So off to do some sightseeing. We first got excited about the Stone Forest outside Kunming :gps:(GPS)::24.754333::103.276944:gps: when V came across some photos last year – we HAD to see it even it has received a bad wrap as a Chinesified theme park. It was easy to get there – city bus out to the East bus station and then onto a 1.5hour inter-city bus out to Shilin. The entry fee seemed high (£17.50) but in retrospect it was well worth it and I was very happy to have a digital camera – the cost of film would certainly have left us bankrupt.

We crossed into the park on foot and immediately headed away from the crowds following the ring road road anti-clockwise drooling at the beauty of the rocks for some distance before coming to a trail on the Southern edge of the park. Having popped open our umbrellas to provide portable shade it was a stunning stroll, crossing paths with one other person, around lakes then to and through some amazing mushroom formations. The paths are beautifully built and snake their way past, occasionally incorporating, the formations with utmost respect for the environment and aesthetics – an impressive display for China we thought.

We continued the loop around and found our way into some even more impressive formations with paths dropping down through tight squeezes, under overhangs, around columns – it was just too much fun with colourful butterflies and the odd mongoose scattering ahead us. The map boards are not the easiest to understand but we didn’t really care.

Eventually we crossed the ring road and headed into the major forest with even more impressive paths, deep gullies, staircases and towering outcrops – it truely is a stone forest. Encountering a steadily increasing number of local tourists and the accompany noise as we approached the main viewing platform the experience became diluted but we were determined to snap the ‘got the t-shirt’ shot from the viewpoint. We got the shots after queuing for 20 minutes or so just as a thunderstorm was rolling over but luckily it barely drizzled. Our experience shows that local tourists are usually concentrated between the car park and the major attraction. With that in mind we sharpened our elbows and made for the eastern side of ring road as fast as the passing thunderclouds. It wasn’t long before we found another trail and solitude once more if only for a short while.

The Chinese love naming their rock formations with the excessive use of imagination and we enjoyed trying to decipher what they were on about at various places before getting back into the tour groups near the entrance/exist. This area is worth the crowds. The grounds in between rock formations have been flattened and manicured to perfection. It didn’t take long for V and I to find our dream back garden – all that was missing was a rock swimming pool (BTW: The skate park, trampoline and MTB pump track goes in the front yard). In all we spent over four hours wandering around the park and can say without a doubt that the Stone Forest rocks ! It was awesome like 100 000 hotdogs (We need to take a closer look at the ‘Hotdog Scale of Awesomeness’. I know it tops out at 100 Billion for celestial encounters so we may need to adjust the curve a little).

And the bus ride back…. Well that went great until we got off the city bus at the ‘wrong’ stop. Got back on it and did an entire loop to the long distance bus station again only to find out that we actually did get off at the correct stop on the previous attempt but started walking the wrong way. I think we were just totally stoned after all that awesomeness.

We’re back 🙂 Excited and to be moving on to Dali tomorrow.

[Pictures: Behold ! Having a ball in the Stone forest and a pic of our future garden (in my mind)]

– Posted from my iPhone via Wifi