5am Woes... and Joys

A woman on the street fries up, of all things, a batch of chips in a steamy, oily old wok... charming!
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For me, flight times can be a touchy issue. Some people I know like to take the earliest flights available each day, flying out at 6am to some exciting destination, after having woken up several hours earlier to pack and get ready. Since the advent of budget airlines, many such flights are cheaper options, providing business people and tourists alike the opportunity to jet out and back in one day.

Being one who likes his sleep, however, I regard the early morning flights as a rude awakening indeed, preferring late morning or early evening alternatives. Thus it was with disdain and shock that I realised not long ago that I had unwittingly booked the 7:35am flight out of Kunming to the hill station of Lijiang in north-western Yunnan. My absent-minded clicking of the button labeled “book cheapest option” left me with no choice but to drag myself out of bed at 5am – on holiday no less!

Being one who likes his sleep, however, I regard the early morning flights as a rude awakening indeed

Market place before the rush of tourists...
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But no, I told myself – now is not the time to be bitter! You’re on holiday after all, and there’s nothing too miserable about waking up early to go to a really cool place and hang out, drinking tea all day! After all, it’s not half as bad as getting up at the same time to traipse off to a school camp, is it?

Wrestling with the annoyance of missed sleep and fumbling through e-tickets, passports and yuan notes for the taxi fare, I dragged myself to the airport, marveling at the fact that on this occasion, I’d woken up to a starry sky and a seemingly deserted, sleeping city in the most populous country on earth.

Three traditional Naxi women go for a morning stroll...
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The flight began as usual, with the safety warnings and pleasantries of the captain and crew, the cheesy Chinese pop version of such western greats as ‘Hotel California’ and ‘Mamma Mia’ as well as the customary awkwardness that generally goes with being the only westerners on board amidst a sea of greedy stares. But soon enough, it was my chance to stare. Looking through the small porthole to my right, I gazed out past the wing of the airplane and realised that we had been carving our way through masses of cloud, up through which jutted spectacular snow-peaked mountains.

How big is a mushroom? Take a look at this...
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As the plane decended, the mountain tops became more visible, eventually giving way to vast, green-and-white flecked terrain and tiny villages. Spying the town of Lijiang, I promised myself to stop my whining about early mornings once and for all.