昆明／Kunming

原以为昆明会是另一个丽江或大理，结果大错特错。这里车子多，人多，高楼大厦也多，简直就是另一个北京或上海嘛！肯德鸡、麦当劳，这些对城市人来说再熟悉不过的名字一一浮现在我眼前。哦，这里还有家乐福呢！

After Lijiang and Dali, I would have thought that Kunming is going to be pretty much similar. How wrong I was! Going on the public bus from the bus station to the youth hostel, I could only see people, cars and buildings, people, cars and buildings, and more people, cars and buildings. Gosh! This place is pratically another Beijing or Shanghai! It is definitely nothing like Lijiang or Dali. You will not find clean streets like those in Lijiang or Dali, neither is there quaint streets waiting for you to discover them. Big shopping centres, MacDonald's, KFCs, Walmart and even Carrefour, you name it, Kunming has it! 昆明还有一样比丽江和大理多的，就是乞丐多。第一次到昆明大街上遛达，就看到一名小女孩死命抱着一个男人小腿不放。原本还单纯地以为是小女孩在与她的爸爸闹别扭，后来才注意到小女孩脏兮兮，不可能是男子的小孩。这其实是当地小乞丐最擅长的把戏，看中目标后，就死命纠缠，直到对方掏出钱来为止。一条街走下去，看到了至少10个不同种类的乞丐。

There is another thing in which Kunming has in abundance-beggars. Guess I was too engrossed in the beauty of Lijiang and Dali, that I forot this side of big cities do exist. Walking down the shopping boulevard near where I stay, I saw a girl hanging on for dear life to the leg of a guy. The first thought that flashed across my mind was, "Oh, a little girl throwing a tantrum with her father." On closer look, i realised that that cannot be possible, as the girl was very dirty, whereas the guy and his partner were too well-dressed. It then dawned on me that, the little girl was actually begging for money. This is one commonly used tactic here, ie. hanging on to passerbys until these people are willing to give some money to the beggars. And this is not the only one. There were a whole lot of beggars along the whole street. Fully abled people who wrote their sob stories on papers, hoping to touch passerbys into giving some money. Dirty and unkempt ones who do nothing but lie on the floor and cry. Kids who run towards people who are eating, ready to snatch the food out of their hands.

入住了当地最有名的青年旅社——驼峰客栈。地点不错，旁边就有著名的过桥米线（云南特产）专卖店－－江氏兄弟。楼下是餐馆兼酒吧，楼上就是宿舍。在四人房，一个床位只要30元（6新元）。有无线上网、漂亮的户外休闲处、酒吧、台球桌等，如果不想出外走走，在宿舍待一整天也不会无聊。从宿舍过一条马路就是世纪广场，这里应有尽有。购物商场（千味拉面一碗才3新元！）、快餐店、书店和家乐福。

The youth hostel I stayed in this time round was one of the most popular backpackers' hostel in Kunming - The Hump. A bed in a four bed dorm cost me 30Yuan (SGD 6). There was a nice rooftop terrace and lounge, a bar, pool table, computers, tv, free WiFi and even a pub and restaurant downstairs. Really nice. Across the street is one of those major shopping strip, with lots of shopping centres (Ajisen Ramen only costs SGD 3 per bowl!), fast food restaurants, bookstores and Carrefour.

研究完住宿的四周，先到西山看看。原本想要悠闲地坐索道（我们叫缆车）到山顶眺望整个昆明。怎么知道，同房的加拿大朋友Eric说要健康一点，自己徒步到山顶。结果害得我这个在家乡没有山爬的新加坡人走到喘呼呼，每走几个梯阶就必须休息一下，一下子就流了满身汗。不过从山上望下整个昆明，还是觉得所流的汗是值得的。

After checking out the area surrounding the hostel, it was time to explore other parts of Kunming. First stop West Mountains. At first I was planning on taking a leisure cable car ride to the summit. But the Canadian guy Eric who shared the same dorm suggested us doing some workout by walking to the top of the mountain ourselves. So this Singaporean which has no mountains to climb huffed and puffed her way up the mountains, stopping to catch her breath after every few flight of steps. We were only a quarter way up when my whole shirt is wet with sweat. But the view of Kunming from the summit made the sweat worth it.

之后几天原本计划到昆明附近的景点走走，但一场下不停的雨，完全破坏了我的计划。原先计划是到距离昆明有90公里的九乡去，没想到这场雨完全将昆明陷入了混乱。到处都淹水，车辆半路抛锚，行人走到半路必须卷起裤脚，托下鞋子才能过马路。商店淹水不但做不成生意，还亏损。公车（公共巴士）随意改换路线，还没有抵达终点站就倒车往回开，结果原本只需要20分钟的路程，花了我一个半小时。更糟糕的是，使出了浑身解数避开了淹水的地方到了汽车站，才被告知当天已经没有去九乡的车了。唉！太倒霉了！只好再花一个多小时回到宿舍去看DVD，就这样浪费地度过在昆明的几天。

The next few days, I had planned on visiting the surrounding areas of Kunming, but a long bout of rain upset all plans. This being rainy season, rain is to be expected. But boy, it did really RAINED! It started raining once we got off West Mountains, and went on through the night. Although it was still raining the next day, I thought that the small drizzle will not affect my plans to visit Jiuxiang, which is some 90km away from Kunming. Only to find to my dismay, the rain has not only upset my plans but the whole of Kunming. Blocks of road was flooded due to the non-stop rain, causing cars to stall and buses to divert from their normal routes. Pedestrains had to roll up their pants and take off their shoes to wade in knee deep waters in order to get to their destinations. Shopkeepers were the worst hit. Not only were their business badly affected by the rain, their shops were flooded and goods were spoilt. They had to spend half the day sweeping the waters from their shops. My trip from the hostel to the bus station was supposed to take only 20 min. I ended up taking one and a half hours to get there as I had to walk for a good 45min after the bus turned around halfway through due to the flooding near the bus station. Just when I was congratulating myself on keeping myself dry and finally making it to the bus station, I was told that I would have to come back the next day as the last bus for Jiuxiang had already left. What tought luck! In the end, I had to spend another hour making my way back to the hostel, spending the remaining days coop up in the hostel watching DVDs as I wait for the rain to abate.

唯一值得开心的是，终于碰到新加坡人啦！就这么巧有一对姐妹和她们的朋友住进了同一个房间，结果把那个房间变成了“新加坡人”房。相约一起吃饭，有人陪着一起吃饭实在开心，结果晚餐就吃了火锅（自己一个人不可能吃的！），早餐就吃了豆浆油条。爽！　　～伟

The only cheer was I finally met some Singaporeans. After being by yourself for one and a half weeks, it felt really good to meet your fellow countrymen. The dorm became a "Singaporean dorm" as me and the two Singaporean sisters and their friend exchanged stories and pictures on the places we have been. The cheap steamboat that we had for dinner more than makeup the disappointment of not being able to get to tour the surroundings of Kunming. And the breakfast of youtiao and soya bean (so Singaporean!) the next day ease the thoughts of home.　～wei