Kunming Dramas

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I don't know how it happened – well, not strictly true as I was there I just don't want to recollect it – but somehow we ended up back in pointless boring nothing to do Kunming.

Still, before we got there we did have a few great days in Lijiang. We woke up slightly sore from our amazing trek in Tiger Leaping Gorge and headed out to have a good explore of Ljiang Old town. First up was a trip up the Lion Hill. So named as it apparently resembles a sleeping lion – personally I think it was at best a running warthog and more likely a triangle that someone sat on but anyhow – this hill has amazing views over the old town and a pagoda to climb up.

We had a few problems trying to get in; firstly we got slightly lost in the old town, which is very easy to do, and secondly when we arrived at the first entrance they tried to charge us an additional 80 yuan each to get in as a fee to preserve the old town, in addition to the 30 entrance fee. Being forewarned about the scam we headed off to another entrance where, surprise surprise, we did not have to pay the extra fee.

The views from the hill were so-so, it did give a great idea of the scale of Lijiang but it was impossible to make out anything other than the rooftops of the town. The pagoda itself was quite impressive from the outside and the views were better from the top of the pagoda. That said there wasn't actually much to see on the inside, despite the claims of 10,000 carved dragons, and it was disappointing to be greeted at the top by a shop with local TV shows blaring out from the owners TV.

After we descended from the park we stopped off for a quick drink in a cafe, well timed as the heavens opened up shortly afterwards. Stephanie tried the local delicacy of puer tea, - grown in the Yunnan province it is a bit of a specialty. It was lovely tea but I think I enjoyed my banana yogurt shake a bit more.

After we finished our drinks we headed out for another wander around Lijiang in order to soak up some more of the atmosphere before actually deciding to find somewhere to stay for the night. We headed to the hostel we were going to go to the first time and, once we were there got them to book the train ticket for us from Kunming to Guillin, which would be our next destination.

Once all the practicalities of the day had been resolved we got to head out to the market stalls to do some proper exploring i.e. eating the local food. We picked up some amazing local food, though I don't have a clue what it was called or what it was really made off, but it was lovely none the less. We also then had some sweet bean cakes which were equally tasty.

After we had had our local dinner we stopped off at the Prague Cafe for the guiltiest treat we have found so far on our trip, Oreo cookie ice cream milkshakes. Stupidly lovely and probably equally bad for you but completely irresistible.

The next day we got up and decided to head towards to the old town of Shuhe which is meant to be a little less touristy than Lijiang, according to our slightly old guide book. Alas, after the long walk, what we discovered was another old town that was just as touristy as Lijiang. That said we did get a bit of a cultural experience as we were lucky enough to watch some local dancers perform in the main town square. It was impressive although I had no idea what was going on.

After we had finished in Shuhe we headed back for some more local food, broad bean sweetcorn and pepper fritters before heading back to the hostel to pack for what would become our travel day. However, after finishing the packing quickly, which made a nice change, we headed down to the DVD room and watched the King's Speech. A very good film but slightly ruined by the background noise and dodgy subtitles that hardly followed the film at all.

The next morning we had to get up early for the bus to take us to Kunming where we would get our connecting train to Guillin. The day started off badly as, when we arrived, we found out that the bus was not meant to get in three hours before the train as we were assured but only one hour. I then got slightly miffed when our express bus left the express bus terminal at 8:30 and trundled around town to the main bus terminal where we sat for 20 minutes to pick up the rest of the passengers. Ggrrrrr!

That said when we stopped for lunch we were only 15 minutes behind and the driver cut the lunch break short in order to make up time. However, that was the end of the good news and, by 3:00pm we had broken down twice and by 4pm we were standing in a service station waiting for a replacement bus as the engine had finally given up the ghost. Our replacement bus duly arrived an hour later and, whilst he did a much better job of driving at the speed limit we still arrived into Kunming about 20 minutes after our train had left on the other side of town.

All in all this was a bit annoying as the train tickets were now effectively wasted. What was worse is that we were again stuck in Kunming until we could find a train out of the city. This is ultimately worse than losing any amount of cash for missing a train!

That said, missing the train turned out to be a slight blessing in disguise as, later that evening Steph showed all the signs of classic food poisoning. Ultimately she decided the brief sojourn to the en suite bathroom was much easier than having to scramble from the top bunk of the sleeper carriage, find some footwear and sprint down the moving corridor to the train toilet to be sick in.

The next day was pretty much written off to illness as Steph had food poisoning and my right ankle bizarrely flared up making it near impossible for me to walk. In hindsight it might have been that very short jog I did with my rucksack on but I like to think it was more sleeping on it in a funny way.

Fortunately the next day we were both doing a lot better and I headed out to find some train tickets, this time straight to Hong Kong. Unfortunately there were none but I was able to grab some tickets to Guangzhou, the capital of Guangdong and close to Hong Kong with good transport ties to it. All that now separates us from Hong Kong, and hopefully a Russian tourist visa, is a 23 hour train trip and then a short train or bus down from Guangzhou. Here's hoping this train trip goes a bit better.

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