YUNNAN

Yunnan is cold,
Yunnan is dry
Yunnan is the kind of place that your friends dare you to go in the winter.

Well friends, I did go to Yunnan. So dare accomplished.

I was writing a log of my activities in Yunnan from Dec 9-15. These pieces will be sparse, no flowery prose, just what Johan - my travel buddy - and I did:

Dec 9
- Nearly missed the bus to Shenzhen
- Scrambled around SZ airport looking for an ATM
- Flew from Shenzhen to Kunming
- A gracious taxi driver who couldn't spoke English found a translator on the side of the ride to translate our English into Mandarin so the driver could take us to the bus station.

Dec 10
- went on sleeper bus, 9 hr ride
- in sleeper bus, got upgraded to back so that means bigger space
-arrived in Lijiang at 5 am, slept on bus till 7 am
- looked for our hostel, Mama Naxi's Guesthouse.
- Checked in and had Naxi bread/friend rice for breakfast
- went to an impromptu birthday party at Monkey Bar, got free cake and wine
- "you floss? what are you? gay?"

Dec 11
- Johan got sick at 4am
- had to vacate the room, stayed outside in the cold for 4hrs until staff awoke to clean the room.
- spent day looking for phone card so I can call Vicki and home

Dec 12
- cycled to Baisha, ate at Cafe Buena Vista (yay for Lonely Planet Guides!)
- looked for famous temples, but to no avail

Dec 13
- hiked up Elephant Trunk Hill, more like a mountain
- Left Lijiang and took a four hour bus ride south to Dali. Left my journal at Mama Naxi's
- an english speaking girl shared a cab with us to our hostel
- was set on staying at the Jade Emu, but unknowingly stayed at the Jade Roo instead

Dec 14
- cycled to the Three Pagados
- bought a camping bag, went on the Great Wall of Dali and saw a group of old dancers that would make me look like Jennifer Lopez

Dec 15
- went on Cable cars, paid 100 RMB for a 1.5 hr trip in the canyons of Dali
- said good-bye to Johan as he's continuing down south
- sat beside a lady in red on the bus ride to Kunming, she offered me advice and food

go here to see the pictures:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=23701&id=333200597&l=8274e2646f