China, Kunming

From Beijing to Bangkok

Jan 5 - Jan 7 : Kunming

Since (almost) all restaurants we had been to had their menus in Chinese, we did the following. Either we showed our card with our favorite dishes written in Chinese, or we went in a restaurant, just took the menu and pointed at some dishes randomly. Sometimes we got great food, and sometimes we had the opportunity to take out our cameras and shoot a photo of some Unidentified Eating Objects. In Kunming (Yunnan province) I got 'addicted' to sugarcane.

It took 25 hours to go from Kunming to Menglao. We took the 24-hour sleeper bus, where in the middle of the night somewhere between the China-Laos border the clutch stopped working. There you are, in the middle of the jungle on a road that is barely 5 meters wide and a mile deep cliff to your left. In the meanwhile we had met Jentje (The Netherlands), Mark (Ireland) and Hannah (Australia), so we could share the fun. Ultimately, we could continue with some other people's help (even though our bus driver almost got killed in the process). On our way to the Laos border we stayed in Menglao and went for an evening at a KTV place (Karaoke TV/Chinese noraebang). The next day ealry in the morning we would cross the China-Laos border.

I was glad to have escaped the cold weather in China, but had by the time fallen in love with the country. I definately want to go back, preferably to work there (Shanghai) as an expat for at least a few years.