We're in Lijiang

Jumped on a bus this morning to head to the famous Lijiang. 8 hours later we arrived. This place is stunningly beautiful. It is a city with a new half and an old half. We're staying in the old half in an old wooden 2 story building. After checking in (nice room), we headed out for explorations.

Lijiang is North east of Kunming and fairly close to Tibet. It is home to the Naxi ethnic minority mostly (well other than the han Chinese) and they are seen in the streets everywhere. It soon became evident that this is also a huge travel destination for Chinese people (hardly any foreigners), as the alleys of the old town are teeming with hordes and hordes of travellers seeking souvenirs, local foods and other sources of merriment. Despite this the place is stunning. Old style chinese buildings (sorry I dont know the history of the place yet) cascade around the hills, and are lit beautifully as it gets dark in such a way the roof shapes and wood detailing of the buildings are really accentuated. It is a labyrinth of these alleys and canals and buildings. Much bigger than I expected. The roads are stone, and there are canals everywhere with arching stone mini bridges crossing them. It is all geared at tourism. Shops, restaurants, cafes. One part of old town even has modern stores installed within the old buildings - including of all things a KFC! I'm not sure I always agree with the Chinese approach to tourism an especially the portrayal the minorities. Girls in traditional ethnic dress beckoning you into a beautiful old building converted into a hideously loud, and bright (laser lights included) nightclub with traditional local music set to a thumping techno beat. Yeh, not really my taste. But I'll be ignoring that side of things while we're here. Once again though, the beauty of the place still overcomes the tackyness of some of the merchandise.

Pictures and movies will do the job better so stay tuned. I'll put some up tomorrow our time. We'll be here for 3 days I think and there's lots to do.

Kunming Tuesday

Today we headed for the famous Bird and Fish market which is in an old area of Kunming. Unfortunately things turned not so great here as Em wasnt too well. Yes we've both been hit with tummy bugs on this trip and Em's came on quite quick and we had to get back to the hotel asap. In the taxi Em couldnt hold down her breakfast any longer and it ended up on her dress. I was certain the taxi driver was going to start yelling and boot us out, but he was actually very kind and I think it helped soften the situation that I could apologise in Chinese. He quickly got us back to the hotel, and I gave him an extra tip for us kindness. He tried not to take it. People here are very nice. We've found that in stores and on the street generally.

Em is fine now however, so no panicking please. We're well equiped (and experienced) in this situation. We had the medications and the knowhow, and em spent the rest of the day in rest, rehydration, and recovery mode and was fine by the evening. It passed through so to speak. My bout was in Vientiane and lasted a few hours too. We're both good now. All a part of the adventures. Em isnt eating meat so far on this trip. I'm less discerning, but the cause of such tummy bugs for us could well be that we tend to consume ice. Its the one rule we are slack with on the list of no nos, as its hard to resist that fantastic drinks that are blended for you with fresh fruit and ice over here. Especially in the hot and humid weather.

Kunming 02 from tgoodwin on Vimeo.

While Em was recovering I had some errands to run. First to the post office to send another parcel home. Clothes we had made in Vietnam. Packs already too heavy. Next task was to find the computer district to buy and external hard drive, so I can backup all the pics and vids we're making. Finally found the area and trawled through 3 massive 4 storey markets, each with all manner of computers and computer related devices. China is actually a little behind us with technology which is surprising. However there is much more to choose from, and mostly prices are less. For other geeks out there I got a 320gb laptop sized Seagate SATA drive with external case for about $100 NZ. Next mission was to get back home. Believe it or not, these 2 tasks took me about 6 hours to perform. The reasons being: a. I dont speak Chinese, b. I dont read Chinese, c. this city is big, d. I forgot how to say Alley in Chinese and once again there was confusion with Taxi drivers over the location of the hotel. Fun fun fun.

Finally I made it, so Em and I headed out for some food (bland for Em's tummy) and a wander around the shopping areas.

Will add some pix later. We're heading to Lijiang on a bus tomorrow morning. 8 hours away.

Kunming Videos

Kunming is a pretty nice city.  As already mentioned, the temperature is quite cool - a welcome change of climate for us after Laos and Vietnam. It has lots of nicely laid out park areas throughout the city, and there's miles and miles of shopping streets, huge malls with all the fancy and pricey brands. We also found an area which was more youth/fashion orientated which was interesting. Although the power was out over a few blocks of this area, so the kids were waiting outside stores checking their phones, and the shop assistants were playing cards or majong. Everywhere we go there are those little Chinese toy dogs that look like little dragons. And of course you can smell food being cooked and offered every block. There's some delicious stuff on offer. I had a half doz steamed buns with chicken inside, and dipping sauce for something like 2$ including a drink . We're finding China much cheaper than SE Asia. 

Also of note - all the scooters are electric, great except you cant hear them coming 

so be careful crossing the road ( or the the footpath for that matter as they often take cunning shortcuts). 

On our first evening here, I went for a wander and came across a huge town square, with all manner of outdoor entertainments and recreations taking place. The mass aerobic/dance session was my favourite. Must have been over a hundred people in the circle - old and young. The asian approach to exercise and wellbeing is very different to ours, and from our perspective offers much humourous visual entertainment to our eyes. Also interesting was the outdoor karaoke with some very enthusiastic participants. All good fun. 

China01-KUNMING01 from tgoodwin on Vimeo.