Yunnan, China

Kunming 1/2

Day 1

Green Lake Park: Was raining when we arrived so went for some food and a walk round a local park built on a lake.

The hostel we stayed in is the most sociable yet so we spent a fair amount of time chilling here, playing pool & chatting to people.

I also thought I lost my glasses and tried to say to reception "I've lost my glasses" but instead I think I said "I'm lost. My eyes", they looked very confused 😭.

Day 2

Ancient Town: Not sure I'd recommend this, was very commercialised & very busy. The public toilets were also horrendous - wish I'd stayed off the coffee.

Ethnicities Village: This was more interesting than the Ancient town, it showcased typical village set ups of all 20+ ethnic minorities that live in the province. Was still a bit dry but we got to shoot a Mongolian cross bow.

Xishan Forest: Definitely the best thing we did on this day - we took a cable car to the top of the forest with views over Kunming and the Dianchi lake and then walked down past many cliff side temples.

Wild mushroom hotpot: For dinner we ate wild mushroom hot pot (famous in Yunnan) but didn't realise some of the mushrooms were poisonous unless fully cooked until after Nina had eaten some. Nina panicked and made herself throw up in the toilet 😆, luckily I was safe as only drank some broth.

Kunming 2/2

Day 3

Caves & Stone Forest: We cheaped out on this tour which we ended up regretting a bit - it was completely in Chinese and no one spoke any English (though 1/4 of the price of the English one).

Tour started with a shouting match between one of the old men and the tour guide, not sure what they were arguing about but left us a bit scared of the old man. After I (Nina) knocked over his bottle of Baijiu at lunch he took a liking to us and wouldn't leave us alone for the rest of the day until we ran away from the group at the stone forest.

Overall, bit of a weird experience but the scenery was cool & made it worthwhile. John's Chinese carried us.

Best cheap noodles: £3.4 for two bowls of noodles (steamed dry ones were 10/10), Yunnan fried potatoes (also 10/10) and a drink!!

Lijiang & Tiger Leaping Gorge

Day 5

We used Lijiang as a half way point to tiger leaping gorge so only spent a couple of nights here. Lijiang Old Town: We stayed on the edge of the ancient town so walked around whenever we were looking for something to eat during the stay. Very touristy and commercialised but pretty and we ate some good food including the best chicken noodles and wontons for breakfast and cross the bridge noodles (a Yunnan speciality) for dinner!

Day 6

Tiger Leaping Gorge 1/2: We hiked from Qiaotou up to our hostel (called Halfway House), for some of the best views we've seen! We chilled and had some drinks while watching the sunset over the Jade Dragon Snow Mountains. V good vibes.

Day 7

Tiger Leaping Gorge 2/2: The next day we hiked down to the gorge, which was more effort than we thought it would be, but again worth it to see the gorge close up! We also climbed the sky ladder on the way back up - the pics don't do this justice as was pretty sketchy at points 😅. 170 rungs, some pretty rusty on the edge of the Mountain.