A Journey to Well Known Places

Of course it stands to reason that I would have plenty of opportunities to brush up on my French while in China. I mean next to Mandarin, Hindi, English, Spanish, Bengali, Portuguese, Russian, Japanese, German, and Korean there is French. Perhaps it is just that I didn’t study Bengali in school. I have met a number of French speaking backpackers and have taken the opportunity to brazenly mangle their language; especially if their English is not up to snuff. The minute they ask for a word in English I switch into French and watch them cringe. It is a little funny that English is the new linqua franca. That is why I was rather excited to find a replacement for my lost English to Mandrin phrase book in the give a book take a book case of the last hotel we were in. Instead of English to Mandrin though, it is French to Mandrin. I thought, ‘how fun is that’. The idea of two native English speakers try to communicate to Chinese using a French phrase book made me laugh. That has (mis)adventure writen all over it. I took French in college……twelve years ago. It’ll be great. Besides, I have been practicing. Erica was less than enthusiastic from the get go. She does not speak French and isn’t too sure that I do either. She traded in a book that she brought and the cafe manager wanted us to pay for the difference in value of the books. This did not go over well, but eventually we came to an agreement and made the trade. Unfortunately the book first came into use when trying to order food again. That didn’t work out very well either. No one understood and we got meaty food again. Having had a persistent sinus problems since Yangshou she came down with a bit of an infection. Feverous, tired and frustrated the second use of the book was at the hospital. I underlined the French phrases and their Chinese characters she should show the doctor. Again, very limited enthusiasm. While the hospital experience was a success she has taken to carrying the larger English version of Lonely Planet that has a small list of phrases in the back. I still think the phrase book was a steal.

Phrase books and meat products aside, Kunming is great. It is a higher elevation and the weather is very mild. It is the 80’s during the day and the 70’s at night. We stayed at a real hotel the first two days we were here because I was entralled with their breakfast buffet. It was really good. They had Chinese and western food…and all the coffee you want. We ate heroic portions and went back to bed two days in a row. Glorious. We have since moved to a hostel were we get fruit and toast with a small cup of coffee for breakfast. Sufficient I suppose. I made up for the small breakfast yesterday by eating an entire duck and part of a cow while Erica watched with a sort of amazement and disgust. She ate spinach and broccoli. The Chinese give you the whole duck, head included, and the waiter put the sunkened in duck eyes staring right at her. She made me move the plate, but did get a picture of me holding the head and making it talk.

There are some neat pagodas, parks, and temples here. Kunming seems to be a very livable city. I enjoy it quite a bit. Tomorrow we are heading off to Dali.

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