Bus Boy part 2 of 3

Do the math.

We certainly didn’t.

The overnight bus seemed like such a great concept. But, the bus left at 10:00 pm. It’s a five-hour trip from Kunming to Dali.

Do the math.

That puts us in the Dali bus terminus at 3:00 a.m. What exactly are we supposed to do and where exactly are we supposed to go at 3:00 in the morning. Not exactly the best time to show up at out small, owner-operated bed and breakfast. We hadn’t exactly thought this detail through.

Fortunately, the overnight bus operators had.

When the bus pulled into the terminus, the driver didn’t kick us all off. Instead, the bus sat in the parking lot where the driver idled its engine for the next several hours allowing us passengers to get a little more sleep. Why not? The bus had nowhere else to go. It’is tricked out as a night bus with sleeping berths. It’s not as if it converts over to seats for day-time use.

Slowly, the passengers started to trickle off the bus over the course of the next few hours while my family and I tried to grab a little more sleep. By 6:30, we were the last four passengers on the bus. We would have stayed a little longer, but really bad, really loud Chinese opera music started blaring from the loudspeakers outside of the bus station as I am sure it does every morning at 6:30 a.m.. Simultaneously, the bus driver came back and informed us it was time to disembark. We were able to communicate with him where we wanted to go and he was kind enough to point us to the bus that was going to Old Dali.

As we settled into our seats on the local bus, I used the opportunity to re-organize my gear. Wallet. Left pocket. Check. Cell phone. Right pocket. Check. Camera. Small bag. Camera? Where’s my camera? Oh shoot. I dashed back into the parking lot ready to scour the overnight bus, but it had just left. I dashed back onto the local bus which was ready to leave. I had to make a command decision. I ordered my family off the bus. “I’m not leaving without that camera.”

In a panic, I went to the counter in the bus station. Surprisingly, our Mandarin phrase book actually had the phrase “I have lost my camera” in it. The man behind the counter looked at our overnight bus receipts and made a phone call on our behalf. Meanwhile, I used the phrase book and some pantomiming to explain to a sleepy looking security guard what had happened. If I had left my camera on the bus, I was going to track it down.

Bus Boy part 1 of 3

The couple of times that our family has ridden overnight trains in Asia, it has been such a fun adventure that we thought we would expand our repertoire. We decided to try a night bus from Kunming to the city of Dali where we would then catch a local bus to the town of Old Dali.

Taking the night bus was a brilliant idea, because it would save us time –instead of using valuable daylight to travel, we would be traveling while we slept. It would also save us money; it was one less night we would have to pay for a hotel. Besides, traveling by bus –during the day or night- is just about the cheapest way to get from Kunming to Dali. The 250 mile trip was only going to cost us about $12 each.

We clambered onto the bus and started checking the berth numbers to find our assigned bunks. The bus held 48 sleepers/passengers. Instead of seats, the bus was outfitted with bunks two high that ran front to the back in three rows leaving to narrow aisles. The bunks were eighteen –maybe twenty- inches wide and only five-and-a-half feet long –a little short for this six-foot traveler.

This was shaping up to be as much of an adventure as the overnight train.

We settled in and got ourselves situated. We fluffed our pillows which may have been washed since the last three or four passengers had used them, but probably not. Our big backpacks were in storage under the bus, but I had a small overnight bag with me. My bunk had a perfect spot for my mini-back pack: a little stainless steel rack welded in place right above the spot where my feet would be. The girls were a little giddy and I got caught up in the excitement. I pulled out my camera and took pictures of each of the girls in their bunks. I think we provided a few minutes of entertainment for the rest of the bus riders. I don’t think they get too many western families with young daughters riding the overnight bus. As he watched me slip my camera back into my little overnight bag, I gave a little self-assured head nod to the guy in the bunk across the aisle.

At 10:00 p.m. –right on schedule- the bus took off. The large window next to me slid open all the way from my head down to my waist. The sill of the window was even with the top of my mattress. If the bus was taking a sharp curve and it hit a bump, it was conceivable that I could roll right out the window. But it sure made for cool evening breezes. I put my hand out the window to ride the waves of night air. As the bus snaked its way out of the city limits of Kumning I slowly drifted to sleep to the sound of traffic, taxis horns, and late night bicyclists clambering down the street on their Chinese-made bicycles.Our family’s seventeen-day trek across China was underway.

Stones that Rock

Most people use Kunming and her international airport as a gateway to the rest of Yunnan Province. Our initial thought was to head out of Kunming as soon as possible, but we decided to give it twenty-four hours. The big attraction in Kunming is the Stone Forest which is half an hour away by bus. The Stone Forest has a well-deserved reputation as being a tourist trap. The conventional wisdom is that it is (was) beautiful, but it has been cemented over with parking lots and footpaths.

The Stone Forest is hundreds of acres in central Yunnan covered in karst rock formations. The columns and pillars and boulders all seem to point heaven-ward. They are craggy and immense and they are an artist’s dream. Over the centuries, paths and alleyways emerged. They rise, twist, turn, and descend through the rock formation. A person could easily get lost in their wanderings through the Stone Forest.

According to Chinese legend, the gods carved this amazing labyrinth out of the mountains so that star-struck lover could seek solitude among the rocks.

But it didn’t appear as though visitors –star-struck lovers or anyone else- were going to have a modicum of privacy on this particular day. As promised, the place was overrun with tourists. They had been arriving by the bus load all morning.

Long ago, the Stone Forest with it uneven paths and blind turns had been made tourist-friendly. A huge parking lot handled all the incoming traffic. Restaurants, souvenir stands, and shops offering sunscreen and umbrellas lined the avenue leading up to the entrance. We had to go through turnstiles to enter the Forest.

A friend had tipped us off that the Stone Forest can be an enjoyable experience; you just need move toward the less densely peopled areas. So at every fork in the path, we looked to see which path had the most people down it and then we went in the opposite direction. Ten minutes later we found ourselves alone in a remote part of the Stone Forest. For the next hour, we wandered around and managed to not bump into another soul.

It was wonderful.

We hiked, we climbed, we scrambled. We explored the nooks and crannies of the ancient Stone Forest of Kunming. And when we had had enough, we started to wonder back in the general direction from which we had come. Eventually, we perked up our ears and use the noise from of the crowds to navigate our way back to civilization.

We blended in with the crowd and queued up to make our way to the gazebo that sat atop one of the highest points in the forest. It was absolutely packed with people. It was popular for a reason; the views of the Stone Forest were magnificent. Even I had an urge to find a canvas and brush and start painting. But instead of painting pictures, we were in them. We stood for what would be the first of many photo sessions over the course of our trip at the behest of our fellow Chinese travelers. We were happy to do so –it was hard to be anything by gracious in such a picture-perfect setting.

It was great day and we were glad that we had stuck around Kunming.

My advice: The Stone Forest can be an enjoyable experience; you just need move toward the less densely peopled areas.

We Should be so Lucky

In retrospect, closing up my classroom including grades, packing up and moving out of our apartment, and leaving for a seventeen-day jaunt through mainland China all in a five-day period may have been a bit overly ambitious. But we survived and we were on our way.

Up to this point Annika had only been to the mainland three times. Elise just once. In August we will be moving back to Chicago, so this is our family’s one big shot at seeing China.

When we originally put together our itinerary, we had four major regions that we wanted to visit: Yunnan province, The Yangtze River and the Three Gorges, Xian and the Terra Cotta Warriors, and Beijing and the Great Wall. But the more we went over our proposed itinerary, the more we realized it was just too much for seventeen days. After some agonizing, the three-day Three Gorges Yangtze River cruise ended up on the edited room floor. How could I live in China for two years and not see the fabled Yangtze River before I left? Oh well, I would just have to get over it.

I handed each of the girls their small-ish school backpacks and told them that we were traveling light this time. When the backpacks were full, they were done packing. Choose wisely.

We started by flying into Kunming, a major city in Yunnan province in southwest China. When we landed, we strapped on our packs, walked off the plane, and smirked as we walked past the baggage claim carousal in the airport.

We hopped in a taxi and communicated as best as we could that we wanted to go to the budget hotel that Julie had reserved for us. Twenty-five minutes later, the taxi pulled up in front of the Yunnan International hotel. It was quite luxurious. The girls surveyed the spacious lobby with it chandelier and granite everything. Elise declared, “I like it better when Mommy makes the hotel reservations.” Apparently my daughters haven’t forgiven me for that whole “Home Sweet Home” debacle in Cambodia.

We handed our email confirmation to the desk clerk. He looked it over and handed it back to “This is not our hotel. This is Yunnan International Hotel. Maybe try next door.” We hoisted our packs backs onto our shoulders and tromped next door. Sure enough, there was the Yunnan Kingworld International Hotel. Easily mistake to make; I can see why the taxi driver confused the two. And so, just like that we were down-graded from a five stat hotel down to a two-star hotel where we belonged.

Elise turned to her sister and I overheard her say, “It’s still a lot nicer than the Home Sweet Home.”

Star Trekker part 3 of 3

If you are really hardcore and you not only want to be a trekker but you also want to look the part so that no one accidently mistakes you for just another run-of-the-mill, camera-toting tourist, or if you really aren’t interested in being a trekker because it all sounds too ambitious, but you still want to look one, you can do the following.

Start by buying a pair of light-weight, baggy pants. They are available in every open air market in every destination-town in southeast Asia. Get them in a solid color or a vaguely “ethnic” print. Alternatively, buy a pair of cargo shorts. Make sure they are well-worn before you debut them. Sport either a sleeveless shirt or a really threadbare t-shirt. Get yourself either a stylish floppy, wide-brim hat or better yet, get yourself a tight-fitting, knit skullcap in the colors of the Jamaican flag: black, yellow, and green. While the Ramones patch sewn onto your pack is optional, the multiple woven friendship bracelets around your ankle are not. Ditto for the hemp necklace. But feel free to get one either with or without pukka shells.

And with that, not only should you be all-set to forego the five-star hotels, their swimming pools, and their fastidiously clean sheets, but you will look the part.

Happy trekking.

And don’t forget the toilet paper

Star Trekker part 2 of 3

Bring your cell phone. One of the first things you should do when you land in the country you’ll be trekking through is to get yourself to a cell-phone store –trust me, they will be everywhere. Buy a sim card. You probably only need one with about thirty minutes on it. Pop out your current sim card, put it in a ziplock baggie, and tuck it into a secure pocket in your pack.

Sandals. Get yourself one pair of decent sport sandals. Tevas and Keens seem to be popular among the trekking set. Resist the urge to wear them with socks. Also bring a pair of lightweight flip flops to wear on short jaunts and in the evening while you are hanging out with other expats in the courtyard of your hostel.

Bring a small back pack. Use this for your day trips.

Bring one or two paperbacks. The thicker and the smaller the print, the better. What’s awesome is if you can bring a novel or auto/biography which is set in the country you are traveling through. Don’t bring a book that a friend has loaned you. It’s going to get pretty beat up over the course of your travels. (Sorry about your copy of Rivertown Kathie, I’ll buy you a new one.)

You will be staying in hostels or guests houses. Many of them are owner-operated and almost all of them are run by people who speak surprising excellent English. You can either stay in a private room with or without your own bath or you can stay in a dorm-style room that holds anywhere from four to twelve people. A bed for the night can range anywhere from $8 - $20 for the night. The hostels will all have computers you can use to access the internet for free or for a small fee. Almost all the hostels have a paperback exchange where you can drop off the book you just finished and pick up a new title.

The staff at the guest house will be happy to help you arrange any side-trips you want to take. In fact, most of them have large posters hanging on the wall promoting all the offerings. Even the smallest hostels have a kitchen and will offer food. Muesli and yogurt and fruit smoothies seem to be universal offerings. All the hostels will have a common area where you can hang out in the evenings and unwinding from all of your wanderings. It’s also a great place to meet other travelers and exchange tales of conquest, tips, and horror stories.

You should probably train yourself to get some sleep whenever and wherever possible because there will be times when you are a running very short on sleep and a bed is a long ways off. Learning to curl up and grab an hour’s sleep on the carpeted floor of the Saigon train station while hugging your backpack is a useful skill.

Learn to eat baked beans for breakfast. Every backpacker’s hotel seems to think that baked beans are part of a western breakfast. I think it’s a British thing. Also, develop a penchant for banana pancakes. They seem to be a staple of every hostel.

Star Trekker part 1 of 3

Nobody wants to think of themselves as a tourist. Better to think of yourself as a traveler. Or better yet, a trekker.

Much cooler to be able to say you trekked across the country of your choice rather than to say that you went sightseeing through said country.

But if you aspire to be a trekker, you are going to have to do a little prep work. But, if all else fails, you can at least look like one.

First, you are going to have to trade in your oversized, Burberry-plaid rolling suitcase for a backpack. Don’t get one that’s too big. Thirty to 40 liters should do the trick. No more checked luggage at the airport. You only get to bring along what you can carry on your back. The gold-standard for light packing was set by my younger brother who did a six-week, around- the-world, five-country trek with just one small, school-sized backpack.

Pack light. You only need to bring clothes for about a four- or five-day cycle. The places where you are going to be staying will offer relatively cheap laundry service. And the clothes items that you do bring; make them older items. At the end of your trip, you can either give them away or throw them out. This will create space in your pack for your souvenirs –oops, I mean cultural talismans- that you will be bringing back from your sojourn.

Pack a small towel. It will serve a host of purposes. In addition to using it to towel off, you can fold it up to create a make-shift pillow. Roll it and use it for a neck cushion on long flights. Tuck it under the back of your hat to keep the sun off your neck. Use it to block out the light when you are trying to grab some sleep in the middle of the day.

Pack a hefty amount of trail mix. There will be times when you are deep in the hinterlands and don’t have access to a restaurant. Or there will be times when you are dashing out of your guesthouse and you won’t have time for breakfast. You can buy ready-made trail mix, but it’s cheaper to buy ingredients, mix your own, and put them in single-serve plastic sandwich bags. If you don’t overdo it on the M&Ms, trail mix is actually a pretty healthy food: dried fruit, nuts, and seeds.

Ziplock baggies are your friend. They are cheap, disposable, see-through, and water-resistant. Leave the fancy, leather cosmetic bag at home. Put your toiletries in a Ziplock baggie. Put your passport(s) in a ziplock baggie. Bring several extras. You will be surprised at how many uses you will find for them.

Pack an umbrella not so much to fend off the rain as to fend off the sun. Just because you are using it to block the sun, don’t ever refer to it as a parasol. You’re trying to be a trekker here, not a lady-in-waiting. Also, don’t forget the sunscreen. Bring a good hat, the floppier the better.

Bring a plastic grocery bag for dirty laundry and wet clothes.

Bring a roll or two of toilet paper. You will be schlepping across third-world countries. Nuff said.