User profile: ludwig

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Forums > Living in Kunming > Buying a Kindle in KM

You would not even be able to get the new Kindle in the US right away, so your chances of getting a genuine product right now here in KM are pretty slim.

I had seen them on offer on taobao — before the Kindle Paperwhite had even been announced by Amazon. Buyer beware.
Plenty of other ebook readers available at the computer malls near 121大街.

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Forums > Living in Kunming > passport name and ticket name

I once travelled on a ticket (booked by phone) that had my first name as Luduuig (w = double 'u', geddit?). That was in Europe a long while ago.

In China, they seem to be pretty used to reversed first and last names as well as truncated spellings.

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Forums > Living in Kunming > Water pressure troubleshooting

That sounds like a very Chinese recipe for me. It works, so it must be good.

Who cares that you just put a whole lot of toxic chemicals into your water supply. And possibly burned away the sealing inside your hot water boiler.
Looks clean, of course. Must be ok then. Particularly for that price.

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Forums > Living in Kunming > Why I Now Hate B&Q and Toto

"The pump, which is about the size of a dead hedgehog, is basically silent and once installed requires no maintenance."

— until it dies.

Ours blew up just a few days ago, noxious fumes coming from it. Disconnecting the electricity stopped worse things happening, but it now is as useful as a dead hedgehog. Nothing lasts very long here.

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I do not think Yereth managed to crawl out of bed 'looking for the perfect early morning shot': they do not keep the lanterns on until the morning, so it was probably accidental shutter release on the way home after a few beers.

Best time for a good picture at Black Dragon Pool is early morning, after 8:30 the light turns flat even in winter. Plus bring a long lens to shorten the perspective. With your Lijiang 80Y ticket you only get one entrance to the park, but it is easy to see if it will be worthwhile from the outside.

I am not sure if the building still exists, but near the market is/was a two story building where (with a little bribe to a local resident) you could climb on the roof for a shot over the old city towards the mountain: best in the afternoon.

Lijiang is the only place where I hesitate to take photos of the very few remaining locals. They must be feeling like Paris Hilton out in her underwear every time they leave their house. Give them a break.

The airport express busses are supposed to be starting at 5am, not sure if it is true though. #1 runs from the old Nanjiang Hotel at Xiaoximen.

en.kunming.cn/index/content/2012-03/05/content_2865380.htm

Otherwise I have found that it is no problem getting a taxi early in the morning from the Kundu area, much easier than later in the day. Around 6am plenty of taxis still show up to take people back from a night out and they always seemed to be happy to take me rather than someone likely to throw up inside their car.

You can all check how much water you are using by looking at your water bill: a cubic meter (=1000l) of water costs 3.45Y, so if your bill comes to more than 10Y per month per person you are using more than 100l per day.

Even on our half-day rationed water in our flat, we still managed to use about 70l per person per day in April/May. We blame the cleaning lady.

August is certainly not the best month to go. Even if it does not rain, the mountains are most of the time shrouded in clouds. Landslides are the biggest risk, particularly if one attempts to cross a recent one.

Properly done, the walk is not difficult and there are some ways to cut out the more boring bits. I would suggest taking a car up to a little teahouse, called something like Sunrise Guesthouse where the trail branches off the dirt road that goes up to some village. (Starting from Qiaotou the walk is first along the road, then up the mentioned dirt road, before it becomes a trail.) The best guesthouse the Naxi Family GH, IMHO, then comes after a not too difficult walk. It has the nicest views in the afternoon (clouds permitting) and is not as crowded as Halfway House. The second day would take you through the 18 bends and the highest point to Halfway GH for lunch (not many people there for lunch, many Koreans seem to arrive after dark, hiking all the way from Qiaotou), and after lunch down to the road at Tina's, from where you could take a car back to Lijiang (the walk is then all along the road).

The coming weekend is particularly good for a visit to Xishan as 三月三 (the third of March in the lunar calendar, this year on March 24th) is the traditional folk festival day 耍西山. It is an occasion for theatrical performances like local opera plays, song and dance and is extremely popular. (If you are looking for solitude, this might be a day to avoid.)

To make the most of the weekend, this year the festival is extended to Sunday as well. More info on this year's activities here: yn.yunnan.cn/html/2012-03/16/content_2097736.htm

Reviews

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It is rare to find good approximations of western food anywhere in China and their lamb-chops (listed as lamb T-bone steak or so) were the best I have found so far. They came with good fries and the beer was cold. I liked the way that they serve the gloopy 'black-pepper sauce' separately, so one can just skip it. Pleasant and quick service too.

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A pleasant modern eatery. The menu claims the chef worked for a large Chinese chain of Thai restaurants, but the Thai aspect of the food is difficult to find.

I gave the 'boneless chicken feet' a miss and had some spicy beef which while not bad was closer to the usual Sichuan fare than anything Thai. A dog under the table quickly lapping up any dropped food complemented the Sichuan experience.

The spring rolls were not bad though and together with a beer the bill came to Y58.

Easiest improvement would be better rice.

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Easily the best bread to be found in Yunnan with friendly and efficient service. I have made detours to Dali just to pick up some bread on the way back to Kunming.