We have arrived in Kunming without incident and our 3 star hotel has free internet so here we are. The weather forecast is rain and low 60s...so when we arrived we set out right away to the central square of the city, where we saw some old gates surrounded by modern urban development. Kunming is bigger and more modern than I expected.
There is more evidence of the diversity of culture that the Yunnan province is famous for. We ventured into the Muslim neighborhood and found a street market full of all kinds of foods.
Dried fruits, nut candies, glutinous rice dumplings served at New Years...stall after stall. We bought a ton of nut candy, having acquired a taste for it in Xi'an, but not being able to get good stuff in Xiamen. Feeding candy to the kids was a recipe for a successful explore of the old city.
We did not buy any dried fish, however....
Nor did we have room in the backpack for the roasted pig that Thomas wanted...
How about some Yak meat..only 50 yuan per kilo..
The old city is slowly crumbling, and newer developments are encroaching, but we really liked the old world feeling.
Some fried squid was tempting..
There were tons of pipe stores, well, actually "bong" shops...not sure exactly what is being sold to put in those things.
The market is called the Flower and bird market...and finally we did find some birds and flowers, just as it started to rain.
There were lots of crafts and artisans at work. It was hard not to buy a ton of stuff.
Thomas managed to acquire some meat on a stick...
And Helen saw her buddy the ubiquitous Huan Huan, as we made our way back through the upscale shopping area. We did take refuge in a hot pot restaurant and had a good dinner.
We topped off the evening with dessert at Haggen Dazs - which was insanely expensive at $4 each for a tiny scoop of ice cream.
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