Roof Top Relaxing

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Yunnan (you non) & Kunming- (coon – ming)

We landed in Kunming at 4:45 am and I didn’t sleep at all on the 2-1/2 hr flight. I had a nervous feeling about landing this time since we switched employers and were depending on our last school not to cancel our Resident Permit cards. After our experience leavingIndiaI was almost counting on trouble getting back intoChina. Fortunately for us there were no issues and we cleared customs relatively quickly.



After getting our bags we saw a lot of people either waiting for their flight or waiting for the cab line to open. Our flight wasn’t the only one to have landed in that hour, yet for some reason the airport goes out of their way to shut down the cab service at this time. Our solution was simply to go upstairs and jump in a cab that was dropping someone of for their flight. Kunmingis great in that it is one of the few Chinese cities with an airport within the actual city, most are at least a one hour bus or train ride to the city.



It was only a 25 minutes ride to our hostel and cost us 30 RMB ($5 USD). This was 10 RMB more expensive but we didn’t care. We only cared about getting to our hostel to try and get some sleep. We really felt fortunate to be back inChinaand noticed how developed and clean it really was compared toIndia. We probably felt that way after coming back fromCambodiabut that seems so long ago and we were only there for about a week.



It was still pretty dark out and we didn’t have a specific address for our place, only the cross roads, so I had the cab driver call the number and he arranged for one of the staff to get us. The man who came for us was older and spoke no English and carried a piece of paper with commonly used phrases for hotel staff and pointed to, “Do you have a reservation?” written on the paper. I told him in Chinese that we did and he walked us to the hostel. We were only right around the corner and were happy to know that they were open. Some hostels literally lock their doors so you cannot get in or even out at certain hours, so we felt that our luck was changing.



We stayed at the Hump Hostel which had great reviews on Hostelworld.com. It was on the top floor of a three story building in the old part of town and overlooked a promenade. This area was the pedestrian shopping street that was popular amongst locals and tourists. There was a restaurant and bar in the lobby area that had a large roof top patio, a pool table, and computer stations for surfing the web. It looked nicer than what we had anticipated so we were happy. There were a few stragglers from the night before still up trying to sober up and another couple waiting to check into their room.



The man that delivered us walked behind the counter and pointed to “Sorry it is too early for you to check in since there are no rooms available”. I noticed that there were still a lot of keys hung up on his check in board and continued the conversation in Chinese. I told him that there appeared to be plenty of rooms and that it didn’t matter if it was our reserved room or not since we only wanted to sleep. I convinced him to allow us to sleep in a dorm room until our room was ready. Things just seemed more familiar and easier being back inChina. It was a good thing and I hoped that I kept this feeling for as long as possible.



Walking down the hall we noticed that the hostel sprawled across the entire top floor of the building. There were probably 20 rooms or more. As we approached our room we heard exactly why they called this place Hump Hostel. Elyse and looked at each other and had a little laugh. Thank God we had ear plugs. In fact the hostel provides each room with ear plugs and condoms next to each bed. We figured that the two in the lobby area were out there while they gave their friends some privacy.



As we walked into our room we noticed that it was an office. The ceilings were high enough to accommodate a loft with a sleeping area above. We didn’t care and were grateful to be able to sleep. The staircase up to the loft was cover in vegetables so the man quickly removed them so we could get up to bed. There was a bathroom in the room but there was no ceiling only walls and a door. From the downstairs it looked normal enough but you were able to look right down into the bathroom from the loft.



We woke up at noon moments before an English speaking staff member told us our room was ready. We ate breakfast and decided that today would be about relaxing and doing nothing. After we ate we went to an ATM to get out RMB then I went to find a place to get a hair cut. That day we hung out on the rooftop patio and read our books. Elyse did laundry. Each load cost 10 RMB and you could hang dry your close at a small rooftop patio towards the other end of the hostel.



We had signed our names to a piece of paper asking if anyone wanted to join in on a private van ride to the Stone Forest (95 RMB per person). This is the thing to do when you visit Kunming. The second day we had planned to visit the Stone Forest and were joined by three Spaniards who all worked for the Spanish Embassy in Beijing and another girl from the US that taught in Shenzhen. Turns out it’s a small world and the girl went with the same program we went with our first year.



It was a weekend so we knew that it would be packed with Chinese tour groups. The price of the ticket was pretty expensive at 175RMB each ($28 USD). We headed to the lines where you could take a tram to the entrance of the park. Apparently this was an additional fare and we didn’t have a ticket. We thought it would be easier to just walk and took the 10 minutes journey up the road to the main entrance of the park. Getting our tickets we separated from the Spanish amigos and were accompanied by the girl from theUS. We never did get her name.



The one consistent thing that I’ve learned about places like this is the entry and main paths immediately next to the entry tend to be packed with tourist, yet when you go only a few minuets down a less traveled path you will have the place basically to yourself. For some reason most Chinese don’t like hiking so you will see lots of cable cars to tops of mountains to avoid the long hikes. I’m not going to lie I like the cable cars myself, but mostly to get up a large mountain then I can hike from that point. This park gave you an option not to walk at all. For a separate fee you could get on another tram and circle the entireStoneForestin about 30 minutes. To me the best part about this place was going through the steep canyon walls and exploring the many paths that had elaborate names like “Woman patiently waiting for her Husband”, or “Deep Hidden Valley Walking Trail”.



We hiked around for about three hours and then met our driver back in the main parking lot. It was about two hours back into the city and this time we were joined by the drivers 8 years old son. When we arrived back at our place we had a late lunch and lounged around the rest of the day. The following morning we had to be at the West bus station across town by 9:30 so that we could head to Dali, another popular destination in Yunnan.

Traveler's Tip: Hump Hostel is in our Top 3 Favorite/Best Hostel we have stayed at in Asia. If you get a chance to stay here you will have an amazing/relaxing time.

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Photos

Stone Forest-Kunming
Deep & Narrow Valley

Stone Forest-Kunming
please dont fall boulder

Fresh Squeezed OJ in China...OMG
most fruit juice is all chemically made

Comments

[amber]

Wow, so why exactly are the rocks like that..? lol or should I say how did they get like that..