Latest Comments

• • May 11, 2012
  • Getting Away: Vang Vieng
    

    Vang Vieng is a great place. I stay at the Elephant Crossing hotel. Quite nice but $45USD a night. A bit steep for the backpackers and consumers of 'magic" goods. So it is pretty quiet.

    Rooms face the river and Karst formations. Clouds and wisps of clouds in and around the Karst mountains provide a constantly changing view.

    Vang Vieng is my favorite sit-and-do-nothing place on Laos.

• • May 5, 2012
  • Snapshot: Kunming Carnival's Grand Parade
    

    GBTEXDOC, blobbles, Heinz

    I agree with you guys. GK, please get ahead of events. We might like to go too!

• • January 4, 2012
  • Kunming's etymological vapor trail
    

    bluppfisk is right. Calibre is really good and easy to use. I have found making your own original ebooks for the kindle fairly easy. I do it this way: Word -> RTF -> MOBI. PDF docs can be converted as well but it depends on how the PDF doc was created. Color photos can look sad on the kindle so they are best converted to BW first.

• • January 4, 2012
  • Kunming's etymological vapor trail
    

    Walter, got mine from Kindle. Project Gutenberg has a version with illustrations.

    Actually, Project Gutenberg has more than 200 FREE downloads on China. Many of these are in Chinese, 汉字。

    Any .mobi ebook will work on a Kindle or Kindle for PC or Mac.

• • January 3, 2012
  • Kunming's etymological vapor trail
    

    This is interesting stuff. Thanks.

    I have a free Kindle book, "Across China on foot" by Edwin Dingle, 1911. He spends a lot of time walking around Yunnan. He writes of being in the Yunnan Province capital of "Yun-Nan Fu" (云南府 ??). Not once does he use "Kunming".
    Prior to the Mongols capturing what they named Kunming, it was known as Tuodong.

    Note: You can download Kindle for PC or Mac, it is free. There are thousands of free books and several on China. It is fascinating to read 100 year old comments on China, Chinese, and China culture which are unchanged from feudal times until today.

Latest Forum Posts

• • May 24, 2012
    
  • Forums > Living in Kunming > Two flies and your out.
    

    @laotou

    Nobama is what is happening in the US.

    The current admin does not like old people. Does not like expats either. As I am old and an expat and a Conservative I used up all my strikes.

    Maybe I can get a job in Beijing as a Hygiene Vector Control Agent. I'll check with Yang Rui to see if it is ok.

• • May 24, 2012
    
  • Forums > Living in Kunming > Two flies and your out.
    

    Amnesty International should defend the WC Fly Rights!

• • May 24, 2012
    
  • Forums > Living in Kunming > sound familiar?
    

    For along time I would have agreed with nnoble as well. In California I dated Asian women, married a couple of them too, and from time to time witnessed them being asked, "Where are you from?" One ABC lady took great exception to this question. She pointed out that I wasn't asked where I was from. She said no one would ask a Black where he/she was from.

    Here in China, we are often asked these questions which get tedious after a few hundred times. Since coming to Kunming after six years in Beijing I got in the habit of saying "我是北京人." Mostly I enjoyed the confusion looks.

    Given the human need to deal in stereotypes, I can understand the Chinese need to classify us. Often I get taken as a Russian or,worse yet, a Frenchman.

    On a bus last week, an elderly guy asked me something in non-putonghua Chinese and I responded I didn't understand. He grew quite loud and did some showboating about foreigners for his captive audience. After about two minutes, I asked him if he could speak Polish, French, German, Spanish, or Vietnamese in those languages, he grew silent. Nice to get a 'Gotcha' now and then.

• • May 22, 2012
    
  • Forums > Study > Chinese graded readers wanted
    

    My tutor went to a Chinese bookseller web site and bought Graded Chinese Reader 1, 2 and 3 for me. Less than 80 RMB for all three. Works out to about $4.30 USD per book.

    A lot cheaper than $29.95 on Amazon.com.

• • May 22, 2012
    
  • Forums > Living in Kunming > CCTV Host Yang Rui
    

    I posted the link because I felt there was a need to be aware of the reaction to what we, expats, do and how we behave. Which is pretty normal on the part of Chinese.

    Keep smiling and keep cool. DO NOT overreact. Be situationally aware as you go about your business as you should be doing anyway.

    It is just SOS. Give it some time and it'll pass.

Latest Reviews

• • Geezer
    February 6, 2012
    
  • Kunming > O'Reilly's Irish Pub
    O'Reilly's爱尔兰酒吧

    Watched the Super Bowl this morning with about 30 other fans. Close game, bad result :-(

    Thanks to O'Rielly's for getting up early after a late rugby night. Really appreciate having a venue for sports.

• • Geezer
    August 10, 2011
    
  • Kunming > Cacao Mexican Restaurant
    墨西哥餐厅

    I learned to love Mexican food in East LA. I guess that is pretty much Tex-Mex. You will not get Tex-Mex at Cacao.

    The food is good and the place looks like a fine dining restaurant, which is to say very nice. I went there last week on a hot evening and it was nice to sit outside with a cool breeze.

    I had beef tacos and a beef burrito. Although pretty good it was not what I expected. For my taste there needs to be more flavor. Actually, I'd say it was pretty bland.

    The tacos were presented nicely but the tortillas were super thin and crumbly so the tacos had to be eaten with a fork. The burrito was good. I brought my own hot sauce so I made it better.

    I saw at least two guys that looked Mexican. Service was very good and friendly.

    I will go back and while no longer thinking Tex-Mex, I will try some of interesting looking stuff on the menu.

• • Geezer
    July 13, 2011
    
  • Kunming > Cacaja Indian Restaurant
    印度菜菜

    This place really swings from excellent food and great service to crap food and worse service.

    I have noticed it depends on if the owner is there. At least the best experience was when he was there.

    I do like Indian food but am reluctant to go back.

• • Geezer
    June 1, 2011
    
  • Kunming > The Box
    老夫子

    This is a non review.

    Went to The Box for the first time. Hmm kababs all sold out, no ham so no ham dishes. Ok, lets have a pizza. Picked the Super Pizza and agreed it would be sans ham.

    Ops! No pizza dough. They offered to let us sit in the warm upstairs for an hours wait. Fearful they would find there was no pizza sauce, we left.

    It was last Sunday evening, about 7:30pm. Plenty of other places still had food.

• • Geezer
    March 27, 2011
    
  • Kunming > Tenwest Mandarin School
    英海学校

    The web site needs fixing.

• The Old Theatre Inn
• Lost Garden Guesthouse & Restaurant
• Chicago Coffee
• Kunming Mei's Mandarin School
• As You Like
• Keats School
• Moondog
• GoKunming
• YMCA Club 1933
• Slice of Heaven
• Kingsway Tented Resorts
• Camel Bar
• The Mask
• Bakery 88
• Kunming College of Eastern Language and Culture
• My Favor Restaurant
• Chapter One
• Wonders Of Yunnan Travel
• O'Reilly's Irish Pub
• Salvador's Coffee House
• Wangtianshu Restaurant & Deli
• Tenwest Mandarin School
• Cacao Mexican Restaurant
• Flying Tigers Restaurant
• Kunming Yu-Cong Enterprise Management Company
• Huiying Dental Clinic