Alison: Kunming is the capital of Yunnan province which is in the south west of China. We have been told that Yunnan province is one of the most beautiful provinces in China but unfortunately we only had enough time to see Kunming. We had an afternoon and one full day there and I'm not too sure we really did it justice. I blame this on being so tired from touring Tibet and travelling almost the length and breadth of China on the train!

Day 1 consisted of a KFC, walking around Walmart, 3 loads of laundry, and Nigel getting his haircut. Following Nigel's haircut we read in the Lonely Planet that the biggest scam in Kunming is tourists getting their haircut! Apparently you tell the hairdresser what you want and agree a price and then halfway through your haircut an old woman comes in and starts shouting that the price was wrong and you need to pay more or leave with your hair half done. Luckily this didn't happen or else I would have had to finish the trip with Nigel sporting a bit of a Boy George do!

Day 2 involved getting the subway to the city centre, walking around Carrefour, going to the museum to find it closed, and looking for a chemist to buy some antibiotics (don't ask!) We did manage to explore the bird and flower market which is quite a popular place to go and also the backstreets lined with various souvenir shops but after that we headed back to our hostel. That evening we headed out with the intention of getting some traditional cuisine but after trying to get food in a brothel again (how does this keep happening to us?!) and then going into another place that had no English speaking staff (and then having to have a lengthy discussion on the phone with the owners English speaking friend), we decided it was all too much and headed to our old friend Ronald McDonalds house :)

I definitely don't think we saw the best of Kunming! It was time to head to Hong Kong for some rest and recuperation so that we could get our exploring va va voom back!