云南 国庆期间 30-7 yunnan
GUIYANG and YUNNAN
https://www.tripadvisor.com/Attractions-g317090-Activities-Guiyang_Guizhou.html
贵阳 guiyang monday 1st October
just found out the day before arriving in guiyang when asking for recommendations for my afternoon there that Yi had moved back and was living there, so, we decided to meet up when I arrived and if I wanted I could stay.
The majority of people where in work on Saturday 调休 （most stupid thing ever, working ur weekend for a holiday coming up takes away from the holiday time so in reality a 7 day holiday is really only 3.... weekend doesn’t count and extra work days definitely don’t.....) finished up and went home had a brief nap as been feeling tired and a bit iffy before going to south station and getting my overnight. I had a window seat but got a decent sleep anyway as the other cars emptied up in the middle of the night. On arrival I had the mad rush of less than one hour to change station and board the next train.... I hopped in and shared a taxi with a guy just making it. Passing out for a while on the high speed and charging my phone. YI Told me the bus to get and we met near hers chilling with a movie on while I washed and briefly napped before going out to 黔灵公园 qianling mountain aNd Park area
A huge park with a small sort of mountain we climbed up to the temple that was full of monkeys! One sort of bit me... not cool. a couple where even swimming in the little pool areas haha fighting amongst each other but always looking for food grabbing bags from people often. We got red fortune ribbons and tied them to each other before continuing on. And going to the mini zoo. There were quite a lot of animals even porcupines which I’d never seen before! After this we headed back via taxi getting a really odd fruit from a vendors called 八月瓜 august melon. It looked so wrong and vulgar and the taste wasn’t the nicest either, like it was trying to be a mix of a banana and he interior of a grape. I was tired still so we decided on just chilling and ordering in. We watched some movies and chilled, was fun and necessary!
She helped me get my early early taxi to the train station to go to Anshun安顺 to visit the waterfall the next morning, a surprisingly nice unexpected turn of events. 黄果树瀑布
August melon is similar to banana, also known as "wild banana", is a unique fruit in China, because it is mature in August, so it is called August melon.When the August melon ripens, it will crack and reveal its flesh, so there is also the term "August explosion".
Was pretty tired when I arrived, stored my bag and got the bus for the waterfall. though there are of course looks of locals trying to get you to take their taxi/car. regular bus from Anshun South Passenger Transport Bus Station to the scenic area. It departs every 20 minutes from 07:00 to 19:00. you can also take the number 19 from each cost station. they are all pretty regular wherever you come from.
Arriving I got my ticket, not purchasing the bus (not necessary) and instead walked, enjoying the beautiful Plants littered along the path, there weren’t many people walking around which was better, it’s not a huge area to go around and after 10-20 minutes you arrive at the main waterfall, long the way there's a small church randomly. the sight-seeing bus is 50 and the ticket in is 150
Huangguoshu Waterfall, a milky way in miniature, is the largest waterfall in Asia. Seventy-four meters (243 feet) high and eighty-one meters (266 feet) wide
there was a nice garden area with a small lake which i chilled at for a while after before checking out the market shops, with lots of fruit veg, coffee, souvenirs, snacks and more august melon! Due to walking back the guards where very confused and wanted to see a ticket or picture, clearly not many take the scenic route....
On my bus back I befriended younger chinese girl, a student, also site-seeing, she missed her train, but was able to rebook another! We took some Photos and chatted. I strolled around before getting the train later myself to Kunming.
KUNMING
arrived early the next day, it was cold and later rained. but during the day it was ok. I got a train to visit YUNNAN stone forest, though its more convenient to get the bus from the east coach station, which run every 30 mins and takes 1.5 hours. I took it back which was better, just as it started to rain.
石林风景名胜区
the station is quite far out from the entrance, I befriended some girls and we shared a tuktuk. using my student card I even got discount. I checked in my bag and started exploring. the place is huge and a bit of a maze, easy to get lost. the sun came out which was great.
https://www.travelchinaguide.com/attraction/yunnan/kunming/stone_forest.htm
I started off in the museum, its big and has some interesting stone carvings, such asa huge tiger. it shows you a variety of different stones. the ones of this area are limestone karst rocks and the largest collective in china, hence why its famous and became a unesco site.
http://www.yunnanadventure.com/index.php/Attraction/show/id/376.html
there's lots of climbing and walking, up down and around the rocks. there's a large forest and a small one.
you come to a centre stage area were minority groups do performances with lots of singing and dancing. its really good. there's also the opportunity to dress up in minority costumes - though not so cheap and get photos. there were some adorable kids dressed up posing!
got the bus back, it was a lot colder now and raining, there was hot water so i filled up my flask and had a snooze on the bus. took a couple of hours. I looked around the city before heading to the hostel of a fellow traveller. then we headed to the train station to get the night train to Lijiang, it was raining a lot, and we randomly stopped for a couple hours at one station, not sure why....,
