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4 August: Kunming

We had decided last night to sleep a little late after the previous days travels. Wong came to our room exactly on time, we headed out, Wong talked to the receptionist to ensure we could stay another night. He also told us he's found someone that could give a reason for the 'no foreigner' rule - there had been riots in the country a few weeks earlier and the government required all foreigners to stay in safer (read more expensive) hotels. Well, I hope it's not like that in the smaller cities as well. On the way to breakfast Wong said he wanted to go to the stone forest and surrounding parks in Shilin and would stay there the evening before heading for Dali the next day. We wanted to stay the night here.

It had been raining the whole morning and would continue the rest of the day, not in torrents but enough to ensure you walked around with a rain jacket and umbrella.

We walked to a place he recommended for breakfast, buying an additional umbrella along the way, one to share just wouldn't cut it anymore. The restaurant was about 10 minutes walk, by this time we were starving. He showed us the Kunming speciality, wonton in a soup and some other nice dishes. We ordered a dish of the wonton and another spicy noodle. Both were very nice but one of the wonton's was a little slippery for my chopsticks and landed on the flloor, not a problem in Asia. If you don't like something it either ends up on the table or on the floor, so no one paid any attention. The spicy noodle was also very tasty although a few too many bones and too little meat for me.

We talked a little longer, I gave him tips on places to visit in Vietnam and we exchanged contact details, before heading in our own directions. After breakfast we walked back to the hotel, catching up on our writing and hoping the rain would cease...it did not. Later we decided we would have to go walking in the rain or there would be no walking today. Even asking for directions with a map is an ordeal! They directed us to the station, not the Muslim courter, at least we found a nice bakery along the way where we shared a rum cake (much to little rum though :-)

From there we headed to the old Muslim district, famous for its tasty cuisines, using our own sense of direction. The walk was further than we had expected, but gave us a much better understanding and picture of Kunming. To say the least of all the major cities we have been, China's ones have at first glance impressed me the most. The cities are huge and the development is amazing. I would have thought that the citizens are poor and struggling, with a handful of rich like in most developing countries. Not what we have seen so far. Everyone has the newest phones, many even iphones (although they're all fake), clothes are fashionable and people are well dressed. Even the men on the street, sweeping or selling fruit walked around in business suits, given they were poorly made, thick and not of the best quality, but it sure beats someone with torn clothing. You also never encounter beggars and there is a policy in place that shoplifters/thieves will repay 10 times the value of what was stolen, wouldn't work in RSA!

On the way there we walked through one of their multiple malls, the bottom level was filled with vendors selling clothing from stalls, we even saw Levi jeans for R50, the upper levels and there were a few had designer clothes and very expensive brand names. You however still see many people walking around with bags with clothes bought from designer stores. We walked through the center of town towards the Muslim courters, problem was we had a hell of a difficulty finding it and no one could help us, not even the occasional westerner we saw.

In the end we settled for a restaurant near a mosque, at least it was in a type of Muslim area. We ordered a famous dish from the lonely planet with the help of two semi English speaking Chinese. Problem was not only was it overpriced, but when it came it was a very small dip bowl filled with a watery soup and 5 small items floating around. We didn't really know what to do and when the girl we had worked though said she didn't know, it was probably a specialty and therefore expensive, we left it. It didn't look very nice, Leanne decided she wasn't going to try it, I gave it a go - think it was some animal's testicle rather than what we ordered. With a bitter taste literally and figuratively speaking we got up and left the little bowl on the table as we walked out.

We stopped along the way and purchased a macDonalds ice cream which we shared, at least it helped get the taste out of my mouth. A little further down the road we entered a restaurant and tried to order a meal, we watched what they were preparing and tried to convey that we wanted the same and also inquire what the price was. So simple yet so difficult, problem was you have to buy a coupon and then come and collect the meal. If you don't know what it is or how much then you're nowhere. Lucky for us one of the locals spoke English and was able to assist us. Lunch was great, spicy noodles, pork and some vegetation.

On the way back we stopped again at a small bakery (they have so many and the smell just drive you crazy!), they had some biscuits and a sort of cake which we tried, the biscuit was divine, the cake okay. Then came the funny thing, we had heard loud disco music heading to the Muslim area, on the way back we decided to sneak a peek. Turns out it was a roller skating rink, with 1960's roller skates and they were good. We watched them for a while standing out of the rain which was still falling. Back on the road again we crossed one of the busy roads, I had looked but obviously not well enough, the next minute I heard Leanne scream telling me to stop, at which time a bus narrowly missed me. I swear it wasn't there when I looked, lucky for me she was paying attention! We walked on to the restaurant where we had eaten breakfast, it was already after 19h30 and although we had had some snacks, we were still hungry.

We tried another specialty, this time it was better. The dish was called "across the bridge noodles", the story behind the dish is that a scholar moved to a isolated island and his wife invented several dishes to take to him, which she did - by walking each day over a bridge. The dish is a bowl of very hot broth accompanied by a plate of pork slivers, a piece of chicken, duck, 2 quail eggs, vegetables and of course noodles. One of the waitresses wanted to help us - she added all the ingredients to the broth which we left for a while to cook. It was actually very nice and we are planning on trying it again.

We headed back, one last stop, something sweet sold along the side of the road. A type of cooked rice paper with some type of pastry (also made from rice) and sweet sauce inside. We headed for our room, it was now already 21h00 and we had been walking most of the day.