Friday, July 28, 2006

The '2-dollar' China Tour - Kunming

After our enjoyable Yangtze River Cruise, it was back on planes and busses as we headed to Kunming in the south of China. On arrival we were rather disappointed that the bus allocated to us was not up to the standard promised. It was smaller - that was OK, but quite uncomfortable. Considering that this part of the tour included long stretches of bus travel, it took some of the gloss off what, so far, had been a great China experience. But we bravely set our sights on positive attitudes on Kunming's main attraction, the Stone Forests, located a couple of hours drive from Kunming. That is tomorrow's plan.

On arrival in Kunming we once again were looked after with a Chinese meal and were entertained in the process:Barry is obviously very touched by this personal serenadeThe Stone Forests were not dissimilar to the 'Gardens of the gods' in Colorado Springs and were equally spectacular.We were driven around in little busses by ladies dressed in the traditional dress of the area:The natural sculptures are really very good and our local guide was keen to point out the various shapes identifying them for what she thought they looked like.The water features were really attractive and made for a most pleasant visit:During our visit, there was a photo session of models. Great opportunity to piggy-back and get some good photos.I particularly liked this little fellow. He was cute and suited the part very well:But ultimately, in my opinion of course, it is hard to go past the next model in such a delightful setting:On our return to Kunming we called into a museum which was quite interesting, and on the way saw this loaded bike carrying stuff around. Actually, there were other occasions with more substantial loads, but I missed taking photos of those:In the evening we had to opportunity to go to yet another show. We went to most and did not regret any of them as they were well presented and most entertaining. I couldn't take photos because the management somehow made it impossible to take photos. But, I sneaked in a couple and hope that the photos Pat took will be available to load up later.

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