China!!

Asia » China » Yunnan » Kunming
March 5th 2006

Published: March 27th 2006

Well our first wedding anniversary was not what I’d call a ‘usual’ one - but was all the more memorable for being so different. After waking and exchanging both platitudes and gifts we got on with our day in Cambodia. This consisted of a beautiful breakfast & some last minute packing, a light lunch (I had the local delicacy ‘beef lok lok’ - YUM) and then off to Siam Reap’s international airport in our tuk-tuk (a carriage towed by a motorbike - the most common type of taxi in Cambodia).

Now for such a tourist mecca, we had expected the Siam Reap international airport to be a bustling hive of activity. When we arrived our expectations were initially met as the airport was both new and smart looking. But something was missing. Where were all the people? Instead of being stuck in the usual queues, Brendon and I managed to check-in and pass right through customs without seeing a single other traveler. Had we missed our flight? Was it delayed? What was happening? In the final passport control check there were four customs staff sitting at booths. As we gave our passports to one of them I looked at the others. Two were asleep (one was snoring loudly), one was reading the paper and only our one looked remotely interested in his job. As it turned out, when we passed through to our ‘gate’ we were faced by the usual group of travelers - just for some odd reason none passed through check-in and customs when we did. Once we boarded our small (but new) China Eastern Airlines plane we realized that we were the only non-Chinese on the whole flight. The phrase ‘you’re not in Guatamala now, Dr Ropata’ certainly came to mind. Unlike the rest of SE Asia - which is really just a tourist trail following the Lonely Planet ‘circuit’ - where both the English language and western food were common, and foreigners completely outnumbered locals in the dining & sleeping establishments we frequented, we were entering unknownm territory. We had heard horror stories from the few other travelers who had frequented these parts: squatting in toilets with no doors in-front of whole villages; no Engl,ish heard for two weeks; ‘hoiking’ and smoking being the two most common past times - and being practiced everywhere from hotel corridors to bus & train floors… It would be fair to say that we entered China with a fair bit of trepidation.

Arriving at Kunming airport (Kunming is in China’s most South-western province of Yunnang, and is just a ‘small’ Chinese city with a mere four million people) proved our first challenge as we battled to find a bank that was open or an ATM that would spit out the necessary Chinese currency, Yuan. However we found our China Lonely Planet invaluable both here and in the taxi as it had Chinese characters beside the English names. As the taxi driver (and pretty much everyone else we ran into) spoke no English, and us no Mandarin, we would have had major difficulties reaching our hotel if we couldn’t show him the name in Chinese characters. As it was, we found we were quite at ease and were taken straight to our hotel without a single drama.

As we had a short time in China, we planned to maximize what we had by spending it in the more remote areas - places that would be most impacted by tourism over the next few years & therefore most important to get to now. So we had arranged a flight out of Kunming to our first stop, Dali, the next morning. This meant we had just one evening to spend in the city. As we were putting our bags in our room I said to Brendon that all I wanted to do that night was have some green tea (anywhere) and perhaps buy some shows that would go with my jeans and long trousers (jandals & Tevas just didn’t cut the mustard). With no time to spare we walked out of our hotel and let our feet take us where they wished.

Kunming was a surprising breath of fresh air after SE Asia. All the streets were paved; there was no rubbish, manic taxi drivers or people using the sidewalk as their homes, restaurants & playgrounds. Everyone was dressed smartly - and we felt like the poor, scruffy, ones. Rather than being little more than garage doors with a collection of tourist junk, they had real shops here. Brands such as Nike, Adidas, Columbia sportswear were displayed in beautiful glass windowed shops. Everything was new and clean - and I believe I mentioned that there was no rubbish. NONE. And there was no dust. We didn’t know what had hit us. And we heaved a huge sigh of. what? Relief, perhaps? Contentment, definitely. Surprise, a little bit too.

Having walked no more than 50 m along the street we were literally dragged into a tea shop. No this wasn’t some pushy salesperson. It was a well-dressed Chinese man who really, really wanted the pleasure of our company, in the shop he and his friends had just entered. Even before some lovely little stools were pushed (kindly) under our legs for a seat, the man had forced a cigarette into Brendon’s mouth & was trying to put one in mine. Yuck! Luckily (for me - not for him), after profuse remonstrations, Brendon was unable to convince them that he really did not want a cigarette, so finally gave in - although he took about one puff before he managed to sneak it into the ashtray. Why lucky? Because since they had got Brendon to smoke I was able to get out of it without anyone losing face. So, rumour number one was true. Chinese love to smoke - and they puffed like trains the whole time we were in the shop. This waw actually a while, as we managed to get through two whole (complimentary) pots of their famed ‘puer’ tea, before we managed a polite exit - with a tiny bag of the much cheaper green tea in our hands.

The next shop happened to be having a shoe sale & I brought a great pair of Puma-like shoes for a grand total of about $12 NZ. Fabulous!

We topped off the evening with a lovely dinner at the famous ‘Mama Fu’s’ - highly recommended for any who go to Kunming - and chatted to a couple of Israelis working there before heading home to our lovely (read very flash compared to SE Asia) hotel room for a green tea, shower & bed.

So ends our first wedding anniversary and our first day in China. ‘Wow’, we thought. We are so pleased we decided to extend our trip to China as we really are onto a great thing.

Copyright Notice: All Rights Reserved