Kunming

  Kunming, Yunnan, China
Friday, July 25, 2008

Yunnan has a reputation of being one of the most interesting and fun places in the world, but apparently the rep doesn't come from its capital city.  Alex's fiancee Rose summed it up best when I called to ask her advice on Kunming nightlife, "Kunming shi yi ge tebie wuliao de difang.  Shenme dou meiyou yisi / Kunming is an especially boring place.  It has absolutely nothing interesting."  Alex's advice was to find a whole in the wall restaurant, buy 30 cent beers, and make some local friends.  I did all of the above, but when I asked the 20-something guys there what was fun in Kunming they replied, "There's a zoo."

The three day stay in Kunming was more of a staging point for other things.  We had to wait for the Vietnamese consulate to issue our visas.  We had to book more travel (or try to anyway).  I had to handle MIT paperwork.  Despite all that, we made a couple of interesting side trips.

A huge mountainside lake lies just south of the city.  We took a trip to the big park at the northern trip and rode a boat around the lake.  It was nice, but I don't think it beats cruising around Boston Harbor.  There was also an amusement park at the side of the lake where we hopped on a rollercoaster.  The workers started one of those, "What's better China or America?" conversations with us.  I was mostly evasive, but made them happy by saying Shanghai is more modern than New York.  Anyway, rollercoasters are way more exciting when there's the very real possibility of death.  

Stone Forest

The coolest thing by far of this leg, however, was the Stone Forest.  By some odd mix of geology, erosion, and earthquakes, there is literally a 'forest' of tall stones a few hours from Kunming.  We couldn't catch a bus there, but we hired a private car driven by a former cop from Chengdu.  He showed us the scar on his forehead where some gangster had smashed him with some blunt object or other.  His parents made him quit after that, and he moved to Kunming to work in tourism.  He weaved through the highways and winding mountain roads around bikes, peasants, trucks spewing thick black smoke, tour buses, motorcycles, and even a flock of goats to get us to the Stone Forest.  

In the 'tree' tops

The place itself was amazing.  The main paths were hopelessly crowded with Chinese tour groups sporting umbrellas to block the sun, but we found the tiny little paths into the hear of the 'forest'.  We climbed down into narrow crevices and craves, and we climbed up to the tops of these 50 foot tall obiliths to look over the forest.  I've never seen anything remotely like it. 

For Kate:

Best meal in Kunming