It was time to leave Lijiang and head back to Kunming. The taxi took me from my hotel in Lijiang to the airport passing through one of the loveliest stretch of scenery I've ever seen. This is so different from the drives in Cairo where everywhere is desert sand. Here was a stretch of undulating hills, valleys and lakes which is intensively cultivated. Seeing it, I regretted not having taken a taxi when I was in Lijiang to fully visit this part. At the airport I met a girl from Valencia, Spain. She's been China for 3 months already and had another month to go. She spoke no Mandarin but she managed. We were both on our way to Kunming, I was to stay in Kunming for another day, she had a connecting flight to Beijing. We parted ways at Kunming airport, I said, 'qe le viaja bien', to which she replied,' e'ualmente'. That's all the Spanish I know.
The next morning in Kunming I went looking for 2 old pagodas and happened upon a neighborhood in Kunming. There was a city market in full swing, kind of sedate, quite unlike the village markets that I saw outside of Kunming and in Lijiang. Those were exciting. The pagodas were hard to find, I asked many people but none knew what I was looking for. I did eventually find it.
It was time to leave Lijiang and head back to Kunming. The taxi took me from my hotel in Lijiang to the airport passing through one of the loveliest stretch of scenery I've ever seen. This is so different from the drives in Cairo where everywhere is desert sand. Here was a stretch of undulating hills, valleys and lakes which is intensively cultivated. Seeing it, I regretted not having taken a taxi when I was in Lijiang to fully visit this part. At the airport I met a girl from Valencia, Spain. She's been China for 3 months already and had another month to go. She spoke no Mandarin but she managed. We were both on our way to Kunming, I was to stay in Kunming for another day, she had a connecting flight to Beijing. We parted ways at Kunming airport, I said, 'qe le viaja bien', to which she replied,' e'ualmente'. That's all the Spanish I know.
The next morning in Kunming I went looking for 2 old pagodas and happened upon a neighborhood in Kunming. There was a city market in full swing, kind of sedate, quite unlike the village markets that I saw outside of Kunming and in Lijiang. Those were exciting. The pagodas were hard to find, I asked many people but none knew what I was looking for. I did eventually find it.
Fresh bamboo shoots.
River fish, Yunnan is landlocked, there is no fish from the sea. I told my taxi driver in Lijiang that my house in California is near the sea. She looked wistfully at me like she's never been to the sea and don't know if she ever will. I have always lived near the sea or now near the ocean. I did move to Salt Lake city once for 11 months but I missed the sea and can't envision myself to live anywhere except near the sea. I moved back to Southern California. The mountains are not that important to me, the sea is.
My trip to Yunnan is drawing to an end and it's time to pack the bag and go somewhere soon. 
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