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)