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KFC~ Kunming Fried Chicken
Entry 32 of 93 | show all | print this entry |
We arrived in Kunming in the early morning after a long overnight train from Guilin (18 hrs). On the train we ended up meeting a really nice German couple who, as it turned out, Tom was a huge NHL hockey fan and we started talking about the playoffs and all that on the train. That was weird, having a discussion about hockey on a train in China. Tom was mostly interested in any German players we knew and was pleased that Schubert once played for Ottawa so the time passed and it made for a quicker than usual train ride. We talked until the lights went out (10:00 pm) as they always do.
And then, as they always do, we were awakened at 6:30 am by some rousing speech in Chinese and then about an hour of some "inspiring" chinese music to start the day. It is all very routine now and as I said earlier, it is only the 'ferangs' that lay about in bed until about 9:00 am. The rest of the people on the train are up and at it - brushing their teeth, making noodles for breakfast, or making tea, washing themselves off in the tiny sink area or just firing up that first (or third) cigarette. 'It's a happening' and it all starts right from the get go.
Once we got to Kunming we got on the city bus and headed for our hotel. The Camillia Hotel is a budget icon in the Lonely Planet guide and we were blown away by the quallity of the accomodations for the price. We were given a large room with three beds and a couch, a beautiful (new) bathroom, television (chinese) and buffet breakfast (all you can eat) for 220 Yuan - about $32. We were set. And man did we need it. I don't think we realized just how tired we all were but we ended up sleeping very late most days (but got up before 10:00 so we could go eat). Our reason for coming here was that this was the place we could get our visa to Vietnam. We knew this was going to take three days and we were ready for a do nothing sort of stay here.
The big thing to see here is the Stone Forest, and once you arrive here all the tour operators approach you at the train station and hand out their business cards like confetti. I had already seen it (20 yrs ago). While on the train, I pointed it out to the rest of the family, clusters of the similar shaped rock formations as we went through them so they were convinced that they had seen them too. So it was good. We got our visa stuff organized (gave them our passports) and then made arrangements to take the bus to Dali once our visas were ready.You can't go or do anything without your passport (check into a hotel, rent bikes, etc) so we were basically stuck for 3 days.
Kunming is a huge city and by this point we had had enough of the huge city thing. China is a huge place with massive cities and wide streets, long blocks and lots of people. I think we were done with that so we kicked back in our hotel room and watched some pirated DVD's we bought in Guilin, got caught up on our internet stuff, read, did homework, and lazed around the hotel room. We went out to eat and did a little shopping but mostly just 'recharged'. We found a Walmart around the block (about 20 minutes walk away) and went 'exploring' in there for a while. We got some peanut butter and other 'comfort foods' we missed or might miss (deodorant, blank cd's). It was all a bit surreal really but we didn't care. We felt closer to home than we had in a long time and I think it was good to be here and do nothing. At the end of our 'exploration' we decided to go to the huge KFC attached to the Walmart. KFC is big here (in China). You see them everywhere. So, we thought, since we never eat it at home, and the girls had never had it in their life, we got a bucket and headed back to our hotel room to enjoy it. Man, that was a little weird too. Walking through the streets with a big bucket of chicken, past all the cell phone shops, past all the street food stands, past all the people back to our hotel. A lot of this stuff is starting to feel kind of strange, I think maybe it is time we moved on.
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