Had a two day regular weekend, but Ling was like hey you want to go to Jianshui? Sure why not.
Her sister works in a small town and lives here on the weekend, but my weekend is Wed and Thur. Needless to say we didn’t see her sister. The first leg is close to 3 hours and is Yuxi.
Good ol’ Yuxi. This city is the bigger city closest to us and has a university or two and apparently in the summer a few american’s, mostly Texans. I told her about this all you can eat buffet that JohnBo took me to. However after walking down the wrong street for a solid 40 minutes, we decided to eat HotPot.
Let me back up to a little hotel fun. When checking into a hotel as a foreigner, they are supposed to register your passport with the local police. This time though, I think the hotel actual was going to do it. I hopped on the back of the front desks scooter and away we went. Sat there for about 30 minutes while the police figured out what to do.
It was okay with me, got to see a Eiffel Tower lit up pretty and the cool breeze was exhilarating. Nice enough hotel though and from there we ended up walking pretty much near the police station…i was all umm i don’t remember the street with the buffet looking like this. Did see a great KTV Light wall show though. I’ll see if i can post it.
[youtube=http://youtu.be/mZhQ5cS8huA]HOT POT is a big bowl and a propane grill under it. Kind of like doing your own fondu/crawfish boil. The bowl is split into two sides… a hot red liquid and clear broth less spicy. You pick the food you want, and boil it till its cooked and then eat.
It’s quite fun and this one place had all you can eat and drink..up to 2 beers each. Great first experience with that. Even had hotpot local to my town and it was equally fun the second time around.
Oh and I ate some Bai food the other day. It is a minority group here, Yunnan has 26 ethnic groups. Han is the typical Chinese person and its the Han dialect that is universal.
My translator needs a translator for some of these people because even though they are speaking chinese, she can’t understand them. I guess it’s like a super country Scottish accent to an American…but not quite sure.
Now for the second leg of the trip…another 2 buses and 3hours later. Whew finally made it.
This was actually a fairly muslim town too. Lots of ladies with the hair covering. Temperature here was great BTW.
This place has a bridge called Shuanglong Bridge (Twin Dragons) and it was built back in the 1300-1400. Once we arrived there, it was more like a small bridge over a pond that you could just walk around but I’m guessing way back then the terrain was different. Still made for great photos.
The city and part we stayed in was very old and it had brick style streets and the old classic architecture. Even the hotel we picked had the old fashion intricate design doors but the room itself was updated and nice.
That night we were walking down a major shopping and hotel drag and saw a hotel that served american breakfast. Super pumped and we went the next morning only to find out we needed reservations made the day before. Bummed. And so we went to a bakery got a breakfast pizza type thing and tried to get real cappuccino at the hotel coffee bar but they didnt open until 10:30 am. Dang!
There was this HUGE red building with a nice bell on it. This was the fortress and view tower for this town. What a feeling standing on something that was around since 1600’s.
Next up was the Confucius temple. We spent so much time looking at the 3 arched bridge and these monstrous gold fish that i forgot there was more grounds and temples to see.
Because we had to catch a bus by 2:30 to arrive back home 6 hours later. Luckily, Even though i do enjoy looking at the art and statues and whatnot, I don’t have to stare at it for hours. Fun to see but they kind of look the same.. i know i know they aren’t. I look for the unique parts of them and look at that.
The plaques that describe the pavilions, i found out, have religious significance. 5 pillars with this height and this many arches etc all have religious and the power rankings of the person who commissioned them to be built.
The last part of the trip was to Swallow Cave. 1000’s of swallows go to the dark cave (that also has a stream in it) to live and mate.. of course not during the season i was there. Hey thats okay i dont need bird crap on me.
IF you like caves it was a great time. I loved the huge opening and the trees that grew out of the rock…breath taking. There was a suspension bridge high above the ground and I like walking on those…it didn’t sway enough to be honest.
The map of the place made it look like there was so much more to the park and so i kept telling Ling okay now lets find this and this… and finally I was like WAIT A SECOND, you mean …look at this picture.. oh crap, This looks a lot like the food and souvenir shop that was in the far back of the cave.
And look this is where the rocks had the Chinese multicolor lights shining on it and this is where the round stepping stones over the water were at… NOOO!!! Walking all over the place… Man on a Mission… all for naught 🙂 I got a good laugh at myself.
The first night (only night) we ate at a place that was filled with gorgeous dark stained wood and the food was delicious and easy to order. This town will get foreigners ( 2 other tables that night filled with older europeans) so the menu has some english on it and because it was on an iPad – pictures of each dish.
WOW now if more places had this i could really try some authentic dishes by myself.
