Adventures in China: Kunming (2/3-5/13)

We are now officially in Yunnan! We had a 6-hour train ride from Panzhihua, during which I read, wrote in my journal, napped a little, and ended up playing with two little Chinese girls for over an hour. Which was fun because they were really cute, but also kind of unpleasant because it was already dirty and stuffy in the train so having them crawl all over me made me feel even more gross. Once they were distracted by their snack, I snuck away and watched four of the guys play cards. Then the crawled over Kelly and Jeff instead. Just sharing the fun with my friends, mwahaha!

The little monkey-girl was a bundle of energy. I played with her and her cousin for a while, and then she crawled over the chairs where Jeff and Kelly were sitting.

I had printed directions from the train station to the hostel but we found out when we tried to follow them that they were kind of vague. We had to switch buses at one point, and it was confusing as to where the next bus stop was. I think everyone was a little tired, hot, and hungry, so there was some mild crankiness going on. I even felt pretty light-headed from it all. We felt better after we ate lunch and showered. Plus, the Upland Hostel is amazing. There’s a bar area that’s really chill and is a nice place to hang.

The next day, everyone but Mike and I got up really early to go to an Irish pub to watch the Super Bowl. We joined them around 10:30 in the morning. I really could care less about the Super Bowl but I wanted to hang out with my friends. I actually left the pub for a few hours and just walked around and bought some things, like a cup of tea and randomly, a donut (which I was pleasantly surprised to find tasted like an American donut). When I came back, we experienced our eventful thing for Kunming. So, Jason was trying to put a plate down on the table but he had to navigate his hand between several glasses and when he pulled his hand back, he did it a little too sharply and accidently smacked a beer glass over. The glass snapped in half, cutting his hand in corner between the thumb and forefinger. Suddenly there was so much blood, and I swear I could see bone. We were all kind of struck dumb at the suddenness of everything and weren’t immediately sure what to do. Jason ran to get some napkins to stop the blood. Then out of nowhere this guy appeared with a backpack and a first aid kit. Apparently he was heading to Thailand or Vietnam right after the game so he had all his stuff with him. It was really lucky that he was there- he was like a guardian angel. He helped Jason wrap up the wound with some gauze. It was also lucky that the bartenders spoke English so they were able to direct us to the nearest hospital. It actually wasn’t too bad so we waited until after the game before heading there. We decide it didn’t make sense for all eight of us to go, so I went back to the hostel with three others. Three or four hours later, they returned and Jason had five new stitches to share. Definitely didn’t expect to have to take one of us to get stitches during our trip, but I’m grateful to say that was the worst thing that happened on our trip.

That guy on the right was Jason's guardian angel

Keep it elevated!

While the group that had gone to the hospital rested, Mike, Kelly, and I went to walk around Green Lake Park. It was very beautiful, with many colorful flowers and red lanterns for Spring Festival. When we were walking past a restaurant, some Americans came out, and one of them asked who were. When Mike said we’re with Peace Corps, he said his brother was also a volunteer, up in Gansu. Turns out his brother is a China 18, like us. Small world!

Beautiful sunny day at Green Lake Park

The next day, we decided we should buy our bus tickets to Xishuangbanna because it was going to be a 14 hour ride and we didn’t want to show up at the station when we wanted to leave without having tickets. So Mike, Jeff, Ben and I went on an adventure to find the bus station, which for whatever reason is really far (like an hour) outside of the city. When we got off the city bus, we were surprised that it didn’t drop us off right in front of the station like we’d been told it was. We had to walk for like fifteen minutes to get there, after asking for directions from several different people (I’m so glad the other three speak better Chinese than me). It wasn’t that big of a deal except that it was really hot and I really really had to pee. Of course the ticket station didn’t have a bathroom, and by the time I finally found one I was pretty cranky. I even snapped at Ben for answering my rhetorical question (something like, Why does China not have conveniently located bathrooms?) which is one of the worst things someone could do for me when I’m about to pee my pants. To my credit, though, that was the one time in the two weeks that I actually snapped at someone. Nothing like a bursting bladder to test your patience. I still can’t believe how far the station was: we’d originally left the station at 12:30 and didn’t get back to the hostel until 5:30. I mean it was good that we went because then we knew how to get there and to plan for the ridiculous amount of time it takes. But I couldn’t help feeling that it was something of a waste of a day, not to mention a waste of a beautiful sunny day in Kunming!