I think we spent at least 60 hours in transit for this trip.
Countryside between Zunyi and LPS. You could stare out the windows for hours. And indeed, you probably would since it's a pretty long trip.
Sometimes I think I spend most of my life on trains. Usually, I'm on a train when I'm thinking this.
LPS is known as the "Cool City Capital." What this means is that it is freezing cold. Here we are, looking like bums, warming up over a coal fired shao cao table (Why don't we have these chez moi?)
We got so cold we did the only thing we could- burn stuff. In this case, Planet Law School II, which I promise you is a really stupid book worth burning.
It kept us warm for a while.
Until we realized the flaw in our plans. The house was full of smoke. Time to get going!
Suntray's is like very low-rate KFC. We had fun in the ball pit until the workers stopped laughing long enough to tell us to get out.
The cool city capital. Brrr.
We arrived in Kunming at five AM. We found a 24 hour McDonalds and enjoyed amazing McDonalds breakfast. Here is some helpful advice from their toilet.
Kumning seemed to us to be a sparkling paradise of blue skies and warm air. From this photo, it looks pretty hazy and everyone is wearing coats. I guess we are all a bit warped as to the defnition of "clear air" and "nice weather" is.
Waiting for food at the Bamboo temple restaurant. The charred green peppers were awesome. I love Chinese food.
The Bamboo Temple in Kunming
I wish someone had told me my hair looks like a pirate.
You can never go wrong with a picture of roofs in China.
Whats behind this door? Somebody's bathroom. Oops!
Old Kunming and new Kunming.
Dali has a well-groomed walled old city packed full of western restaurants and tacky tourist shops. Seems a bit lame, but for people who've spent six months in China's industrial cities, it was a welcome relief.
the gate to Dali really does feel like the gate to Disneyland.
Tacky tourist shops.
For tacky tourists!
Why was Captain Morgan wandering the streets of Dali? I'm still not quite sure.
We hit up the dance clubs of Dali, but alas, they all closed down by midnight.
A blunt little sign to find in a Chinese tourist nightclub.
Western food. We spent a small fortune on imitation enchiladas, pizzas and basically anything that claimed to have cheese. You would, too, after so many long cheeseless months.
Remember what I said about roofs?
This is the top of the wall around Dali. That lady right there is like "Crazy laowai."
Awwww.
Lacking funds for Dali's expensive nightspots, we spent all night at a coffee shop playing foozball and the plastic alligator game. Good times.
Lake Er Hai.
A woman washes her clothes in the lake.
A small Bai village near Er Hai lake. I ate the most amazing honey-filled flat bread here.
Our musty room at the "Friends Hostel", a faded glory kind of place where we didn't manage to find any friends, but did spend only a few bucks a night for our four-bed room.
Lijiang, another super touristy old city. Still, Lijiang had a lot going for it. There were old women in Naxi dress everywhere. The Naxi where, until very recent times, a matriarchal culture practicing pre-Buddhist traditions and using a pictographic script. Anyway, despite the crowds, this maze of narrow cobblestone alleys was a beautiful place to spend some time.
I think everyone is supposed to take their picture in front of the fake water wheels.
In an effort to stick to our "one western meal a city" plan, we ate jioazi and baozi that day (dumplings and steamed rolls.) They were amazing.
Really, really good jiaozi.
They sell candles you can float down the city's quaint canals.
So of course, we had to get one.
In Lijiang's dance clubs, we found a mix of tour guides, expats and, uhhhh, old Naxi men. Dancing in China is fun because everyone is so shy at first. But when we start inviting people to dance, they start getting into it and everyone has a good time. I think we really make people's day when we get them on the dance floor.
This dude was awesome. After they turned the music off, he entertained us with his dancing and gave everyone homemade ginger candy.
Naxi women walk down the street. I have never, ever, ever seen as many old ladies as I have in upper Yunnan. The towns are just bursting with old ladies in traditional dress.
Hey look, let's eat there! One bowl of Yibin Burning Noodles, please!
So they have these wooden bell things, where you write your wishes and they get tied up and make noise. Of course, we had to do it. Much safer than our earlier wish lantern adventure, for sure.
We decided to make our wishes is as many different languages as we could think of. My contribution is "Mi yiddi johongal boddum be sobaajo am", or "I want a good vacation with my friends."
The kitties at Mama Naxi's hostel. Mama Naxi's is great. It's in a big old courtyard house. Mama and Baba cook cheap and plentiful breakfast and lunch every day and treat you (and the masses of travellers that flock there) like family. They helped us arrange travel and even gave us a gift when we left. Good people and a great place to stay.
Puppy!
Didn't expect to find this in China!
We took a bike ride out to Baisha, a Naxi village about 12k away. It was an easy ride and it felt great to be out in the fresh air.
In Baisha we met the alledgedly famous Dr. Ho. It was a strange experience.
This old woman tried to force us to stay in her house.
After a quick flight on the alarmingly named "Lucky Air', we were in Xixuanbana, where our memories of the cold vanished in the tropical heat.
The food there is amazing. Even a simple bowl of noodles comes with a huge assortment of amazing pickled things that you can add to your own taste. Everything is fresh and sour and amazing.
This is a shack in the jungle. Not a shack on stilts over concrete in the middle of a huge city. I promise.
Okay, fine, it's a shack over concrete in the middle of a huge city. What a bizarre hostel.
The front desk. Awesomely tacky.
We took a bus down to Damenglong. it was a one-street town with nothing much to do, but featured the best street food I've had in China. I think we all kind of fell in love with that dusty city with sour food.
Hey, if you squint it kind of looks like Africa!
We wandered around, and came upon this small temple .
The architecture here is more like Southeast Asia than China.
The town discoteque is to the right. True to form, we danced it up. Unfortunately, it's a bit harder to get Dai villagers on the dance floor, though they were certainly amused by us.
We walked out to the big temple. It was a nice hour long walk through the countryside. One the way, we ate more amazing street food.
I think these give good luck.
The stairs to the white tower (I'm pretty convinced every monument in China is named "the white tower.")
This is what they put on all the posters for Xixuanbanna. It is pretty spectacular. And since it's way out there, we had the place to ourselves.
A smaller tower in the temple complex.
All of this was near the village of Man Fei Long. Note the Dai script above the Hanzi. Most of the signs in Xixuanbanna had writing in Dai, which is related to Laotian languages.
This is on the outskirts of a city that starts with "Meng". It's "Menglun", I think.
You put the lime in the coconut...
The strangler tree. It encases and eventually replaces its host.
The Botanical Gardens.
Xixuanbanna countryside.
We spent a night in the small Yao village of Yaoqu. As we walked around the village, these people invited us to share a meal of pig fat, pig blood and warm beer. We ate heartily and people from miles around came by to practice their English.
The elephant reserve. We stayed in a treehouse inside the reserve. We thought this sign was a joke, until we came upon wild elephants while trying to get to our rooms.
Worst pavilion ever.
Walking quickly, as we hear the ominous sounds of wild elephants just a few meters away. Near the end, the brave man escorting us had us running.
We wait a few minutes to see if the elephants have moved one. They hadn't really, but we got through anyway.
Finally safe on the elevated walkway, we enjoy a picnic lunch in the rainforest.
This is our treehouse. It's not as cool as the old tree houses, but it was a cozy way to spend the night. The stars at night were amazing, and we had a great time outside until we got spooked by monkey noises.
The infamous sleeper buses. Basically three rows of people in two layers lay in tiny beds. Actually, it was not too uncomfortable. We rode out as people celebrated New years. It was very surreal to be rolling through cities laying down, with fireworks going off in all directions around you.
This is the village of Yaoqu.
Kids playing with firecrackers for New Years.
Miria, the town English teacher's baby.
As we puzzled over when the bus from Yaoqu left, this woman came up to us and, in perfect English, invited us to wait in her home. She was the town English teacher. Her brother wasn't home to cook, so she took us to eat at her star student's house.
This is Angel, Miria, and Sally the English teacher. Angel's family fed us a feast of pork fat and sour vegetables in a traditional Yao house. Then came the fun part...
They brought out all their traditional clothes and had us try them on!
I'm not sure if the pink sneakers are traditional, but the gold track pants seem to be. Half the people where wearing them. This village was cool because a lot of people- not just old women- wore the traditional dress. Men tended to just wear the hat and camoflage.
A traditional Yao house- the kitchen is downstairs and people live upstairs.
Dai pineapple rice.
Weirdo.
