Making the Most of the $5 Massage

So much to write about! We are now in Dali and have met up with my parents and Uncle John (aka, the Don, or Giovanni). We've joined our tour group and will be making our way across the Eastern half of China at warp speed. We are looking forward to a couple 19 our train rides in our near future (haha, that was a joke). Here's the recap on what we have been up to:

April 9 - Beijing
We had a great day of walking around and shopping. In the morning we went to the Pearl Market and I scored some new goods. Also walked around the rest of the market which had tons of clothes, electronics, shoes, souveniers, etc. They had a fish market on the bottom floor and it smelled so bad we didn't go near it. In the afternoon we went to Wangfujing, a popular shopping street. It's a packed pedestrian street with silk shops, a Rolex store, McDonald's and everything in between. We walked through some of the hutongs (alleys) and perused the souvenier stands. We partook in some of the local delicacies, mainly candied strawberries which consist of several fresh strawberries that have been covered in melted sugar served on a bamboo skewer. As you know by now, this is my kind of thing. They also had starfish, scorpions, octupus, beetle, grasshopper, etc. on a stick but I couldn't convince Matt to eat any. Dinner was at a nice little restaurant in a mall and cost about $7 for both of us. We had some noodles, wontons and dumplings and they were all pretty decent. We followed that with a scoop of ice cream from Haagan Daz and that cost just as much! We walked through the China World Hotel since we had read it was spectacular - it was very opulent.
Walking around the city we really noticed the pollution. There is a thick fog over the city that doesn't go away. Even on a "clear" day you wouldn't know the sun was out. The pollution hovers and is so thick you sometimes can't see buildings a block away. We read that it is so bad that on some days they tell people not to exercise and to stay indoors. Yikes.

April 10-11 - Kunming
We flew to Kunming (population 2 million) in the morning and it made for a pretty long travel day. This country is big! On the way to the airport we had some interesting cultural experiences. I hope not to offend people here, but this blog is meant to tell about our experiences, good, bad or indifferent. Soooo...here goes. We've been to China before and know that it is a very open culture when it comes to bodily functions but we still get a little surprise when we see it first hand again. Our cab driver was burping every few minutes and giving a satisfied groan after each one. I have to admit, it makes me giggle. But I really lost it when he started flinging boogers out the window. And then....he hawked a loogey and spat. Nice touch. It's just so different than what we are used to and, hey, bathroom talk and the like ALWAYS makes me laugh. More on all of this later in the post....
So, anyway, we made it safely to Kunming despite what looked like a crack on the engine of our airplane (we took a picture and you experts can weigh in). We met up with my very jet-lagged parents and the Don. We went out for a yummy dinner at a restaurant near our hotel and then everyone went back and hit the hay.
On Day 2 in Kunming Matt and I got up early for a run. The streets are remarkably quiet in this bustling city at 6am!! There were people out sweeping the sidewalks with giant feather duster looking things. Matt had a collision with a guy on a bike as the bicyclist exited an alley. Everyone was ok but I think the guy was a little surprised to see a redhead running down the sidewalk. After our quick run my lungs were burning. Matt told me to suck it up as clearly it was a result of me being out of shape. True enough, I am, but they were on fire.
We met up with the old folks (i.e. parents, uncle) for breakfast and then made our way to the train station to go to the Stone Forest 50 miles outside of Kunming. We got taken for a bit of a ride by the cab drivers who dropped us off in front of the bus station a block or two from the train station. So we had to hoof it over there and we had missed our train already anyway. So back to the hotel where we were able to arrange for a driver to take us.
Although touristy, the Stone Forest is pretty cool. There are amazing limestone rock formations and it's a big enough park that you can get away from the crowds. We walked around for a few hours and took in the beautiful scenery. On the way back we were in a huge traffic jam. Chaos is a way of life here and it is fun to be a part of it. The roads are insane, with cars, buses, bikes, scooters and donkey carts all running together. Intersections are comical and everyone communicates by honking their horn so it is noisy!
That evening back in Kunming we had our tour briefing. It appears to be the Golden Oldies tour as everyone appears to be at least twice our age. But, we can deal. Our guide is Eddie and we'll have to see how he pans out...... We've got 6 Aussies, 2 Canadians and us Americanos. As usual, we have made immediate friends with the Canadians. We had dinner with the group and we ate for $5 for both of us. And that includes beer, folks! Food was good too. The parental unit and Giovanni are making excellent progress on their chopstick abilities.

April 12 -13 - Dali
The following morning I was redeemed as Matt went for a run on his own and came back with burning lungs! Aha! So I guess the pollution here is pretty bad too...(and I'm not out of shape....ok, maybe just a little). Anyway, it's sad to see all the pollution. I guess this is what happens when there are so many people and so much growth but still it is disappointing to see.
After breakfast we hopped on a local bus for a 5 hour trip to Dali. It was a coach and fairly comfortable. We stopped halfway for a bathroom break in what looked like a pretty nice rest stop. After I paid my money I walked in to the bathroom to discover the stalls had no doors. And to add insult to injury they were squatters. Ok, folks, I don't mind the squatter but I can't do the public potty show. It was bad enough I had to see other people do their business. I was out of there. Luckily we stopped an hour later and I found some bathrooms with doors. The stalls were only waist high but that was no problem since you're low to the ground anyway!!! Of course, when I stood up I had a nice view of the entire bathroom. Once again, you just have to laugh. It's so different than what we are used to in the States.
We saw a lot of countryside on the way to Dali and it was full of terraced fields, rolling hills and lots of poeple working on their farms - all of the work being done by hand. We rolled into town just in time for dinner and had our first experience eating yak. Tasty stuff. After dinner we strolled the streets of old Dali. The old city is surrounded by thick walls and four huge gates. The buildings are traditional Chinese architecture style and the streets are filled with shops.

This morning (I think it's Thursday) we got up early for Tai Chi lessions at 6:30am. We have some pretty good footage of the crazy foreigners trying to be graceful. Quite an interesting sight. Then we took a chairlift mid-way up the mountain overlooking the city. There is a temple at the top and some (would-be) beautiful views. I say would-be because the haze (smog??) over the city and nearby Erhai Lake block the view. We took a great 11K hike from the top across the mountain to a cable car that brought us back down. It was fabulous hiking weather - sunny and cool - and we enjoyed ourselves.

This evening Matt, Mom, the Don and I went for massages. Three of us had the hour long foot massage (I'm hoping to get them hooked so I can do this 7 or 8 more times before we leave China) and Giovanni had the full body massage that cost a whopping $5. He said the girl had hands of steel and really beat the crap out of him so we're not sure if he'll be able to get out of bed in the morning. We've got bike rides and museums on the schedule for tomorrow. In the afternoon we leave for Lijiang.

Blog updates may be infrequent while we are in China as most internet connections we have tried have been very, very slow. We're not sure when we'll be able to upload pics but stay tuned. Also, an interesting side note - we can't view our blog from here. I've tried at several different places and it looks like it is blocked. I guess they know our type.....

My Mom has been sending updates home so I thought I would post those to give a different perspective of the trip (she is much more polite than me and I doubt there will be too many squatter stories).

Here's her April 11 update: We made it! It was about 36 hours from the time we left Sturgeon Bay. Found John in LA and along with 397 other people got on the flight to Hong Kong. Two hours out the captain told us we were making an unscheduled stop in Vancouver as in the hold we had a piece of baggage that was not supposed to be there. It was a very long, long, long flight. The delay meant we didn't wait as long in Hong Kong for the flight to Kunming. All the stewardesses are really pretty.

Kunming is huge. A taxi took us to our hotel which is nice. Jenny and Matt showed up about an hour later. We found a nice place for dinner and then at eight o'clock we hit our hard beds but at that point nobody cared.

This morning we had a big buffet for breakfast - all kinds of new things to try. After that we took taxis to the train station to try to go to the famous Stone Forest about 75 km away. The schedule did not work out for the meeting we need to go to a six o'clock so back to the hotel we went. There we had the assistant manager find us a car and driver to take us there. It took 1 1/2 hours to get there and was worth it. We did a lot of hiking. The temps are warm; we were hot but a lot of people had a lot of warm clothes on. On the way back we got into a traffic jam. There is everything imaginable on the roads, cars, trucks, bikes, rickshaws, horses double decker buses, etc. Back in the city we even passed a Walmart Super Store!
Time to get ready to meet our group. So far we know there is a couple from Australia.

And here is April 12: We are now in Dali an old walled city where it is festival week and there are lots of people. This morning John, Matt Jenny and I participated in a Tai Chi lesson at 0630. The rooster had crowed but the sun was just coming up. We had a five hour bus ride yesterday (a pretty nice local bus - ac and a movie but not English of course). The scenery was nice and lots of farmers in fields with hoes.
We had a great dinner last night and took a walk around the town. We are still getting over our jet lag so went to bed early.
Off to more adventures.