春天来了

Currently traipsing about Yunnan province. S and I spent five days in Kunming -- the City of Eternal Spring -- where it was constantly sunny and warm and breezy, quite a change from the oppressive grey of Chongqing. The city was replete with greenery and flowers and food such as across-the-bridge noodles and random camel chuanr we found, and Yunnan coffee (no Starbucks in sight) and pu'er tea.

Yunnan's weather is especially wonderful after a few days in Beijing's freezing cold, which included yet more Peking roast duck dinners, Great Wall visits, and park promenading.

I also spent quite a lot of time getting acquainted with the Kunming police station, as S's wallet was pick-pocketed, which included her passport she had forgotten to take out. Our police officer was quite meticulous in typing up our report, and we spent an hour or so on Saturday night detailing the exact sequence of events, and then sitting around in a lobby while some guy handcuffed to a chair stared at me.

We arrived in Dali today via the Kunming-Dali Express bus after a harrowing survival of the mass of travelers at the bus station going home for the holiday; we spent the afternoon browsing stalls in the Old City and eating 生煎包 and 乳伞(a sweet fried cheese snack unique to Dali); tomorrow we plan to bike around Erhai Lake and visit the Three Pagodas and eat Tibetan or Bai food, and then on Saturday we will attempt to brave the general insanity of traveling on the eve of Spring Festival to catch a bus to Lijiang.