Patricia and Andre’s RTW Adventure

So happy to leave Vietnam and crossing the border at Lao Cai (Vietnam) and Hekou (China) seemed like it would be so easy!  And the crossing was easy, just walk across the bridge……a security guard even apologized to us when a mean guy butted in front of us in the customs line……I exclaimed  “wo bu ming bai” and he said he was sorry!  That is a first for sure – the apology I mean………this is not the first time people have jumped line on us and we know it won’t be the last!

We made our way to the bus station and were greated by a very very nice guy (first problem) at the station gate………he tried to rip us off by selling us tickets on a bus with a windshield that resembled a spider’s web it was cracked so much!  I got help from an attendant from another bus.  She couldn’t speak English, but believe it or not, with my limited Manadrin I was able to say I wanted to by tickets but I didn’t know where.  She took me to the ticket window and off we went in an awesome bus to Kunming, central Yunnan province.  We have realized that for every arse-hole there is, there are nice people right around the corner…….

We arrived in Kunming at 1:30 am after a 13 hour bus ride delayed by traffic/construction?? don’t know ’cause we never saw what it was…..  We checked into the hotel and then made our way to the 24 hour Chinese food place they said was still open…….nothing was available on the menu though, it was all just point and guess at what you may be eating…..so we did!  And we pointed at other people’s food and said please……..we didn’t get sick, so it was great by us!! 

Kunming is a beautiful and very modern city!  The streets are wide and there is room on the sidewalks for people!!!!  There are even separate roads for bicycles and scooters, not just a free for all………Yes, this was NEVER seen in Thailand, Vietnam or Cambodia, so it was a pleasant surprise!  And there are so many electric motorbikes we thought they had passed a law on air pollution.  We are very impressed!  This has been a welcomed change from the chaos in the rest of South East Asia…people even obey traffic signals!!!  wow!!!

We visited Shilin – The Stone Forest and this place was awesome!  With limestone outcroppings sometimes as high as 40-50meters, we can’t wait to get the photos online!  We visited the Golden Temple in Kunming complete with gardens, pagodas and so many people just staring at us!  We even get our photos taken or films taken of us while we’re drinking water!!!!  It is so weird…….we’ve just learned to wave back at them.  We also visited Xi Shan – The Western Hills where buddhist monks carved temples into the shear cliff-side at 150m high…our feet and palms were sweating during the trek since we were so close to the edge.  The ledge along the cliffside can only fit 2 people at a time, so we were happy that there we’re any tour groups when we went through.

Again, we had bad luck and ended up on a crappy bus to the next destination.  Not being with other toursits isn’t such a bad thing……but I do wish that we stopped at toursit rest-stops…..that would mean that I would have a door on my squat toilet…..and I don’t think that’s alot to ask for!!!!

Now we’re in Dali and this place is absolutely beautiful.  So close to Tibet we can taste it! Knowing that we’ll be coming back here in 3 months after circling the rest of China, on our way to Tibet, is the only thing that keeps us from staying!  Pagodas, mountains, lakes, vistas and a small walled-in city are definitely the highlights of this place! 

 

Tags: Travel

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