Kunming (The capital of Yunnan)

(NOTE: I VISITED THIS PLACE AT THE END OF JANUARY, THE MURDERS AT THE TRAIN STATION I]HAPPENED ON MARCH 1ST. TO BE HONEST, I HAVE NEVER FELT SAFER TRAVELING THROUGH ANY PART OF CHINA SO IT IS REALLY HARD TO READ ABOUT THE GOINGS ON AT THE TRAIN STATION. LET E RE-ITERATE, I NEVER FELT UNSAFE TRAVELING THROUGH ANY PART OF YUNNAN)


        I decided to try out 'couchsurfing' in China as I had not tried it here yet.I went to a New Years Eve (Western)  party that was hosted by couchsurfers in Shanghai ay it during my trip!.
        Anyway, I always like to stay at the local hostel for a night or two just to see if I can get used to the surroundings so I spent the first couple of days at the 'Cloudland International Youth Hostel'. They have a nice open space area where there is a pool table and ping pong area. The food there is cheap and ok (well,APART from the burger.It kind of looked like the remains of ash from a cigarette although it tasted OK (not like a cigerette [Don't ask!] ) ) While I was there I started chatting to a couple of people from the hostel and we came up with places to go.  The people thtat I met were intrepid travelers. Sherif (from Egypt) and Patrick (Holland) invited me to go exploring the area for the day and after I found my bearings (i.e: walk in a random direction looking for anything to eat for 45 minutes) we were ready to head off th the green lake.
The lake itself was nice but it was full of what looked like seagulls to me. I had to be aware that at any time, a gull could land a 'white present' on my shoulder. Some sat that this is a sign of good luck. I think that's a load of sh1t!

Hanging out with Sherif and Patrick at the green lake

Hanging out (or being attacked, I am not sure) with a bunch of birds.They were looking very closely at my food...hmmmmmm

Nice view of the greenness  (is that a word?) of the lakeskills

    I was regaled of stories of how cool Dali was so chilled out and cool and how to perform various types of Yoga (I promise that I will try that at some stage in the future!) The lake was a lovely place to chill out and rest but the people dressed up in costumes looking for you to take a photo with you before annoying the hell out of you for money was a bit annoying. I remember this happening many years ago on the foot of the pyramids in Giza and the same thing happens here.People need to make a living though so this is as good a way to make a living as something else I guess!
There were many people outside the park drawing those animated pictures of you (if you want a drawing of yourself.) There were at least 5 artists drawing people  and they were all very skillful!
    We stopped at another place and there seemed to be people doing some sort of traditional dance. I needed to try and see if I could dance with the best of them!!


                                

Joining in one of the dances at the park.I think they were surprised at my dancing 'skills'

I couldn't!
It was still fun to try it though.
  I headed back to the hostel whereupon a guy gave me some good advice as regards playing the mouth organ...i.e: learn how to play it properly! To be honest, i was interesting listening to a guy talk about anything to me and then turn his head and talk about a completely different topic to someone else! His guitar and mouth organ skills were good although his clothing attire was a bit unique..

A genuine star but I think the hat could go (but he is not the one with the sun burn!!)

I had a quick t
I decided to pay a visit to my couchsurfing friend Rui...
Ruirui was very kind to me and brought me to  a poetry recital in Kunming. I had never been to one of these events before and so I did not know what to expect...maybe a few stoners talking about 'things' and 'stuff' but that was all hearsay and conjecture!
The event itself took place in the basement of a bookstore (naturally) and it was attended by (maybe) 15 people. The barman for the evening doubled as the compere and he was an interesting sort. He was able to spout out poetry in both English and Chinese (of which I could not understand (I mean, I could not really understand the English poetry  either!!! Poetry is not my strong point. I did try to grasop a few of the lines though as he was VERY dramatic!)) Ruirui is a bit of a poet so she did her thing on stage (to a good round of applause) but nothing prepared me for a Chinese guys take on rapping in English. To be honest, unless you are REALLY into rap, anyone trying to rap sounds terrible [a bit like the kid in school who tries to be cool and ends up looking like the biggest moron.] Rap is a tricky business!
At one point, some woman got up and had an idea where everybody would talk for a couple of minutes about themselves and what they wanted to be when they grew up (from their perspective of themselves when they were 7)  Of course, I remember wanting to be a milkman when I was 7!!! I do not know why really, maybe the opportunity to talk to people while working! But it was an interesting few minutes listening to everyone. When the recital finished, we had a quick chat. I think I was the only one there who didn't have too much of a gra for poetry but that didn't matter too much as the rest of the people were a talkative bunch ...especially the girl who didn't actually know what was happening as she had just walked into the shop and saw that there was a crowd o she though she would stay!
Verdict: Poetry recitals are OK but the chat after it finishes is much better.
Verdict 2: Chinese beer is still too week.
Verdict 3: I need to be able to read a map or I will get lost very quickly here!

The next day, I decided to head off to the mountains with Sherif and Dien (one of the girls back in the hostel) We heard that there was a nationalities village somewhere in Kunming where you could find many tribes willing to dance and sing for you. This sounded like a cool place to visit so we were on our way ..once the breakfast was over of course!

Dancing performed at the minorities village

Dragon boats

   One of the tribes had an interesting custom.Once a woman hit a certain age, the locals would draw a tattoo ....on her.......on her face! I had to get a picture of this as it looked so different to anything that I had seen before.

One day (when I am an old woman) I will get a tattoo on my face...

cool!
A few things were noticeable during the visit.
1. Chinese people really do not like the sun. Irish people love to get as much sun as possible (detroying skin in the process. This would never happen with Chinese people as they use unbrellas )

Dian and her friend. Chinese people do not 'do' sun burned.

2. There are tea houses EVERYWHERE!

Some tea (cha) please, my good man!

3. Outsized swings seemed to be popular. I was glad of this as I was able to get a go on the swings for the first time in a long time!

These swings are HUGE

4.  Chinese parks are very decorational. Lots of bright colours!

These all light up when it gets dark. It feels like you are walking in a fairyland storybook.

More of the same

Leading up to something big!!! (although, maybe that is the exit)

5. There are many written languages here, not just Putung Hua..

Different writings

I think this is Tibetan

6. The Chinese people like to look after the trees. I guess they do not want them to get sun burn.
I have seen a black bag placed around many trees here. I had never seen that anywhere else but if it works , It should not be knocked...

No sun tan for this tree

This place is well worth a visit as you get to see many different types of peoples and they are all friendly. Of course, that was their job in this place . I said to myself that I would like to visit an actual place where people still live like this and I heard that there was a place down in the south of Yunnan called Xishuangbanna) where this still happened so I put that in my places to go ...Xishuangbanna is very close to the border with Thailand and so it is not too far from Chiang Mai (One of the best places to go if you have time to travel around Thailand)

Bulang people and I

 Anyway, I digress....While we were ging through the nationalities village we noticed that there was a ziplining rope so we all decided to give it a go..
The ziplining is nice to try here as you can see the ground (or in this case , the water.)

                                            
                                Getting ready to swing across the river.(Do not let me down, rope!)

In this one, you are strapped in while sitting down so when you are swinging across to the other side (over some water) you kind of turn around and around and around!! It was good to try it again though!
I have to say that it is nice to visit this area as the weather is roasting hot all the time! In China people do NOT burn as they tend to stay completely out of the sun (Having non white skin looks ugly to  a Chinese person) so they must have thought that it was a bit weird seeing pepole deliberately walking under the sun!!! I made sure to wear factor 50 suntan lotion though as my skin goes from brown to red at a moments notice!

That evening, we headed out on the town in Kunming.around the Kundu area. It lights up at night with people selling what looks like homemade chips/fries (with a spicy flavour!) on the street.

Chips

and spices======

Yummy!

 The eclectic bars are nice if you are talking to people (people are friendly here so it's easy to chat away..) and the beer is cheap ...and you can drink outside the bar on the street with no hassle also so it is a nice place to chat away the warm evenings. The Mask bar and The Moondog bar are two nice places if you are ever here but be warned, the Moondog bar only has one toilet!!! although it does have a foosball table (an essential part of a pub!)

The next day, we decided to head off into the mountains around Kunming and see what we could find...Normally, I will go for random walks and this was no different so I found  couple of temples also!
I was able to find the burial place of Nie Er (The guy who wrote the Chinese national anthem and died when he was 23.)

Tomb of Nie Er

 

      A walk in the mountains was good for the lungs but also good for the photographs! There were many small artifacts dotted around the mountain here and the air is clear here.

I am here, I think

Getting a lift up the mountain.It's a LONG way down

View from the elevator

Nearly at the top

treeside view

Only a few more steps

I need some water, Sherif!

Note: Yin and Yan

These signs are seen everywhere

Laojun Temple

I was able to try the local delicacy (Mei Shiang)

Preparing the noodles

Choose your own extra's

Ready to eat (Notice the redness, That indicates spicyness, My body is still recovering from this bowl!)

After grabbing some food, we were went for a quick around the old part of Kunming and observed another temple. This is a very peaceful place so it was nice to walk around this part of the city.

pagoda number 3333

It was nice to walk around here but it was time to move on to the south of the country.  I was really looking forward to going to Xishuangbanna as it was on the Chinese side of Chiang Mai  and that was a great place to visit...Anyway, I had a LONG bus journey ahead of me...()
Here are a couple of pictures of me at the top of that mountain (pondering something!)

Where are my glasses?

feeling woozy

In outer space

Quick stop in Chengdu and then onto Yunnan (the province above Thailand/Myannmar/Laos) !

It has taken a few months but I have finally made it to Sichuan (in this case , Chengdu) but this is a quick stop for now....drop the excess bags for a couple of days and then grab the nearest train heading south and find some sun!
      The flight from Shanghai to Chengdu was quick enough, maybe 3 hours. Flying within China is no diferent to flying outside China. Actually, there was no hassle at the airport at all so this was cool...I must remember one thing though... There are two airports in Shanghai , one is used for domestic flights and one is used for international flights... I must remember to go to the correct airport if I ever visit Shanghai again! I completely forgot this 'oversight' and after chatting to a man at the international airport, I grabbed a metro all the way to the other airport. (I always factor in an extra few hours when I travel in case I do silly things. This was one time (when the extra few hours set aside for silly things to happen) where I was really glad that I had plenty of time to correct my mistake!!!
       Anyway, I was able to get to the hostel in downtown Chengdu (The flipflop hostel) After a quick stop at a friends house, it was time to rest for the night.
        The hostel was the biggest one that I have ever seen, so many dorm rooms! If you ever go traveling around spring festival/ Chinese New Year time, make sure to arrange places to stay as it might get very difficult. This was just before the spring festival so I was ok. As regards the atmosphere here, it is a bit different to other hostels that I have stayed at as most of the residents are Chinese. Chinese people tend to stay in groups (That is a MASSIVE generalization as there are many Chinese people who like to chat with anyone!)   so the atmosphere was a bit different. At one point, I ended up playing foosball with a few guys and that broke the tension a bit...Ah foosball never fails me!!!
       The people at the hostel are friendly, There are trips that can be arranged to visit Tibet (If you have the necessary visas [It normally takes 15 days to get the visa] The hostel has 4 day trip there, That sounds pretty cool!) They give a free map  around the town here so That comes in handy if....I mean when I get lost!
      So, I got up the next morning and had a quick walk around the city. What is there to see in Chengdu? Well, this is the home of the panda and I am sure I will get to see many pandas throughout my stay, not this time though! Sichuan is known for its cuisine so I had a quick taste of the food. eep!!!!! My body better get used to spicy food quickly or my internal organs will start to melt!
       The food on the street (as with most of Asia) tends to be just as good as the stuff that you can buy in the restaurants. It is a real shame that there is no culture like this in Ireland.( I guess it could happen in Ireland but only if the weather changed from rainy and windy to just rainy!)

Crispy fried crust with vegetables thrown in

 but thes
     The walk around the city revealed somethings....
1. Like Shanghai, there seem to be statues of ordinary people dotted throughout the city. This is  a nice touch.
2. There seem to be lots of colorful 'objet d'art'. I guess these were put up to celebrate the spring festival. It is a good idea as cities tend to be a bit drab looking after a while.

Tough day, boss?

Flowers, flowers everywhere

Happy New Ye...No, wait that was a few weeks ago ..I guess it means 'Happy Chinese New Ye..' , No wait,people do not say that here, I guess it means 'Happy spring fesiva...' , ah, let me just say 'Happy Everyday!'

Some of the sculptures on the side of buildings seemed to be quite unique. (to me anyway!)

Cool sculpture of buildings beside ...ugh...a building

It is nice to just grab a map and walk around a city as you can see many different types of things like this hidden among many streets.
         People need to make money everywhere and in China, a fanfare seems to be the best way to get attention such that people will buy your product. If you have a microphone and you talk REALLY LOUD or dance , then you can grab someones attention long enough for them to become interested in your product.
I am not sure what this woman was advertising so I guess it did not work in this instance...

I think she was selling fabric or was it lanterns...

I don't know . Time for an ice-cream.

Of course, you still see many people performing Taiji here or walking backwards or dancing in general.
People love to dance on the streets here. I guess it's like organized line dancing without the Garth Brooks hats but It is quite interesting to see it as the people seem to take it very seriously when they are dancing.

Follow the guy in the traditional costume, Press the start button on the C.D player and 'Go'! 

Everyone seems to know the dance moves. China does seem to be a dance crazy nation as well as a chanting nation! In the morning time, you will always see all the employees of a shop marched out to the front of the shop where a role call is observed and then a chant is observed. I am not sure if many people like the chant though as it just sounds like people are going through the motions when they say those few sentences.
         Anyway, I digress. I walked on the sidewalk remembering that the sidewalk can sometimes be used by pedestrians as well as motorcyclists! This is very important especially if people start fighting for space. Look at the following picture..

yikes

2 motorcyclists diverge on the path...Nobody is giving each other an inch. I better get out of the way before I get knocked down!

I thought that I better get my train ticket and get out of here before I fall victim to a stray motorcyclist!
If you need to get any form of transportation during the spring festival, remember to try and book as early as possible as things get very hectic, very quickly over here. You can find a ticket office around the town (The hostel will give your directions if you are stuck) and then, it's just a matter of grabbing a hard seat for a 15 hour train journey (yikes) in my case to a place called Kunming in Yunnan.
The waiting at the train station was an epic event as the queue for the train seemed to go on forever. It was like sitting at a cattle mart (with a few more people shouting.) When we were called to get ready, there were 5 long queues and 100 people were allowed to go from each queue at a time. It felt like a good 30 minnutes to get everyone on the train. Good organization , though!

Rows and rows of people all waiting for the one train to Kunming

They are a very patient bunch, here in Chengdu!

As for the scenery that I observed from the window seat, it was breathtaking. This is a very mountainous region so the views were stunning.

Sorry about the glare from the window. The view of the countryside is still pretty cool , though!

The fields look very small but all are utilised

The photo says it all (so I don't have to say anything!)

Sunset on the border of Sichuan and Yunnan.

It was nice to get a glimpse of Sichuan but the Leshan buddha and the pandas / visit to Tibet can wait for another day. Time to see Kunming!