Recovering in Kunming

The last couple days have gone by smoothly and easily. Kunming is a laid back place filled with ethnic minorities and many westerners congregating at the hostels and bars. Apparently, according to my Chinese friend from the Tiger Leaping Gorge, Yunnan has a reputation for having lazy people, but it's not just the locals - no one at the hostel seems to get up before 10 am. Kunming dubs itself the city of eternal spring, but as soon as I got here it turned grey and cold, with a constant threat of rain. Oh, and all the flowers are dead. The city has its attractions, though, including a number of wonderful hutongs and great little markets (like the "bird and flower market" which had more "Nike" apparel than tulips or parakeets), and the locals are very friendly and accustomed to us strange foreigners. Like other cities though, the city is under a great transformation. Buildings are popping up everywhere and many of the parks and old streets are under construction. I frustratingly spent 1.5 hours lost looking for a whole street which has vanished under a construction site for a huge skyscraper and the "Bird and Flower Market" is mostly boarded up to be replaced with a new faux "old street" similar to Lijiang's.

Kunming Park

Nothing big to report here, but thought I'd share some tidbits before running off to the train:
- I have now repossessed my passport with a shiny new 30 day Vietnam Visa - Pho here I come.
- Visited a cool park where seagulls from Siberia have come since 1985 when some guy started the fad of feeding them, which has yet to die.
- Treated myself to some homemade Italian pasta with REAL CHEESE! and a cappuccino at an authentic Italian restaurant. It was definitely strange trying to order rigatoni in Chinese.
- Went to the disco with a cool Dutchman and a sketchy old Canadian who abandoned us to go get a "foot massage." This was followed by me jumping the gate at the hostel in the middle of the night because no one was awake for some strange reason. Kunming travel tip: The Brothers Jiang "Across the Bridge" Noodle (a local specialty) Restaurant on Ren Min Zhong Lu is open 24 hours and serves beer.
- Went to Walmart. This may not seem like an event to many of you, but you probably haven't been to Walmart in China, now have you? I actually began to get home sick while listening to terrible Christmas music for 25 minutes while stuck in the checkout line with the other 200 customers.

Merry Christmas from Walmart

The major event though was the trip to the biggest tourist trap ever, the Stone Forest. This is a series of "Karst" formations which are basically limestone pillars that have been worn by wind and rain for millions of years. Paths wove up and down the pillars (some as much as 30 m high), through crevices and down to small ponds. At times, I actually felt very unsafe while teetering over tiny steps while looking 20 m straight down on the jagged rocks below, or as I squeezed sideways up steps between two of the pillars. I also wandered away from the tourists and found myself way out where there were fields, farmers and little huts among the columns. It was quite peaceful out there, but I again got concerned I would never find my way back. The forest was quite spectacular and unfortunately the pictures do it no justice.

Stone Forest

Elephant on a Platform

That's the quick update. Other than that, I wandered the city, ate some more great food and chilled at the hostel. I'm moving on next to a more rigorous adventure of the Lugu Lake variety to the villages of southeast Guizhou. If I'm lucky, I'll end up on the other side of the mountains in Guilin. Cross your fingers.