Kunming

Arriving yesterday [Tuesday] I was cursing the holidays, crowds of people and the general culture barrier that made it so difficult to ask for and get the help I wanted... In the end I took a break to go and see the Bird & Flower Market, which was claimed to have all sorts of oddities and weird fauna by the Rough Guide. Normally a fairly good guide book, the market must have changed character somewhat the last year--or maybe I just found the "jade-and-other-tourist-stuff"-section? There were randomly placed booths with amazing amounts of fish, turtles, rabbits, mice, flowers and birds; and one laydy sold orchids and waterlily plants for that little garden pond you`ve just always dreamed of. All in all, I wasn`t that impressed, though. What made yesterday a great day at the end, was my meeting with the wonderful Canadian family Bissky Dziadyk, who travel with a mac and let me back-up all my photos to DVD on their computer! Today [Wednesday] I have had a lovely trip to TGC Nordica, a Scandinavian-run arts centre that my friend Tone used to work at. Sadly, nothing special is scheduled there for the holidays and nobody were there when I arrived...but it was open, and had two lovely exhibits of paintings by Yan Renkui and Zhang Xingwang. I think Kunming could be a lovely city to live in, but for now I`m getting all China`d out--travelling as an illiterate is quite exhausting, and with the cultures clashing as well, it can be..well, let`s just say it`s an experience for life.