Camelia
Trip Start
Apr 04, 2004
1
34
Trip End
Jun 07, 2004
Kunming,
Yunnan,
China
Monday, April 5, 2004
Camelia
Sunday 4th April
I ask for three bananas in the market on the station forecourt. "san banana" I say smilingly. In my own hybrid of two languages. I don't know the mandarin word for banana and probably never will. But by now, I can count to ten . The train leaves Nanning at 15.40.
I dodge all the predictable offers of motorised transport from Kunming station and opt to walk instead. To the Kung Hu hostel
Camelia spa and massage
. The Kung Hu has pretty crap showers and in my dorm there are some unusual characters. One is a hippie whose brain is stuck in a groove that belongs in the 1960s. Another is a Japanese girl who is plucking an instrument I've never seen nor heard before. It's from Zimbabwe, she says, and to me it sounds like water dripping. There is a solid wood backboard the size of a small notebook computer and thin metal strips attached at one end which she flicks with her fingers. Producing a random scale of 'drips'. Reasonably soothing and preferable to the incessant chatter from sergeant sixties. The device was used by shamen to put people into a trance. I happily try it. After moving to the ultra clean and well-sorted Camelia hotel and hostel, I walk to the hospital. I think I've got conjunctivitis. Another lesson learned - put one of your tee shirts over your pillow to rest your head on. Don't trust a Chinese laundry. I am dealt with quickly at the VIP section at the back of the hospital ( no kidding - it said VIP in large red letters ) Foreigners are automatically directed here to receive special attention and designated nurses speak English.
I spend a day or two walking around Kunming and it's perimeters and parks. My game of jumping aboard random buses makes for good entertainment and is a good way to become familiar with the layout of a city. I settle easily into the dormitory room at the Camelia using the big fridge to store food supplies I've bought from Wallmart or Carrefour. They are very friendly and efficient staff here. They even come to visit you in your bed to collect the daily 30 Yuan in rent. Lest you may forget to pay.
Tucked down an alley opposite the entrance to the main building is a tavern which bears that popular look of an Aladdin's cave. On the back wall is a huge portrait of Chairman Mao. As I make to return to my room, I am intercepted on the stairs leading from the lobby. Wearing a nicely fitted white uniform, Lou Mae ( otherwise known as 'number six' ) offers to show me the facilities in the spa and massage centre on the second floor. The hostel is on the third making it necessary to pass the gates to the pleasure-palace every time. Clever that. Because once you have ventured in there, visits can become compulsive.
Next ; Kunming days
