Wholesale Escaping China, Coco Lands in Bali - Ancient Wisdom

Greetings from Ubud, Bali

The big news is that Coco, my wife (and your AW China agent), escaped from China and arrived in Bali.. It has been almost two and half years (900 days) since I said goodbye to Coco in Malaga airport thinking I would see her in China after a trip to India. But whilst I was in India in February 2020 the covid cloud descended on the world and the world changed. Coco's escape from China was a little dramatic.. details below.

Last week I was updating you about what's happening with AW suppliers here in Indonesia. If you missed it you can catch up here.

Coco has been working hard in China.. non stop really. Organising continued supplies, working with the family businesses that supply AW in very difficult times.. she needed a holiday. The zero-covid system in China makes it very hard to travel even between cities and to go outside China is made almost impossible. For one thing there are almost no flights out of China, and the ones that operate are eye wateringly expensive. They really don't want the locals to leave.. Getting a Schengen visa to visit Europe Coco was told was impossible as all the visa offices had been closed in China, so it was not possible to come to Europe. The only possible plan was to meet in Asia. In Bali it would be ideal to mix business with a reunion. I scanned google flights everyday to try and find a route, checking from every city in China, very strange results would come up.. Like if you search from Shanghai to Kuala Lumpur, it would only route you through Guangzhou with a long stop over, so I would try to book direct from Guangzhou but would only show routes via another China city. Very strange.

I had seen videos on YouTube showing people being turned away from airports, passports even being cut so they couldn't be used - holiday travel strictly discouraged, visiting family was not considered a valid reason to travel. Only business travel could possibly be allowed.

When I mentioned all this to Coco, she didn't believe, fake-news - she said, of course we can travel.. why not?

I had an idea.. I could apply for an Indonesia Business Visa for Coco.. this would validate her trip as for business.. which it partially is. Then on the Malaysia Airlines website by searching consecutive dates I worked out that there were one way flights you could book about every ten days or so to KL.. one of these days coincided with a flight from KL to Bali.. This meant that Coco could get a connecting flight, luggage straight through without having to enter Malaysia and avoid any complications.. I also knew (from YouTube) that China passport control would ask to see return tickets.. this is an impossible task - whatever I tried return flights were routing around the world, $20,000 or both.. The system was stacked. But then I found Airasia had just started selling tickets from KL to Hong Kong in September (at a reasonable price), so I booked one of those hoping that would be good enough to show as a return ticket to China.

Coco didn't believe there would be a problem.. In China news or on social media the subject of international travel was a big fat blank space.

There are four flights a day from Yiwu to Guangzhou international airport.. Coco booked the first, even if that meant waiting 8 hours for the Malaysia Air flight.. But it was a good job she did because the flight was cancelled, and auto rebooked on a later flight, which was then delayed three times.. from having an 8 hour window to less than 3 hours, Coco was starting to get a little stressed, many other passengers had already missed their international flights..

On arriving in Guangzhou, Coco messaged me she had to take a covid test on the tarmac, before being allowed in the terminal.. more delay.

From domestic arrivals to International departures is a short walk, and she was able to grab her luggage and get to Malaysia Air check-in in time.. she messaged me all was ok.

Now she had only to pass through passport control, security check and then to the gate..

But then there was a new check.. Police control.. a policeman checked her tickets and asked her which province of China she came from. Ok he said you will have to be interviewed by the police force of that province. Apparently there were police from every province in China stationed in the airport.. Jiangxi province policemen came to ask questions.. "What is your reason to travel?'' they asked, a little flustered and stressed Coco said without thinking... "Holiday". - "In that case" they said "you will have to turn around right now and go home"..

Coco remembering what I had told her quickly changed track.. sorry sorry, I mean business.. I have an Indonesian business visa, business ticket.. and showed them. Still not happy, they demanded proof that she was a business person, so Coco fortunately had company documents in her name for AW China on her phone. Very reluctantly they let her pass.

Four hour flight to Kuala Lumpur, eight hours connection, no trouble at all, three hours to Bali..

And so that's how Coco escaped China and arrived in Bali..

900 days is a long time.. and I was expecting things to be a bit strange.. but it was like no time had passed.

So happy to see my wife again.. this week seems a little unreal..

For Coco very strange.. no need to wear a mask, no need to get tested every 72 hours, no stress over your phone covid-passport turning red.. a taste of freedom.

Back together in Bali..

Coco posted a simple video of us having breakfast in Ubud on the China version of Instagram and was amazed to see it go viral within minutes.. I hope she doesn't get in trouble in China for having a holiday..

Yesterday we visited some factories and discussed exporting Indonesian products to China.. I said you need to post online also.. she did.. so far it didn't go viral..

In other news..

There is a G20 foreign ministers meeting in Bali this week. The airport is all prepared for VIP arrivals.. one of which was Liz Truss.

Indonesian foreign minister greets Liz Truss, who stayed only a few hours before deciding to return to London..

Locals are not impressed, apparently world peace and food security are less important than London politics.

Meanwhile back in the UK.. Indonesia and China containers arriving.. so actually whole swathes of things are back in stock..

It's all going a bit crazy .. some big selling gemstone items, Power bracelets etc back in stock, I recommend grabbing stock while you can.

Next week the plan is we go to Java, to a stone carving village that our man Bondhan has discovered.. should be interesting..

Take care.

David