The Knight Bus

Yesterday was almost a full extra day in Lijiang and after seeing most of the sights there wasn't much else to do other than eat! We stuffed our faces full, retracing our footsteps to our favourite cafes and spent the most money we have on food so far! We had until 7pm before our bus left so we ended up killing time entering pretty much every shop we passed. After hours worth of nosing around 'antiques shops' (it's strange how many one-offs looked similar!) endless jewelery stores (all the same but pulling LAura's magpie instincts) and a very unsuccessful attempt at finding me a cool Chinese T shirt as they were either branded like back home or emblazoned with mis-spelt English, we went for yet more food at the amazing 'Lamu's'. it was interestingly decorated, the kind of place you could sit and chill out for hours looking at the bits and pieces stuck on the walls.

It was time to leave Lijiang, satisfied and relaxed, and head for Kunming. This was the first time we had been on a sleeper bus and did not know what to expect. We found ourselves on a bus fitted with metal bunks, perfectly sized for the average Chinese but a bit of a squeeze for my lanky legs. However, it was comfy enough with its teddy print duvets. tehre was a slight whiff of cheese as ourt heads rested by the feet of the person behind (though I wonder if it was Laura's craggy feet seeping out!)

Two hours into the school-trip like journey I had sat through a deranged and rather violent Chinese comedy called 'Crazy Runner" which i understood about three sentences of though was captivated. I fell asleep for a good five hours excluding a stumble in the dark to find the oh-so-wee-sprayed toilet. Laura had crashed out easily with the help of her new book and some squishy earplugs.

Arrival time was 8am, but at 6am the bus stopped and the lights glared on with people gathering their bags and and nattering in a way that went straight through our weary heads. It felt like the middle of the night but we had to get out quick and get our bags in case anyone else fancied them. The previous day we had posted our Lonely Planet home as we've no more need for it, but this morning we could have used the rtusted pages to find our bearings and head for a hotel. We walked through the unfamiliar streets of Kunming in the pitch black with all the shops and hotels closed.

We slogge dour bags for two gruelling hours and ended up in a park as it got light. A number of older men were doing their morning exercises and walking their dogs . Taking fast and in Chinese they tried to help us, pointing us towards hotels, but they were all well out of our budget. Eventually Laura found information and a translatable map using her phone and we took a taxi to the Camelia Hostel where we crashed out for two hours.

When we woke we felt bloody shattered but forced ourselves up and headed to buy flight tickets at the airline office in the hotel next door. A few minutes later we had tickets to Laos and this was to be our last evening in China! One country down! We went to grab some revival food and got an amazing breakfast at Mama Fu's.

We spent the rest of the day exploring a small portion of Kunming. We headed for the Bird and Flower market, which was disappointing in comparison to what we had experienced in Lijiang, but at least we weren't spending money! To end the day we caught a taxi to a different part of town which was full of lush places to eat and sit down and some seriously cool Chinses clothes shops that Laura got a little carried away with (though she managed to keep her money at bay aftre I refused to throw away my clothes to make space for new purchases). It was definately the place to be, crawling with hip and trendy students. We found a cafe that had attracted many other travellers and found out why, we were trested to some amazing food. Needless to say we stayed for hours before a trip back to bed in preparation for the next country- Laos!