Hotel and Laiwu Fri 16th

Our Hotel is very nice accommodations and at least 4 star as provided by the organizers in China in Laiwu city.
The XinBai Grand Hotel is located at 17 Luzhong East Street, Laiwu, Shandong, China. Tel: +86-634-6607777 Fax: +86- -634-6607666. Tim and Gordon are Rm 1317. You can try calling us to wish the Underdogs well and we can see how good the local phone service is. 🙂 IF WE GET SOME CALLS we know you guys are reading this. 🙂
Many of the teams are staying at this hotel and it is in a district of Laiwu with many other Hotels and tourist attractions.
I arrived 12 hours late tonight as my plane had problems in Orlando and I missed the China flight out. On my way from Jinan to Laiwu via our friendly guides and a shuttle van we stopped in at the China International Aerosports Fiesta location. Extemely nice accommodations there right at the site of the main events. The have built many facilities specifically for these events and it seems little expense was spared. I shared my ride with Vladimir (a pilot and Sukhoi expert ) who was here to assemble and dis-assemble two Sukhois for the aerobatic events in 10 days time. Really nice guy and with a big job ahead with the logistics of transporting these full size aircraft here for the event.
The place is a bit of a mad house. Crazy people at the airport! I couldn’t find a public phone anywhere and a guy offered me his cell phone and then tried to charge me 50 RMB’s (about $9) for borrowing their cell phone for 4 or 5 minutes to call Glauco. When I attempted to argue the price they became rather belligerent. Got out of it for 15 – eventually but a bit of a worry there. 🙂 Crazy people on the roads here too. Double enter lines are just decoration on the road. They appear to have no meaning at all as people drive on both sides at times. Lots of Mopeds and motorized bikes. Kyle could make a fortune here I reckon.
Made it to the Hotel. Woke Tim up. Got the internet working eventually. Discovered that too many chargers plugged into one adapter makes things smell funny but could be a way of keeping my coffee hot here if it doesn’t go up in smoke. 🙂
Time for bed. Gonna get a report on the field condition tomorrow. Hopefully we can practice somewhere.
Good night from China.
Gordon