Yunnan

First day in Kunming. You know what? I didn't get lost with the bus. Seriously!
As a reward, I allowed myself a pizza and a great smoothie with mango and coconut.
But not any pizza. The Lonely Planet says that finding 'As You Like' is quite an adventure, and they are absolutely right.
They is no way you can find the restaurant just by chance.
But when you find it, you get
- a menu in English
- one of the best pizzas I have ever eaten
- a cook who speaks English perfectly
- the most incredible place for the restaurant room. If I had a magic wand, I would move this little house to France, in order to live in there.

The first step of my road trip accross Yunnan is a 5 hour coach journey to Dali, enjoying the scenery on the way, and the break for food on the side of the road.

First hurdle of the trip: the coaches don't get to Dali itself (I mean the old town that I mean to visit), but the modern town, which is 15km away.
Taxis ask me for a lot more than what I should pay (yes, I look like a tourist, there is no way I can avoid it), so I eventually manage to negociate an acceptable price with a motorbike driver.
So here I am, up on a motorbike for a 20 minute drive without a helmet nor any other form of protection, part from my sunglasses and hoodie.
Next step: find the accommodation I have booked. Once I find the tourist center, I enter and ask "do you have a map?" in English.
It seems to be too much for them, it will take about 5 minutes for them to understand what I need ;-)

Here is the Dali old town, enjoy!

On the following day, the next step is supposed to be a 2.5 hour journey with another coach to Shaxi, I book the ticket via my hostel, and get to the hotel in front of which I am told to wait for the bus.
After waiting more than one hour, still no bus, I decide to head back to the hostel, where another reception employee tells me that her colleague forgot to tell me on the previous day that I was supposed to enter the hotel, where the staff would take me to their parking in their backyard, where the bus was waiting.
Now it is too late, and the next bus leaves in 8 hours.
I will have to change my plans, there won't be any Shaxi for me.
Instead, I head to Lijiang.

Once I get there, it will take:
- several minutes of explanations with an employee of the bus station, to make her understand that I would like to walk to the old town, because it is only 1 km away, and that I am fed up with taking taxis just because I can't find my way around. All I need from her is to point me in which direction I should walk. Sounds easy, but tryst me, it wasn't...
- about one hour to find the accommodation, which is very well hidden, and people keep on indicating me different directions each time I show them the address

Eventually, here I am, bag dropped at the hostel, map in hand, ticket bought to access the old town.

The vehicle of the firemen, in order to be able to access the tiny cobblestone streets:

And then more time on the road, up to Shangri-la, as close to Tibet as you can get in Yunnan.

With a comfort break on the road, in order to use the great public toilets:

Tashidelek!

I know someone who would love to be here, surrounded by snowy mountains, and going for a hike.
The altitude is 3200m, but it does not feel that bad. At least until I start climbing a high hill in order to get a view on the old town. Now I wish I had your lungs, Raajesh ;-)

After the crowd of turists crossed during the last days, what a relief to wander in small empty streets, away from the noise and rush.

Time to go back to Kunming, in a night coach, for a 12 hour long journey.
It is pretty comfy (at least if you are not higher than 1.7m, my bunk, which seems to be the longest one of the bus, is too short for me, but it does not prevent me from sleeping pretty well).

After a stop on the highway to swallow a huge bowl of rice at 2am, we reach Kunming at 7am, and I hed directly to another bus station, on the opposite side of the city, to get another bus, and go to Shilin Stone Forest.

One last bus to come back to Kunming, and go to the hostel where I stayed a few days ago and where I left most of my stuff.
And another pizza at the same place as last week, I will miss them for sure!

On the last day, before heading to the airport, I swallow a big breakfast, and I must admit that I am happy to find something else than noodles or rice.
It is only my second coffee in more than 2 weeks, I deserved it ;-)

Just 2 more flights before I get home, but it will turn out to be a lot more difficult than expected with the first one. Just look at the actual flight.
We were supposed to fly from A to B in 1 hour 10 min, but after 1 hour 20 min the pilot announced that for safety reasons, because of the weather conditions, we would have to land in C, 30 minutes away from our current position. But when we landed, more than one hour later, we were in D...
No wonder that I got lost several times while I was in China, if even the airplane pilots get seriously confused ;-)))

With a 3 hour delay, we eventually managed to reach Chengdu, which allowed me to take the flight back to Paris (after a last bowl of noodles)

What an adventure!!!!