China HK 2007: Kunming, Yunnan Province - China, cont.

Well, picking up where we left off, Kunming is more than just rock forests and cave stuff, it also has a city life as well.

Before I forget, I almost forgot to post this up last time:

Believe it or not, this is a large canopy cover for a gas station.
Pyramids in China? Now you know...

Okay, some city stuff:


Here's a park in the middle of the capital...

...One can practice swatting flies...

... Do some Tai-Chi, or what I like to call
"Asian Line-Dancing"...

... Or do ACTUAL Line-Dancing...


... And of course, wield weapons without people looking at
you funny.

I got lucky -- he only missed me by 6 inches. Whew!



Here some stuff in this open square, surrounded by shops
and stuff.


Even in a busy city, a man has time to play with his balls.
I can hear ya'll "groaning" on that one.

This innocuous-looking fast food stand should have
Col. Sanders worried. I call it KFC -
"Kunming Fried Chicken"



Ah, the requisite "I'm in a foreign land so I should take a
picture of the local McDonalds." There, are you happy!

Here's a "Meter-Man" writing parking tickets
for several cars. What you don't see is that
he needs to write tickets for 20 other cars
behind the yellow one. Now that's what I call
"job security."

Awww, a baby and his parents playing with a bunny...

... And the baby trying to see if he can strangle it. Now
THAT'S a Kodak moment!

See, more proof that the Chinese came up with McDonald's
first. Here are the original "Golden Arches."

I heard complaints last time that there weren't enough of
me in the pics I took, so to those fans, here ya go. Are
you not entertained!

Ah, heading to another touristy-spiritual stop. And above,
is another pic capturing the Chineses' flair for the English
language. What is a "Full Perice" anyway?


I'm not exactly sure what I'm doing, but the this is
supposed to be good luck, so since everyone else touched
it, eh...

I thought this was kinda neat. They installed this mirror
so they could make sure no one was living underneath
the bridge. However, it's a shear wall with a 1,000 ft.
drop below. Brings to meaning to the phrase
"Can I crash here."

Afterward, we can down of the hill, and walked the local
shops. Stone Buddhas for sale? I'm there!

Here are bored workers taking up an afternoon Master-
class of Mah-Jong. Beware the player in the red jacket...

All right, time for some embarrassing tourist participation!
We end up at this place that houses and sells this really
pricey tea, and to demonstrate the sipping technique
of one of them...

Yours truly was drafted in! Turns out, my father set me
up, and since I have to commit to the joke at this point,
I play along.

You're supposed to slurp it, then make some noises with
your lips before swallowing the hot liquid. Not as easy as
it sounds, I tell ya.

And yep, I did it!

And for being such a good sport, she gave me a little
trinket to remember this embarrassment by.

Here she's taking out this round pack of tea that's been
aged 25 years. In short, this thing is REALLY expensive,
but delicious, so I hear.

I know, it looks like bricks of Opium, but believe me, it's
all tea. Besides, the opium is packed in the other shop
across the building!

The next morning, we woke up early to head out to the
Kunming Airport.

Next up: Dali - come for the sights, stay for the cheese!

China HK 2007: Kunming, Yunnan Province - China

Wow, what can be said about Kunming that hasn't already been jotted down by Wikipedia?

Okay, where is it, you ask? Well, it's somewhere in the middle of China, and not quite near Tibet nor too low towards Beijing. Think, flyover-state, like a combination of Kansas, Tennessee and Nebraska. Believe me, it's on the map.

Anyhow, I'm gonna let the pics do the talking for awhile:

The view from our hotel room -- kinda like the skyline in Dallas.

We stayed right across from this giant convention center --
that no one seems to be using. It's 6 times larger than the
Staple Center, and just waiting to be filled, with, well, anybody.

This is the entrance to some caves we saw. It was kinda
like going to Yosemite -- if they turned it into an
amusement park.

Here are 4 female tour guides and their pimp. As you can
see, he means business.




This cave would stretch into the mountain a few miles or so.


We went into this thing called the Lion's Cave, 'cause the
rock in front of you looks like a Lion -- doesn't it?

They transformed the entire cave into a gift shop/kiosk.
Come for the beauty, stay for the knick-knacks.

And if you're lucky, you can buy...

Funny looking cigarette holders! Woo-Hoo!

With even more walking, the caves ended up looking a lot
like this:



Stalactites and stalagmites bathed in multi-colored lights.
As if Walt Disney stopped by and consulted on the deco.





Check it out! Can you see the sign in the bottom right corner?
And you thought the "Dark Knight" lived in Gotham City!

I'm not gonna lie. Everyone posed in front of this thing and
I didn't want to feel left out. Oh, the peer pressure!

This was the last 3 flights of stairs we needed to walk up
in order to get out of the caves. Although there were guys
lined up with sedans (basically, carrying your ass out) at the
bottom, most of us sucked it up and hit the pavement, er,
bamboo steps. I even helped out an old lady that was on
the tour with us. And I'm happy to report, she made it
through all 20 flights.

On the way back, we got to ride this ski lift back to the top
of the hill where our bus was (we will end up doing this
a lot at the other sights we go to).

Good thing I'm not afraid of heights -- much.

And the view was totally worth it.

As we were heading back, I saw that sign in the right hand
corner. It seems they're more worried about you dropping
garbage on the ground than YOU dropping on the ground.
Then again, it's a bitch to get the custodians down there!

Next Up: The Stone Forest

Literally made up of stones across a few acres, this place
TOTALLY ROCKED!

Check it out. Doesn't that rock look like a... here's a hint: it
goes "oink".

Now this was pretty cool. The guy is proposing to the girl
in one of the locals' ceremonies. The girl is supposed to refuse
a few times, so the guy has to keep pleading until she caves.
And with much persistence, she finally said yes, but not before
rushing into the bushes with the young man chasing after her.
Seriously, this part I am not making up. The happy couple
literally rode into the sunset -- their cars were parked a few
feet away.

I know, without the stones, it looks like the back 9 at Augusta.
However, it'd only be half true. The grass is actually, from
America -- imported Kentucky Bluegrass. Seriously,
I can't make this stuff up.



See that temple-looking thing at the top. We were gonna
once again hike up there...

... To capture this view.

Heck, I even took a tourist-pose with it.

All right, that's it for now.

Next up:

More of Kunming, the city itself...