Day 37

27 May 2013

Kunming, China

I need to relax and finish my blog. I had set out to keep a daily record and I need to stick to it. If I don't stop and catch up now I will only fall further behind. I found a comfortable place in one of the lounges and started at 9 am and now at 3 pm I am finally up-to-date. Pictures need to be given a name in the web blog otherwise they won’t upload. Tedious work, but will pay off in the end.

This place has a nice restaurant and relaxation area where breakfast was served to me this morning. However now at lunch time and I needed to stretch my legs so went do into the square and looked for another challenge. There is no shortage of Chinese restaurants and plenty of places to choose from. One of them was slightly different. I had a look and saw that you order and pay for your meal at a booth at the entrance of the restaurant (before you enter)and then go to one of the different areas where they prepare the food. I faced a problem which I needed to overcome. The food display had absolutely nothing at all that I recognized; all shapes and sizes and weird colors. Then there was the large menu board the restaurant I had to deal with, with not one recognizable letter.

Inside, only Chinese people eating from large bowls served on glass covered tables. Now I was in the situation that I did not know the food, the quantity, the taste, the name, the price and where to get it. I asked the lady to step out of the booth using hand signals and marched her to one of the tables. I pointed to the nearest dish (bowl) in sight and raise my finger and said YI (one) She went back in her booth and showed me a 5 Yuan note. Wow that is cheap! 80 cents

I went to the first kitchen booth; they read my ticket and pointed to another area. The lady who prepared the meal asked something and I just nodded. She added some undisclosed items and then handed me my Chinese noodle soup with lot of floating stuff. Great!

I sat down; a few minutes later someone accidently bumped into me. The guy looked at me and said Oh pardon me. Then his lady companion said "oh you speak English I am surprised you eat here." She spoke English and came from Melbourne , the man was her student. She said I was very brave eating here. I asked why , is there was something I should be aware off.? No it the food is ok but the fact that nothing is readable or recognizable, no tourist ever comes here because of that. Oh Ok I said . The guy shoved a another bowl in my direction and said, try this… It tastes rubbery. What is it I asked- they make it out of pigs blood and add some gel like ingredient, when they prepare it they wait until it settles and than cut it small blocks to add to dishes.

Ok thanks. “no, I had four pieces, I had enough now thanks” Some people offered to travel with me for a few days and are leaving tonight, although I welcome the though I now feel relaxed and want to stay to finish my blogs and all other outstanding things and do my forward planning. I still don’t have a map. The only one available here has Chinese writing only which is no good to me.