China Entry the Eighth: Kunming has Great Food

Usually I just copy an "edited" version of my actual hand-written travel journal for these entries. But because of the dried fried salted beef that we will discuss later, my actual journal entries for these days are light so I'm trying to recall things a little bit ad hoc. Work with me.

We make our flight out of Hong Kong to Kunming City. I am fascinated by the mainland almost immediately. The people here are not as wealthy as in Hong Kong. The buildings look more like communist architecture. I stare out the cab window on the way in from the airport in awe. I'm fascinated. It feels completely different. And, of course, the fact that the language is different and the currency is different enhances that.

We check in to our hotel, which is the fantastically wonderful Camellia Hotel. Also of note for future reference, the Camellia Hotel as the most OUTSTANDING breakfast buffet. I mean, good lord. Great bathrooms. Pretty lobby. Extremely helpful staff. I give it the thumbs up. And, yes, the breakfast buffet. Good lord. Kunming has great food.

We spend most of the afternoon walking around, shopping, exploring, visiting the city's old pagodas, which are beautiful. It's and odd architectural contrast, the ancient pagodas surrounded by folks playing cards and relaxing mixed among no shortage of blockish, communist looking buildings.


The fair city of Kunming.


Lisa and Ho decipher meanings.


I give you fake Chinese Armani.


Followed by fake Chinese Nike.


We all love pagodas.

Here also starts my mini-obsession with food vendors. There aren't many stops in the trip where I'm not buying food from food vendors. In this case, I'm still not even sure what Ho and I ate. I know there was milk involved, that the milk was somehow mixed with steaming hot water and that sweet, flavorful seeds of some type were added so that in the end it was a sweet, gelatenous substance that felt weird but tasted good. Kunming has great good.



In the evening, we head to the Muslim quarter for dinner. I get reprimanded for taking pictures of the raw foul hanging out that later gets cooked up and fed to us. You may wonder why, by the end of the trip, the bathroom has become the most coveted location in our rooms, or you can take a look at these foul, no that we're regularly eating things that have been hanging out like this and understand that.



We have a fantastic dinner of chicken, lamb, sweetbreads, pea pods and my new favorite beer. The wait staff is truely endlessly amused by the presence of the white women. I feel like a rock star, and it's awesome. For real.

Kunming has great food. And great tourists sites, which we'll discuss tomorrow.