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Description
No photos taken again today on my final day in wonderful Kunming, so this is another from my fabulous day out to Xishan and Dianchi four days earlier. This is Huatingsi, the first and largest of the temples encountered on the climb up the slopes of Xishan.

Day 90 - Friday 24 April

Kunming

I had one of my best night’s sleeps for ages last night and was only vaguely aware of Betty and Shahar leaving early in the morning. I think Jeff got up at about half past seven but I remained in bed, dozing on and off, for another hour. Once up I went to the toilet, had a wash and then set to work on catching up with my diary, having made very little progress on yesterday’s entry thus far. Jeff stayed in the room too, reading for quite a long time before going out. I found myself wondering what he did with himself all day. He never shed any light on his activities but, after last night’s revelations, I was loath to ask him. Once my diary was up to date I wrote a letter to Mum, which I had finished by midday. I then made a start on some postcards, having drawn up a list of a dozen that were a matter of priority. After the first four I paused for a break and lunched on my last can of tuna and a banana before setting to work once more. By a quarter to three I had finished the remaining eight postcards and so unearthed my Chinese stamps and glue pen from my pack. Chinese stamps were not blessed with particularly good adhesive, if any at all, and even when they were it tasted so disgusting that you wanted to avoid licking it at all costs. I then prepared to leave for the post office. As I was leaving I noticed that the door to Juliet and Nobby’s room was ajar so I stuck my head around the door to say hello and ask if they knew what the correct postal rates were. They didn’t, so I would have to check at the post office. I stayed talking with them for a while, learning that they had both been suffering from colds and so hadn’t ventured out much for the last few days. They said that they were leaving for Dali on Sunday night, so I might well see them again there.

At the International Post Office an absolutely delightful girl at the counter spoke to me in excellent English. She weighed my letter and informed me that it would be two kuai for air mail service. I already had four two kuai stamps so I told her I wouldn’t need one of those, and then asked her how much the postcards would cost. She replied that these were ¥1.60 each and I asked her for twelve of those. The total cost came to ¥21.20 because she had given me a two kuai stamp anyway, but it wasn’t worth the hassle of arguing. I left the counter and sat down to glue all the stamps on, posted them and then left. Before returning to the hotel I had a look round some of the shops for more cans of tuna but could find none. Instead I bought two bars of chocolate.

Back in the room again I sat down to do my latest budgetary analysis, arriving at an allowance of a hundred kuai per day if I didn’t have to leave China and ¥84 if I wasn’t able to renew my visa and had to leave the country before re-entering. Considering how much I had spent during my last few days in Thailand this represented a dramatic improvement in my finances. This only goes to show the value of exchanging money on the black market and that China, despite what many fellow travellers would try to tell you these days, was still a very cheap place to travel. I would certainly hope to be able to keep within the lower ¥84 figure, even if I did have to leave the country and return, which meant that I would be able to afford to buy a couple of nice presents before I left and still be able to go home with a thousand pounds.

My calculations refreshed I sat down to write my diary for today, with the intention of then making a start on some more postcards whilst waiting for Jeff to return, so that I could go to the bathroom to take a shower without having to shut the door behind me and then go in search of the floor attendant in a state of undress. As it happened I never got to start writing the postcards and Jeff didn’t return. Instead I went out to confirm exactly where the bus would be leaving from tomorrow and to indulge in a minor shopping spree, which included the cheapest beer yet; the local Bailongtan (White Dragon Pool) brew costing just ¥1.35 a bottle.

Jeff was back when I returned to the hotel and I offered him one of my beers. Once I had finished my first bottle I went for my shower, already having had a shave in the room earlier in the afternoon. On my return Jeff went for a shower himself while I got dressed and went to speak to Juliet and Nobby again, anxious not to have to eat on my own or just with Jeff tonight. All four of us went out together and we ended up at the Spicy Rice Restaurant, the place where we had eaten last night. This time, because of the earlier hour, they were much better prepared and we sat at one of the circular tables with a revolving glass top. We ordered quite a lot of dishes between us and it was a really excellent dinner, washed down with another bottle of beer each, another local brew that was new to me. For such a large and excellent meal the cost was a surprisingly low ¥32 between the four of us.

We were back at the Kunhu Hotel reasonably early, I because I had to get up early for the bus to Dali and Jeff because he was going to Shilin. I packed my bags ready for the morning and then read a chapter of my novel before trying to get some sleep.

Description
No photos taken again today on my final day in wonderful Kunming, so this is another from my fabulous day out to Xishan and Dianchi four days earlier. This is Huatingsi, the first and largest of the temples encountered on the climb up the slopes of Xishan.

Day 90 - Friday 24 April

Kunming

I had one of my best night’s sleeps for ages last night and was only vaguely aware of Betty and Shahar leaving early in the morning. I think Jeff got up at about half past seven but I remained in bed, dozing on and off, for another hour. Once up I went to the toilet, had a wash and then set to work on catching up with my diary, having made very little progress on yesterday’s entry thus far. Jeff stayed in the room too, reading for quite a long time before going out. I found myself wondering what he did with himself all day. He never shed any light on his activities but, after last night’s revelations, I was loath to ask him. Once my diary was up to date I wrote a letter to Mum, which I had finished by midday. I then made a start on some postcards, having drawn up a list of a dozen that were a matter of priority. After the first four I paused for a break and lunched on my last can of tuna and a banana before setting to work once more. By a quarter to three I had finished the remaining eight postcards and so unearthed my Chinese stamps and glue pen from my pack. Chinese stamps were not blessed with particularly good adhesive, if any at all, and even when they were it tasted so disgusting that you wanted to avoid licking it at all costs. I then prepared to leave for the post office. As I was leaving I noticed that the door to Juliet and Nobby’s room was ajar so I stuck my head around the door to say hello and ask if they knew what the correct postal rates were. They didn’t, so I would have to check at the post office. I stayed talking with them for a while, learning that they had both been suffering from colds and so hadn’t ventured out much for the last few days. They said that they were leaving for Dali on Sunday night, so I might well see them again there.

At the International Post Office an absolutely delightful girl at the counter spoke to me in excellent English. She weighed my letter and informed me that it would be two kuai for air mail service. I already had four two kuai stamps so I told her I wouldn’t need one of those, and then asked her how much the postcards would cost. She replied that these were ¥1.60 each and I asked her for twelve of those. The total cost came to ¥21.20 because she had given me a two kuai stamp anyway, but it wasn’t worth the hassle of arguing. I left the counter and sat down to glue all the stamps on, posted them and then left. Before returning to the hotel I had a look round some of the shops for more cans of tuna but could find none. Instead I bought two bars of chocolate.

Back in the room again I sat down to do my latest budgetary analysis, arriving at an allowance of a hundred kuai per day if I didn’t have to leave China and ¥84 if I wasn’t able to renew my visa and had to leave the country before re-entering. Considering how much I had spent during my last few days in Thailand this represented a dramatic improvement in my finances. This only goes to show the value of exchanging money on the black market and that China, despite what many fellow travellers would try to tell you these days, was still a very cheap place to travel. I would certainly hope to be able to keep within the lower ¥84 figure, even if I did have to leave the country and return, which meant that I would be able to afford to buy a couple of nice presents before I left and still be able to go home with a thousand pounds.

My calculations refreshed I sat down to write my diary for today, with the intention of then making a start on some more postcards whilst waiting for Jeff to return, so that I could go to the bathroom to take a shower without having to shut the door behind me and then go in search of the floor attendant in a state of undress. As it happened I never got to start writing the postcards and Jeff didn’t return. Instead I went out to confirm exactly where the bus would be leaving from tomorrow and to indulge in a minor shopping spree, which included the cheapest beer yet; the local Bailongtan (White Dragon Pool) brew costing just ¥1.35 a bottle.

Jeff was back when I returned to the hotel and I offered him one of my beers. Once I had finished my first bottle I went for my shower, already having had a shave in the room earlier in the afternoon. On my return Jeff went for a shower himself while I got dressed and went to speak to Juliet and Nobby again, anxious not to have to eat on my own or just with Jeff tonight. All four of us went out together and we ended up at the Spicy Rice Restaurant, the place where we had eaten last night. This time, because of the earlier hour, they were much better prepared and we sat at one of the circular tables with a revolving glass top. We ordered quite a lot of dishes between us and it was a really excellent dinner, washed down with another bottle of beer each, another local brew that was new to me. For such a large and excellent meal the cost was a surprisingly low ¥32 between the four of us.

We were back at the Kunhu Hotel reasonably early, I because I had to get up early for the bus to Dali and Jeff because he was going to Shilin. I packed my bags ready for the morning and then read a chapter of my novel before trying to get some sleep.