No lovely photos to spoil you with on this post…just a little bit of info about our day of travel! Enjoy!

After a good nights sleep in our four person dorm we rose early to shower, grab some breakfast and set off towards the airport. We eventually hailed a taxi and soon arrived 30 minutes later at the departure gate. It’s all fairly well signposted at the airport, however as we only had an online booking reference number and no paper work we wondered if we needed to get our tickets from somewhere before check-in. We were told to just go to check in our bags in the usual way and we were issued the boarding cards. Easy! The airport is fairly large with a good selection of stalls to buy things, if a little expensive.

We booked the flight from Kunming to Guangzhou through ctrip.com which cost 330RMB plus 50RMB tax and 70RMB fuel tax, so 440RMB (£44) in total for a 1.15hr flight was really good, could well be cheaper than taking the train and saves loads of time. It was far cheaper to fly to Guangzhou than Hong Kong and then we would make our connection through to Causeway Bay where our accommodation was booked.

The flight was very good and took off only five minutes late. Once airborne they offered free apple, orange juice and water etc and then they started issuing food! We were surprised by this as the flight was so short and it was actually very good. Dave had beef and rice, Helen had Egg and tomato noodles, both with a side of cold noodles, bread, water etc. Very shortly after eating we arrived, collected our baggage and proceeded through customs with no passport checking involved.

Guangzhou has very recently hosted the Asian Games and a big air-show, so lots of international people will have passed through and required additional information on travel arrangements. We asked a few people behind desks about getting to Kowloon to which we got blank expressions and one guy said he had never heard of it! We were informed that we would need to get a bus to the train station and then get a bus or get a train to Hong Kong. We found a more official looking desk who were more helpful but still appeared less than knowledgeable and we were directed to a bus that would take us to the main train station where we would be able to get a train, so we proceeded. Once we found the station from the drop off point we tried to buy a ticket. No trains go direct to Hong Kong from here, only Shenzhen and then we would need to get another train! All very confusing and annoyance was starting to bubble to the surface.

Finally we found out that we needed to go to the East Train Station not the main station where we would be able to pick up the Kowloon Express which takes you all the way! The East Station is THREE stops on the underground metro down from the Airport!!! We ended up having to get the metro to the East Station and then buy the tickets from the Kowloon Express office. Faffing to and from bus to train station and then back took us around 2 hours  and should have only taken 20 minutes! Buying the tickets once we were at the right place was simple enough and then the obligatory passport checks and X-Ray scanning of baggage takes place.

Finally we boarded the train and settled down to a two hour train journey to Kowloon. From here we got a taxi to the main land island of Hong Kong after some translation over the taxi drivers phone with someone who could speak English and told him where we wanted to go. We got dropped off just around the corner from the guest house and we proceeded to find the building with no problems.

We were staying at the Alison Guest House on Causeway Bay, it was well located to shops and an underground station. The room was small but adequate with a double bed, small wardrobe, desk, kitchenette and new looking bathroom. Once we unpacked and spread out our belongings we went to explore the local area which was very busy, lit up to feel like 11am not pm. We stayed out for an hour or so before going back to bed.

As the weather and temperature was so good in Kunming we thought it would be a great chance to hire some bikes and get out and about. We made a packed lunch and hired the bikes from Cloudland Hostel. They were decent mountain bikes and the hostel provided a map and written instructions on a few routes, one of which was a ride to Dian Chi Lake a massive lake in the south of Kunming, which we decided upon.

We arrived at the lake after some 2 hours of cycling, mostly on the highway for the first hour, Dave got some Seagull sick dropped on his head so we decided to head to the park and get away from the flying sick and poop machines and have some quiet time. Lunch consisted of tuna mayo sandwiches, oranges, egg tart and a pastry desert filled with chocolate. We continued on around the park exploring and photographing which was great in the sunshine. After an hour or two of riding around we started to make our way back which takes around an hour.

The Unemployed Life stickers kept making an appearance around the hostel, as well as other destinations that we have visited, so we knew we were following in the foot steps of fellow travellers Will and co who we had met previously in Xi’an.

We needed some supplies for making breakfast cheaper rather than buying hostel/restaurant food all the time. We found a local Walmart superstore and stocked up on cereals, fruit and veg, cans of tuna, noodles and a few cakes! The Walmart is located behind a multi-storey market so you need to walk through to the back of this and you cannot miss the Walmart sign! Afterwards we chilled out at Cloudland, ate some substandard food and packed ready for our trip to Dali the next day.

(Leica M9, Summicron-M 50mm f2.0 & Olympus PEN, 17mm f2.8 & 100mm f2.8, processed in Lightroom 3)

The train arrived at Kunming station at around 8am and we fought our way through the masses of crowds out of the station and towards the bus station which is around a 10 minute walk. Our destination was the Cloudland Hostel which provided information about which bus to get and where to get dropped off. We got off at the correct bus stop and then proceeded to wander around the area for nearly an hour looking for the hostel, luckily is was fairly warm and the sun was shining. Eventually we found it and thankfully it was a really nice place with an open area for pool, table tennis and a nice cafe/restaurant.

We had booked a double room which was a nice size and lovely sitting on the bed in the warmth of the sunshine. Whilst traveling you do accrue lots of smelly clothes and when we have the use of a washing machine we most definitely make good use. The room was covered in drying clothes whilst we did some editing and writing. After having some breakfast in the cafe we headed out to explore the local area. A local attraction at this time of year is Green Lake which draws in the crowds to see the first Seagulls arrive in the winter and then they feed them bread which can be brought from dedicated street bread vendors. Only China could turn a load of Seagulls flying around a lake into a tourist trap, with stalls of dried fruits and souvenirs.

We headed towards a vegetarian fake meat Buddhist restaurant. We struggled to find the venue as the maps provided by The Lonely Planet and local maps put the restaurant on the other side of the street. We popped into the Yuantong Temple for a wander around which was nice, apart from the building work, with Turtles swimming in the lake. Eventually we decided that the vegetarian restaurant on the side of the temple was more than likely the one we were looking for. We headed inside and ordered our food, which you would struggle to tell that it wasn’t meat. The Peppered Beef was really beefy and the texture was spot on, the fake prawns with fake ham were ok but not our favourite. If you get the chance, either if you are a vegetarian or meat lover we would recommended giving it a go.

We went back to the hostel and had a drink in the bar and then had a quick game of table tennis before bed.

(Leica M9, Summicron-M 50mm f2.0 & Olympus PEN, 17mm f2.8 & 100mm f2.8, processed in Lightroom 3)

Our train left Tunxi at around 11pm so it was a long wait at the hostel until this time. Even in a quiet town there will always be lots of people waiting to get trains. It was pretty smooth as when we boarded the train most people were already sleeping so we found our bunks and got off to sleep. The next day was quite a long one, we weren’t due to arrive at Huaihua until 4pm but the train was delayed by two hours which meant that we got in at 6. There was a heated debate with our fellow Chinese passengers as to whether we would be able to make it to Fenghuang that night. Some were saying we wouldn’t make it, the roads are too bad, the buses don’t drive safely at night etc…One lady offered to help us barter for a taxi to get us there as this would be the safest option given the circumstances. We thought we’d try this option as it would cost us a lot to stay for one night in Huaihua.

She was very true to her word and managed to get us a taxi for 280RMB, although she couldn’t speak any English we managed to get by and she took down the taxi drivers phone number in case there were any problems. We soon realised this was not going to be a short trip, after an hour or so we were still a good 40km away from Fenghuang. The roads were terrible and the rain kept coming down, we decided to give him 300RMB because the trip was a lot longer and more difficult than we had imagined. After 80km we came to stop…there was a road blockage up ahead with no way of getting around it, a group of people in a small shack were communicating information across the area and we st with them for a short while before deciding we would have to turn around. The lady who had helped us was pretty distressed and her friend who spoke English was on the phone apologising on her behalf and saying they have arranged one of their close friends to help us find a hotel in the next town. This was 30km or so away!

We eventually got to the hotel after several phone calls going back and forth between the taxi driver and our Chinese helper and met Mr Wu. It was getting late and the hotel informed us they only had business suites available at 400RMB. Some cheap night this was turning out to be!! A few minutes later another man appeared on the scene, he took us to one side and showed us his police badge, he was trying to get us to go with him. We had no idea what to do or whether he really was a real policeman. There was a lot of chatting on phones and not a lot of doing. We tried ringing the hostel in Fenghuang but the number on hostelworld didn’t work so we were stuck. After a lot of debating and a little panic from Helen we finally got a room and the policeman had managed to get it for us at half price. They said they would meet us at 9am the following day to arrange for us to get to Fenghuang. Another thing we would like to point out is that the email address for the hostel we had reserved was also incorrect as we received no response back from them!!

We managed to get some sleep and then the morning came along with a 9am knock at the door from Mr Wu. He took us to the bus station but here we found out the buses were going to the area of the road blockage but then we would have to get off and walk across to get taxis. We weren’t convinced so we decided the best thing to do would be take the bus back to Huaihua and get the next available train to Kunming.

After a 2 hour bus journey we got to the station and luck was on our side. We bought tickets for a sleeper train leaving at 2.40pm that afternoon!! YES!!! So off we went to buy snacks for the train and get a hot meal before leaving. This is where things started getting better for us. The food in a local eatery was really good, we simply pointed at our phrase book saying we like fish, tofu and vegetables and that’s what we got with some good flavours all for around £4.

We picked up our usual noodle snacks for the train and then got ready for the next leg of the journey. Around 18 hours later and we arrived in sunny Kunming. This was a very nice feeling to be walking into the sunshine capitol of Yunnan. We found Cloudland our hostel via a bus journey and some instructions from The lonely Planet, checked in and chilled out.

In the space of around 48 hours we spent a total 40 hours on two trains, a taxi and one bus. We spent money we didn’t want to spend and only saw the rain and landslides in Hunan province. But like we always say this is all part of the experience and adds to a good story at times.

(Leica M9, Summicron-M 50mm f2.0 & Olympus PEN, 17mm f2.8 & 100mm f2.8, processed in Lightroom 3)