get on those buses. Fortunately we were able to board a last van to the airplane. We landed in Mandalay, went to pick up our checked bags, and… no bags.

Our three segment route started with Air China to Beijing, but then changed to China Eastern for the Beijing to Kunming and Kunming to Mandalay portions. Only China Eastern had an office in the Mandalay airport so I went to talk with them. As I explained the situation, they said they would handle their side, but I would need to call Air China also myself to see if they had our bags. Well… that was a disaster. I had to call China so I couldn’t use the local landline in Myanmar, but rather my cell phone. Then figuring out the country code stuff. Then trying to find an English option in the IVR tree. Then a long wait time. In the end I couldn’t get anyone who could understand me so I changed tactics and called Air China’s office on Los Angeles. Again, a long, long wait, and finally an agent who told me that the policy in single ticket, multiple airline situations is that the end destination office, China Eastern in this case, must submit the lost luggage request. Everything should start and end with China Eastern. I love figuring out people’s jobs for them… :-(

As the Mandalay airport is closing, I talk with the China Eastern folks to see if they would deliver my bags, if found, to our hotel. They wouldn’t, but they would deliver them to their downtown Mandalay office. China Eastern didn’t come up in Google Maps as having any office in Mandalay (gotta always check things one step ahead) so they helped me mark and save a location in my phone’s Google Maps.

And with that, we headed into Mandalay with fingers crossed that we would see our luggage again.

Sorry, not a lot of pictures for this segment. It was kind of a grind it out period.