Pleasantly Dull

Sara has very kindly brought me twixes from the UK. Real snacks! In fact the Chinese are so unfamiliar with chocolate biscuits they'd been into Sara's bag, without her knowing, and snipped off a corner of the packet to see what was inside...

So after a night train Becka and I finally arrived in Kunming. I've been here 3 days bow and am slowly forming an impression of the city. The first is that the bus system is fiendishly secretive. The bus stops give little to no information on when or where he are going whihnis rather annoying... Secondly is that Kunming has more westerners than Qingdao and consequently some rather nice cafes and even a Spanish restaurant with a guy from Barcelona. Thirdly is that Kunming does rather live up to it's reputation as the Spring City as there are lots of leafy avenues and parks. The whole city is rather pleasant. Because of the large numbers of electric mopeds it is quieter than normal. The buildings are not too big, the roads not too wide. So in short it is rather boring. Pleasant, but boring.

Becka has returned to the UK a little earlier than planned as her homesickness became too much and she fled China before Dawn yesterday. She will miss Chinese New Year but neither of us know if this is a bad thing or not as we have no idea what new year celebration involves. From the piles of fireworks being sold at the side of the road I predict a lot of very loud bangs...

Sara has now joined me from Spain. I am very happy:D

Today we went to see Kunming's lake, 滇池, Dianchi Lake. It is rather large and we had a pleasant time walking by the side through a rather manicured park. In Kunming at he moment are hundreds of seagulls who have come to winter here. The Chinese love buying bread to feed them. It's quite something to see a speedboat racing across the water pursued by a swarm of screaming birds, all flapping hysterically to keep up.

Sara and I were sat watching some old men playing croquet when they started wachin us and buying each other. Eventually they plucked up the courage and asked if we were twins. I was impressed as normally they think westerners all look alike anyway.

Sara is impressed I can speak Chinese :D

Kunming seems to specialise in 米线, mi xian, which is rice noodles on soup. Not my favourite but it's hard to find anything else...

I miss Dongbei cai (northeast food). I miss exciting Qingdao...