21st December: Kunming, China

When out for morning coffee, I wandered the nearest fancy shopping centre where Christmas songs were playing on a loop. To my amazement, I found an icebreaker merino store – they don’t officially have any in China (or the rest of Asia) but apparently there are a handful of ‘touch stores’ as a trial in this vast country and one happened to be right here. Prices were equivalent to the UK, so no bargains but I could do with an extra thin pair of socks for the upcoming warmer weather of Southeast Asia. When I compared the pair I’d bought they turned out to be the exact same model of socks as I already have! Luckily, returning to shops seems to be fine here.

That excitement of sock shopping over, we hopped on the bus to Da Guan Pavilion Park. Unfortunately, we were snarled in traffic and the journey took a lot longer than we expected to reach the large lake to the southwest of the city. The park was full of brightly coloured installations and very busy with families – it was at this point we realised it was Saturday! It was pleasant enough walking the lake shores, with thousands more gulls here for winter, but as we’re both feeling a little under the weather we didn’t stay for too long.

Rather than the bus back, we ordered a DiDi to the nearest metro and took that option. Taxi and the metro fare for both of us was only 13 Yuan (£1.40) and we completed our bargain basement afternoon by filling up at the 16 Yuan buffet! The staff kindly made us some noodles too, with nearly a dozen sauces giving it the perfect sour, spicy, crunchy, and fresh balance. Good job as most of the buffet dishes today were either disappointing or very strong flavours, such as fermented tofu. Still, for the price it’s a bargain.