Thursday, September 28, 2006
Kunming - A Big Joint
No, not the smokeable kind, but Kunming is a bloody big city. We were there for 3 days in total, 2 before we went to Tiger Leaping Gorge and 1 after. For the first 2 days the weather changed a lot, and it was pissing down for quite a bit. Needless to say, the first thing I purchased was a raincoat (a shmick one for 50 Yuan). We bought a new backpack also for the gorge trek, as my little day pack didn't quite cut it.
There is a plethora of shops in Kunming, including some major fashion and sporting stores. Nike, Addidas and Puma was everywhere, as were their imitations. There was also many camping stores, many of which sold camping/hiking shoes. I was stoked on the final day to pick up a brand new pair of (genuine) CATs for around AUD$76.
We stayed at a reasonably shmick hotel known as the Camelia. The first night we got there, after the shocker of a bus trip, we were screaming for a shower. They put us in a nice room with a lovely looking shower. Unfortunately, the bastard thing didn't work! We called the front desk and they eventually sent up a plumber. After stuffing around for half an hour he couldn't fix it. We were given the option of a 'cheaper' room for the same price, which we again declined.
They ended up sticking us in another room, which wasn't as nice, but at least the shower worked. By this time it was too late to order any food which sucked because we hadn't eaten for 12 hours. We ended up just going to bed after a crappy day and hoping for better luck for the rest of the trip.
On our last night in Kunming we went out as a group to a Chinese (what else!) restaurant to try the local speciality of over-the-bridge noodles. This is basically a huge bowl of chicken flavoured
broth into which you place numerous very thinly cut slices of meats, fish and vegetables and then dump in a huge bowl of noodles. It is actually quite delicious, just a bit scary as the food is raw when you put it in. We complimented this with warm local beer.
We said goodbye to over half of the group who had completed their 'Yunnan Encounter' and it was a bit sad as we made some good friends.
Other highlights of Kunming were the Aquarium Shop, the food (most of it anyway), the Pet Market and the Supermarket. The lowlight was the toilet in the last pub that we went to - nasty, nasty, nasty.....
There is a plethora of shops in Kunming, including some major fashion and sporting stores. Nike, Addidas and Puma was everywhere, as were their imitations. There was also many camping stores, many of which sold camping/hiking shoes. I was stoked on the final day to pick up a brand new pair of (genuine) CATs for around AUD$76.
We stayed at a reasonably shmick hotel known as the Camelia. The first night we got there, after the shocker of a bus trip, we were screaming for a shower. They put us in a nice room with a lovely looking shower. Unfortunately, the bastard thing didn't work! We called the front desk and they eventually sent up a plumber. After stuffing around for half an hour he couldn't fix it. We were given the option of a 'cheaper' room for the same price, which we again declined.
They ended up sticking us in another room, which wasn't as nice, but at least the shower worked. By this time it was too late to order any food which sucked because we hadn't eaten for 12 hours. We ended up just going to bed after a crappy day and hoping for better luck for the rest of the trip.
On our last night in Kunming we went out as a group to a Chinese (what else!) restaurant to try the local speciality of over-the-bridge noodles. This is basically a huge bowl of chicken flavoured
broth into which you place numerous very thinly cut slices of meats, fish and vegetables and then dump in a huge bowl of noodles. It is actually quite delicious, just a bit scary as the food is raw when you put it in. We complimented this with warm local beer.We said goodbye to over half of the group who had completed their 'Yunnan Encounter' and it was a bit sad as we made some good friends.
Other highlights of Kunming were the Aquarium Shop, the food (most of it anyway), the Pet Market and the Supermarket. The lowlight was the toilet in the last pub that we went to - nasty, nasty, nasty.....
# posted by Glenn @ 3:05 pm 
