Kunming

I had the greatest weekend ever! I went to Kunming and saw three of my friends from Flagship that are interning there this semester. It was so much fun! Kunming is the capital of Yunnan where 26 different Chinese ethnic minorities live. I am pretty sure it's the biggest variety of minorities in China. The city is absolutely gorgeous, and CLEAN. It was the first thing I noticed, along with the gorgeous weather and sunshine.

On Friday night, we just chilled and caught up. They are also working for an NGO, and it was interesting to compare similarities and differences with my internship. The next day was easily one of the most fun days I have had in a while. We were originally going to go to the Stone Forest that day, but we missed the last train, and Vicky took us to 民族村, or nationalities village. It is kind of like a theme park that has a different area representing all of the minorities that live in Yunnan. There are restaurants with traditional dishes, and people all dressed up and doing traditional dances.

Why am I not sharing the thousand pictures that I took while I was there? Funny story. There was a festival going on that weekend called 泼水节 in which everyone ran around with waterguns and bowls full of water and threw it on people. It's like the Indian Festival of Colors but with water. And Rachel and I were HUGE targets because of our blondeness. Literally as soon as we stepped off the bus, we were assaulted. It was so much fun, but my poor little phone didn't stand a chance, and is now dead, and I therefore have no way to post all of the wonderful pictures I took, including of me feeding a watermelon to an elephant, and dancing with gorgeous pirate men from the pumi ethnicity. It was an absolute blast, although I don't know any more about ethnic minorities than when I went in.

So that was Saturday, on Sunday we took an hour and a half train to the Stone Forest where all of my dreams came true. Not really, but it was so surreal. I have been wanting to go there forever, and it was more beautiful that I had imagined. I also just really love rocks, and was geeking out about the amazing different erosion patterns we saw.

So many rocks just looked right about to topple over

how cool is this? This gigantic rock perched on a little stump

I am super adorable

Beautiful girls. I was glad they were as enthralled as I was

It was nice and cool down in the gorgeous gorge

I think this guy looks like an adorable elephant

Are you serious, Nature? Why are you so cool?

Dreams coming true

Besides the amazing rocks, we also heard an actual cuckoo bird! At first, I thought it had to be fake, like someone's ringtone or something. But there were no people around (another wonderful thing about this place, the hordes of people stayed in the touristy areas and we wandered through the forest for hours). Then about half an hour later, we heard another one in a completely different, totally empty place. It was incredible! I knew they were real, but have never heard them outside of clock form. We didn't get to see them, but it was still so surreal.

Now I can cross that off my bucket list! And be completely satisfied, because it was absolutely incredible. I feel like none of my experience in China would be worth it without having gone here.

That night we took a bus back to Kunming where we had to rush to get me to the train station on time, which involved getting swarmed by awful taxi drivers telling me that their meters were "broken" and it would cost 60 yuan to get to the station. With Kunming prices I doubt that the actual price would have been any more than 25 or 30, but we didn't really have a choice and found a girl for 40 kuai. Bargaining can be fun sometimes, but it also gets exhausting. When I got back to the Xichang train station at 3 in the morning, I just took the price that they charged me. Way too tired to try to fight it.

So that was my amazing Kunming weekend! Huge thanks to Rachel, Vicky, and Brian who put up with me the whole time. 佩服你们. I wish I could travel all the weekends for the rest of my life. There is way too much to see in this gorgeous world, and I don't want to miss it!

I love you America! Can't wait to see you in less than two months! #Notcountingthedays #what #ImissInNOutokay?

China pic of the day:

This made me feel like Doctor Evil