More about Kunming

Aurelien has already started talking about Kunming. I want to add that it's really a very nice city. We spent there only three days, I would have loved to stay there longer...
One of these days we spent at Xi Shan (West Mountain), visited temples there and Dragon Gate (with its grottoes, pavilions). To get down we took a cable car, which was fun.
On Monday we had our visas for Vietnam and we started forJinghong, Xishuangbanna Region taking a sleeper bus.


We were in Jinghong in the morning, had our breakfast and found a hotel - 30 yuan one night (3 euros). It was very hot there, I had to buy sandals (which cost me 3 euros). I was enjoying fresh juices there, for a siberian girl it was a paradise! Banana, mango shakes, pineapple,dragon fruit, passion fruit juices. !!
One day we rent bicycles and went to Ganlanba, 28km away from Jinghong. After 3 hours of cycling around we finally found the road. Except for cars, buses, big trucks passing by, we were really enjoying the ride along the Mekong River, making stops to take pictures, eat and try fresh pineapple. For the first time in my life I saw how pineapples grow!


We were quite tired when we arrived to Ganlanba. Knowing that we can sleep and eat in a Dai Minority Park, we went there. It's a nice place but is not worth paying 50 yuan. After a short visit, we found a place to sleep – a traditional Dai house (which was not easy, as you don't see many people around, and those whom you see are not willing to talk so much).

We left the place as early as we could. We got back to Jinghong, had a good shower and went to discover local specialities, which were pineapple stuffed with rice, banana leaves, etc.

The other day we were leaving for Mengzi (16hours bus ride, terrible roads, bad sleep), hoping to take a bus there to Hekou, chinese city on the border with Vietnam. We were in Mengzi at 6 in the morning. The bus driver found a «taxi» for us in no time, and soon we were sharing it with 2 chinese, thinking that we were almost in Hekou.
(Unfortunately, I don't have a better picture of our taxi. But it gives an idea of what it was.)
When the taxi stopped, the chinese suggested to have breakfast ( a big bowl of noodle soup), after what he showed us where the bus station was. That's when we realised that we were still far from Hekou. "No buses to Hekou, you have to wait", - said a woman in the ticket-office. But for how long, she couldn't tell. We had no choice but having a seat and getting ready to wait for hours. In 15 minutes the chinese guy came to pick us up, he had found a car which would take us to Hekou (100yuan for two persons). Of course, we were happy that he helped us and that we would be in Hekou in about 2 hours (I saw that we were 160km away from Hekou). We were in Hekou 4 hours later, feeling no part of our body, having a head-ache and exhausted!!!

It was so hot there! We decided to cross the border first, as it closes at 4p.m. Chinese boys-customs were happy to see foreigners (they must have been really quite bored there). They checked every single visa in my passport, and didn't recognise Georgia's visa. I said it was visa for Georgia, but they couldn't understand the name of the country. It was funny but we were too tired to have fun with them.
An hour later, we were finally crossing the chinese-vietnamese border on foot. It feels so strange to find yourself in another country with a completely different architecture, language, money and one hour back in time just in 2-3 minutes. You just have to cross the bridge, it sounds so simple.
It was the end of our Chinese adventures. And Vietnamese adventures were waiting for us... The first was .......Vietnamese New Year....... Chuc Mung Nam Moi!!!