KunmingSep 23, 2009
|
|
I can't remember whether i mentioned that i decided to fly to Kunming or not but i did. The flight was as seamless as usual and getting to the hostel was the easiest yet, hop on a bus, get off the bus outside the hostel. I am glad i got the flight in the end, if only because once i arrived at the hostel i went up to my room to find two guys from my Heathrow-Beijing flight in there as well! I had joined them briefly to make the trip from the airport into Beijing so there was a pretty confused 5 seconds when myself and Ben tried to figure out how we knew eachother. Once more, when i headed down to the bar/common room to see Bryan (the other guy from the flight) i saw the two Swiss guys from Qingdao sat at the computers!! it was very strange; they couldn't believe it. That meant my first day in Kunming was spent talking about what we had done since we first met. Funnily enough both the Swiss guys and the British guy from the flight are heading into Laos at roughly the same time. It would have been nice to join Ben & Bryan just to cross the border but i can hardly say that i payed for a flight to see more of China and then just leave China for Laos?!!
Kunming isn't that interesting, although the Hostel is very good. The best beds in China so far. We went to try and find this big mosque that was torn down in 1997 and rebuilt much bigger. Lonely planet described it as looking like a bad las vegas casino, however, we looked high and low round the area it was supposed to be but could not find it. Apparently it has "gone". I can only guess that means it has been demolished and in its place are some of the shiny new shops we saw. Try and find some culture in Kunming and end up in a shopping mall. There are a few other sights in Kunming but most of them seem lesser versions of things ive seen elsewhere.
I have booked a bus ticket to Dali, a place just south of Kunming by about 4/5 hours, and will spend 2 or 3 nights there before coming back to Kunming. I think i'll try and spend a night in Kunming before [hopefully] getting on a bus to Mengla down near the Laos border. I should have left myself 2 full days to get to, and cross, the border so that should mean there is a fairly low risk of overstaying my visa and getting fined as a result. I've asked Ben/Bryan to email me, if they can, how the crossing goes and if there is anything i should/shouldn't do as they will be doing it a good 5 days before me.
Dali is supposed to be quite nice, although not as nice as a place further north called Lijiang. I don't really want to do a 10-12hour bus trip twice though, which is what it would take to get to Lijiang. I have taken about 4 photos of Kunming, all of which are fairly uninteresting but i'll upload them later. Over and out.
