Kunming! The city of bad luck.

So after arriving back in Kunming, we had to do a little detour. Ella had some paperwork to give her Uncle, so off we went to his workplace on the other side of town. The taxi was only like 12 rmb ($2), which is amazingly cool. Also cool is Ella's uncle. A very friendly guy, he made sure we sat down and had some tea. He's the kind of person who just cannot stop talking and wants to share everything with you. At one point he video called Ella's cousin to have us say hello. Then took us around "his" park.

Back to the middle of town, it was pouring rain. I wanted to get some noodles, but we were wet, cold, and not wanting to search. We were right next to a McDonald's, which was our first Kunming meal. After we got a taxi to the "hotel".

Man, I've traveled a lot. I've never had an experience like this. So their map places the hotel near a subway station near a park. It is clearly not there. So I try calling them. Invalid number. I double check the description - in a park, next to the subway station. But something doesn't look right. I check the Chinese version of Agoda. They're more specific with the subway station, using its actual Chinese name. On the far south side of town. "City center" my ass. After seeing the horribly wrong map I should have called it off then, but off we went. This park is right next to the new station as the crow flies, but about 1km to walk to an entrance. It does not look like a place a hostel should be. The name is a 100% match to their directions. We ask a few security guards, they all have no idea what we're talking about. One says there is no hotel here, and we've likely been scammed. We call it a wash, so head back into town to find our own place.

I call back Agoda to tell them. They put me on hold to contact the hostel, but after 5 or so minutes and being on a subway the call gets dropped. I call back when we get back to the city. Straight to voicemail. I call again 30 minutes later, voicemail again. I leave a message with my number. Instead they email me instead of calling, the next day, with more accurate directions. Of course we were not homeless for a night and got a new place. Also, Gmail doesn't work in China unless you have a VPN. I'm guessing most don't, so that email is useless. And of course, a response a day after your reservation is useless. Anyway, screw them.

That night we went out to an American / Mexican restaurant I saw on Wikivoyage, except it does not exist anymore, either. Next door though was a lovely Thai hotpot and pizza restaurant, because why not? It could have not been a more pleasant experience. The owner was cool,  the pizza solid and cheap, and he gave us free pumpkin soup. Super nice guy, I'm going to put his dealie on Wikivoyage instead.

That evening, we took a walk along the lake at night. We passed a lot of bars, but they were pretty empty for a Friday night. I guess because it was 8 or so, raining, and New Years was the night before, they were pretty dead. We just walked and chatted before grabbing a taxi back to the hotel.

Ok, next day! Full speed ahead! We went to Yuantong Temple, and along the way was in a police propaganda video. They were marching the same way we were, with a guy who kept running ahead to take video. So, we're in a lot of shots. Yuantong Temple is quite pretty, and if they cleaned it up a bit would be ripped straight out of a storybook. Very pretty, with even a Thai Buddhist Temple in the back. Great place for photos.

There wasn't much else on the agenda, so we sort of wanderer around the city, stopping off at every minor tourist sight on the map. A lot were closed, under construction, not that interesting, or something else. What that means is, Ella said that Kunming has a lot of history with many historical buildings. Instead of running a museum, the city rents these buildings out to (fancy) restaurants and bars. While the idea of eating in a place where General X did Y, it doesn't let you learn that much.

So instead let's talk about more good stuff. We stumbled upon a giant canteen full of local food, so we had our fill. Despite being a much larger city (10m or so), we didn't see but 3 or 4 foreigners the whole time here. What we did see were a lot of cats, much to Ella's delight. In fact, we found a whole street that was basically a pet shop street market.

We went to the old part of the city, which is a pedestrians only area chock full of small shops, similar to the one in downtown Hangzhou. All sorts of kitschy "Chinese" things, it's a nice place to pick up souvenirs. We also went to go see a church (closed), art museum (closed) and a theatre (closed for a private event). After we wandered around a bit more on our way to the East and West Pagodas (closed for construction). There was a giant gate turned into an upscale jewelry store though, so we got some great pictures anyway.

We went back to a park we had passed earlier that had been full of birds, but we apparently got there past their bedtime. There were only a few left, but we did get to see the sunset and try a snack of dough and powdered peanuts. Afterwards we went to the "bar district", which was also quite empty. But it was around 7, so that's not too surprising. Honestly it had kind of a sleazy sort of vibe to it, kind of like something that had its heyday 20 years ago. Quite hungry by now, we ate some Szechuan Chicken with our hands using plastic gloves. Classy! And that was about it for Kunming. We grabbed a few beers and the went back to the hotel. The next morning it was off to the airport and back to warm Bangkok.

Overall, I kind of like Kunming. It's a big city, although has somewhat less to do than I initially thought. There's a few day trips you can take as well, and we skipped a lot, so I suppose it could keep you occupied for 3 or 4 days. That's not too bad for a city pretty much unknown to tourism outside of Asia. Ella suggested we try living there one day, and who knows, that may happen. Although, there's lots of other places on that list. But to give you an idea of what we did, I took an unusually long, and probably incredibly boring video. Check it out below if you feel so inclined.