Oh yeah, we had meatloaf, mashed potatoes and green beans for supper... the countdown to cajun filet biscuits begins

Well it's been a few days since the last update but I'll catch you up. After we got back from the Tiger Leaping Gorge we were hanging out in Lijiang, the town kinda slows down at 11:30 when all the dance music cuts off. There were some guys in one of the discos setting up a guitar, microphone, and djembe; we asked them if we could play and they gave Layne the guitar and we (Glitter and Gold with drum accompanists) played "Where the Streets Have No Name" in front of a bunch of people. The DJ of the club and I had been chilling earlier in the night (he had let me mix a little while people were dancing), he loved the sounds of Glitter and Gold. While we were in Lijiang, Brian fell in love with the inn keeper. He spent the afternoon working on Chinese characters to ask her to go dancing with him and later gave her a rose (that a businessman had given Nathan). We took a bus from Lijiang to Kunming overnight. Much to my disappointment, the movie was once again not "Cool Runnings." This bus ride was a different than the last. We left at around 6 in the afternoon and were able to see the country side due to the day light. We sped around the edges. There apparently wasn't a "no-smoking" sign and our co-passengers took full advantage. Now back in Shanghai Mr. Madden commented that 1/3 of the world's tobacco is smoked here and 1/2 the population smokes, these numbers seem completely reasonable after being in the country. Anywho, everyone around us smoked the entire ride, and being in a bus there was nowhere for the smoke to go. I woke up at around 3 as we sat stagnant in a line to get gas. Graham was talking to Brian, unable to sleep. Layne pleaded, " Don't wake them up, they'll start smoking!" Graham got quiet immediately. We pulled into Kunming at around 4 in the morning. It was still dark outside but I'm sure our bus was bright to the outside as 30 lighters were lit in an instant, then settling to a dull glow. We caught a mini-bus for 40 yuans intending to go to a hostel. We wanted to try a different hostle than the one we had stayed in previously. We drove around for a while when finally our driver pulled into an alley, he was extremely diligent in looking for this exact alleyway. Still dark outside, we unloaded our stuff outside a gate. Our driver looked at us confused but we waved cheerfully as he drove off (how I wish I could have been in his head as he drove away, wondering what we were doing). We turned and rang the doorbell to the hostel for someone to come let us in. Nothing happened. We peered into the building, but it stood black. We surmised the hostel to be closed. The buses started running at around 6 am and we headed to the other hostel. We spent some time there, went and ate some meals through the day and retired last night. This morning we woke up to catch our plane at around 6:30. We flew to Wuhan and then on to Shanghai. To get back to the Marriott we caught the Maglev into the city. I've read about them before but I had never ridden one. Top speed was about 430 km/h. We got to the Marriott where Mr. Madden was waiting for us with Tuna salad, fritos and lay's. We're going to eat supper here in a bit. We're all in pretty cheery moods and we plan on heading to the hot tub later. We're home in a few days.