Bits and pieces from the trip and the first days in Kunming

All in all this has been a good trip, there has been setbacks but they are compensated by some luck and good company.

Everything started out pretty nastily with a 6 hour postponement of my flight to Beijing. This made me hopelessly late for my connecting Kunming flight so I had to catch the next one after a 4 hour wait in the Beijing airport. I spent the original delay watching Sopranos and cooling down from my agressions against my mother. She and my grandmother gave me a ride to the airport and even though it was good to say goodbye to my grandmother my mother pisses me off all the time.

I lost track of time while travelling. I managed to get some 4-5 hours of sleep on the Stockholm-Beijing flight but after that I was awake and ate when I could. Next time I’ve got to plan it better!

When I finally board the plane I happen to sit next to one of the few westerners in the plane and he turns out to be quite helpful. He’s a businessman and helps me get through the worst the Beijing airport. Later, when I’m buying my first noodles in China, a big western guy going by the name “J” helps me out when I try too make the order. He’s also headed for YNNU and we end up at the same dorm. He seems like a good guy and we watch each others luggage and chat for the remainder of the trip.

J and I have been hanging out with some other guys since we all live at the same dorm. We’ve also had some random encounters with other westerners and they all seem to be studying at Yunnan Normal University. It’s a really nice crowd so far and it’s great to have them around. I would be totally inefficient if not for them since I don’t know any Chinese at all. I can’t even order food so everything I get tend to be oily and extremely hot. When someone accustomed to the food orders for me I get really delicious and interesting food that I’ve never tasted before.

Everything is dirt cheap but you still get what you pay for. I wouldn’t even have entered most of the places I’ve visited the last few days if they would’ve been in Sweden. Still I want to try new things and you can’t be too posh for you own good.

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