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Published: November 19th 2009
This blog entry is LONG overdue...but better late than never. For the October Holiday I travelled to Yunnan province in the South West of China. The first stop was Kunming. The flight took about 3 hours, and when we flew over the city it looked very different than Shanghai. Still a big city, but instead of 18 million people, it has a population closer to that in Toronto. There were fewer tall buildings and more space. When we landed, we hired a man to drive us to our hotel (which was all booked ahead of time) thanks to Jess, who is Chinese and can speak fluently. In fact, most of the trip would have been much more difficult if she hadn't been there to communicate on behalf of all of us. There were five of us travelling togther; Aaron, myself and Rebecca from my school, Lizzie from a different campus and our friend Jess...Aaron's wife.
When we arrived at our hotel, it seemed to be pretty nice, U Choice Hotel was the name. When you entered into the lobby it was very large and the decor was traditional Chinese. Marble pillars, dark brown leather couches with wood trim, and plenty of
Bex and Me
Waiting for everyone to arriveemployees waiting to help you at the desk. Our rooms were quite big and modern looking. After checking in, we left right away for some lunch. We went to a restaurant down the street famous for it's rice noodles. Actually Yunnan province is known for it's rice noodles. It was really busy and we had to search to find an open and clean table. We all ordered the same meal- rice noodles. They are served in a huge bowl with an oil and water based broth. Another plate comes that has a variety of side dishes. You choose which you would like to add to your noodles and then you have your meal! The noodles were very hot and once I added the spicy ingredients my nose was running! haha We left the restaurant and starting walking to the Old town in Kunming. We passed by many modern stores and once we got to the Old town area, there was a pretty big crowd of people. The Old town had stall after stall of vendors, selling jewlery, crafts, art, pretty much everything. A lot of them had similar things, so I was trying my best to hold off on buying
anything, since we would see the same things once we got to Dali and Lijiang.
Everyone was pretty tired, so we all decided to go back to the hotel for a nap. (best idea ever!) Later we asked where the restaurants and bars were in town and they directed us towards "the lake". The streets were pretty quiet for a Friday night, compared to Shanghai, but as we got closer to the "lake" there were more lights and some music playing. We found the street they told us about....it was facing a lilly pad pond of some sort, but further up there actually was a real lake. We found a "western" restaurant that looked nice. When we went in the staff seemed surprised that foreigners were actually in their restaurant. The service was outstanding and they gave us a free bottle of red wine. They claim that it was for the holiday, but we think it was also because we were foreigners. Either way, I enjoyed it. That was the first glass of red wine I had had in a long time. From there we moved to a bar down the street that was pretty cool. We went to a
Just off the plane
Arrival in Kunming, arranging a driver to the hotel tabl upstairs that overlooked the street through an open window. Outside the window were red lanterns hanging from the roof for the holiday. We ordered a bottle of red wine and had the best seat in the house because we could talk and still here the entertainment happening downstairs. Next we moved locations to a small UK pub....there was a band finishing their set for the night....a girl singing and some guys playing behind her....sounded like jazz, but more upbeat. When I went up to the bar to get Aaron his Tequilla (apparently our server did not understand when he ordered) I asked one of the guitar players where they were from....he said " Argentina.....we play here every night". Thanks to Lizzie, and a big purse, my shotglass collection grew stronger 😊 The night couldn't have been complete without a late night stop at a 24hrs McDonalds.....although I forgot to mention that earlier that day, I had a horrfic bathroom experience in a McDonalds. At this point in the trip, we hadn't done any driving, so I did not have the pleasure of experiencing the roadside bathrooms as of yet.....that's a whole other blog.
The next morning we had some
difficulty (well Jess did) speaking with our arranged driver......to make a long and complicated story short....
Driver A- said he would drive us to the Stone Forest for "x" RMB.
Driver A is also not a legit driver....whatever that means....no license?
Driver B- said he would drive us to the Stone Forest and then to Dali and then to Lijiang (our final destination) for a set price.
Driver A- come back to us the morning of departure saying he needed more money to get a license and wanted more money as well.................
So after several phone calls and discussion, we went with Driver B....who later would be the best decision we ever made!
Driver B picked us up at our hotel in a nice white van. He had asked if we minded him bringing his wife along, since it was the holiday for them and she would be lonely at home by herself. Of course we said it was fine.
They drove us to the Stone Forest (about an hour outside of Kunming). On the way there Jess asked if they had any English names, which they did not. Almost immedietly two English names popped into my
Rice Noodles
This is the plate that came with the noodles. You could choose which items you wanted to put into the noodles. head!! Brad and Angelina........obviously.
So from this point forward, they are now Brad and Angelina.
Brad was awesome! He went out of his way to help us out at the forest. Since it was a holiday and busy, it was almost impossible to take a train around the forest. Brad was negotiating with the ladies driving the trains for us! They all told him that they were booked....but finally he convinced one of them to drive us. She did not seem overly happy about this, but she drove us.
Thank god we took a train because we would not have seen half of the Stone Forest walking.....nor did any of us feel like walking that much. It was a pretty hot day and we had a time restraint as well.
The forest was amazing. It is completely natural and all of the stones are in their natural formation. Some of them looked like statues of different animals if you looked carefully.
After the forest, Brad drove us back towards Kunming, and on route to Dali, where we would be staying that night. The drive was great. I was able to see the countryside and get a feel for what China
Kunming Old Town
This was the entrance into the old town. really does look like. We passed by many small towns/ or farming villages and all of them seemed to be gathering the crops and burning them. As we got closer and closer to Dali there were more and more moutains. The scenery was much different from the big city I am living in. The people were different, as well as their lifestyles. It was much more evident that these people had to work very hard to make a living and what they farmed was how they survive. I forgot to mention that before leaving Kunming, we stopped at a McDonalds to get something to eat, since there would not be anything else along the way. We all decided it would be nice to buy Brad and Angelina something to eat since they were so awesome to us. Brad was very proud and said that he didn't want anything, but we could buy something for his wife. We ended up buying them each a cheeseburger and a coke. They were very appreciative and I did not see Brad eat his the entire way to Dali. It was on the dash board....so I guess he was saving it for later. Jess told
Hostel
Nice name... us inside that he told his wife in Chinese "we should save money".....so if we had not bought them anything, I don't thin they would have eaten. It felt good to do something nice for someone, even though it was not a big deal for us, it probably made them happy.
We arrived in Dali later than expected, around 8:00pm. We checked into our hotel, which was at the top of an older street, surrounded by mountains. This hotel was even more unique from the last. It was even more tradional Chinese in the way it looked. The furniture in the entrance was oversized dark wood that had been carved by hand with a glossy finish. Our rooms were on the second floor, which were open to the outdoor air for part of the hallway. This room was even nicer than the last. This was considered a 3 star hotel, where the last was a 4.
We ventured out for the night, into the Old Town....and found ourselves in the narrow streets with many other people. There were tons of little shops and restaurants....we found a sign up ahead that said "Carlsberg"....so we decided there would be a western restaurant
Aaron and Me
At the "western" restaurant for dinner. I think I was sad because there wasn't a lot of appealing things on the menue. close by. We were right. We ate at a place called Star Cafe. The food was good, cheap and the local beer was decent. Kind of tasted like Corona. After some late night shopping, we headed to bed.
The morning came quickly, because Brad and Angelina picked us up at 9:00am. They took us to see the Three Pagodas before leaving Dali. The scenery was beautiful, because we were now in the moutains. That morning it was cold, raining and foggy, but we made the best of it. We had about 3 more hours to go until we got to Lijiang. Once again, the drive was amazing. Words cannot explain what I saw....but I have a better appreciation for what China is really like now. As we were driving through one of the small villages, the streets were crowded with people and vehicles. Some of them looked like they were right out of the 1920's. It was so bizaarre beause as we drove through, we could hear one of the stores playing Black Eyed Peas "Where is the Love?" Something seemed very strange hearing a modern song in a village that was along the countryside.
This would be a good
Aaron and Jess
First bar we went to in Kunming time to explain the bathroom situation. OK, so public bathrooms are never a pretty situation....especially when you are driving along a two lane highway, in the moutains, in China......enough said? All I know is....I saw some ugly looking things, that I would like to forget. I have been forced to master the "squatter"....when I come home, the toilets are going to be like heaven.
Brad and Angelina got us all the way to Lijiang- as promised. They were awesome....I kinda felt sad to see them go. They drove is all the way to the entrance to the Ancient City (which was where we were staying for 5 days). There is no traffic allowd inside, so we said our goodbyes then. We also took a picture with them infront of the van that got us there.
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