Day 55

I had promised Nadia and Antonio that I would meet them in the Frech Cafe in the university district of Kunming at about 2pm today, so I took a long walk around Kunming to get my bearings and have a look at the city. In size it's comparable with Chengdu but Chengdu seemed cleaner and more affluent, though Kunming is famous for it's laid-back pace.

1 The Green Park in Lijiang

I didn't like the idea of arriving in new cities alone and taking time to figure out where everything was so I stopped at an army store to buy a compass. I quickly noticed that most of the compasses in the shop seemed to be pointing in different directions. I clearly wasn't going to buy any of these but the shopkeeper seemed intent on helping me choose which compass (and its own version of North) I wanted. Surely if I can choose my own north I have no need for a compass!

I found a net cafe and did some work then at 12 I left to find the university district. It's a nice lively part of town and the sun was coming out too. I found the cafe and bought a beer - Antonio and Nadia weren't long to arrive and it was good to see them again. Nadia is French and Antonio is Spanish and they'd been to this cafe lots before so Nadia was greeting and kissing other French regulars as Antonio whispered to me "it's useless if you don't speak French in here!" They had already eaten and recommended a restaurant around the corner which I went to on my own at about 4pm. I ordered "Tasty and Spicey Chicken" and looked forward to my very late lunch. When it came I could see bones in the chunks of chicken and figured this wasn't going to be pleasant. I was using chopsticks so the removal of bone from chicken had to be done in the mouth. This was working fine until one chunk felt very weird in my mouth. It felt rubbery and as I pulled it out of my mouth I recognised it better - a chicken foot! Arrgh I thought and threw it in the ashtray. I hadn't asked for an ashtray so I'd assumed that it was for the bones. As the foot sat there I looked down thought about giving it a nibble. Frank the Dutch guy in Lijiang seemed ok munching down a chicken foot after he lost a bet a Mama Naxis place so maybe I should try it?? I didn't, however, and left pretty soon after. I walked back to my hostel and stopped at Dicos (the Chinese version of KFC) and had a "proper" chicken meal.