Yunnan Province
Travel Location: Kunming,China
Yunnan Province
KUNMING (capital city of 4 million people)
Yes we’ve arrived safely in China, and so far going very well. We left Hanoi last Friday morning, walked about 1km to the Vietnam Airlines bus in the city – we were novelty viewing for most of the locals, to observe two “old” westerners with white hair, traipsing through their streets with backpacks loaded up to the hilt – locals don’t seem to walk anywhere much, it’s always on a motorbike or pushbike. Just US$2 each for the mini-bus ride to the airport for 11.10 flight – what fun, a queue a km long, in fact two queues, merging into one. A bit like Virgin/Jetstar flights … on the way to the airport we saw more of the local traffic courtesies – like motorcyclists almost being skittled by cars driving in a HUGE hurry, horns blaring as if to say get out of my way, I’m coming through no matter what!! Unreal…
So it was goodbye Vietnam and Hello China!!
Kunming is quite a surprise, clean, ordered, busy, industrious, huge commercial environment, banks on every 2nd corner, shops everywhere, banks and post offices open 7 days a week. Difference to Vietnam, they do work shorter hours here and fewer people have any English, but sign language and a friendly smile still go a long way…
Our first night, Friday, we ventured out boldly where few tourists would normally go and found a local restaurant/cafe, we were seeking to sample a special local dish “Across the Bridge Noodles”. The young woman in the pay-before-you-eat booth soon realised we didn’t have a clue and of course none of the menu was in English, so she temporarily shut the booth leaving a queue of people behind us on the footpath (for a change!!) while she ushered us inside to view a picture board menu on the wall, selections made we went back and pay our 16RMB (yuan) = A$2.60. In quick time two huge bowls of steaming broth arrived together with an array of very thinly sliced raw meats and another plate with a nice variety of chopped fresh vegetables. She “held us by the hand” and walked us through the routine, meat in first to cook, then the vegies and eventually add a huge bowl of pre-cooked noodles – stir and enjoy! Mark got through his; Jan was stonkered, and in the meantime we’d struck up conversation with a young couple at the other end of our table – we discovered they are 4th year students at a local college doing a 5 year course in Traditional Chinese Medicine. They were delightfully keen to practise English, eager to engage with us, and offered to show us around their college, so after dinner we walked with them through their campus and consulting rooms in full swing… all a very pleasant and welcome encounter with warm and friendly people. Our world is a wonderful place eh.
We palled up with an older American couple at breakfast Sat morning and accompanied them today (Sunday) to worship with c. 200 people, all ex-pats, at an all-in-ecumenical “International Fellowship”, then enjoyed Japanese-style lunch with some of their friends from that Ch community.
Tomorrow we are on a bus day trip to the “Stone Forest”, 35kms away, then at 10pm we are flying to Lijiang north-west of here – yesterday we were able to buy A$50 fares each! Not worth sitting on a bus for 7-8 hours to do the same trip. Hope to get to Leaping Tiger Gorge for 3 day trek – pray for us as I (Jan) have visions of falling off the edge and coming to grief (!) but are reassured that the path is safe (and wider nowadays) and it is dry season, and lots of others of our vintage do this stuff regularly! After that back to Lijiang (UNESCO heritage city) Dali Old Town (more heritage bldgs) and then bus back to Kunming for the next flight to Nanning in neighouring province.
Now Sunday arvo, sunny weather, about 22-24 degrees – beautiful – and so nice to actually see the blue sky after pollution earlier in holidays… Oh BTW bargain-king Discount Dunn helped me buy the mother of all jackets yesterday… photo to follow… it is a vintage Red Riding Hood thick jacket complete with tartan binding trim and zip-off hood, nice long length, pockets, and guaranteed to keep me warm on the Great Wall of China… even if looks a bit “twee” and “sad”! And the best part, guess – it was 40 RMB (yuan) – wait for it, less than Aus $7!!!!! No mirror at the shop to check it out so had to take Mark’s word for it (that’s dangerous!!) – but was pleasantly surprised at how cute it is – it’ll certainly do the job for me here. Mark also got a nice warm jacket at a good price - both bought at the local “wholesale” market which is enormous. We are now a bit more equipped for the cooler climate to come.
Mon 12/3 – Kunming to Lijiang
Bus pick-up from hotel foyer at 9am for the “Stone Forest”, a world class geopark around 80kms from Kunming. The bus driver’s English extends to “no” so we’re glad of Dennis’ company from Mt Eliza Melbourne. We explore the wonders of the karsts which resemble Vietnam’s Halong Bay scenery, but these huge rocks are much closer together and more concentrated within the 5 kms square park area. We walk the well-made pathways and climb through tight gaps in the rocks to great vantage points with stunning views to drink in. Dennis’ son is best mates with the son of our friend Rev Alan Mathews, ex-Mt Eliza parish – the small world factor again! A wonderful day capped off with a crazy nerve-wracking white knuckle ride home on a “D” grade road – the driver avoiding the toll on the freeway to max his profit, overtaking three vehicles abreast – home at 5.15pm and we’re grateful to be still in one piece. Pizza for tea with our new friends Cy and Dorothy who are undertaking an itinerant ministry through Asia en route to Israel.
After a farewell we taxi to the airport and check in luggage – okay – and in waiting hall number 4 we feel very conspicuous as the ONLY western tourists to board the 10pm flight to Lijiang. Picture this – it’s 11pm, after a big day trip to the Stone Forest and flight – we’re waiting at the luggage carousel with zero Chinese language capacity, knowing we need to negotiate a one hour taxi and then walk our way through the streets of the ancient walled Lijiang city to find our accommodation – when we have a serendipity moment – two young women come up to invite us to share their taxi. They have great English, working and living in Hong Kong, but are equally competent in both Mandarin and Cantonese. They become our travelling angels, translators and guides for the next two days, and we’ll be forever grateful. Their endeavours result in all of us securing lovely accommodation in a guesthouse (A$8 night) owned by the taxi driver’s sister (who made the reservation via mobile phone while driving us to the town!), and we welcome sleep at 12.30am.
Tue 13/3 – 9am and our woman taxi driver is back at our invitation to collect the four of us for a brief walk around Lijiang (UNESCO Heritage classification) helping us score some local porridge and pancakes – A$2.30 – in the main square some local women do their exercise in a dancing circle while others are into tai chi. Grace and Summer have their heart set on a day of horse-riding, so Mark bites the bullet and decides to accompany them. We’re driven to a vast paddock by a huge lake with over 100 horses tethered at the ready. We “saddle up” on a blanket with fitted stirrups connected to a weird steel framed seat, about the most uncomfortable saddle you could ever imagine. With two young guys as our guides, we take off for a 5 hour ride – no instructions for first-time riders like Grace and Summer – five minutes into the ride we’re trotting and then cantering! Oh by the way, did I forget to mention there were no helmets or gloves in sight?! Thanks be to God we returned home without accident or injury apart from aching muscles and bums! The scenery was quite stunning through the forest, and the lunch spot beside a beautiful waterfall special. The “package” we’d bought included a boat ride on the lake at the end of the horse ride – we were poled out to the middle to rendezvous with a local fisherman who was barbecuing 2″ long fish in his wooden boat – on an open fire! This and a beer was a welcome afternoon tea, and after being returned to our guesthouse a shower never felt so good. Jan had enjoyed a quiet day in Lijiang, having returned with the taxi driver that morning to read, rest, diary, sleep, etc. We’d had a big load of laundry done for 80 cents. Consequently it took a bit of effort for Mark to stay awake during the Traditional Naxi Orchestra performance that evening, but it was a real treat at the end of another big day. Some of the instruments had survived the destructive years of the Cultural Revolution and a good many of the orchestra are into their 80s! Toasted sandwiches and hot chocolate afterwards in a western retreat style cafe never tasted so good! Mark enjoying his current book “The Brothers of Glastonbury”, the interesting historical setting makes for an entertaining and educational insight into life in 1476 England. Jan finishing a 2-in-1 book by Ian Rankin featuring DI Rebus’ detective work in Scotland… we’ve kept up a supply of reading via book exchanges or 2nd hand book stores.
Wed 14 to Fri 16/3 – Trek through Tiger Leaping Gorge
One of the great highlights of our trip to date… we’ve accomplished a very challenging long walk on our own over two nights and three days, with day-packs, enjoying simple guesthouse hospitality. More to come about this wonderful adventure, but we’re having some R&R back in Lijiang in a new guesthouse with free internet and laundry! Watch this space…
