Leaving Kunming

Trip Start Jul 31, 2008
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Trip End Aug 31, 2008


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Flag of China  , Yunnan,
Thursday, August 14, 2008

Today it is going to be a hard day, I'm afraid. Breakfast has been a complete disaster, we ate almost nothing, so when we start today's visits, we are hungry. Our first sightseeing is going to be at West Mountains, which include the Dragon Gate. These mountains are at Kunming's outskirts, by the side of a great lake. There is not a lot of people here, and we start up climbing to mountain top by an uncountable number of steep stairs. During the way, we pass by some budist and taoist temples, and the views from the lake improve (and the danger also). We finally reach Dragon's Gate, a little terrace not bigger than 8 square meters, with a wooden door and a taoist sculpture. We wonder: so much effort just to see this? Deceiving. Our guide tells us we can go to the top of the hill, but he won't, and he will wait for us. A lot more of steps uphill, inside the mountain and over it, to reach the top absolutely exhausted. As usual, we can see a few things from here due to the intense fog over the lake Dragon Gate
Dragon Gate
 . So we get back to find that our guide has gone away. After a long search, we meet him at the bottom of the mountain, waiting inside the car. We thought he had escaped with all our lugagge!
Now we are going to lunch in a restaurant not for tourists (we are said). Not excellent food, really. After that, we visit the "Ethnic Minorities Village", some kind of zoo in which are shown the different ways of life of the 56 different ethnies in China. The only thing is worth seeing is an elephant show in which Monika acts as a volunteer. After that, a short visit to a tea house (trap-visit) where we buy nothing, but take lots of different teas without paying.
It's time to go to the train station, we are leaving Yunnan Province tonight, towards Anshun, in Guizhou province. We also have to share our cabin, and have dinner inside the train with some hot dogs we bought right out of the station: delicious.
Good night!
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