July 12, 2010

Yunnan, Part 1

I'm currently on a plane in the middle of the Pacific. We're about 2.5 hours into the 8 hour flight from Tokyo to Vancouver, and I don't really feel like sleep is going to find me for at least a few more hours. So, in order to be productive (and possibly induce my fatigue a bit), I figured I'd put the time to good use and chronicle the Yunnan adventure. And being in the middle seat among the row of 10 people, I figure that the sleeping arrangements won't exactly work in my favour.

Arriving in Yunnan at the end of June was slightly bittersweet. I said goodbye to my kids on the 27th as the graduated and returned home for the summer. Some were on holidays for a few weeks before returning to the classroom to brush up on their English or other more difficult subjects, while some were off to more exotic locales to travel with their families. I had to return to my apartment to clean up the remaining remnants of my life in Daheishi so I could finish moving my stuff out to my new place in Kaifaqu. I was exhausted from too many late evenings and nights of restless sleep as I got moved, finished out my school year and prepared to come home to Canada for 6 weeks.

I got into Yunnan and was met by the warm rain in Kunming. Even though my friend Becca suggested about 6 places to check out around Kunming, I spent those first two days just roaming the streets, drinking delicious Yunnan coffee (finally, a place in China that actually has good quality coffee available, well, everywhere) and  relaxing. The rain also helped to zap my ambition and gave my recently purchased umbrella a good workout.

It was, however, a great vacation for meeting people.

After two quiet days, I was having some dinner and a pijiu as I waited for my train north. As I was doing this, I met a great girl from Minnesota ( I think I've already mentioned my new friend, Alyssa) who was heading north as well the next night. So, after a bit more talk, we planned to meet up in Lijiang and head to do the main event of my trip: Tiger Leaping Gorge. Off I went to the train station.

Typically on these Chinese trains, I am content to read my books, listen to my music and stare quietly out the window as the landscape zips by. However, I had some good luck and met two teachers from Heinan who were also taking a short post-year trip. Between their limited English and my extremely limited Chinese, the three of us talked all about our teaching years and about China and about plans for Yunnan. We ended up having quite the captive audience, as the people around our bunks tried to tune in to listen to the three of us chat. As I muddled my way through the chat (using, I think, every single Chinese word and phrase I knew), talked with the two men until lights out. Upon waking and arriving in Lijiang, they helped me find my way into town and pointed me to my hostel. Awesome.

I arrived at my new home for the next few nights: Mama Naxi's hostel, run by an older and extremely loud/funny Naxi woman who went by the name (as you may have guessed), Mama. She corralled me into the lobby, got my registration sorted and whisked me off to my room so I could shower and nap before exploring the town. It was still only about 9am, so I had lots of the day left.

After showering and getting some breakfast, I happened to meet another awesome Yank, Meaghan, who was planning to do the Gorge hike in the following days as well. So, after talking for about an hour, we decided to explore all that Lijiang had to offer and spent the day browsing the overly-touristy shops and markets and hitting up various restaurants and cafes to make sure I was well fuelled. She was waiting for a friend to arrive from San Fran, so in the meantime she was just hanging out. It also happened to be Canada Day, so I made it my mission to round up a few people to celebrate a little. It turns out there was only one other Canuck staying at our hostel... however, it didn't take long to grab a Scottish guy, an English dame, a Danish girl, two Swiss girls, an Aussie guy, a Polish woman and a couple of Americans to head out for a bit of a fun Canada Day in southern China. This consisted of hitting up an Irish Pub (sooo Canadian) and trying to force-feed our motley crew some Canadiana. I think I was more gung-ho than Lara, my TO counterpart, but I did manage to belt out the French lyrics to O Canada. Thanks, Joce (and Bert Joly?)... I'm pretty sure you taught us that in 4th or 5th grade!

To be continued...

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