Kunming

Be Careful Of The Taxi Scammers

We took a one hour flight from Guilin to the city of Kunming. After we got our luggage we headed out of the airport building. We saw a sign that was marked as the official taxi stand, and another one that said do not take any unofficial taxis. There were a line of taxis parked along a curb. As we made our way over to them a guy ran up to us saying he would take us to town. We assumed he was one of the illegal taxis, so we pointed to the line of taxis and asked which one his car was. He would not point to any and just kept on saying 40 yuan to town. We knew this was too high of a price and said no and kept walking. We approached the first car in the official line and asked how much to town. The driver did not speak English and just stared at us. He didn’t seem to have any interest in taking us. So we moved onto the next cab. By this time the guy who first approached us started yelling 30 yuan. We just ignored him. The next cab in line didn’t seem to want to take us either.

Soon we had a group of taxi drivers around us chatting and pointing at our bags. Then they opened the 2nd cabs trunk and started pointing to it and shaking their heads. It seemed they did not want to take us because they felt our bags would not fit in the trunk. We had two large bags and two small backpacks. We had always fit in a cab before. We motioned that the big bags could go in the trunk and the small ones could come in the cab with us. Still it seemed no one wanted to take us.

We just stood there in disbelief. We are at a airport of a major city and a taxi will not take us to town. At this point some official looking man in a uniform walked up and started pointing at the trunk, our bags and us. He started sternly saying something to the first cab driver as well as the rest of them. We don’t know what they were up to, but they seemed to be in trouble from this guy. Suddenly our two big bags were getting put into the trunk and the officer motioned for us to get in the back of the cab. We asked again how much and he just pointed to the meter inside the cab. Wow, a taxi that is actually going to use the meter. So in the end the cab ride that we were originally getting told prices of 40 and 30 yuan ended up costing only 12 yuan on the meter.

Surprised At How Western Kunming Is

Kunming is a large city with a population of 4 million and is at an elevation of 1900 meters. I think for us sea level living folks, this would be the highest elevation we have ever been at. We do believe we were feeling some effects from the elevation in the first couple of days here. We both had a slight feeling of general unwellness, dizzy and a bit nauseated at times. We could definitely feel the difference in our breathing if we were climbing up stairs or doing anything strenuous.

We were surprised at how big of a city Kunming was and how westernized it felt. Some parts of the city have really wide boulevards and reminded us of Singapore. The city seemed like any other big city in North America. Tons of shopping, skyscrapers, business people, etc. The traffic is a little crazy and typical of the rest of China though.

A 70 Yuan Price Difference Takes You From Grungy Hostel To High Quality Hotel Room

We got dropped off at the Camelia Hotel. It has both a hotel and a hostel. The reception first pointed us to the hostel. I left Jack with the bags and went to check it out. Some of the hostels we have stayed at have been quite nice. This one was not the case. It had dilapidated old rooms, the kind where you would be scared to touch anything. The carpets had stains all over them and it smelled horrible. A double room in the hostel was going to be 130 yuan.

I went back to the hotel part of the complex and asked to see a room there. The room I was shown was an double with bathroom and typical of a budget hotel in North America. It was 200 yuan. Maybe the 70 yuan difference is a lot of money for someone on a really tight budget, but we could hardly believe the difference between the two rooms. The cost per night was going to be a difference of $10 Canadian dollars for us, it was more than worth it. The cost also included one of the best buffet breakfasts we had anywhere in China. Eggs, fruit, toast, tea or coffee, etc.

Top Quality Laundry Service

We needed to do laundry again and our hotel room was not very conducive to doing it ourselves. We decided to use the hotels service. It was a bit pricey as far as prices go in China. For a couple grocery bags full it was a bit under $10 Canadian. We put the clothes into 2 bags. House cleaning came to our room to pick it up. We explained to the lady that one bag was okay to put in the washer and dryer, but the other one was not to be put in the dryer, hang dry only. She seemed to understand. We were really nervous. This would be the first time we had let someone do our laundry in China. We have always been afraid that communicating hang dry would be too difficult. We have a hard enough time trying to get clothes big enough to fit us in Asia, we can’t afford to have them shrunk!

Jack went down to the reception the next day and picked the laundry up. He brought the bag into the room and had a strange look on his face. I was full of anxiety, I was imagining all kinds of things that would be wrong with the clothes. He pulled them out of the bag and laid them on the bed. It was the most incredible laundry job we have ever seen. The Chinese really are the best launderers in the world. Each t-shirt had been immaculately pressed and folded around a piece of cardboard and then placed in a cello package. They looked like we had just purchased brand new clothes. The pants were also pressed and folded onto hangers and placed in bags as well. A pair of Jacks grubby cargo pants were hardly recognizable they were so clean and pressed to perfection.

Great Western Food In Kunming

We were soon out wandering the streets to check out the many places listed in the Lonely Planet that have western style food. We really needed to get something other than rice or noodles in us. The first thing we noticed while walking around is how many people have small dogs here. It seemed every second person was walking a pekinese, pug, or a little dog resembling a chihuahua. We also saw our first wrinkle dog , or Sharpei I think is the proper name. We are still waiting to see a Chow dog, which I think comes from China?

We had our first dinner at the City Cafe, which is not too far down the road from our hotel. The food was delicious. I had a curried rice and vegetable dish with chapati bread and Jack had a vegetable and tofu hotpot and side of rice. We really appreciate when we get some good food in China.

There are a lot of university students in Kunming. We spent one day wandering around the university grounds and the nearby lake. There are lots of great restaurants and cafes in this area too. The French Cafe is another great place for food. There’s a shop called Pauls that specializes in hard to get western items. We were in heaven when we walked into this place. They had stuff we had not seen in months. They had Campbell’s soups, organic cereals that we eat at home, western crackers, real butter, cup a noodles, kraft dinner, peanut butter, maple syrup, pancake mixes, granola bars, the list goes on and on. They also have a great selection of toiletry items from home as well. We got our big bag of goodies, hardly caring about the price. When we stopped to examine what we had, we worked out the pricing and it cost us about the same as it would have at home. Of course this amount was expensive as far as buying stuff in China goes.

Lots Of Shopping In Kunming

We had to laugh as we walked around this area and saw a DVD shop, which was obviously selling illegal copies. It was right next door to a police station! We found more great shopping in a huge pedestrian area with enough stores to keep you busy for days. There is a store called Carrefour. It is a huge two level department and food store, like a Walmart. They had anything you could possibly imagine from electronics to camping gear, clothing, a huge grocery store, you name it. The store has a flat escalator that takes you up to the 2nd level. You take your shopping cart up with you. There are powerful magnets that hold the wheels of the cart in place. In the center of the up and down escalator there is a trough filled with small impulse shopping items. How convenient you can even shop while you are moved from floor to floor.

There’s an upscale area of shopping that is nice to wander around. You enter into the area through a large arch. Once inside the shopping zone it is a pedestrian zone only. It makes for a nice break of getting away from the buzz of the traffic.

It’s interesting to walk around the older section of Kunming. It’s a bit dingy, but if you have the time there are some really neat shops to look at. It’s also a good place to just watch the everyday activity that goes on in the streets of Kunming.

Massage Only Please, No Foot Surgery!!!

One day later in the evening we had come back to our hotel after a lot of walking around. We decided to check out the massage place that was in the same building as the hostel associated with our hotel. We would both get a herbal bath foot massage. Jack had to go to the bathroom so ran back to the hotel room. I said I would get started with my massage and would see him in the massage room.

I was taken up to the 2nd floor of the building and put into a room with a group of chairs and foot stools. The girl brought a bucket of hot water and I placed my feet into it. After a a few minutes a guy came into the room, he said hello and crouched down at my feet. I assumed this is the person who is going to do my massage. Before I even knew what was happening this guy had a razor sharp tool at my big toenail. It looked like something you would do surgery with. I pulled my foot away and must have had a extreme look of shock on my face. He looked puzzled and grabbed my foot and tried to start slicing at my toenail again. I pulled away again and said no thank you. He was very persistent and went to grab another instrument from his little operation kit. This time it was some scary metal file, like you would grate cheese with. He motioned to start scraping at the side of my toe. I again said no and stated I just wanted a massage. He got very angry and started yelling at me in Chinese.

This got the attention off all the staff and soon the room was filled with people. One guy that came in spoke some English and asked what was wrong. I said I only want the massage. He pointed at a board on a table beside me and showed me that the manicure was only 20 yuan. I said no that is fine, only the massage please.

I have seen enough of this go on in the streets of China where people are sitting on stools while some guy has a metal object at their foot and blood is pouring out. Not to mention, you know none of these instruments have been sterilzed properly. The guy trying to amputate my big toe, kept saying manicure, good, good. Again I said no, the massage only please. The other man finally said okay and everyone started to exit the room. Jack showed up shortly after this and sat beside me. He could see I was a bit disturbed. I filled him in on the story. We both sat with our feet in hot water for a while and then the girls came in to do our massage.

The girls spent at least 5 more minutes trying to convince us to pay only 20 yuan more for a full body massage. We were definitely not going to experience this here. We had to keep insisting on the foot massage only. The staff here just won’t give up. The girls looked kind of like cheap prostitutes. They had a lot of makeup on and short little skirts and tights on their legs. Jack and I discussed later that he may have got more than a massage if he had gone to the private room for the full body treatment. While they massaged our feet they turned the t.v. on that was in the room and had it blaring at full volume.

They motioned to the remote for us to change channels. All we did was press the mute button. It seems there are very few situations here where quiet is appreciated.  The massage was not that good, we couldn’t wait to get out of there. On top of the crappy massage, the girls just sat there yapping to each other the whole time. They kept looking at one of us and then saying something. I rolled my eyes one time and looked at Jack. Then the one girl that could speak a bit of English, sputtered out do you speak Chinese? She was obviously concerned that we knew they were talking about us. I said a few words. The conversation between them now stopped and we got to sit in silence for the rest of the massage. We now had them guessing at what we could understand so they decided they better not talk at all.

More Strange Stuff In China

We witnessed some interesting stuff here while walking around the city. We noticed that some people like to walk around with a wad of kleenex hanging out of their nose. We are not sure what this is about. For the most part people did not stare as much at us here. Maybe they are used to seeing foreigners. We did however have a guy in a truck hold back an entire lane of traffic when the light had turned green at the intersection. He just sat there gawking at us as we waited to cross the street. Soon all the cars behind him were honking up a storm. He still paused for a few more seconds to take a look. We just don’t get it, do we really look that different?

We’re not sure what this group of ladies is doing. They were sitting in chairs on the sidewalk that was outside of a shop. They had a clip up in their noses that was attached to a small device sitting in their lap. It must be some kind of test they are having done.

At another major road we saw a girl sitting in a lane of traffic and her boyfriend standing beside her. Cars were swerving around her and honking, we could barely look as we thought she was going to get killed. It seemed her and the boyfriend had a fight and she plunked herself down and was refusing to move. He kept grabbing her arms and trying to pull her up, but she stayed firm. The most bizarre part of all this is only about 10 meters away two police officers were sitting and watching the whole incident along with everyone else. You would think they would get out of the car and make her move for her own safety and everyone else driving down the road!

Maybe this will be a big enough backpack to hold everything after we finish shopping!

We didn’t do much while we were in Kunming. It was just a time to catch up on laundry, get out to purchase some items we had run low on, and use it as a point to get to our next destination. One thing we read about that might be of interest here was a spot called the Stone Forest which is over 100km’s out of Kunming. It is a unique set of jagged rocks that come out of the ground. It seemed like a long way to go and from what we could tell it would be full of tour groups brought in by buses. So we chose to skip it.

Next stop the small town of Ancient Dali.

Transportation Options To And From Kunming