Blogs from Kunming, Yunnan, China, Asia - page 28

Among the most dramatic scenic attractions we visited on our trip to Yunnan Province was "The Stone Forest", referred to since the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644 A.D.) as the 'First Wonder of the World.' An old local saying says that 'If you have visited Kunming without seeing the Stone Forest, you have wasted your time.' It is true: the Stone Forest is definitely one of a kind! Approximately 270 million years ago this region was a vast ocean. Over time, the waters retreated and the limestone landscape was left. After constant erosion by the elements, the area finally evolved into the present-day Stone Forest. The magnificent, strange and steep landscape creates labyrinthine vistas around each corner. Each formation has a story about animals or people associated with it. Some formations are elegant, some are rugged, and each ... read more

New Year's Unmet Resolutions It's not as I'd expected. The apartment is not yet finished, the electricity unwired, hot water tank and kitchen appliances missing. I remain with Joan in his old flat, the rent contract now under Sergio's name. Joan has run into money problems. He paid the contractor the full cost for the kitchen appliances but the contractor put half that towards his employees' wages. Their employment has dragged on several months past the completion date. Joan is disappointed with their slack attention to detail. The light fixtures in the kitchen will have to be rewired, several cabinets do not close flush, the sliding door and several windows do not shut tight and shake when windy and the shower walls were erected without sealant. My laptop remains in Japan after more than two ... read more

so i'm back in kunming. let me quickly get you up to date........ i got to dali and breathed a huge sigh of relief. it was so nice to be somewhere familiar, and to know that i'd be seeing mickey and other familiar faces really really soon. i checked into a hostel and hit the streets. chris had gone to find somewhere with a single room, but i'd decided i wanted to travel a bit more on the cheap than that. it was getting dark, and i was hungry. walking down the cobblestones of huguo lu, i was greeted with lots of familiar sights. old bai ladies coming up to me and trying to sell me weed. bright-coloured embroidery and indigo batik hanging up everywhere. tarnished silver jewellry, japanese tourists, the lazy book cafe. it was ... read more

The bus journey to Kunming was indeed 'executive'...well it had reclining seats, arm rests and a TV onboard. Kunming seemed to be like most other Chinese cities except with more of a South East Asian feel. This meant more street food/hawker stalls, dirtier streets, less conservative people and the locals looked less Chinese. A lot of expats and English teachers seem to live in Kunming and there was even Western music, something which we had not heard in China since leaving Hong Kong. We stayed in a place called the Hump, although we quickly re-named this hostel 'the Dump' because it was over priced, the staff lost everyone's booking and they didn't even provide towels. The hostel even prevented people from taking their own food and drink into their rooms! We had no choice but to ... read more

Hey everyone, Unfortunately I'm a bit behind on my blog as you may have noticed. As I've now finally finished writing about NZ, I'm going to miss out a chunk of October and let you know what I've been up to in November - travelling around incredible Tibet. I'll catch up on October when I get a spare hour or two, but to summarise, we flew into Singapore where we spent two days - mainly getting used to breathing in the extreme heat after the cool NZ air - before travelling up into Malaysia, stopping at Melaka for 4 days and then Kuala Lumpar for another few days where we had thunderstorms everyday - it was the height of the rainy season - and so we decided against staying there for any longer and hot footed ... read more