From Lijiang, I headed back South to Kunming to see a few of its attractions, hoping the rain and bad weather would be finished. Thinking it a good idea to take the overnight, sleeper bus for the 9 hour trip, I instantly realized that was the wrong choice the moment I boarded the bus. Instead of the normal configuration of seats, these buses are a jumble of two levels of metal beds, put together in twos and threes, leaving just enough room for one to squeeze down the narrow aisle to their coffin. The worst part is that these beds are clearly not made for anyone over about five and a half feet tall. They have very little room to stretch your legs and a nice little hump at the top that is supposed to serve as a raised portion for you to place you pillow. After a few minutes of maneuvering, I finally managed to fit myself in, crunched up against the metal railing and aisle on one side and my two bedmates on the other, each of us supposedly in a separate, single bed. I tried to lay down, but it ended up with me basically sitting up for the entire trip, my head hitting the top bunk above me while the hump for the pillow dug into the middle of my back. Seeing my discomfort, one of my seatmates kindly gave up one of his pillows to help ease the burden a bit, but I soon found myself counting down the minutes until I would be out of this sardine can arrangement. As a bonus to the long trip, I returned to my hostel around 5:30 am and found that no one working there was awake, so I sat down my bags and sat in the street for about half an hour until another Chinese tourist arrived and banged, yelled and called until someone finally awoke and let us in.
My next day, I headed to the Stone Forest of Shilin, a tourist, yet incredible natural attraction just a few hours away. The stone forest is a massive collection of limestone pillars worn away by erosion and rain into sharp, narrow points, often looking like a field of knife blades pointing towards the sky. As anticipated, the first few minutes at the park were miserable, wading through huge groups of loud Chinese tours and locals dressed in traditional costumes, charging for pictures with them. Fortunately, I found a tiny trail through the rocks and around the back, to similarly impressive scenery and the all-too elusive silence that a place like this truly demands. I climbed up and down, in and out of the strange formations, seeing barely anyone else for a few hours before heading back into the melee just before leaving. Though many are put off by the large groups (and I was at first), I was really impressed with the beautiful rock pillars of the area. I also bought a Snickers bar after a plate of noodles for dinner and found that I won a free one with my purchase. (I had to ask a few locals to translate the inside of the wrapper, but I correctly assumed that a longer message and an exclamation point at the end meant something good.) It's amazing how little things just brighten your day when on the road.
(A few of the first pillars of the Stone Forest at Shilin.)
(Nice costumes, but I wasn't going to pay just to get a picture with them.)
(A typically jagged rock in the area, formed by millions of years of erosion.)
(I think this is called something like Dagger Lake, and this is where I made my break from the masses, finding a bit of solitude. It's amazing how easy it actually is to get away from the groups sometimes, as they simply stick to the main thoroughfare and nothing else.)
(You rock, rock.)
(I'm sure there is some sort of legend about what these rocks represent, but I don't know it. They do have evocative names for each formation, though, but, again, I don't know those anymore. It's ok; it didn't look like the name anyway.)
(Most of these formations were between 20 and 30 meters (65-100 feet) high.)
(This is creatively called the Long and Narrow Valley or something.)
(More rocks, viewed from the crowded pagoda with an expansive view of most of the park.)
(Little tiny people and big rocks - the way it should be.)
(The horizontal lines at similar heights in adjacent rocks indicate some sort of large event at that time in history. Probably someone winning a free Snickers bar or something huge like that.)
(Me at the top of the stone forest, trying to sneak in an exclusive picture before the next group arrived. As you can see in the bottom left, I was just slightly too late.)
(Getting ready to leave the Major Stone Forest, I headed along the grassy paths to the Minor Stone Forest. As expected, it wasn't as big.)
(I honestly have no idea. There were a few of these deep messages along the path, but they didn't mean much to me. Feel free to clue me in if this enlightens anyone.)
(The world's biggest banjo. I tried to play the Deliverance song, but no one got it. It's actually a traditional Sani instrument, I believe, and there are performances in this square every few hours.)
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