Kunming to Frigid China

To cross the Chinese border, you must successfully solve a Rubics cube

I am sure you can feel the excitement building with not just another blog entry, but the second installment of the State of the Belly Report. Don't worry, you won't be seeing my hairy belly, just Nadine's rounder one.

Last time you read, Vietnam was holding us up once again with a suit I had had made to my exact measurements. The first time the measurements were close, but the fit was Vietnamese (aka: tight). After another consultation with my little tailor, we hoped everything would be worked out second time around. The stitching of this fine English wool was keeping us away from our already diminished time in China. But when the pressure was put on this little Vietnamese lady, and she met the challenge head on and had it ready right at 2:00. Then I tried it on, wasn't singing soprano, thus happy with the fit, so I paid for it and left. Just like that I had a new fitted suit, and then just like that, I went to the post office and mailed it to the States. I hope it makes it there before I do for Easter.

That's a smile of relief

Tired of Vietnam and ready for a change of country, we boarded an overnight train and railed it to the border. Once at the border, we jumped on a moto-taxi and happily, no, eagerly went to the border. Just to finish our time in Vietnam, I exchanged 6 dollars worth of Vietnamese dong for Chinese yuan with a money changer. I received what I thought would be a fair exchange. On the other side of the border when I tried to buy something in the store for 6 yuan, they said I didn't have enough. The guy had given me the equivalent of 45 cents. 50 cent bills are smaller and have the number 5 on them, just like the 5 yuan larger bills. Even at the end of our time in Vietnam while crossing the border, we got screwed, but what a relief to be out of the country for $5.

The first destination in China was Kunming, just a short 12 hour bus ride from the border. Mind you, China is a big country, even bigger than the great state of Texas, so distances are far.

State of the Belly Report #2 from Kunming, China

To our surprise, we learned on the bus ride that it was snowing in Kunming. What?!? This was supposed to be the best time to visit this country with respite from the cold. Stupid random weather.

On the bus ride, we equally caught headcolds (everything is 50/50 with us, except in pregnancy, Nadine gets to carry the baby the entire 9 months) and were introduced to a few Chinese customs, hawking up big loogies and their incessant smoking. And I think these contributed to our colds since we had our heads sticking out the windows into the frigid wind to avoid the smoke inhalation.

Welcome to Kunming, China

During our week we have been in Kunming, it's not uncooth to sit in church and start hawking up a big ol' loogie during the sermon. That's just as common as yawning. If you have to do it, there's no reason to hold back. This hawking starts deep in their bellies and finishes up with a hefty hhkkkkssssss 5 seconds later, and for some reason, it just kills an appetite. But in the meantime, noone takes notice of it other than Nadine and I as we have that perplexed "how-did-the-bears-make-the-Super-Bowl-with-that-quarterback" confused look at each other. That is part of the culture and that is why we travel, to learn and experience and incorporate it into our lives. For that very reason and the addition of our colds from the bus ride, we are running around China spitting loogies like pros on every tree we pass.

A pretty awesome Chinese building we walked upon

Kunming is two things, cold and clean. We've enjoyed it all the same. Plus it wasn't Vietnam.

We stayed at a nice hotel to help nurse us back to the health, but our rooms were missing one vital thing, heating. Instead of a centralized form of heating or heater in the wall, they had heated mats in the bed. Not the most convenient, but it works. So whenever we happened to be in the room, we could only be found under the covers of our separate twin beds. 3 years of marriage and we are already sleeping in separate beds. Sad.

Early Sunday morning dancing lessons in the central plaza. Tango anyone?

So far in China, everyone that passes us seems to take notice of one thing, Nadine's Hammer pants. Not a single glance at me or at Nadine's face, they immediately turn to her black and white pregnant Hammer pants.

Some traditional Chinese checkers under a pagoda

One evening while I was watching t.v. and Nadine was fast asleep, I heard a common sound originating from her, her sleep talking. But this time, she wasn't speaking in English, but in French! This is all after spending a short stint on a bus and dinner at a cafe next to an older French man, and now, miracously, she is speaking fluently French. Maybe she has been holding out on me with her French, just so she could understand it when I would tell her in French Nadine, ta souffle pue.

A) We both like Teresa and Suzy, so we didn't eat there B) Lighting did occur while we were out there and we didn't climb C) If they can't get their sign right, who knows how good their surgery is

We did see some sights in the modern, clean, westernized looking city of Kunming, but those aren't as interesting as the individual little stories that stick out in our minds. Rather than visiting a museum and a few parks, watching the Super Bowl is more fascinating. The Super Bowl is the one sporting event that is a must see for me. The Special Olympics in New Mexico and syncronized swimming come in a close second, especially when your good friends are competing in Alberquerque, but the Super Bowl still is #1. I had seriously looked for places to watch the game for 4 days, but to no avail. I figured I would just try my luck with Chinese cable, but at 6 a.m. Monday morning, I turned on the t.v. hoping to find the game, but no luck. At 8, just for the heck of it, I turned on the t.v. again when miracously the Super Bowl was on in Chinese with the Bears up 14-9. That didn't last long. I sat there with a happy grin on my face and a heated mat under my butt. Instead of commercials during timeouts, they were exchanged for a view of the entire stadium from the stands. Pretty uneventful.

This kid has a full load in his pants!

With a couple of long bus rides ahead of us, the thought of a 24 hour ride to our next stop of Guilin wasn't inviting. We broke down and bought a plane ticket. That 24 hour bus was substituted for an hour plane flight.

Pull tabs still do exist

At the baggage claim upon arrival, something you would never dare to do or hear of in the U.S. happened, unless of course someone was shot in the process, as we stood waiting for our packs to arrive from the plane. After 8 minutes of waiting and there was only a handful of us, and there was no sign of anyone's luggage, a Chinese man decided to take things into his own hands. He poked his head through the opening out to tarmac wondering where his precious bags were. Then with a look of agitation, he climbed through the hole and started making his way onto the tarmac determined to find where the heck his bags were hiding or who stole them. It was at this point with a look of disbelief and laugh on my face, a lady from the airline and a guard with a gun chased him demanding that he return to the baggage claim. Like a kid with his Christmas presents taken away, he begrudgingly came back. Within a couple of minutes, all 12 of our bags came out accounted for. The ride into town on the airport shuttle, guess who sat next to me. Yeppers, the same guy who ran onto the runway. Hilarious!

Bridge says in Chinese : Bridge Made in China

With one day in Guilin, before we rushed to our next city, we walked around to every park with a climbable hill. The only negative about this was the fog, pollution, and/or cloud cover combination had made it impossible to see any real distance or sights from the aerial view. It might have been a river we saw, no maybe a building, not sure really.

We've finally arrived to Yangshuo. We only have 9 days left in China before we head on over to South Africa and a big change in travel from the previous 5 months. We should probably think about buying a guide for South Africa in the meantime. Could prove helpful.

Qixang Park, Guilin, China

This week's question: How many countries are there in the world and what percentage, carrying it out to the tenths, have we visited on this trip so far? First correct answer, and you don't have to show the math, but must have the correct answer, will receive a postcard in the mail from somewhere in the world.

Life is good and we hope all are doing well and getting excited for either Valentine's Day or the Chinese New Year.

See you next entry

JW

Our secret handshake and now you know. Did Nadine really snort?