User profile: voltaire

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Forums > Travel Yunnan > Cycling to Fuxian Lake

I live at Fuxian lake.... I cycled it 13 years ago when there were still farms in the way!

If you come down get in touch and I can maybe take you out on a sailing boat on the lake. Many cheap hotels here... PM me for a phone number.

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Forums > Travel Yunnan > Traveling overland from Yunnan to Thailand

Get the subway from central Kunming to the south bus station (Luosiwan). Bus from Kunming south bus station to Jinghong (~11hrs).

Either: (A) Stay in a cheap hotel, enjoy a night sitting around the cafes and wandering along the newly LED-enhanced Mekong, then get the first bus in the morning to Guanlei (关累). (B) Bus immediately onward to Menglun, where the Chinese tropical botanical gardens are worth a stroll and hotels should be cheaper than Jinghong (plus, you won't spend money on booze because there's nothing going on!). Then onward to Guanlei in the morning.

Guanlei is where the cargo boats depart for Thailand. Not only is taking one of these cheaper, more relaxing and more beautiful than the Laos-by-bus route, but there is no intermediate Laos visa required before arriving in Thailand.

When you get to Guanlei just ask around the docks for a boat fare down, should be maybe 300RMB Guanlei to Chiang Saen. From Chiang Saen it's a cheap bus ride to Chiang Rai or Chiang Mai, both more pleasant than Bangkok and connected with it by bus or in Chiang Mai's case sleeper train as well. (Though the sleeper compartment tickets can be hard to get without booking at least a few days in advance).

Fear not: if Guanlei won't stamp you out, they'll just refer you to Mengla (the very nearby land border) and you can take the more expensive overland fallback. But really, do try the boat.

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Wow, I thought this was a picture of the fake boats in northern Dianchi (shallow part, between Xishan and Daguanlou Gongyuan) but in fact apparently someone manufactured a bunch of these little square-riggers for the south of the lake (晋宁县沙堤村码头), and they are actually in use! I would be super keen to go check them out. Probably it's a good season, since fishing is over, it's still warm before the winter, the boats are idle, so we should be able to have a sail. I've never sailed a square-rigger, they are apparently very difficult to turn. See Wikipedia for background: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Square_rig

Anyone interested in a trip this weekend? tigertiger?

Yes I also had doubts about that. (For example there were extensive such formations in New Zealand in the past, though many were destroyed by volcanic activity.) Otherwise, great article as always Jim! The forest above Baishuitai is amazing, if you have the time spend a day climbing in mushroom season: you won't regret it.

Right. The shorter/'real'/'high' hump route from which the name derives was to upper Assam / Dinjan over the Kachin lands. Mandalay seems close to flying the second half of the longer/'low' hump route from Calcutta. Sad they couldn't make this happen. Maybe the China connection was a bit bureaucratically touchy in India, where communist era China marched an army!

Reviews

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@nailer is being unfairly dismissed: they are certainly fallible. At one point they were well managed and the only game in town, and their outdoor bar had an interesting social vibe. Recently, none of these is the case (was given a bad bill to the tune of ~300% - no managers present and a subsequent complaint resulted in a less than ideal outcome, many more places are now open, and the outdoor bar is closed). Unless you are specifically seeking faux-Americana (often far better examples elsewhere) or two degrees removed faux-Mexicana, there's little reason to go there. How come French Cafe can serve a great sandwich for 24 but Sals requires 50 for a pretend-exoticized nibble? Certainly the business will continue, but the hey-dey is clearly gone. Romaniticizing the past aint gonna help. E-waste recycling by shipping (non carbon neutral) junk across the country? Puh-lease. Garbage processing people here recycle anyway! I applaud the ethical stance of one of the managers, but the place has frankly lost its mojo.

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Hands down the best draft craft beer in Kunming. On top of that, very reasonable prices for food and other drinks (especially wine).

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Called the number provided on a Friday at 2:15PM while a 10% discount was advertised "on Friday and Saturday" (listed in GoKunming specials).

A Chinese person answered the 'English' phone number in Mandarin then explained in broken English that you need to order 3 hours in advance. (Subtext: As their business is so slow)

Grumble. False advertising. Waste of time. Seems 100% Chinese run. Probably bad pizza.

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The listing here is wrong! Teresa's are not defunct, they are just back to being one store instead of two stores on Wenlinjie now! They are still in business, still answer on this phone number, and are still delivering! Points for consistency, it's been years! As of right now, it's 68 for the more toppings vegetarian at the largest size. They will do thin or thick crust. Yes, it's not to everyone's taste, but I always used to find adding dried chilli powder and some extra salt brought it up to tasty. Might go for a dash of Sichuan pepper oil to spice it up this time around. (You know you've been in China too long when...)

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I also had a bad experience here recently.

Honestly, I wish them the best of luck, but I do think the staff are poorly managed and the owners have the wrong attitude and a clear lack of experience in service-oriented business. While the pizza is OK, everything else I have tried (including overnight stay) can be had cheaper and better elsewhere, and the pizza at Roccos is better in my opinion. The service has always fluctuated between acceptable to don't care.

Since they don't have their situation resolved yet, and it has been a few years, I have made the decision not to go there anymore or send anyone else. It's just not worth the hassle, given the crappy location (masked as private or lost). Better pizza with more quiet and privacy on Roccos' terraces.