More Kunming

Not much on Wednesday since the tour bus that was supposed to pick me up went to the wrong hotel. The only reason I was getting on a tour bus was because Dr. Yin arranged it for me to go to the Stone Forest, about an hour away. So I went back to sleep and let my stomach recover from yesterday's spicy food assault. Later I consulted my Lonely Planet and went out for a nice western breakfast of french toast and bacon. That night the female doctor wanted to take me to McDonald's because she felt bad about having me eat such spicy food.

 

Dr. Yin's 10 year old son, Yin Mo Ran, who goes by Mo ran and who says in English his name is Moran, is a funny kid. He spent a year at school in Richmond and his English is solid, just lacking vocabulary. I'm thinking about telling him he might want to use a new English name. Anyways he wanted to go to McDonald's so we went. Nothing special, I just wanted to note how I'm treated like a small child, because I was eating french fries, and the female doctor noticed I wasn't using ketchup and so she offered me the ketchup which was right next to the fries and showed me how to use it. Not to be critical but I have become incredibly critical, cynical, and sarcastic during my time here in China. I think its because thats what this country lacks, people who criticize things and who have sarcasm, or so it seems. Anyways.

 

Went to the Stone Forest the next day, rode there in a large van with my tour group. The lady next to me turns out to have lived in the same apartment compound as me in Beijing, she's a teacher at Tsing Hua, and she recognized UVA as a famous school in the US. My Chinese abilities really impress people here, I guess this is the first time I've spoken Chinese with Chinese people out of the context of studying in Beijing. So you start talking and you quickly are accepted. The Stone Forest was alright, the sign out front says it is regarded as one of the most impressive geographical wonders in the world, my Lonely Planet says that most people don't think too much of it on the scale of geographic formations. I think I only small a small bit of it since I was with a tour group, once again my Lonely Planet says if you go there you should first get away from the main tourist area. Oh well. You walk among these rock formations which were created by underground water movement and then slowly rose to the surface over time. They are cool. The park is a typically Chinese tourist spot, with more people inside selling things than visitors. We arrived back in Kunming and the bus went to a supermarket, then a flower market, and then some perfume or fragrance shop, I guess the purpose was for us to buy stuff. Probably how the tour company makes money by getting cuts for bringing business.

 

That night I went with Dr. Yin to a wedding party dinner. He knew a lot of people there, and I was introduced to all of them, and whenever you meet someone you take a drink with them. And I was poured a small wine glass of Mou Tai, which is the vile, incredibly strong (53%) Chinese liquor. I'm told its the best in China. Anyway I let that last the whole evening, don't plan on consuming it again. All these Chinese guys were getting fairly drunk and it was funny. They would come up to me and tell me welcome to Kunming etc, one guy told me he was glad to meet me and that I was his good friend about 20 times. You have to stop eating about every 30 seconds for someone offering cheers or a mini toast. I didn't get drunk though as I managed to consume a lot of food and we were there for a long time.

 

Today, Friday, I went to the Vietnamese consulate to get a VISA, but upon realizing that with the Chinese New Year/Vietnamese Tet, I won't get it back until the 7th and that would leave one week to go through Vietnam and get to Bangkok. And an Israeli couple that walked in to get a VISA who had just been in Vietnam and Thailand told me not to get it, that I should go to Thailand first and then back through Cambodia and Vietnam, and that down there in those cities traveling is infinitely easier to plan, since everybody is doing it.

 

I ate lunch at Dr. Yin's house with his family and some friends, that was good food. The two times I've eaten home cooked Chinese food have been very good. Its different than at a restaurant. This afternoon I had to choose between going to another temple somewhere or a zoo. Those were the options I was given, Dr. Yin's wife was to take me, and theres not much to do on your own around Kunming. Mo Ran (or Mike as he said he's also called) wanted to go to the zoo so we went there. There wasn't enough time to head out to a zoo outside of the city where the animals have a big field or something that they romp around in so we went to the city zoo where the animals live in empty cage/rooms that really don't have anything in them. Once again my critical side came out, I can't remember what American zoos are like, but I'd like to think they are better than this. The zoo outside of the cages was landscaped to look fairly wild, but inside was just cement. They had zebras and deer walking around on cement, one elephant had an outdoor pen but was chained to a post in the center leaving him only a 10 foot radius. The peacock part of the park was huge and the birds had it nice, freely roaming around amongst the people with some waterfalls and ponds. But we are in China so of course there was a mini amusement park inside the zoo with a small roller coaster and similar rides and various other ways to spend more money.

 

So here I am at an internet bar at midnight, they are dirt cheap, 25 cents per hour. The place is crowded, Chinese teenagers are geeks like me. People are smoking and its bad and I'm about to leave. Tomorrow is Chun Jie 春节 the Chinese New Year and Spring Festival. Its the holiday to end all holidays here. Moran/Mike showed me his stash of fireworks and I giddily await lighting them off tomorrow. There were firecrackers going off everywhere this evening, sounded like a mini battlefield. Tomorrow should be interesting.

 

In a few days we are going to head out into the "countryside" where Dr. Yin and his friends grew up. We will spend 3 days out there, do some fishing, and chill. I look forward to this. If I can find a cheap plane ticket to Bangkok I will try to fly there next Thursday or Friday. If I can't find a cheap ticket then I'll buy an expensive one and do the same. I would like to get there before the weekend to A. play some pickup ultime with the Bangkok crew and B. watch the Super Bowl in a city where I should easily be able to find it on Tv. Kunming lacks an expat population to drive western oriented bars that might carry it. Adios.