kunming and xingyi

We headed out on an overnight bus to Kunming, a bigger city. We were on a ‘sleeper bus’ and neither foo nor I knew what to expect. But what we got was funnier that anything I imagined. So in the sleeper bus, instead of seats there are three rows of beds across. And for three beds and two aisles to fit across the width of a bus, the beds have to be pretty small. So foo and I were on the top bunk, she was on the side and I was in the middle. And these beds are built for one child to sleep comfortably, or maybe a small Chinese woman, maximum height 5 feet tall, 90 lbs. they were really short and narrow and we had to use pillows and a blanket that who knows the last time they were washed. And this bus was over-night, but on buses in china they stop every two hours for a bathroom break. So during the whole night, every two hours we stopped and they turned on all the lights in the bus. so even if i could sleep, i'd wake up soon after. We got to Kunming in the morning and bought our next bus tickets to Dali, our actual destination. And in this bus, it turns out seat numbers don’t matter (sometimes they’re a really big deal though. I don’t get it) and foo sat next to this woman and her maybe 2 year old kid. Apparently they had good conversation. The woman told foo all about plants we were passing and about different stuff to see in the area. I sat in the very back row next to two women eating chicken feet out of a vacuum-sealed package. Eating chicken feet with little chicken toenails still attached, chewing with their mouths open. Awesome. But I think foo won the award for funniest bus ride when the woman with the kid next to her pulled the trash can in from the aisle and let her kid poop in it.

We finally got to Dali and saw the zillions of Chinese tourists there. turns out chinese people really like to join tour groups. and really like to vacation in their own country. and Dali is a really touristy town. it is an 'ancient city', and has walls all around it and really old buildings. it's been largely restored and is full of han chinese people pretending to be minority tribe people.
We found a room for cheap, like 45 yuan per night (the exchange rate is 6.8 yuan to 1 us dollar). And the family that runs that guest house was super super nice. We explored Dali for a couple days, didn’t end up actually doing any recommended tourist activites, but we ate lots of good food. The first night we ate at a little restaurant across the street from our hotel. The guy recommended these mushrooms and so we got them. And a couple other dishes. All of it was really good. Then the bill came and it was 56 yuan! Really expensive for what we got (but really only like $8). Turns out he recommended super expensive mushrooms. Oh the lessons we are learning in china. At least the food was good.

We headed to another city called lijang, which was even more touristy than Dali. It has an ‘old city’ which would be really neat if it were actually the way it was 50 or 100 years ago. But it’s full of people selling tacky souvenirs and a LOT of Chinese tourists. again, Chinese people take lots of organized tours to things in china. There’s plenty to see here, so it makes sense I guess that people would stay in their own country. So we stayed outside of the really crowded 'old city' at this hotel run by the nicest woman ever. We ate dinner in a little alley restaurant where everyone stared at us. Everyone always stares at us really, but extra in places like that. Since there’s no English menu, not many white folks go there. Lucky for me, I have a nancy foo who is a Chinese champion. So we get better food at cheaper prices. Usually, anyway. but often people think she's my tour guide. so they think i have tons of cash. oh if they only knew...
There is a park there called black dragon pool, which supposedly is the most photographed place around there. But we tried to go and the entrance fee is 80 yuan! That’s a lot of money to walk around a park. But after the park was officially closed, we happened wander by and people were going in and they weren’t stopping to pay an entrance fee. So we walked in too. And then some guy started yelling something, but we just kept walking at a normal pace and eventually he stopped yelling. So we got to explore the park. It was pretty nice. Not worth 80 yuan per person. We later found out that the park is open after hours for locals, and it’s free for them. Yessss! Way to save some money, Katie and nance. We went to a less touristy other ancient city the next day that was just a bus ride away. Ancient cities are kind of stupid. They were both just full of people in costumes selling junk souvenirs. It’s like six flags kind of.