Budget: 450 Yuan/$75; Spent: 191.5 Yuan/$31.92
Patty here.
We both had a rough sleep last night thanks to the evil mosquitos from Kunming whom tormented us most the night. We arrived in Kunming late the night prior and were hoping to get a good night sleep before our full day of travelling the next day. Well, that did not happen… Our 8 bed mixed dorm was filled with many of the large and hungry mosquitos. Just as I lay my tired head down to sleep the loud buzzing of a mosquito met my ear and I jumped up like a ninja to turn the light on and find the little bastard. This turned out to be a common theme through the night. I killed him, and many of his friends, last night. It turned into a bloody battle between me and them. I think I lost, but not without taking at least 5 mosquitos’ lives. At one point, I became possessed. I jumped out of bed in my t-shirt and underwear and like a bat outta hell began swatting left and right at my foes. It didn’t even occur to me there was a guy sleeping in the bunk in front of me as I was on my knees probably at some point with my butt in the air as I initiated a full-fledged assault on the mosquitos. During this battle alone I killed 4. I was convinced I had killed the last of them… I was wrong. As I lay my head back down to sleep another mosquito began taunting me in my ear. I retreated, and decided I would rather suffocate under my comforter than be feasted on. I was completely under my covers for about ½ an hour where it was likely +35 degrees Celsius with little oxygen, but I refused to exit. I contemplated surrendering and the road to making a decision was a long and painful one, but I could no longer stand the lack of oxygen from under my covers. I was only allowing myself a few gasps of fresh air every couple of minutes from outside the covers. Finally, I had had enough and wrapped my comforter around my head. This position slowly evolved into only having my ear pressed against the pillow and the comforter over my other ear with my feet outside the blanket. This whole debacle went on for 2-3 hours. Let’s just say at the end of it all I was bruised and battered. After recounting my tale to Jeff, he said his night was much the same… How many mosquitos could there have possibly been in this room?! It was roofed and walled!! Anyways, that was our night of terror.
We got up at 7:30am and brushed our teeth. The washrooms at the hostel were mixed and communal and not so clean. We ended up brushing our teeth next to an interesting fellow. He was dressed in an orange inmate style outfit. He had long dirty blonde hair and while he brushed his teeth and washed his face he was singing to himself and kind of dancing. It looked like he had been travelling for years. Having a conversation with him would have no doubt been very interesting! After it was all said and done, the mosquitos alone were enough for us to cancel our next reservation at this hostel which was scheduled for a couple days later following our trip back to Kunming from Yuanyang. It was oddly the top choice in our lonely planet book and even quoted as saying “standards have never slipped”. Well since making this statement, it seems they have.
We had to make it to the bus station in Kunming before 10am to catch the 10:20 bus to Yuanyang. We were worried we wouldn’t get there in time and contemplated taking a taxi which would have cost us around $20. Our buses arrived just as we were about to bite the bullet and take a taxi. We ended up saving a lot of money and even met a very nice local who spoke English on the bus. She had studied English in South Africa for 5 years and she was highly recommending we go to Lijiang which is in the north of Yunnan province. There are several highly recommended stops around this town, including Shangri-la and Tiger Leaping Gorge. Unfortunately, when we were planning our China itinerary, we really thought it would be too cold to go all the way there, plus we were kind of short on time. Perhaps next time.
She ended up getting off at our stop and she kindly directed us to the bus station across the street. After dodging people spitting and coughing left and right (many people, hork and spit in China, something we are still trying to get used to!), we arrived at the bus station only to discover the 10:20am bus was full. We ended up buying tickets for the 12:30pm sleeper bus. This turned out to be an amazing experience. We ended up getting two beds right beside each other with a big window looking out at the landscapes of rural China. It was an experience right out of a movie, and one I will never forget. My head rested on Jeff’s chest with his arm around me, the fresh wind was blowing on our faces, as the sun began to set on rural China…. Amazing.
After an interesting trek up a mountain in our bus, we arrived in Xinjie, which is the older part of Yuanyang at around 8pm. We still had a ways to go to get to our hostel which is in Duoyishu. A nice couple from Tel-Aviv got off the bus with us and were staying at a hostel in the same area so we decided to find a taxi together. We ended up walking around for a bit trying our best not to get ripped off. You just never know what you’re paying for here. We had no idea how far we still had to go. We saw a sign saying 5 km to a hostel in Duoyishu, but the couples’ book said it was 25km away. A local couple in a minivan offered to take us there for 150 and they smiled before quoting this when they saw it was a ride for all four of us. This to me seemed like they were trying to take advantage of us. So we kept looking. A guy followed us down through a bridge and we ended up going with him for 100 Yuan total so 50 Yuan per couple. The trip up to Duoyishu took another ½ an hour about. We ended up having a nice conversation with the couple from Tel-Aviv who were just beginning their travels through China. They had been in India and Nepal previously so again they provided more useful tips on what to expect in India. Basically they said to not trust anybody trying to give you directions/telling you where to go in India. They are most often trying to lure you to a different tourist place. India definitely sounds like it’s going to be one crazy experience.
We got dropped off down the hill of our hostel and climbed back up to our hostel. The stars in the sky were unlike anything Jeff and I had seen before. There were literally millions of them. We’re basically staying in a little village on a mountain so there are little to no lights so the view of the sky is just amazing. I wish I could put into words what it looked like. Just seems like there are no pictures or words to describe it. It was overall a really nice day.
Tomorrow we have to get up at 6:30am to catch the sunrise on the rice terraces. Hope it’s a nice clear day to take some nice pictures.
Bye for now,
Patty
No comments:
Post a Comment