So, I’m back. We got back yesterday actually. I caught a cold on the last couple of days, but it didn’t get bad until the last day which was no problem. So now I’m sitting here with the sniffles having just finished putting all my panoramic pictures together (don’t ask). So what happened? Let’s begin with…
Day 1:
Flying flying flying, stopping off at Singapore airport for three hours, flying flying fling, Kunming. I have to say, Singapore airport is so impressive, and so so big. In fact, it seemed smaller this time around because I didn’t have to walk all the way! They have little skytrains to take you to the different parts of the airport now, so it doesn’t take ages to walk everywhere. Free internet too!
So, Kunming! When we got off at Kunming, there were press waiting because we were on the same plane as the Socceroos, the Australian team. When we came through customs, they took our picture because they thought we were the players, but they didn’t put them in the paper haha.
We were picked up by our tour guide people and went to the hotel. We were on the soccer tour for 4 days while we were in Kunming, so we started by checking in to the hotel and then going to get our tickets for the game. The hotel was great. My bro and I were staying on the 11th floor.
Walking down the street for the first time was a bit strange as everyone was looking at us. I don’t think there are enough foreigners in Kunming for the locals to ignore them when they walk past haha. But I guess that’s the same in most of Asia. Ordering lunch was simply funny as we didn’t know Chinese. I’ve been to Beijing so I know what the traffic is like in China, but some of the others were quite surprised at the traffic conditions. Australia is certainly very different. It’s calmer and less fast paced. In China, everyone’s moving all the time, and that includes through red lights when they can. On the main roads, it was illegal to turn left so the roads didn’t block up, so people did U-turns up ahead. And there were heaps of bikes and motorbikes, which were ALL electric! They were basically silent, and gave off no pollution at all. The weather was nice; warm in the day and cold at night.
That night we went to a function for all the Socceroos fans on the tour. It was in one of the hotels, in a big room with a pool. Fruit and snacks were provided was well as drinks. It was interesting, but nothing so special. After that however was more fun. Some of us went out to Kundu, the local bar and c
lub area, and went looking for a good place to have a few drinks. We ended up going to this one that was really quite loud, and were shocked at the high prices. Long story short, we ended up getting a bottle of whisky or something and had a drink, and then found out why the prices were so high. A couple of girls sat with us and started talking to us. They were actually part of the staff, and later went up on stage where bidding began for their company! I probably should have made a bid of 300yuan! That’s $50AUD, and I would have won too hehe. Oh well, no matter now. After that we went home and slept!
Day 2:
Well, it was… hmm, more of the same? I don’t even remember. Let’s see, ah yes! We went on the bus with the tour group up to these mountains in the east, or
west… um, maybe it was the west. I can’t remember. To get there we took a little tour through the city where our tour guide, Selina (her English name) explained a whole lot of things about the city. All I really remember is that taxis each have an animal and a number, so if you lose anything or have any enquiries, you can call the taxi company and ask for tiger 11 or something. Pretty nice idea. Oh, and by the way, Kunming is known as the eternal spring city because the weather is nice all year long and flowers grow everywhere all the time.
Anyway, we got to this mountain where a path was made around the side, very narrow, not originally built for groups of tourists to go together. There were 300 steps to climb, but we did it fairly slow and there were many stops on the way with various shrines and statues along the way. We had a view of the whole city from the top, but it was a fairly foggy day, so we couldn’t see the whole city clearly. I’m not so into the touristy things, so it was so-so for me. On the way back down we walked past all the shops again and some people bought some things. My bro bought a resin dragon statue.
Afterwards, we went off to a temple. It was more of a religious site, but these days it’s very touristy as well. We went around this big 
room with hundreds of figures on the wall, each having their own role in the world whether it be something like the saint of health, or the guy who reaches up with his long arms to put the stars in the sky. There was a woman there praying to one of them. But we couldn’t take pictures of any of the religious things, so I can’t show you.
After that, we went back to the hotels, and everyone got ready to go the Socceroos training session. I decided to opt out of that though, and asked Selina if she had any friends who’d like to go out with me for the day 
. I was in luck! A girl called Vivian (English name) came to meet me, and we went out! Her real name is ChengYan, but I can’t remember which tones to use in her name ^_^;. I always forget that with Chinese. Anyway, ChengYan and I went out to drink some tea together! We t
alked a lot about music and language and stuff (so obviously she could speak English). Her English was very good, and she wants to be a tour guide one day. We then went out for dinner at a restaurant which turned out to be very close to a bar where my brother was that night. We had a hot pot dinner together, and over ordered haha. It was delicious of course, and a pleasure to eat with her ^_^. I invited her to come out with us the next day as we were going to go to a mushroom hot pot restaurant that our friend had recommended and my dad had visited. She wasn’t sure if she could come because she had training the next day, so I said I’d call her the next day to confirm if she was available. So after dinner we walked around a bit more and then went home.
Day 3:
Ok, so we had breakfast, went looking for my bro, couldn’t find him, and thought he left with some other people without telling us (which turned out to be completely wrong), so we left without telling him! >_<. Later we found out he spent the day walking around town, which was probably better than what we did
haha. Nah, we had a pretty good day I guess. We went to this park which had mock villages of all the ethnic minorities of Yunnan, or all of China? Well, lots of ethnic minorities! There was plenty of singing and dancing, and heaps of buildings in the style of those ethnic subcultures. It was a long day with heaps of walking, and I bought a silly hat because I forgot to bring mine, and I didn’t want to get burnt. I later got rid of that hat haha. I took way too many pictures, Joe tried using a bow and arrow and went horse riding and dad had tea in a Mongolian tent.
So we got back to the hotel and I called ChengYan. She finished her training and was able to come with us! So we all met at 7 or something, and took a couple of a taxis to the mushroom hot pot restaurant. Dad borrowed ChengYan to help order, which took AGES so I went to join them to see what they were doing… they were just still ordering haha. So finally that finished and we started eating. Yum yum. About 7 types of mushrooms and noodles at the end. ChengYan must have thought we were so strange haha, and she said she couldn’t understand everything because it was too fast and we were speaking natural Australian English. She wondered what ‘the mother’ meant when Alan, one of 
the guys with us, said to pass him the mother spoon (the big one). Hehe.
We then went out to the club that my brother went to the night before. There were other Australians there from the tour group in their Socceroos gear, and some of them, including my bro, were signing things, passing off as the players! >_<! Pretty funny. 
There were girls dancing on little platforms throughout the club which many people enjoyed haha. ChengYan came with us and ended up calling a friend to come so she had a place to go after as her dorms closed doors at 11pm and she wanted to stay out with us ^_^. We danced and drank, and I stayed longer than any of the others so I danced with ChengYan for ages ^_^. Everyone enjoyed themselves and it was a very nice night!
Day 4:
It was the last day in KunMing, and for most of the tour group, the day. It was the day of the Soccer game! We all dressed in our green 
and gold (Australian colours) and went to the pre-game function where there was plenty to drink and eat. One of the officials from the team came to talk with us which pleased many people, and he told us the team line-up, which was quite amusing for those of us who knew anything about sport (everyone except me). Apparently, we had no strikers! They were all injured! All of them! We had one of our mid-fielders up front who never plays as a striker. Everyone was doubtful of our ability to attack, and rightly so.
So we went to the game in the bus. When we approached the stadium, we could see all the Chinese supporters flooding into the stadium. We had to walk around to the other side of the stadium, through the sea of the red army. But everyone was quite enthusiastic to see us in fact, and some of the Chinese stopped to take pictures with us. So we got into the stadium at last and took our seats waiting for the game to start. 
Long story short, it was a pretty uneventful game. No one scored any goals, so it was a draw. The Australians were very happy with that because we had no team! All our players were injured and we stopped a penalty shot. We could afford to lose, but the Chinese had to win. So all in all, we were happy haha.
Getting back was good because I could meet ChengYan again for the last time, as we had to leave KunMing the next day. We went out for dinner again, this time having soup and dumplings. Yum yum. We talked heaps about lots of stuff again and then went for a walk. And then…!! My first ICECREAM DATE! haha. We just got some ice cream and went for a walk. I had always wanted an ice cream date haha. It was very nice to see ChengYan again, and I already miss her ^^.
