Adventure in Kunming 昆明历险记 ( 5 )

We were supposed to fly home on 2/7/08 at 2:30 pm. However, there was a thunderstorm in the early hour. We woke up to the bad news that many areas in Kunming were flooded, including road in front of our hotel (pic below) and road to airport. Our worse nightmare, Kunming airport was flooded due to collapse of a section of the river bund causing the water to flow into the airport. The airport was closed. Later we learned from news report that this was the worse thunderstorm in 50 years to hit the city.

There was a chill in my heart. We tried frantically to contact MAS office in Kunming. I even called home to ask my daughter Adeline to contact the MAS office in KL. Finally, we were told by MAS to "evacuate" from our hotel , and checked into nearby Sakura Hotel where MAS Kunming office was situated.

In this case, MAS was really doing their job well. We were provided with food and accommodation. They tried to find the earliest flight for us to go home. They managed to book us on a flight the next day via Guangzhou. (provided airport re-open soon)

I could not sleep. I got up throughout the night to look out of the window to check on the weather. Thank God, there was no heavy rain on 3/7/08. Our flight to Guangzhou took off as schedule at 8:30 am. We were at Guangzhou airport at about 11:15 am. We boarded MAS flight at 3:00 pm and landed safely at KLIA at about 6:30 pm.

At Kunming Airport, the wheel chair again caused problem with the rude and ignorant officials. Compared with the thunderstorm and closure of airport, this was a small matter which I would not like to mention again.

Thus concluded our journey, or rather our adventure, in Kunming. Thanks and praise to God our merciful Father. Amen.


before &
after





我们本来是在七月二号（星期三）乘搭马航下午两点半的班机回国。但在早上，突然来了一场暴风雨，昆明市许多道路及地区都被水淹没了，这包括我们酒店前面 (上图）及通往机场的道路。因为机场旁边的河堤崩溃，水流进机场，而被迫关闭。这犹如一个噩梦！我当时心里却是有点焦虑，到底机场会关闭多久，我们会滞留在昆明多少天。我们从电视新闻得知，这是昆明市罕有五十年一见的暴风雨。

我们急着联络马航昆明办事处。我甚至联络我的大女儿代我们联络马航吉隆坡总部，要求指示该采取什么行动。己经幸苦，才联络上了昆明办事处，别告知我们应该马上迁出现在的酒店，搬到马航办事处坐落的樱花酒店。好不容易，才找到酒店的汽车，付出高价（他们收二百人民币，平时的士顶多十元），迁到樱花酒店，我们也才松了一口气。

马航在这事故中，非常的尽职，酒店及餐食，他们全安排好及包办费用。他们安排我们乘搭隔天最快的班级，飞到广州，再乘搭马航回国。

当晚我彻夜难眠，查看窗外，是否下大雨。感谢天主，我们早上八点半的飞机到广州如期起飞，十一点十五左右到达了广州白云机场。在下午三点钟，我们乘搭马航班机，在傍晚六时半，平安的到达了吉隆坡国际机场。

在昆明机场，我们有因轮椅的事，被机场的粗鲁无知的官僚刁难，但比起暴风雨及机场关闭，这可算是小事，不值一提了。

我们就这样结束了这趟昆明之旅，或更恰当是昆明历险记。感谢天主的仁慈和恩惠。亚门。