Blogs from Yunnan, China, Asia - page 149

Hi, Mama and Papa Naxi guest house is probably the best guest house in the world. This is not an exagaration, I have stayed in quite a few in my life. Several people that I have met during my travelling in China recommended me about this guest house. Normally, when there is one common opinion, it is normally true. Everyone was telling me about the family atmosphere and that Mama treats you like a real Polish mother, you should eat and a lot, until you explode. I have imagained Mama Naxi as a big and fat woman at her sixties, wearing the traditional Naxi clothes. To my surprise, she appeared as a thin lady with a short-cut hair, wearing regular clothes. She is the dominant figure in the couple and very energetic. Papa stays in the ... read more

Ni Hao, In this period of the year, it is low season in China, but still, many Chinese tourists over here. Not so many foreign tourists. The typical Chinese tourist travels with an orgonized tour, in a luxurios bus. They travel from one tourist attraction to another with the bus, take a lot of photos and hardly walk. Here, in Dali, the women even sometimes buy a typical Chinese custom, wear it and take photos with it. Very kitschy. So Dali is a very touristic city with many shops, restuarants, etc. But, still, a very charming old city. The potential of the local Chinese tourism is around 700 million. The other 700 million are too poor to travel. While travelling, the relatively rich Chinese hardly see the poor villages and people around. Their situation is in ... read more

We went to see Ljilijana, Stevan's mom in China. She has been living in Beijing for the past few years. It was great to spend some time with her and see Yunnan province, which we did not visit during our first visit in May 2002. Our first visit was much easier than our second, mainly because we had Chinese-speaking friends in Hong Kong and Beijing who really helped us get around. Ljiljiana has picked us quite a bit of Chinese, but we still had problems communicating. Many Thais and Cambodians speak a bit of English, so it was easy to communicate in those countries. This is not the case in China, where even our efforts at hand gestures were ineffective, though they did seem to understand when I pantomimed a chicken and an airplane. We traveled ... read more

Well, OK, we're not banned, or else I wouldn't be typing this. I obviously haven't been trying hard enough. However, Internet cafes do not seem to exist in this part of China, or least we can't find any. It's usually only a single computer in a coffee bar or restaurent. Though the connection seems decent, there is usually a long line of gringos waiting. We arrived in Kunming two days ago, which is a very modern Chinese city. I had forgotten how difficult it can be to travel in China due to the language barrier. Unlike in Thailand and Cambodia, almost no one speaks in English, which has resulted in some very entertaining conversations. Stevan's mom flew down from Beijing to meet us, and her Chinese is much better, but Stevan's and my 10-15 words of ... read more

26/1/06 Foggy and cold today, woke up at 7 and peep through the curtain, I went back to sleep again. But Ludwig insisted we should made the trip to ShaLaTuo for its market, ok... It was my idea yesterday, so... In 5 minutes me and Ludwig was down in the street looking for mini-bus, and it wasn't difficult. But the fare was a bit steep in this time of the year, 20 yuans! new year price. Chinese wouldn't mind to pay more in this time, and they rather used to it as they wouldn't bargain or argue for that. But I think the local authority should maintain a standard fare for transportation. Now it seem like those drivers can quoted whatever fare they like. Our bus ran through thick mist, I felt rather sleepy, but Ludwig ... read more