Not much to do today except wait for our bus this evening to Mengla (50km or so from the Laos border). We got up as late as possible and spent 2 hours !! carefully packing our gear – the new supplies we purchased made it substantially more difficult. We spent the rest of the day in the hostel’s courtyard making plans and getting frustrated with their Internet connection.

We got a taxi to the southern bus station (20mins instead of 2 hours) and with even more time to kill ended up at the mall (with it’s 5000+ shops) across the road from the station. We found a decent camera case (£3.50) just as the entire place was shutting down for the day. The scale of the place is mind boggling.

The Kunming South bus station looks new, clean and tidy – Stainless steel and marble like most western airports, but we were once again shocked by the toilets. Gross I know, but the trough in the mens was blocked leaving the entire floor a half-inch deep in overflow. Eeuuuww.

Our overnight bus (which wasn’t bad) left the station a little late and half empty. A problem the driver tried to remedy once outside the station but his efforts only netted him one additional passenger. Just when I thought we were off we pulled into another back alley to load up with freight – we ended up leaving around an hour later than scheduled (20h30). The roads were very good, I managed to move from underneath the TV to a bunk above V’s, and we settled in for the night. With no toilet on board (good thing) the bus kept stopping throughout the night for loo breaks and to rotate drivers leading to a disrupted nights sleep. Around 1am we hit a bumpy and windy section of road that threatened to throw me out of my bunk but it did not last long. Tomorrow will be tough with the lack of sleep but we are both extremely excited to be leaving China and entering Laos. (Note: The GPS tag for this post is Mengla where we arrived at around 6am on 13/09).

[Pictures: A mega mall in Kunming – it just keeps going]

– Posted from my iPhone via Wifi