Kunming

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We arrived in Kunming at 7:25 am on an overnight train from Nanning. We check into the Camellia Hotel. It is very reasonably priced, but you must live with a slight smell in the room….it does seem clean other than that. There is no in room or wireless internet as the booking agent claimed there was. They have a business center that charges 10 Yuan an hour for use. We needed to use it to try the address for the Hump Pilot Monument. We could not locate it, as the only information is that it is in a park on the west side of town??? So we asked around the hotel staff and tourist agency, they had no idea what we were talking about. We are surprised that people are not familiar with the Fighting Tigers, especially the younger generation. We decide to take a walk and see if we could find another hotel/concierge that could maybe help us. We went into the Kunming Hotel and the assistant manager tried to help us. This hotel has hosted groups of former Hump pilots in prior years. He calls around to government officials, who were in charge of the tours when the hump pilots were in town. He can not get a hold of anyone that knows the location of the monument. I am very disappointed, as I would like to go see the monument in honor of my grandfather.
Near the Kunming Hotel we enter the Thailand Consulate to inquire on whether we need visas or not. We do not if we stay under 30 days as a tourist. Back at our hotel we talk to the tourist agency about booking a trip to Tibet. We are quoted $350 each just for the flight to Lhasa and the Tibet permit. We estimate what it will cost to stay and tour and then get out of Tibet and decided that it is more than we want to spend to tour in freezing weather. It will be well below zero by the time we head near Mount Everest…..brrr. We are planning on doing it on the last leg of our trip before heading home. This changes our whole trip routing as it makes sense to not do India until we are going to go Nepal to Tibet. We are heading to Lijiang/Shangri-La tomorrow and hopefully will have internet to do some planning. We are not sure if we will need to go to Hong Kong next or if we can make it directly to Bangkok from Shangri-La. We have made the decision to head South-east from Asia, as we want to be in better shape before heading to Africa. We still are holding on to hopes of climbing Kilimanjaro.
Kunming seems to have a bit cleaner air than most other cities, as there was not the haze hanging around today. It is a little strange for Scott and I at the Camellia Hotel, it is one of the first hotels that we have not been one the few or only Caucasian staying there. There are tourists everywhere….it takes some of the charm and adventure away from the travels.
I am not sure how the world can think Americans are the ugly tourists…..Over the past few months I have witnessed some of the rudest people, most of them being European or Chinese. At lunch today an English woman had a fit and refused her lunch and left because they could not understand “salad dressing on the side” in English. They served it to her with dressing and then tried to accommodate her with another salad but did not understand her wish. So the small restaurant made two tuna salads with no one to pay for them. Scott and I at least eat what they serve when we fail to communicate our needs. We are the ones that have the language deficiency; they should not suffer due to our inability to communicate in their country.

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Photos

Bull at Kunming Train Station
Showing what a virile city they have :-)