Yijing Garden Hotel Kunming

... food we found at several stalls in a hidden street. We had some grilled vegetables, tofu (me) and meat (Luis - with no idea what animal he was eating in some case...)

It is freezing cold here in Kunming - we had to wear several longsleeves, the all-weather jacket, scarf and gloves... Amazing. And I think it is going to get a bit worse the next days, as we will be be on about 2.500 metres. But we will be fine!

As soon as possible - more!

Gruss+Kuss.

... throats, but the sound they make is revolting and some of the men were at it for hours! There was a 'no spitting' sign inside the carriage, which meant that most people went into the toilet section. Unfortunately for us - we were in the last beds - right next to the door to the toilets. So, not only did we have the pleasure of the morning chorus of spitting, but also the frequent waft of the morning pee! To top it all off - it seems that the Chinese on our ...

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... ago, after it had been in who knows how many other passenger's ears!

during our bus trip through Yunnan province from the border, we got our first feel for the paradox of china, seeing beautiful lush jungle-covered mountains and valleys, huge factories, massive brand new housing developments that looked like ghost towns, and agricultural persistence that will plant corn along the side of the mountain road or potatoes in any ...

... of Dali-Lijiang railway, connecting the two world famous resorts Dali and Lijiang city, started in 2004, but was delayed due to geological hazards and disasters. The old towns of Dali and Lijiang in the two cities are state historic and cultural sites and receive millions of domestic and foreign visitors every year. Xinhua News Agency correspondents reporting from Kunming.

... boiling pot and share. Ok, it doesn't sound that exciting but believe me its so good we've been craving it and eating it almost every night. I've had it in Taiwan but it's not that good there, hotpot is a different story in Yunnan. On this occasion I accidentally chewed and ate a massive spicy chili, I felt my head go on fire, lips went numb, I ran around the restaurant looking for water, thought I was going to die and then when I finally calmed down I realized my sickness was cured.

... sense to me. For example there is one word to use for clothing worn on the upper half of your body and a different word to be used for lower half clothing. Then, if that wasn't enough to figure out, the one for lower half clothing is also used for long thin things like streets and rivers which to my mind are entirely unconnected. Similarly infuriating is the Chinese obsession with how the language sounds. Rhythm and poetic flow is ...

... a student visa for 2 and a half months beyond when I am actually a student. I'm not sure whether it's just Kunming, or whether the whole of China is now like this, but there suddenly seem to be loads of people who own dogs. Last time I was here it was very rare to see anyone who actually had a pet (dogs have other appeal out here!) but now, 5 years on they are everywhere. I think it really must be a sign of rapidly increasing personal wealth ...

... After that I went to Mr Song's work were we played table tennis with some of his colleagues. After that we had dinner with about 20 of his peers and we drank our way through a fair bit of Baijiu. When I got back to Jack's I played with Kane for a few hours before having an early night. Tonight I am taking Tony and his mom out to dinner and will hopefully be heading out to a few bars later in the night to see what the Kunming nightlife is like!

There are only 400 km from Dali to Kunming, but the train lasts more than 9 hours! It's faster by bus, but this way, we save a night at hotel, we sleep at the train. We arrive in Kunming, meet our guide, Wang Yin (or something like that), go to have breakfast(to a hotel which is not ours, cheaper), and then we are taken to ours, for checking in, and have a little rest, in which we clean some clothes. Then we start the first visit: Shilin ...