It continues to be sunshine and warm here. In the last few days I took a few day trips to some places around Yunnan. I’ve been laying low since the New Year Holioday began. The Chinese are enjoying one of the few “official” holidays they are allowed, and so everybody goes someplace else. When you take 1.5 billion people and cram them onto planes, buses, trains and highways, it is best to stay in the city. And besides, now Kunming is empty, relatively speaking. But the fireworks continue. Everyday and night there are wave after wave of explosions. This is the last day of New Year, tomorrow (Sunday) everybody goes back to work. I will say that each night it seems like less fireworks since New Years eve, but it lasts until 1 or 2 am, then starts up again about 7am. I am becoming shell shocked from all the noise.
70% of the busineses have been closed for a week now. Restaurants and food stores are open. Also the big shopping centers are open. But most people are gone visiting family and filling up every hotel and attraction there is. I noticed that prices for everthing is up, 100% in most cases. Now is not the time to play tourist! I will wait until next week before I travel again.
I did discover a new trick for parking in the city. I learned this one by mistake. It costs 5 Yuan (8 to the dollar) to park for 1 hour anyplace you go. At first it looks like parking is free since there are no parking meters anywhere. But every street has it’s human parking meter. Some guy in street clothes that walks up to you when you are getting in the car to leave. I don’t care where you park. If you stop your car, even off the street, someone is there to take your money. This can really add up in a day. So what I do is drive to a hotel’s lot. They are watchig there as well, but since I am not Chinese, they assume I am a hotel guest and never come over to me to pay. Man, I’m sooo bad! But hey, I’m retired and I got to watch the expenses!
My friends told me that for 120 yuan, I can buy a yearly pass for all the parks in Kunming. Right now I pay 20-60 yuan each time I go, plus parking. So next week I will go start the paperwork process and get my pass. You have to be a resident of Kunming to qualify.
Speaking of parks, it is getting warmer each week now. I notice many trees now have buds, so things are starting to bloom around here. There are trees here that do not have a single leaf, yet already have hundreds of flowers that look like roses. Very unusual to see. I’ll have to post some “nature” stuff here later. Kunming is famous for all the plants and flowers here.
Happy New Year! I survived MY FIRST Chinese New Year! This is something like you cannot imagine. The Chinese take their fireworks VERY seriously here. Saturday (1/28) I walked around outside my condo. Fireworks stands are everywhere. And by now the streets are completely covered with spent fireworks that have been lit for the past several days. But today is only hours away from New Years, and people are consuming explosives like they are ready for war. P could not resist a few of these little buggers. They cost about 50 cents each. Basically it is a 4” pipe bomb. When I set this baby off, the pressure wave at 50 ft. was VERY noticeable. Need I mention the “report”? Let’s just say it got your attention. I won’t mess with this one again.Walking around and watching the art of fireworks sales was interesting. Cases of explosives stacked 8 ft high over every sidewalk you walked on. Tables strewn with open boxes and the sellers all with cigarettes in their mouths. Occasionally they would pick up a firework from the table, light it with their cigarette and throw it in the street from behind their table. Hundreds of pounds of fireworks only inches away! Apparently safety is not a word in China!
Night fell on Kunming and I ventured outside to see the action. People are everywhere in the street shooting fireworks. You can shoot anything, anywhere you want. Rockets coming out of 10 story condos, thousands of people in the street with huge bags of fireworks. I’m talking everything from 5” artillery shells like the ones used in the big shows in America, to 5,000 strings of M-80’s 15 ft long. All being thrown and hung from buildings. The air is solid fog from all the smoke. I can’t describe the noise! The entire city is out in the streets shooting fireworks. Non stop chaos everywhere, and it is only 8pm! At 12pm, all hell broke loose. It is like standing on the barge at the Ivars show on every street in Kunming. This went on non stop all night. It is now 10am and I sit here STILL watching thousands of fireworks going off. It is a clear sunny day, yet the city is shrouded in a white fog of explosive smoke. All the streets are covered with red paper from the millions of spent fireworks. You have to see this to believe it!
I spent Sunday at the Golden Palace in Kunming. The largest solid bronze temple in China is located here, about 7 kilometres away from the city proper on Mingfeng Hill. It was built in 1602 during the Ming Dynasty. This mountain overlooks Kunming to the south. After spending the day here, it was back to Kunming where I stopped for a Peking Duck dinner. I had a whole duck and 4 other courses. Way more than I could eat. The dinner set me back 66 RMB ($8.25).
I had my first full blown Chinese massage last night. If there is one thing the Chinese understand……. it is the art of massage. The difference between Thai and Chinese massage is vast. This is one thing where nobody can touch the Chinese. They have this art down to a fine science.
It all started after I had dinner with my friends. They invited me to a small university campus next to Dianchi Lake for dinner. As it turned out, this was a private dinner prepared only for Mr. Ho and his guests. After a great meal, it was decided to go to the massage place in the city. Once we arrived to what appeared to me to be another restaurant, we were led up to the 3rd floor. It was almost 10pm where we were met by several employees where they took off our shoes and gave us “house shoes” to wear. Then we were led into another room where there were oversized sofa chairs and ottomans all in rows. Maybe 4 side by side, and 10 rows total. Each chair had a little stand with an 8″ LCD TV pointing at the chair. The room was beautifully decorated in pastel browns and earth tones. The lighting was bright enough to clearly see, but low and relaxing also if that makes sense. Once we were seated, the staff served you whatever you wanted to drink, and we sat back and relaxed. I’m guessing 15 minutes passed and then we all got up and Mr. Ho said it’s time for our bath. So some staff people each escorted escalator and us to where we went up one floor and were met by more people who led us into a dressing room. Then a fellow helps you to get undressed, a little uncomfortable at first, but nice service. Now I am naked except for my house shoes. We are led into a room with a beautiful tile pool of hot mineral spring water. So we got in to soak. Everywhere you look in the building you cannot help to notice how beautiful and organized everything is laid out. Even your locker for the clothes is a digital prox reader lock that requires your attendant’s key fob AND your personal fob to open the door.
Another 10 minutes go by and we step out of the pool and walk into another room with 3 more pools! These are also natural hot springs but one has black water and the other two are like giant hot tubs with air jets. The black water is the “Chinese Medicine” water, which is supposed to help your blood and circulation. So I opted for the black water, and soaked in there another 15 minutes. There are your personal attendants standing by to serve you fresh squeezed juices, teas, and coffee, whatever you need.
We finally got out and were directed into a room with private cubicles with a massage table. I was told to lie down upon which a man came in and preceded to give me a massage and towel dry me at the same time. This lasted about 30 minutes. When he finished, I was covered with this oil that felt so nice on your skin. Well, next it was off to the sauna room. Again, a beautiful room, well appointed, including a 40” LCD TV set in the wall to watch if you like. I lasted about 10 minutes inside there and I was about to also try the steam room next door, but decided to skip it. So it was off to the showers! By now I am so relaxed I am looking forward to a good night’s sleep. After the shower, we put on house robes and were escorted back into the room with the comfortable chairs! This time there was a huge buffet laid out behind the rows of chairs, with all this wonderful Chinese cuisine laid out. I was still full from out dinner, so I just sat in the sofa chair and had some coffee. Once I sat down, a girl comes over to sit at my feet and proceeds to give me a pedicure and a foot massage that lasted about an hour. During this pampering, another girl stands behind me and takes out all these tools and starts working on my ears. So now I’m thinking this program is winding down, when we are then led upstairs to another area where it’s time for our “massage”. Jeez, I though I already got a massage. But noooooooo…….. Now comes the real deal!
Once inside this small low-lit room, I was introduced to my masseuse. She was a small beautiful girl and spoke no English. Still she was able to get me in position for the massage session without difficulty. This massage lasted about 1.5 hours. At this point all I can say is you just had to be there. I must say I never had my eyeballs massaged before. Every part of your body is assaulted with a pressure technique followed with a kind of rubbing something like a “traditional” massage.It is hard to describe, but they follow a very careful procedure that takes your whole body through an unforgettable experience.
By the way, all of this is completely non – sexual although they do not miss much before they finish with you. Now I am poured off the table and led back into the “sitting” room where we can eat more food and drink. All of us are sitting low in the chairs now, enjoying a drink. After 30 minutes of recuperation, we go back into the dressing room and change. You could shower first, but I wanted to leave the wonderful light oil on my skin, so I just got dressed. We all gathered outside in the lobby where I notice it was just past 2am. I can tell you I slept so good after arriving home.
Before leaving, I did notice at the front desk that the cost of this entire program was quite expensive (to Chinese standards). This deal will cost you 300RMB.That’s $37.50 USD.
This experience alone is well worth a trip to China!
Everyday is a new experience here. I had some workers come in to hang a couple of Chinese lanterns on my balcony. 3 workers showed up and began to put up the lanterns. The ceiling was about 12 feet high and they had a broken 4 ft ladder. So they took my dinning table and put this ladder on top of it out on my 4th story balcony. Then a worker stood on the top step of this ladder, balanceing on this little table while the other two tried to hold this broken ladder. THe whole thing was shakeing around. If it fell, he would certainly have gone off the balcony, 4 stories to the ground. OSHA would have put these guys in jail! Anyway, they got it all done in about 2 hours. They charged me $2.20 for the work.
Just a few days before, I had my AV system delivered. It took me several hours to program the DVD to it since the menus are only in CHinese. But I got it all working and now have tunes rumbling throughout the complex. So far only 1 neighbor below me has moved out. I’ll try to keep it down to a dull roar before they take me away. My Chinese “Bu Gu Gauw” speakers sound good!
Apparently 5 years ago my condo had new lights put in the ceiling. Sometimes they flickered, so I pulled one down and discovered that the wired were just twisted together and taped. No connectors! Once I called the company, a man came right out and repaired all 6 lights…. no charge. It was still under some kind of warranty. Cool!
Tomorrow I will go to dinner at Mr. Leian’s house. He wants me to meet his children, I think so I can practice English with them. Anyway I will get my first “house invite” and experience a home cooked meal there.
The weather continues to be clear and sunny everyday. I can go out and be comfortable with wearing a shirt. The wind comes off Dianchi Lake by late afternoon and things cool down to needing a light jacket outside.
I am planning a trip to Dali and Lijiang next week. It will be my first trip in the car. THe highways out of town are all toll roads, but new. This trip will take me through the mountains of Yunnan Province. I expect to have pics to post after I return.
