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Intensive road

26/5/2012

I tried to take that local train again yesterday, but apparently the one I keep aiming to catch is now permanently cancelled. I'll have to change plans and try for another one, another day.

Instead, I headed down into southern Kunming, partly to visit another park which I'd seen on the map [see photo left] but never visited before and partly to track down more Chinglish [see photo top]. This park was free, and the lake there had a surprising amount of water considering we're in our 4th month of drought, but it was quite small and the little paths had an annoying number of speeding electric bikes to dodge.

This was another park littered with "Emergency" signs. Emergency toilets, Emergency fire extinguisher, Emergency medical treatment, Emergency powe [sic] supply, Emergency goods supply, etc. What sort of emergency are they expecting, exactly?

Our "one hour of trickling water a day" has turned into four days without any water at all. I'm glad I was never able to persuade Jiajia to replace our overlarge bath with a modern shower - baths make a great water storage device. But it won't last forever. We're firmly in the rainy season, so WHERE'S THE RAIN??

No train, so Tan

20/5/2012

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I had a day off recently and headed to the North Train Station. It only has 3-4 trains a day, serving the suburbs, but I'd been told it was quite fun watching the city traffic come to a standstill as your train passes through the railway crossing, and then seeing city gradually turn to countryside, all for a 2RMB (20p) ticket. In any case, the journey only lasts 40mins and, after shunting the engine round for 20mins, heads back. However, on arrival I found my chosen train had been cancelled and the next one was due 3 hours later.

So instead, I pulled out my map and decided to walk for an hour to TanHua Park. I'd spotted it on the map before, but never made it. The 5RMB (50p) entrance fee was a bargain - a surprisingly nice find. Old folk were sitting in the many nooks and crannies, playing cards or mahjong [see photo above], but otherwise the park was quiet and pleasantly uncrowded. At the top of the hill was an impressive pagoda tower, sadly locked [see photo right]. The grounds were well kept, though the rusting funfair rides had seen better days! Another hour's walk and I returned home trainless, tired but tanned.

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Lotus? Not us!

14/3/2012

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I spotted a nice looking park from a bus I'd not taken before whilst heading towards a friend's house the other day, and decided I should return and explore it sometime. So yesterday I found my way back to "Lotus Park", only to discover that I'd been there before but had entered through a different gate! Still, it made for a nice afternoon out in the sun, amongst the blossoms of trees and flowers and with the screeching sounds of amateur Chinese Opera never far away!

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With relative safety

29/12/2011

Jiajia doesn't have much family. In Kunming there's just her Mum and an "adopted" Uncle. But there are a few distant relatives in Shanghai

(and one in Laos!) and this week a Shanghai cousin was visiting Kunming on business. We met up with him for a couple of meals and a walk in the park. Bizarrely, the park seemed to be expecting an imminent disaster with almost every sign referring to some unspecified "emergency". Thankfully, we managed to escape with our lives!

Car'nt get enough bumps

20/3/2011

While I slaved away teaching at school, Ava took Mum and Dad out to DaGuan Park. They had a blast - riding bumper cars, merry-go-rounds, and enjoying a picnic in windy, but warm, weather. And Ava bought Dad a toy monkey to cement her new nickname for him!

Zoo..m!

9/3/2011

My parents and I spent this morning in Kunming Zoo, with Jiajia and her Mum [see photo]. The zoo has recently (thankfully) had many of its larger animals removed (they were not at all "comfortable" last time I visited, some 12 years ago), shipped off to a new safari park to the North of the city.

The main attraction now, at this time of year anyway, is the amazing cherry blossom. We also liked a garden containing 15-20 peacocks, who were very happily showing off their plumage. Dad also enjoyed the WW2 American fighter plane!

Big Day

8/3/2011

Today is Ava's birthday. A few weeks ago I managed to smuggle her favourite childhood doll out of her flat, and took it to various locations around town, photographing its "Big Day Out" as I went [see photos]. I put the resulting 50 photos in an album and gave it to Ava yesterday. She really seemed to like the cheap, but unique, present!

Improbable but botanical

1/1/2011

Today was a sunny, if chilly at times, day. So Jiajia and I decided to drive out to Kunming's Botanical Gardens. We had been warned it wouldn't be at its best, with leafless trees and no flowers but, as we arrived, it seemed busy with visitors and we hoped for the best. Unfortunately it was as dull as predicted, although fresh air and birdsong are always better than Kunming's traffic and noise pollution.

As a fan of the bizarre, my highlights were the "possibly-a-bit-crazy" belly dancer who wandered around the park doing random dances [photo, top left], and the Herb Garden which, despite barbed wire and imposing locked gates, also had a massive hole in its wall which was all too easy to walk through [photo, top right]. Later I started chatting to some youngsters who wanted to practise their English, one of whom turned out to be a student at my school (albeit a different branch). Jiajia showed her disinterest at my "working holiday" by flaking out on the lawn, before being told off by the "lawn guard"!

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