Take a picture, it last longer - Kunming & Kaili

---

Day 91- 97 - Kunimng & Kaili, China

We for some reason we tend to go from one extreme to another . We left Laos, one of the least densely populated countries in southeast Asia for China, the most populated country in the world. It was a definite shock to our senses. We left Vientiane, Laos at a ridiculous hour for Kunming, China. In Kunming, we only went a few blocks in the taxi before we both looked at each other and realized we were no longer in SE Asia and that China was going to be a whole new ballgame.

We checked into our hostel - Cloudland, which was actually quite nice and clean compared to places we've stayed in SE Asia and it was only 35RMB ($5.25) a night for a dorm room. We spent the rest of the day relaxing, watching movies on the couches in the lounge, not really venturing out into the city. The next day, Steph felt really ill and started yet another dosage of antibiotics. G was happy to accompany Steph on the couch the rest of the day and watch one movie after the other.

The next day, Steph started to feel better and the two of us headed out to take a look around Kunming. We walked toward the "Bird and Flower Market", but stumbled along a huge Walmart. There was no hesitation with us, we knew we had to go in for a look around. And this was no Walmart like those back in America. It sold all sorts of odd things. But what really made us stop in our like the "MSG" isle. It seriously was a whole section dedicated to MSG, proudly promoting it, with people actually stopping by to pick up their packet of MSG. We picked out a few snacks since we had an overnight train later that day. We eventually made our way to the market which was a bit disappointing, there were birds but no flowers.

It was getting late in the day and we had to catch a 4PM train to Kaili so we headed back to the hostel. We walked through a little park that had loads of old people gathered around playing music and singing. It was actually a really cute sight to see all these old people but we soon became the center of attention and the subject of conversation.

We boarded our train and found our cabin without much trouble. We chose the cheapest hard sleeper available - so we were on the very top (of the three rows) to help save money as transportation in China is much more expensive then we thought it would be (or budgeted for). It was a 16 hour train ride so we kept ourselves entertained by playing cards and even tried to make up our own card game which didn't really make sense but we went with it anyways. It was a hot cup-o-noodles for us and then bed. Steph learned from her past experience on trains and took a Valium to help fall asleep. G was the unlucky one this time and got no sleep, the smoking kept her up for most of the night.

On Monday, April 13th, we arrived in Kaili at 6AM. We showed the taxi driver the hostel address that was in LP and he nodded as if he knew so we got in the taxi. He took us nowhere near the hostel even though the address was written in Chinese characters and he nodded that he knew it. We showed him the address again and he once again nodded and looked as if he knew this time where to go.

Once again LP disappointed us and the recommended budget hostel was too off putting for us, so we drove to another place recommended in the book. This place just shoo'd us away. The taxi driver was really annoyed and wanted to charge us more to take us to another hotel so we got out of the taxi and dumped our stuff on the street. G went to look for a hotel while S waited with the bags.
While G was walking around, Steph was bombarded with stares. Every person just blantingly stared at her, not even trying to be discreet. Even the dogs were turning their heads for a look. G returned and reported that she had the same staring issue as well.

We decided to just bite the bullet and go to a pricey hotel that G had found since we had no other choice. We walked along the main street in town and saw another hotel along the way that was cheaper - well 150 RMB per night ($30). The room was clean enough so we checked in and went to sleep for the rest of the morning. When we did make it out of the hotel room, we were absolutely starving so we headed out for some food. The suggestions in LP were pitiful and no where near where we were. We ended up choosing Bobo restaurant bc it looked clean enough and had English on the menu. However, the menu was perhaps the funniest thing we've seen in all of Asia. It had the food in Chinese characters of course and then underneath had the English translation. Below is an actual written description of one of the food items.....

"Disposable Silk Baby ". Seriously WTF!!!

Even though we were tired and hungry, annoyed from the morning dipocal, this just made us laugh and we once again realized that things weren't going to be as easy as we had it over the last 3 months. We settled on a safe bet - fried rice - a dish we have become very familiar.

After getting some food, we went to the CITS office (travel information service) to see about going to the minority Miao villages around the area. The lady at the office. Mae, spoke English so we were so relieved. We wanted to go to 3 villages around the area but the price was ridiculous to hire

We settled on just visiting one village - Xijiang - the largest of the villages with over 1,000 wooden houses for the outrageous price of $30 each for the day. This really put a huge dent in our budget but since we were already here, it seemed silly to not go see at least one of villages. We reluctantly handed over our money and spent the rest of the night walking around the city. We eventually stumbled upon a square that had about 100 people (mostly women) performing traditional Chinese dancing. It was really random and we had such a good time watching them perform dance after dance. After a bit of encouragement from some of the women, we joined in for a few dances. They were actually quite difficult even though there were 3 women in front of us to imitate. We probably looked like fools but everyone seemed thrilled to have us join in with them.

The next morning we headed off to Xijiang, which took about 1 hour to get to from Kaili. The scenery on the way was stunning and unlike anything we had seen so far. We pulled into the town and were greeted by a ticket office. After shelling out about 60 RMB (about $9.00), we entered the village. It was definitely big and well kept, almost too much. It seemed really put on for tourist. The setting of the village in a valley among rice paddies and forested hills was very picturesque though. We walked through just part of the village and then came across a huge courtyard with two huge rows of tables lined up with ridiculous amounts of food being brought out. To the right was a growing crowd of Asian tourist (we were the only Westerners there!!!), so we walked over and sat down wondering what all the fuss was about.

After waiting for about 30 minutes, women and men came out in traditional costumes and performed dances for the next hour or so. It was kind of surreal that we had stumbled this and G went closer to the stage to get some pictures. However, she soon became the interest of all the photographers and had lens pointing at her instead of the stage.

We were dying of thirst so we walked away but were called over my some of the photographers that were shaving lunch. They invited us to eat with them. We asked how much the food was and they said it was free so we happily joined them. The food was traditional Miao food and we actually enjoyed most of what we ate, fish, rice, bamboo shoots and some kind of root. We learned that the show was being put on for the photographers for a tourist campaign to promote the region for Chinese travelers. There were about 250 photographers from Shanghai that were competing to get "the best shots". One of the guys spoke relatively good English and chatted with us for a while. But as we are eating, more and more photographers were circling around us snapping pictures. Some even directed us, asking us to put our shin up a bit more, look this way, look that way. It was so bizarre esp. since there were still performers on the stage but all the photographers were pointing there cameras at us. After we finished eating, we tried to leave (still hadn't gotten any water - they were all drinking rice wine which was really really strong) but got stopped for about 20 minutes and asked to pose in pics with all of the photographers. It was perhaps one of the weirdest moments we had had in the past 3 or so months. We eventually said our goodbyes and kept walking through the villages and picked up some nice silver bracelets (and yes, we really think they are actual silver). We were once again called over by a group of Chinese people to join them for food. We really weren't hungry but didn't want to seem impolite. They didn't speak very good English so it was a lot of gestures and smiling. They were eating food in the traditional hot pot which was really nice but later got to thinking and we ate might have been eating dog. Trying not to think about it, we decided to head back to Kaili as the day was getting late. The driver drove us to the train station on the way back to the hotel so we could get our bus tickets to Guilin for the next day. Steph almost had a heart attack when the women behind the desk told her the price - $45 for one ticket (for a 12 hour ride). She ran back to the car to G because she didn't have enough money to buy both tickets. We seriously couldn't believe how expensive everything was in China. For $45 you can go the entire length of Vietnam!!!!

We called Mae to see if they were ripping us off, but she assured us that was the price. We had no choice and wanted to get out of Kaili as soon as possible. The rest of the night we spent cursing the day we entered China and ate fries at a Chinese fast food restaurant - Dico's with all eyes on us while we ate.

The next morning we happily packed up our stuff and went to the bus station. We were told our bus would leave at 11AM and get into Guilin at 11PM. We didn't leave until 11:50AM, but it was a sleeper bus so we thought it can't be that bad.

Oh, how we were wrong. We were at the front of the bus which was also the designated smoking section. We didn't stop for food until 10PM and of course it was just some gas station roadside restaurant which meant we had nothing. Also it had perhaps the worst bathroom we have ever seen. It was just one big room with just one long trough - no walls, no doors. Needless to say it smelled completely rank. We were stopped for about an hour and once again were the subject of everyones's stares.

When we finally boarded back on the bus, we though it would only be another hour till Guilin. Well around 2:30AM, the bus driver stopped in a town and gestured for us to get off. After we got our bags out of the bottom of the bus, we started to walk away since our booked hostel was near the bus stop. The driver though kept pionting us into a taxi. We didn't want to get in because we thoguht we were close enough to walk to our hostel and were not about to shell over and more moeny. But after some pointing to the Lonely Planet map and the men arguing about something, we realized that we were not in Guilin and the taxi driver was going to drive us there. The driver handed the driver 400 RMB ($58) so we realized that we must not even be that close. AS we were driving, we looked at the map and realized that we were southwest of Guilin. We were so tired and hungry and frustrated we just shook our head and went with it.

The driver made it to Gulin in about and hour and half, but of ourse didn't know his way arounf the city. So we had to stop 3 times to ask for direction to our hostel. We eventually made it there aaround 4AM. Luckily there was a girl behind the desk to check us in. We made our way to our dorm room and layed down for a much need good sleep. But instead in our dorm room was a guy with a terribly loud snore that kept us up most of the night.

Our first few days had not been pleasant in China, but things did make a turn for the better in Yangshou. We'll post a blog about our time there soon!!!

xx
S&G

---

Photos

MSG?
They honestly need a whole isle for this?

S and Puppy
Selling pups on the street out of cardborad boxes is big business in Kunming

Should we order . . . .
The Hand Rips the Beef Food -or- Salty Veg Meat Froth Food

Lunch at Xijiang
Local dishes made from grown produce.

Local Dance
Courting Dance performed.

Raw food
We were invited by a couple locals to join their hot pot dinner - MSG ready!

Minority Women of Xijiang
Hammered silver and hand sewn garmets.

Comments

[Beata and Tomek]

really nice photo;-)

[Genevieve n Stefanie]

thanks!