Kunming & Chengdu: 16th to 22nd May.

Hi everyone. We have been a bit slow on updating the blog recently as we have been on the move a lot so apologies in advance that this is quite a long one! We are so pleased that so many of you are still enjoying reading about our antics, thanks again for all the lovely messages and emails. It really means a lot to us to hear from you. We miss you all very much.

I would not say that we have been feeling home sick, but there has been a lot of nice stuff going on at home lately which we have missed including a new niece for me (Sue) who I can't wait to meet. Time is moving pretty quickly now and we are nearly half way through already which really doesn't seem possible. So far we have been in 56 taxis, 28 boats and slept in 61 different beds! We are really enjoying Asia but are looking forward to Australia now and meeting up with my mum and dad in Sydney which should be fun. Camper vans at the ready! Anyway, enough of the rambling....

So, back to the train station in Guilin to catch our overnight train to Kunming, 750 miles due west. Similar to other Asian countries, catching a train in China is a fairly regimented affair. The normal drill is to turn up at the train station at least one hour before your train is due to leave, wait in the waiting room until your train is called then as soon as it is run like the clappers and push everyone else out of the way to get on the train first. Why this happens is anyone’s guess as the seats are already preallocated!!

The train station waiting rooms can be quite an experience in China. As a westerner you are guaranteed to be stared at by the locals pretty much the whole time you are sat waiting for your train to arrive. Sometimes the staring is quite discrete but other times it is so blatant. The best way to deal with it is either ignore it (yeah right!), scornfully stare back (watching people subtly trying to divert their eyes can be quite amusing) or just smile and wave - this usually results in several minutes of giggling and pointing but the novelty soon wears off!

We boarded our train on time and this time we were sharing our sleeper carriage with an older gentleman and a young bloke. They both pretty much kept themselves to themselves but there was a fair amount of loud lip smacking chomping (on nuts mainly – the small brown things, not Christopher!), snorting, mobile phone tapping and fidgeting before lights out at 9.30 pm.

Yes, I did say chomping and snorting. It would appear that in China it is not impolite to eat with your mouth open, in fact it seems the louder the chomping noises you make the better. Then there is the snorting/throat clearing and spitting. This is by far the worst thing about China. You can't walk down the street without someone snorting in your ear and spitting all over the pavement. They spit everywhere including on the floor in the bus and train stations and other public places. It really is gross but apparently socially acceptable here and no one bats an eye lid – meanwhile we are left gagging with very disapproving looks on our faces!!

Anyway, we arrived in Kunming at 10.30 am which was slightly earlier than scheduled and as usual headed straight to the ticket office to get our tickets for our next destination, Chegdu, in 2 days time. In China you can only book your train ticket at the station the train departs from, so getting anything in advance from somewhere else in the country is almost impossible unless you are prepared to pay the high commission charges levied by ticket agents – provided you can find the agent of course!

Tickets bought we headed outside to get a taxi to our hotel which was located about 2 km north of the train station. Kunming is the capital and largest city of the Yunnan Province and home to circa 5.7 million people. In a city of this size you would think it would be easy enough to get a taxi but no such luck. For some unknown reason no one wanted to take us but after a bit of walking in the blistering heat and several sole destroying attempts later we finally found one willing to take us.

We finally arrived at our hotel, checked in and headed to our room for some much needed showers. What a surprise when we open the door of our room to find that our en-suite bathroom was nothing but a clear glass box in a corner of the room! We knew the Chinese were not big on privacy and have had some elements of glass bathrooms before but usually the glass was either obscured or there was a blind which could be closed. Not this time! Oh well, now we really do know each other very well, despite our rule of 'no looky-looky'!!!

After our showers we spent the rest of the day wandering around Kunming, in and out of the shops and shopping centres. We also walked down to the Green Lake which was a nice laid back place to visit and saw the locals practising their dancing in the parks. There is not really much else to do in the city itself, which is huge, modern and very clean.

The next day, after a lie in, we headed back to the train station to catch a bus (which we understood left every half hour) to Shilin, 75 miles away, which is home to a picturesque Stone Forest and our main reason for coming to Kunming. The stone forest comprises tall rocks which seem to emanate from the ground in the manner of stalagmites, with many looking like petrified trees thereby creating the illusion of a forest made of stone. Yes, I did steel that description from the guide book!

By the time we got to the train station we were told (by a very helpful girl with very limited English) that we were too late to catch the bus as they only go at 8am – that's not what the guide book said! Anyway, after a bit of feet stamping and lots of sighs we realised that we could actually catch the train to Shilin instead. Result!

We booked our train tickets for the next train which didn't leave until 1.40 pm. It was getting a bit late but we figured it would be ok as the train would be much quicker than the bus and it was only 75 miles after all. We boarded the (packed) train and an hour and a half later got off at Shilin station – us and one other person. The station was deserted except for the guards who were on duty. It all felt a bit odd for such a big tourist attraction!

Anyway, in our usual fashion the first thing we did was head back into the train station waiting area and book our return tickets back to Kunming for later that day. Much to our despair their was only 1 train going back that day and it left in 15 minutes time! With no choice, we got straight back on the train and headed back to where we started 3 hours previously!

As we were due to leave Kunming the following evening we optimistically decided today was just a dry run and we made a plan to get up early the next morning, catch the 8am bus to Shilin, see the Stone Forest and catch the same train back again. That would get us back to the station in plenty of time for our overnight train to Chengdu. What we did not realise at the time was that the train back was the slowest train ever and it took 3 ½ hours to travel the 75 km back to Kunming! So, defeated, we never did get to see the Stone Forest apart from snatches of views from the train window, but it did put travelling in China into perspective for us!!

The following day we boarded the overnight train to Chengdu optimistic that this leg of our journey would be infinitely more successful that the last. We were off to a good start. This time we were sharing a carriage with two older gentlemen who were travelling together. Once the train left the station they unpacked their bag and a feast of all sorts of weird and wonderful delicacies emerged, including plastic gloves which they wore whilst eating to stop their fingers getting covered in grease! They also had a bottle of spirits which looked like rice wine and three shot glasses to drink from.

Within minutes they were soon offering Dan a drink which, not to appear rude, he hesitantly accepted. He took a sip and it nearly blew his socks off. He tried fruitlessly to hand the rest of the glass back to them but they were having none of it and insisted that they had plenty to share with him. Next they started offering him food to go with his drink. They had some cooked chicken in a plastic bag and the two of them were chewing away on the chicken feet – a popular delicacy in China. They were very insistent that whilst he had a drink he must also have some food and vice versa so after some persuasion he peeled on a pair of rubber gloves and tore off a chicken leg and joined in – counting his blessings that chicken only have two feet!

After a few minutes another bag appeared, this time the delicacy of choice was mini octopus. Dan went a bit green and prayed that they only had two but unlucky for him they had three, so again they insisted that he had some. He put on a brave face and managed to eat it whilst I tried to hide in the corner praying that they did not try to involve me.

Dan managed to finish his drink of whatever it was and just when he thought it was all over they refilled his glass and whipped out another bag of goodies. This time there was some sort of cooked claw shaped thing with the claws still attached. By this point Dan was in panic mode, sweating buckets and a bit hysterical, meanwhile I was practically screaming at him not to eat it. The two men finally realised what the problem was and after they had a bit of a giggle to themselves they took the claw thing back and passed Dan another meat thing which looked like just like a dogs head. He managed to pick at it a bit and he is insisting that it was probably rabbit but I am sticking with the dogs head theory!!

Fortunately he lived to tell the tale and the following morning we arrived in Chengdu alive and well and as scheduled. Definitely one of our more amusing train journeys – well, for me anyway!

Chengdu is capital of the Sichuan Province of south west China, 990 km from Kunming and home to 11 million people. Again, the city is very clean and modern with glassy skyscrapers housing high end designer shops and offices popping up in every available square inch of land. Just last year a new underground system was opened which proved very handy for us as our hotel was very close to one of the stations, Tianfu Square, which saved us the usual drama with taxis. Our hotel was located on floors 6 to 8 of a high rise building, above Pizza Hut and Starbucks – result! No more chicken feet and dogs heads for a while!

Chendgu is home to the Panda Breeding and Research Centre which is a non-profit research and breeding facility for giant pandas and other rare animals. The centre opened in 1987 and started with 6 giant pandas that were rescued from the wild. By 2007 it had 110 panda births, and the captive panda population has grown to 62. The giant panda is an endangered animal and with less than 1,500 living in the wild so the work at the centre is extremely important to their continued existence.

We decided to visit the centre and got there at breakfast time as this is when the pandas are at their most active. They feast on bamboo for breakfast then pretty much spend the rest of the day lazing around conserving their energy. The younger ones in particular like to play fight and enjoy teasing each other. They were very charismatic animals and were such a joy to watch. My favourite was the little guy who looked like he had fallen from the sky and landed on top of a tree! Neither of us had seen a panda before so it was a real treat for us and easily one of the most memorable days from our trip so far. All the people there seemed to feel the same way and responded to the playful animals – it was a really happy place to be.

The following day we were off on a day-trip to Leshan, 100 miles from Chengdu, to see the Giant Budha. It is carved out of a cliff face that lies at the confluence of the Minjiang, Dadu and Qingyi rivers in the southern part of Sichuan province. The stone sculpture faces Mount Emej, with the rivers flowing below his feet. It is the largest carved stone Buddha in the world (71 meters tall) and at the time of its construction was the tallest statue in the world.

The statue itself is very impressive but was absolutely crawling with tourists. Yes, I know – us included! We queued diligently in the rain amongst the hundreds of Chinese tourists to take the winding steps which took you from the head to the toes of the statue. Being predominantly Chinese people in the queue, there was a fair amount of pushing and of course the obligatory snorting! A fairly unpleasant 2 hours but worth it to stand at the foot of the enormous statue and get a good perspective of just how big it really was. Apparently at least 6 people can stand just on the big toe nail!

Our final day in Chengdu was fairly quiet, a much needed lie in followed by some retail therapy in the afternoon. Next stop is Chongqing and hopefully a cruise down the Yangtze River.

Happy days!
Sue & Dan xx