DATELINE: Kunming, China
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Author: Lauren Cohen
I'm not sure what to make of Kunming. My experience here has been different than in any other city because I chose to stay in a hotel rather than a hostel. The difference in atmosphere is significant: instead of a relaxing bar or courtyard, there's a swank lobby lounge with a grand piano. Instead of a casual cafe, there's an overpriced buffet at the "revolving restaurant" on the 23rd floor. Above all I've noticed that nobody staying here seems to be my age. When I did my requisite "first night get the lay of the land" walk, I was dismayed to find that all that seems to be around here are other hotels. Feeling sort of bummed out and lonely, especially because I had left behind lots of fun in Dali, I watched Tommy Boy on HBO and turned in early. Today I planned to venture out to the Bamboo Temple, because I wanted to see the sculptures. They are supposed to range from realism to caricature to hyper-realism to surrealism, and apparently the sculptor responsible disappeared after completing it because he offended people's sensibilities. I thought I was all slick because I had the hotel concierge write down the name of where I wanted to go in Chinese. I hailed a cab and gave him the piece of paper. The cabbie began yelling at me in Chinese and gesturing wildly with his hands. I stammered back that I didn't understand and he continued his rant. Finally I just said "OK," and he started driving. It turned out that what he was yelling was something along the lines of, " I don't want to drive to the Bamboo Temple, so I'm going to take you to the Western Hills instead." I decided to roll with it. I took the cable car up and enjoyed the view. Of course there were vendors, and I grabbed an ice cream bar with an ear of corn on the wrapper. It was sort of like a wafer cone in the shape of an ear of corn, with corn flavored ice cream in the middle. Very odd, but not entirely un-delicious. I saw a restaurant with picures outside that looked like a Yunnan speciality called Over the Bridge noodles. It's a soup broth with a thin layer of oil over it, served with a bunch of raw meats, cilantro, chives, egg, and noodles. You dump everything into the broth and it cooks. Pretty good, but not as good as Pho. I asked the taxi driver to take me not back to my hotel, but to the address of a bar recommended in Lonely Planet. The place wasn't anything special, but there were comfy seats for a beer and some reading (I feel like these blogs are making me seem like an alcoholic). I walked around that area and on the campus of Yunnan University. It was only when I decided to take a cab back to my hotel that I was able to gauge just how far from civilization I was staying. I figured I would probably end up heading back out in that direction for the night. I ended up staying around here because, by some miraculous coincidence I managed to run into the one other American solo traveler staying in the hotel. He was a teacher in Guangzhou, so he was able to give me a lot of great tips for Guangzhou and Hong Kong. He was only in Kunming for the night after long day of traveling, with a flight to catch early in the morning, so he wasn't up for anything too crazy. We walked around the area of the hotel and confirmed that, indeed, the only bars around were the ones in hotels. He knew enough mandarin to ask people where to go have a beer. We were pointed to a convenience store. When he explained that we wanted a bar, we were told to take a bus or a taxi. We ended up sitting in the hotel lounge, even though the beers were overpriced and the music was terrible (operatic Chinese versions of Scarborough Fair and the Titanic song, for example). I appreciated having some company though. So, in stark contrast to the debauchery of the previous few days, I find myself, for the second night in a row, in my room by 10pm watching a movie. It's not too different from my life in Brooklyn, I guess.
