Kunming

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Kunming (the capital city of Yunnan province)

Kunming was my first city in Yunnan. I took a 21 hour train from Loudi to get there. I was glad I had bought a Y450 "soft" sleeper ticket because the bed was much wider and the room came with a door. I really lucked out when I discovered that the other occupants of my cabin were 3 lovely Chinese girls. I joked with them in both Mandarin and English. They giggled when they saw the enormous amount of hair shown on my passport photo. The whole trip we noshed on Chinese snack foods (spicy tofu bites, sesame cookies, chicken wings, noodles, shatian pomelos, and mandarin oranges).

I stayed at the Kunming Cloudland hostel for 4 nights. It's rooms were cozy and the shared bathrooms all got fresh flowers each morning. There was a really nice sun deck on the third-story and the outdoor patio had both a pool table and a ping-pong table for guests to use at their leisure. The hostel also had a pleasant restauraunt/lounge/cafe good for reading, relaxing, and place to bring back a late night hook-up. More on that coming up...

My first night in Kunming, two Finlanders and I went to check out the Kundu Night Market and the dozens of superloud bars around Jinmabiji Square. We eventually settled ourselves in a bar called "the Mask". At first, we were the first Westerners to enter. Groups of Kunming natives in their 20's were gathered around tables playing "liar's dice" and drinking beer and hard liquor "ganbei" style. Ganbei means "empty your glass" so these kids were drinking to get drunk. Not shortly after glancing around the room, a guy asked me to challenge him in an armwrestling match. He was easily 30 lbs heavier than me but also deep 4 glasses of Jameson. I won. He was poured another one. I got a glass too after agreeing to be in a picture with the rest of his group.

After a few more hours of this more Westerners started showing up. I went outside and found a group of people playing hacky-sack with a object that has a weight and feathers coming out of one end, called a "featherball". Many of the other players were too buzzed to keep a rally going which made my skills look like I was able to hold my own. This girl named Fei Fei "Joanna" caught my eye and we got to talking after the game. She was local in Kunming and the Mask was her favorite bar to frequent. Pretty face, tom-girl like attitude and wit, and a pair of dark brown eyes to die for. At one point she asked me if I was religious. Who, me? Not really, well I was raised Christian but I haven't gone to church since I was in high school. I learned that Joanna was a devout Christian. Supposedly Christian girls can be the most wild when tempted by the American boys. Faithful or not, I couldn't give up on a night with her. So we continued stayed out and went for noodles. At around 3:30AM she says that her grandparents had gone to sleep and there was no way she could gain access into her house that night. "I think I might stay at the Mask until the morning" she said. When the Mask closed at 4:30AM I brought her back to the Cloudland hostel.

The nightguard wouldn't let the two of us into the dorm area due to the "one bed, one body" policy. So instead we hung out on the couches in the lounge instead. I learned here that due to her realtionship with God, she was not going to let me make any advances past 1st base. I was stranded on first! But there was decent snogging. We lay together until morning, then we exchanged phone numbers and then parted ways for the afternoon.

The next day I went with a Danish girl to explore the West Hill, Xi Shan, to the Southwest of Kunming. Xi Shan offers the best views of the city and the surrounding Dian Chi lake. On the bus to the park, my phone escaped my pocket. Yep my amazing Samsung Galaxy Nexus. It was never recovered. Not only was it my primary means of communication but also my timepiece, alarm clock, split-second camera, eReader, gaming system, keeper of my photos of friends and family and the only means of contacting Joanna to go on a second date! Son of a bitch. After spending 5 hours at the police station I finally received a report that claimed the phone was indeed stolen. My trip insurance will cover the replacement but what a crappy day. It was pretty fun though being driven around Kunming in the back of a police car! The looks on other people's faces were priceless!!

That evening was definitely the lowest point of the trip. I'd lost my most treasured possession and I was convinced that I'd lost the girl too. The only way of reaching her was the phone number I'd key'd into my phone. Damn you thief!

To my surprise, the girl from the night before came looking for me at the hostel! She was upset thinking that I'd forgotten to call her, but after I'd told her about that day and the stolen phone things between us were fine once again.

My last day in Kunming, the local girl took me to the Yunnan Ethnic Village - a cultural theme park showcasing the 26 minority cultures of the Yunnan province. We got to watch performances by various ethnic groups, try on traditional clothing, and even get kicked out of some "off-limits" areas (sounds vaguely familiar). To end our last night together we went to a restaraunt called the Brothers Jiang to have Kunming famous "Guoqiao mixian" or "Over the Bridge Noodles", a bowl of boiling hot broth which you then add in dozens of separated ingredients (meats, mushroonms, vegetables, quail egg, spices, noodles, etc). The name comes from a story of a wife crossing a bridge to buy noodles for her husband's dinner. When the husband asked the name of the dish, she replied "Guoqiao mixian". Many people absolutely love this dish. There are so many things mixed into the bowl, you never know what your chopsticks will pull out next! For me, it was one of the best tasting noodle bowls I've ever had. Spicy hot with a rich, complex flavor. I was so full afterwards.

After dinner we got ice cream and took a stroll through the brightly painted pavilions and tree lined walkways of Green Lake Park. The night was very pretty. The moon was full, the cherry trees were blooming, and even at 8:00PM many locals were out dancing in large groups to Chinese dance music. We even passed by some pagodas filled with older locals playing traditional folk instruments.

Kunming was very nice for such a big city. The weather was the best out of all the places I've visited in China this far. It sucks that I had to lose my phone but I'm thankful that Joanna was there to provide me some comfort...even if she wasn't allowed to let me knock on her boots.

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