Yunnan Province Start

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After teaching for 4 months and extending my contract with my school in Simao, it was time to have a long deserved holiday for 2 months. The plan was to travel most of the southern provinces of China beginning in the capital of my province, Kunming. I took a 8 hour bus journey with Jess (a Gapper from the Sichuan province who was also traveling) after the 8 hour bus journey we arrived in Kunming at around 6:00pm and then decided to walk to the hostel, where I had frequently stayed before called the Hump. Once we arrived we had a western meal of pasta as a reward for the journey and also ran into some other Gappers. Didn't have a late night and ended up in bed by about 10:00pm.

The next day we met up with some other Gappers who were also traveling in Yunnan and we all headed eastwards to see the stone forest. The forest wasn't exactly as good as it had been described by the locals and the guide books. The rock formations and random placings were amazing but the touristy things that had be introduced made it a bit corny. Although we all wondered around for the majority of the day, it was still something you have to see when you are traveling in Yunnan. We returned to the hostel at around dinner time, quickly grabbed a bite to eat at Salvadors and then headed back to the hostel to meet up with Victoria and Hannah, who would be traveling with me and Jess for parts of the journey.

The next day was more an organisation day, trying to figure out what to see and where to go. Kunming was a great city but we had seen everything it had to offer so our next destination was to go to Dali, which was a 5 hour bus drive from Kunming. We left later that night to there.

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