The Stone Forest, French tourists, chats with random travellers (updated)
See some photos of the Stone Forest here. To be honest, the Stone Forest was interesting but it wasn't fascinating. Have a look at the photos though because they're really nice!
I guess some people like bamboo and others like stones :) Maybe volanic rock isn't my thing. It wasn't exactly a stone forest. I would have described it as a large park with big rocks. All I could think about as I wandered around was how annoyed I used to be when I was younger and dad made me mow the lawn and little stones would fly up at me from under the mower. Looking at those giant rocks, I was thinking: "Gosh I would hate to mow that lawn".
I hopped on a bus prepared by the hotel. Everyone else on the bus appeared to be French. I used to think French people were friendly and nice but this latest trip, I have met so many French people and apart from the nice guy in Leshan, all have been cool, aloof snobs. They don't even talk to each other. When Aussies meet Americans, English people, Canadians, Dutch people etc everyone is chattering away in English in a very friendly fashion but French people look at one another and then keep to themselves. They do the same to me for the most part.
I was put at the back of the minibus, sitting above the back wheel and I was soooooo uncomfortable. I was also sitting next to two very unfriendly, unsmiling French people. The roof was really low, it was a full bus and I started feeling a bit stuffy and claustrophobic. I climbed out of the bus after 5minutes and said to the driver if there was room in the other bus, I wanted to sit in the front of the bus because I felt a bit nauseous. He let me sit there, but the problem was, then a couple came along and wanted to be on the same bus and he was saying: "You're travelling on your own, the best place for you to sit is the back of that bus!" I refused to budge and then eventually they found the only other solo traveller and the only other non-French person out of the 20 people on the buses and she came and sat in the front of the bus I was in as well. She was Japanese and very nice and friendly although she didn't speak much English.
It was a 2.5 hour drive to the Stone Forest and instead of paying RMB80, I paid RMB55 because even though my current student card expired 2 days ago, most people don't read it very carefully and so they still let me have a discount. I'll get a new card in September but for the time being I'm relying on an expired card.
At the park, there were a lot of tourists there, mostly Chinese and I fought my way past the hordes and stared around. The landscape is really strange-looking. It's not beautiful - more like something from another world. With fire, Peter Jackson could have used it for his Mordor for Lord of the Rings. The problem was, they give you four hours and you can pretty much see it in 2 hours and then you die from the heat :)
I ambled along, taking shelter in the shade from time to time and pausing at explanatory signs, not really for their explanations but just because I like the bilingual signs because I can pick up new vocabulary like: "lava" and "evolution". There were some pretty funny reactions to me standing in front of the signs with a dictionary though. One woman dragged her son up and said: "LOOK!!!!! See SOME people are interested in learning and studying. They are even looking up the dictionary." I didn't have the heart to tell her that I have no interest in volcanic rocks and was just trying to get new vocabulary. A Chinese man walked past and said in a loud, rude voice: "Why the hell would anyone need to look up a dictionary?" :)
Apparently the area of the Stone Forest used to be under the sea a long long time ago. Also wandering around were women dressed in the 'traditional' costumes of the Sani tribe. These women were acting as tour guides and posing for photos. Somehow I doubt Sani colours included flourescent pink and glittery sequins .... I was more interested in looking at the old women who were picking up the rubbish. They also wore traditional costumes but they were in more muted colours, the cloth was woven and embroidered and they wore box-like embroidered hats on their heads.
I killed time for an hour and a half by sitting in a pavilion watching a Chinese family playing with their kid and trying to pick up words in Sichuan/Yunnan dialect. Jeejee is older sister - jiejie in Mandarin. Small is 'siu', just like in Cantonese, they also say 'leui' for girl, just like Hong Kong Chinese. It was quite interesting. Chinese tourists bring lots and lots of plastic bags with them. The bags are almost exploding with food and drink. All kinds of fruit, vegetables, snacks and things I have no way of identifying. Each person is carrying about 6 bags. There was a really adorable little Chinese girl - about 2 dressed in a pink fairy costume with a tutu. Her family let her play with a sharp knife though which is just scary!
I've noticed one funny thing about Chinese men. Aside from the businessmen who wear suits, they all seem to wear pants that look as if they are part of a suit from which the jacket has gone missing. They all wear a belt with an incredibly ugly and incredibly large rectangular, boxy metal buckle with something carved onto it. Most of them also have a leather case clipped to their belt - inside being their mobile phone. It's like a uniform.
Then I walked back to the bus. I saw a group of Sani people in costume and carrying instruments dancing. At first I was the only person watching them but then a group of Chinese people noticed, came running over, trampled me and pushed me out of the way. It was all right though as I had managed to watch for a couple of minutes on my own anyway :)
I got back to the bus and chatted for a bit with the friendly Japanese girl. The 18 French people (all couples) and stood around ignoring each other and me. One couple had a little toddler with them - perhaps only one or two with the palest, iciest blue eyes. Europeans are so brave - bringing their babies with them travelling through China. It's a very tough place and with kids its harder but I see them with their very high tech, modern baby carriers which double as backpacks and look like they should have rocket packs in them.
A marked contrast to Chinese people who usually just carry their babies in their arms or the Sani who get what looks like a giant pillow case, tie it to their back and put their baby inside in the front of the back. It looks very uncomfortable but very pretty and the babies don't seem to mind. In Sichuan I saw them carrying their babies in little woven baskets tied to their backs :)
When I got back to Kunming, I decided to pop to the City Cafe for a bite to eat. I had meant to just be brief but then there was an oldish couple sitting there who started to talk to me. They were two Aussies from Coffs Harbour - Liz and Paul. They had signed up for an agency who sent them Chongqing of all places. He was teaching accounting, she was teaching English. She has an incredibly strong Scottish accent so I have a beautiful vision of Chongqing Chinese people speaking English with a strong Scottish accent. They had lots of questions, were really chatty and were travelling through China because Chongqing is intensely hot and they want to escape. They like China a lot but told me not to bother to visit Chongqing because it's just a big dirty old city. I'll probably see them in Dali because they head out for Dali tomorrow as well although a different bus to me.
Then they left and an English guy sat down and wanted to talk. He was intending to go travelling for 1-2 years! He had travelled to China overland from England, had come through the Middle East, Egypt and was now in China. We chatted for a long time about the IRA's release last night in which they said they were putting an end to the use of violence and were going to pursue purely peaceful means. He said there was no way that was going to happen and he was soooooo anti-Northern Ireland. He said he had no patience for the Americans being so shocked about terrorism now when the English had lived with terrorism for years and years and were still living with it. I found out why he was so anti-Irish, he was in the English military and had been stationed in Northern Ireland for 5 months.
He has an interesting point though, Gerry Adams is a known terrorist although they never call him a terrorist. He says English people get upset when they saw Gerry Adams being invited to the White House and saw American Irish donating money to the IRA - they're basically pouring money into a terrorist organisation etc. I don't really know much about Irish/English history so just listened. Eventually he had to leave and I was preparing to leave too but then a really friendly young couple sat down and asked me a few questions and I answered. I had thought they were French because they spoke to each other in French but did think it was strange given that they were very warm and friendly.
It turned out that they were Belgian and were very good-humoured about being mistaken for French all the time. They didn't like the French at all and started talking about how snobby and proud the French were :) Then an English man sat down and asked me if I was Australian. He was 3 days into a one month holiday and he didn't like the French and was relieved when he found out that the couple was Belgian. It was a bit funny. I decided to leave because I had already been sitting there for several hours and at this rate I was never going to leave and I really wanted to try out the apple pie at Mama Fu's which I heard was really nice.
The apple pie was really nice. The best I've had in a long time although I am sooooooo full right now it's not funny :) Tomorrow I have a 10.30am bus for Dali. The hotel has arranged for a bus to pick me up at 9.40am to take me to the bus station and then to Dali. I really am on the Westerner tour path right now - EVERY single Western tourist does the Kunming, Dali, Lijiang route so the buses shuttle tourists back and forth like clockwork. It's quite comforting though, I was ok when I was all on my own in the more remote parts of China but it's nice to be on a more well-trodden path for a bit :)
Papa Koala just sent me the most hilarious article in Chinese about Chinese toilets. Apparently the Chinese have tweaked onto the revulsion and horror with which Chinese toilets are regarded by Westerners and they even have an extract from the 《孤独星球》 (Gu Du Xing Qiu) - that would be Lonely Planet in Chinese. When I get back to Beijing I'll translate the article, it's very funny. I started laughing aloud although I'm surrounded by aloof French people so they didn't turn around :D
I have heard Richard Clayderman's Ballade Pour Adeline more times than you can imagine. There's currently a pianist in the lounge of the hotel who is really bad. He or she is missing notes all the time but as he or she is playing covers of Chinese pop songs, perhaps no one except me notices ;) He/she just misplayed 3 more notes while I was typing this paragraph alone! Perhaps it's the manager's daughter..... He/she is doing a really good job of massacring some of my favourite Chinese songs - Caged Bird, Fairy Tale etc
I think my time is pretty much up so I'm off. That being said, the staff at the hotel business centre are nice. Last night the woman let me have an extra half hour of net time for free and my time is up but the woman today is letting me continue - probably because I helped her translate a sign into English "The water pipe cannot be used as it is broken and is currently under repair. Thank you for your understanding" :)
PS: I mentioned yesterday that Kunming has signs up that say: "Kunming City Civilised Cleanliness - Seven Do Nots".
1. Do not spit all over the place
2. Do not throw fruit peel, paper scraps and cigarette butts all over the place (cigarette butt is cigarette 'head' in Chinese - exactly the opposite end of the body!)
3. Do not pollute the waterways with rubbish
4. Do not graffiti
5. Do not dry clothes along the street
6. Do not urinate or defecate all over the place
7. Do not speak foul or obscene words.
Too funny.
PPS: It was inevitable. Piano player is now playing Fuer Elise ....
PPPS: An Aussie girl just walked in and called home and she keeps having to explain to her family: "I am in Yunnan which is in South China".
PPPPS: Everyone keeps making me feel bad because I haven't been to two "must visits" in Sichuan being Emei Shan and Jiu Zhai Gou - a sort of wilderness national park in far northern Sichuan. The thing was, my path in Sichuan was a determined southerly direction.
I guess some people like bamboo and others like stones :) Maybe volanic rock isn't my thing. It wasn't exactly a stone forest. I would have described it as a large park with big rocks. All I could think about as I wandered around was how annoyed I used to be when I was younger and dad made me mow the lawn and little stones would fly up at me from under the mower. Looking at those giant rocks, I was thinking: "Gosh I would hate to mow that lawn".
I hopped on a bus prepared by the hotel. Everyone else on the bus appeared to be French. I used to think French people were friendly and nice but this latest trip, I have met so many French people and apart from the nice guy in Leshan, all have been cool, aloof snobs. They don't even talk to each other. When Aussies meet Americans, English people, Canadians, Dutch people etc everyone is chattering away in English in a very friendly fashion but French people look at one another and then keep to themselves. They do the same to me for the most part.
I was put at the back of the minibus, sitting above the back wheel and I was soooooo uncomfortable. I was also sitting next to two very unfriendly, unsmiling French people. The roof was really low, it was a full bus and I started feeling a bit stuffy and claustrophobic. I climbed out of the bus after 5minutes and said to the driver if there was room in the other bus, I wanted to sit in the front of the bus because I felt a bit nauseous. He let me sit there, but the problem was, then a couple came along and wanted to be on the same bus and he was saying: "You're travelling on your own, the best place for you to sit is the back of that bus!" I refused to budge and then eventually they found the only other solo traveller and the only other non-French person out of the 20 people on the buses and she came and sat in the front of the bus I was in as well. She was Japanese and very nice and friendly although she didn't speak much English.
It was a 2.5 hour drive to the Stone Forest and instead of paying RMB80, I paid RMB55 because even though my current student card expired 2 days ago, most people don't read it very carefully and so they still let me have a discount. I'll get a new card in September but for the time being I'm relying on an expired card.
At the park, there were a lot of tourists there, mostly Chinese and I fought my way past the hordes and stared around. The landscape is really strange-looking. It's not beautiful - more like something from another world. With fire, Peter Jackson could have used it for his Mordor for Lord of the Rings. The problem was, they give you four hours and you can pretty much see it in 2 hours and then you die from the heat :)
I ambled along, taking shelter in the shade from time to time and pausing at explanatory signs, not really for their explanations but just because I like the bilingual signs because I can pick up new vocabulary like: "lava" and "evolution". There were some pretty funny reactions to me standing in front of the signs with a dictionary though. One woman dragged her son up and said: "LOOK!!!!! See SOME people are interested in learning and studying. They are even looking up the dictionary." I didn't have the heart to tell her that I have no interest in volcanic rocks and was just trying to get new vocabulary. A Chinese man walked past and said in a loud, rude voice: "Why the hell would anyone need to look up a dictionary?" :)
Apparently the area of the Stone Forest used to be under the sea a long long time ago. Also wandering around were women dressed in the 'traditional' costumes of the Sani tribe. These women were acting as tour guides and posing for photos. Somehow I doubt Sani colours included flourescent pink and glittery sequins .... I was more interested in looking at the old women who were picking up the rubbish. They also wore traditional costumes but they were in more muted colours, the cloth was woven and embroidered and they wore box-like embroidered hats on their heads.
I killed time for an hour and a half by sitting in a pavilion watching a Chinese family playing with their kid and trying to pick up words in Sichuan/Yunnan dialect. Jeejee is older sister - jiejie in Mandarin. Small is 'siu', just like in Cantonese, they also say 'leui' for girl, just like Hong Kong Chinese. It was quite interesting. Chinese tourists bring lots and lots of plastic bags with them. The bags are almost exploding with food and drink. All kinds of fruit, vegetables, snacks and things I have no way of identifying. Each person is carrying about 6 bags. There was a really adorable little Chinese girl - about 2 dressed in a pink fairy costume with a tutu. Her family let her play with a sharp knife though which is just scary!
I've noticed one funny thing about Chinese men. Aside from the businessmen who wear suits, they all seem to wear pants that look as if they are part of a suit from which the jacket has gone missing. They all wear a belt with an incredibly ugly and incredibly large rectangular, boxy metal buckle with something carved onto it. Most of them also have a leather case clipped to their belt - inside being their mobile phone. It's like a uniform.
Then I walked back to the bus. I saw a group of Sani people in costume and carrying instruments dancing. At first I was the only person watching them but then a group of Chinese people noticed, came running over, trampled me and pushed me out of the way. It was all right though as I had managed to watch for a couple of minutes on my own anyway :)
I got back to the bus and chatted for a bit with the friendly Japanese girl. The 18 French people (all couples) and stood around ignoring each other and me. One couple had a little toddler with them - perhaps only one or two with the palest, iciest blue eyes. Europeans are so brave - bringing their babies with them travelling through China. It's a very tough place and with kids its harder but I see them with their very high tech, modern baby carriers which double as backpacks and look like they should have rocket packs in them.
A marked contrast to Chinese people who usually just carry their babies in their arms or the Sani who get what looks like a giant pillow case, tie it to their back and put their baby inside in the front of the back. It looks very uncomfortable but very pretty and the babies don't seem to mind. In Sichuan I saw them carrying their babies in little woven baskets tied to their backs :)
When I got back to Kunming, I decided to pop to the City Cafe for a bite to eat. I had meant to just be brief but then there was an oldish couple sitting there who started to talk to me. They were two Aussies from Coffs Harbour - Liz and Paul. They had signed up for an agency who sent them Chongqing of all places. He was teaching accounting, she was teaching English. She has an incredibly strong Scottish accent so I have a beautiful vision of Chongqing Chinese people speaking English with a strong Scottish accent. They had lots of questions, were really chatty and were travelling through China because Chongqing is intensely hot and they want to escape. They like China a lot but told me not to bother to visit Chongqing because it's just a big dirty old city. I'll probably see them in Dali because they head out for Dali tomorrow as well although a different bus to me.
Then they left and an English guy sat down and wanted to talk. He was intending to go travelling for 1-2 years! He had travelled to China overland from England, had come through the Middle East, Egypt and was now in China. We chatted for a long time about the IRA's release last night in which they said they were putting an end to the use of violence and were going to pursue purely peaceful means. He said there was no way that was going to happen and he was soooooo anti-Northern Ireland. He said he had no patience for the Americans being so shocked about terrorism now when the English had lived with terrorism for years and years and were still living with it. I found out why he was so anti-Irish, he was in the English military and had been stationed in Northern Ireland for 5 months.
He has an interesting point though, Gerry Adams is a known terrorist although they never call him a terrorist. He says English people get upset when they saw Gerry Adams being invited to the White House and saw American Irish donating money to the IRA - they're basically pouring money into a terrorist organisation etc. I don't really know much about Irish/English history so just listened. Eventually he had to leave and I was preparing to leave too but then a really friendly young couple sat down and asked me a few questions and I answered. I had thought they were French because they spoke to each other in French but did think it was strange given that they were very warm and friendly.
It turned out that they were Belgian and were very good-humoured about being mistaken for French all the time. They didn't like the French at all and started talking about how snobby and proud the French were :) Then an English man sat down and asked me if I was Australian. He was 3 days into a one month holiday and he didn't like the French and was relieved when he found out that the couple was Belgian. It was a bit funny. I decided to leave because I had already been sitting there for several hours and at this rate I was never going to leave and I really wanted to try out the apple pie at Mama Fu's which I heard was really nice.
The apple pie was really nice. The best I've had in a long time although I am sooooooo full right now it's not funny :) Tomorrow I have a 10.30am bus for Dali. The hotel has arranged for a bus to pick me up at 9.40am to take me to the bus station and then to Dali. I really am on the Westerner tour path right now - EVERY single Western tourist does the Kunming, Dali, Lijiang route so the buses shuttle tourists back and forth like clockwork. It's quite comforting though, I was ok when I was all on my own in the more remote parts of China but it's nice to be on a more well-trodden path for a bit :)
Papa Koala just sent me the most hilarious article in Chinese about Chinese toilets. Apparently the Chinese have tweaked onto the revulsion and horror with which Chinese toilets are regarded by Westerners and they even have an extract from the 《孤独星球》 (Gu Du Xing Qiu) - that would be Lonely Planet in Chinese. When I get back to Beijing I'll translate the article, it's very funny. I started laughing aloud although I'm surrounded by aloof French people so they didn't turn around :D
I have heard Richard Clayderman's Ballade Pour Adeline more times than you can imagine. There's currently a pianist in the lounge of the hotel who is really bad. He or she is missing notes all the time but as he or she is playing covers of Chinese pop songs, perhaps no one except me notices ;) He/she just misplayed 3 more notes while I was typing this paragraph alone! Perhaps it's the manager's daughter..... He/she is doing a really good job of massacring some of my favourite Chinese songs - Caged Bird, Fairy Tale etc
I think my time is pretty much up so I'm off. That being said, the staff at the hotel business centre are nice. Last night the woman let me have an extra half hour of net time for free and my time is up but the woman today is letting me continue - probably because I helped her translate a sign into English "The water pipe cannot be used as it is broken and is currently under repair. Thank you for your understanding" :)
PS: I mentioned yesterday that Kunming has signs up that say: "Kunming City Civilised Cleanliness - Seven Do Nots".
1. Do not spit all over the place
2. Do not throw fruit peel, paper scraps and cigarette butts all over the place (cigarette butt is cigarette 'head' in Chinese - exactly the opposite end of the body!)
3. Do not pollute the waterways with rubbish
4. Do not graffiti
5. Do not dry clothes along the street
6. Do not urinate or defecate all over the place
7. Do not speak foul or obscene words.
Too funny.
PPS: It was inevitable. Piano player is now playing Fuer Elise ....
PPPS: An Aussie girl just walked in and called home and she keeps having to explain to her family: "I am in Yunnan which is in South China".
PPPPS: Everyone keeps making me feel bad because I haven't been to two "must visits" in Sichuan being Emei Shan and Jiu Zhai Gou - a sort of wilderness national park in far northern Sichuan. The thing was, my path in Sichuan was a determined southerly direction.