Kunming-last stop in China

We took another private van from Dali to Kunming. The high speed rail connection between the two had opened a week or two before but we didn't know that so we used what had become our old standbye in China. Asking the hotel owner if they knew someone who wanted to make some cash driving us to our next town. We only got to spend a few days in Kunming and I wish it could have been more.  The climate at 6200 feet is great. Not too hot and not too humid. The city has several subway lines as well as cheap taxis so its easy to get around. Food is very good but not quite so spicy as Chengdu. People seem very nice, friendly, and helpful. Tons of interesting things to do in the area of which we could only hit a few. If we come back to China I could easily see spending a month in the Kunming area and another in Sichuan.

The first night in Kunming we walked down to a local pedestrian square and had dinner and saw a movie. Movie was called Animal World and it was based on a Japanese movie that was apparently based on a Japanese Manga and I thought it was awful. Kids liked it a bit more. Apparently they are thinking of bringing it to the USA but if you have your choice of this one or "Dying to Survive" choose the latter. The next day we basically spent wandering around Kunming. We walked to the zoo which was crowded but mostly depressing. They had a cage full or sad raggedy looking raccoons. Thought it was funny that pandas are a big deal in the west and trash pandas are a big deal in China. From there we walked over to Green Lake park. This is a park full of ponds and intertwined waterways with bridges, bamboo, snack stands, and places to just relax. After that it was off to a neighborhood that turned out to mostly have expat type restaurants. We had "pizza" at a local pizza place. It wasn't as bad as the pita bread with cheese melted in the microwave that we had to start our trip in Nanxun but it wasn't great. Salads were welcome though as green salad is sort of rare in China. They prefer their lettuce boiled or steamed.

The next day was going to be our last full day in China and I decided at the last minute to book a guided tour with a driver rather than try to do it ourselves. We had used China Highlights before and they came through this time with a guide and driver at the last minute. We decide to see two nearby sites. The Shilin Stone Forest is a famous UNESCO recognized site with pillars of eroded limestone spread over several square miles. The other site was Jiuxiang cave which I think was even more spectacular but less well known. We went to the cave first. It is a huge cave with a large river rushing through it. Seemed as big as my memories of Mammoth cave and Carlsbad. You follow the river as you climb up and down multiple sets of stairs winding your way through the cave. The only difference between this cave and all the ones I've seen before is all the multi colored lights deployed through out the cave and at the end of the tour you pop out the bottom of the cave and get on a chairlift for a ride back to the parking lot.

After the cave we went to Shilin Stone Forest. This is another area of eroded limestone. Unlike the caves or the rounded peaks of Guilin in this case the limestone eroded into pillars up to 30 meters tall. The whole region is studded with them ranging from little nubs only a foot high called teeth all the way up to the huge pillars.. The area has been known and described in Chinese literature for centuries. You see farmer's fields where the crops are planted right around the pillars. A section has been set aside as a AAAAA Chinese tourist site and Unesco heritage site. So of course it had all the tour buses and big tour groups I"ve mentioned before. The grass and plants around the pillars here have been manicured a good bit instead of being left natural but its still beautiful.  We spent a few hours being guided through one small set of paths amongst the tallest pillars but in looking at the map two things were clear. First, you could spend several days wandering amongst the pillars and still not see it all. Second you could easily get lost. The whole area reminded me of the slick rock canyons of Utah but with limestone instead of sandstone.

After the tour we tried another hot pot place in downtown Kunming. The place looked like it provided each person with a single pot with 3 different sections each with a different broth. However after long discussions between Syd and the manager he decided we couldn't handle the spicyness of most of the broths and ingredients. We ended up with two pots of mushroom broth and two pots of fish broth and some random ingredients he thought we could handle. It wasn't bad but I guess if we are going to have the full experience we are going to have to work on our tolerance of spice.

The next day we had breakfast and headed off to the airport. We found a nice restaurant at the airport and killed a few hours eating noodles and drinking tea. I finally got to try "over the bridge noodles."  This is a local specialty that you can google. They were good but I'm not sure what the big deal is.  Now its off to Malaysia for a week or so.