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Published: September 29th 2018
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September 18th - Kunming - Dia 89
Time to leave Getu. I never managed to climb anything but I found it to be a nice experience to visit this magestic place before it is turned upside down.
Now I was thinking of going all the way to Liming? in a new province called Yunnan. A province famous for all its indigenous populations. It was going to be an experience of its own.
Liming could not be reached in a day so I was thinking of stopping in Dali City for a couple of days. Supposedly it was another good place to climb. But the word around is that Liming is the best jaja. But something I have is time so I was in no hurry to go rushing to Liming.
Leaving Getu was a whole adventure. The bus that was going to drive me all the way to the city of Ziyun was not available today. So I had to be dropped in the middle of Getu and Ziyun, being told to take another bus. Fuck jajajaja
I tried catching multiple buses but non seemed to stop for me ?. Deciding to walk towards the city of Ziyun I got lucky
and saw a bus far away waiting for something. I ran for it, could not miss it. Yes! Made it and confirmed with the driver he was heading to Ziyun. ?
From here on it went much smoother. In Ziyun I catched the same buses I had taken before and I made it all the way to Anshun. Now I had to take a train to Kunming City, the capital of Yunnan. Here is where I sort of messed up. There where two train stations in Anshun. One containing the slow trains and the other the bullet trains. Of course I wanted to take a bullet train, taking only 2 hours. But I messed up ? I went to the slow train station bought a ticket and when the train slowly pulled over in the railway I realized I had made a mistake ??. Now I was in for a 7 hour ride all the way to Kunming. I guess I was not going to make it to Dali today.
This train ride really tested my patience. It was a tremendously long ride. Arriving in Kunming at 12:30pm! Without any internet or the slightest idea of where to sleep I
got off the train and tried to find some kind of wifi. A man approached me as it tends to be when you are standing confused and disorientated. He offered a room to stay and after negotiating, he took me to a nearby high rise. Where I slept soundly in a tiny room with only room for a bed.
September 19th - Kunming 1 - Dia 90!!
Today I realized I was in no hurry to start climbing in Liming so I decided to stay a couple of days in Kunming. Which actually had some climbing of its own.
In Kunming I had a contact which I was trying to arrange a day of climbing with ? But today with no climbing partner in sight I decided to risk it and visit the most famous climbing wall, Xiao MO Yu cave.
A couple of kilometers away from the city I had to take two buses and end up in the outskirts of Kunming. Around lush green pine forests smelling amazing?. Following some instructions online I walked towards a small remote village. I was already loving the climbing place due to its remoteness, you could not hear the city life
anymore.
Passing through the village and heading down to their crop fields I could finally start seeing the orange painted limestone walls. This place was amazing!
Finally arriving at the overhanging cave I realized I was unfortunately alone. There was only an empty tent in the middle of the cave. Not giving up too easily I decided to stay a while and wait. And to make the waiting more entertaining I decided to start climbing. Since I did not have a partner or rope I just traversed through the wall staying relatively close to the ground. What started as an activity to pass time ended as a challenging, entertainig climbing traverse.
Nobody ended up showing in the cave today but I had a lot of fun by myself. Jajaja. Sometimes you don't necessarily need a partner to climb safely outside. What a day and an incredible climbing location.
Back in the Hostel I received the good news of actually having a partner to climb with tomorrow. FINALLY!!
September 20th - Kunming 2 - Dia 91
FINALLY a day which I was going to climb had arrived! The excitement was high!
First though I was going to try and get
a SIM card in order to access the internet and make calls. I was finally going to be able to communicate through wechat which is an absolute obligation if you hangout with the locals a lot. ?
Planning to meet at 11am with Nick, a local climber in Kunming, I had some time to deal with the SIM card. Time was in my favor until a series of misfortunes started occurring jajaja.
After walking for a kilometer I got to the store and realized I had forgotten my passaport, needed in order to sign up for a mobile plan. Walk all the way back to the Hostel.. Before heading out again I had to make a really special birthday call, my mama ☺️. Cutting it short with time I decided to risk it and go to the store again. Another kilometer of walking and once inside the store being told they only served locals. Damn it. Now with no time I decided to get myself quickly in the metro to meet up with Nick in the last stop. As planned.
Arriving maybe 10 minutes later then 11am I could not find him anywhere ?. Well at least a guy looking ready to climb since I had never met Nick before. I waited, maybe he was late... 30minutes later I realized that was not the case.
Desperate to find him in order to climb I walked along a hikers paved road to see if I could see any nearby rock which he could be in. Another 15 minutes passed, making me realize it was not going to happen this way. Changing plans I took the only option left. Asking a random Chinese person to lend me his phone to make a call. I fortunately found Nick's wechat number in a series of emails we had exchanged. First try was a failure, receiving a weird stare as I showed a random Chinese guy a translated sentence with my phone. Second try I approached a middle aged woman sitting lonely in a bench and successfully used her phone! YEEES! After a series of calls and understandment issues with Nick, he did not know to much English, I got him to come pick me up. What you have to go through in order to go climbing in China ?
After maybe 30minutes of waiting in a bench Nick arrived! He seemed quite upset with all the incident but after a while of talking it through we ended in good terms. After 10 minutes of waiting in the last metro stop Nick had though I was already in the climbing spot and decided to leave. 5 minutes difference jajaja!
Well now time to climb at last! After a short bicycle ride and a steep hike we were ready to climb! What an amazing view to climb with, all the city of Kunming and the big lake next to it ?.
As always climbing was soooo good and all the efforts to be there were more then worthy ?.
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