Friday 6^th August, 2021 1315

Lijiang station en route to Dali

Breakfast was disappointing today inasmuch as there were no hash browns, rather chips. Didn't fancy egg and chips for breakfast (dinner, fine!) so a couple of yoghurts, two egg tarts (the Chinese do make good egg tarts) and one bite from a croissant that seemed mummified.

Maybe my memory is going the same way as my pins but I don't recall hotels telephoning me before my stay to ask my ETA and any special requirements. Maybe it's something to do with no-shows related to Covid but all of them have done so thus far. Well, we are going to be there mid-afternoon, my luxury “prison” for the next four nights. According to people on her tour, Alice was told two days is all you need to see Dali. This is a girl who walked the length and breadth of Athens in a day!

Alice declared the Intercontinental Hotels Resort Lijiang to be the best hotel she has ever stayed in – and don't forget I treated her to luxury and a view of the Aegean in Greece. Certainly the most expensive I've ever paid for at 2,800¥ a night but you know, in an eccentric sort of way, it's the best I have been in too.

Checkout was interesting. On arrival they had prepaid 15,000¥ from my debit card. For those unfamiliar, if you ever come to China and book a hotel for, say, 500 a night, they will want perhaps another 200 a night as deposit. I have often wondered what happens if you are skint and only have enough for the room.

Anyway, the way I was feeling, I knew it was far too much but not by how much. In the end we racked up a laundry, minibar, bar bill of 1,000¥. This was helped by the inclusive breakfasts and the fact we ate and drank for free in the Club lounge. We had the odd cocktail on the bar's terrace.

So basically they owe me 3,300¥. I know my UK account was cash-rich when I started but so far I have spent about £4,000 on hotels and flights, so their usual trick of crediting back the original and debiting the updated was not going to work for me! It's Friday, it's a debit card and if I am lucky any credit will appear in the middle of next week. In the meantime, their way would see me out by double the amount. No thanks dear, just keep what you took and refund the rest separately, I still have two hotels to deal with.

So it was a fond farewell and the taxi ran straight into a traffic jam. By the time we got to the station we had half an hour and of course there was form-filling to be done because I have no sodding health code. As we arrived in the taxi I said to Alice we needed to pull the wheelchair trick again.

In the event, it was only half a trick but we were taken past huge queues, through a special gate and straight to the train! I wonder if I bought my own electrified one.......