Camellia Kunming

We took a one hour flight from Guilin to the city of Kunming. We got our luggage and then headed out of the airport building to where a sign was marked as the official taxi stand. There was a line of taxis parked along a curb. There are signs warning not to take any unofficial taxis. As we made our way over to them a guy ran up to us saying he would take us to town. We assumed he was one of the illegal taxis, so we pointed to the line of taxis and asked which one his car was. He would not poi...

The Lao Cai, Vietnam/Hekou, China border crossing was easier than I expected, although by the time I got there after the bumpy 3-hour ride down from Bac Ha, I'd already had enough of buses for the day. Little did I know that I had my longest travel day ahead of me. After a short motorbike ride from the Lao Cai bus station, I moved through first the Vietnamese border control then the Chinese side along with all the locals carrying huge bags of who-knows-what. There was not another tourist in s...

On the way to Bangkok from Koh Chang we got to the port nice and early. In fact rather than getting picked up by a Song thew we got a ride in the back of a pickup (OK - pretty much the same deal as a Song thew) and when we got to the ferry the driver refused our offer on money. We soon figured out we were at the wrong port and took a Song thew to the right one 2km on. We sat there for a half an hour and then a Thai lady starts to run around. I've never seen a Thai lady running around before -...

We arrived in Kunming after a hassle free night on the sleeper bus from Zhongdian. After getting off the bus we decided we should go into the bus station to get some information on our upcoming trip to the Laos border. Unfortunately we had a lot of trouble communicating with the very little English spoken by the staff at the station (and of course our non-existant Chinese). After much confusion they told us to wait while they tried to find someone who spoke English. Eventually they found some...

Abstract: Arrived in Kunming, visited Mr Chen to arrange Tibet trip (one needs passes, alien travel permits etc etc), Overnight train to Dali, bus to Lijiang, enjoyable day in Lijiang (again) Mu Family Mansions, bus to Zhongdian, Wander round monestries, meet driver and co-travellers, suffer mild altitude symptoms, start 4wd trip to tibet, via Deqin, last stop before Tibet.... Factoid of the day: Shop rage is not limited to the west, we witnessed fisty-cuffs in Kunming's Carre-four between an...

This was the beginning of quite an adventure. I took an overnight train ride from Hanoi to the China border, crossed overland over the bridge, then proceeded with an overnight sleeper bus to Kunmning, China. Plenty of sketchy people along the way that scammed me out of a few US$, but what else do you expect in remote parts like this. Looking back I'm glad I didn't sweat it, they did what they told me they'd do and did it with a smile - deserving intrepid entrepreneurs. China was really much m...

Aankomst in Kunming om Michel te ontmoeten

and no, I'm not just saying that to encourage would be censors to continue allowing me to view our blog!

the difference was noticeable before we even entered the country - getting our medical check to make sure we aren't bringing swine flu into the country, the border physician pointed a laser at my forehead; it beeped, good to go. much more sterile than the thermometer the vietnamese official had shoved in my ear a week and a half ago, after it had been in who knows how many other pas...

Kunming, die Hauptstadt von Yunnan, der suedlichsten Provinz von China kennt im Westen kaum jemand, und das zu Recht ;-) Kunming hat ja nur 4 Millionen EinwohnerInnen, erstaunlich viel Flair fuer eine chinesische Grosstadt und liegt direkt am Mekong. Der ist aber noch "relativ" klein in dieser Gegend. Wir kommen mit dem Sleeper-Bus, nach einer erstaunlich komfortablen und fast durchschlafenen Fahrt, um ca. 7.00 Uhr morgens in Kunming an. Karl hatte vom Busfahrer einen anderen Platz zugewiesen...

Hola buenos dias a todos, hace unos dias que no escribo pero ahora tenemos una habitacion pija con ordenador e internet dentro, pero sin cuarto de bano. Eso si el comunal esta muy limpio. Pero bueno os cuento la llegada a la ciudad de la eterna primavera como es conocida Kunming en China. El camino se hizo un poco largo aunque no era un tren tan largo esta vez como el de Lhasa a Chengdu. Esta vez ibamos en hard sleepers, esto es en literas de tres, y en compartimentos de 6 personas. Los compa...