For my college graduation my parents wanted to give me something unique and special as my gift. What is more unique and special than a trip back to the motherland, especially Yunnan province? I couldn't pass up the opportunity. I left on the 16th of October from Philadelphia and landed in Hong Kong later Sunday evening. I went over the North Pole! You can see the snow in the first picture. There, I met up with my parents who were coming from a week in Japan visiting the Kimura family with Nicole and Toshio. It felt good to back in Hong Kong. It felt strangely familar and comforting. It was good to be back after nearly three years. We met up with Auntie Julie and Uncle Pancras, Auntie Jackie and Uncle Young, Auntie Jackie's two sisters and their three friends, Auntie Hazel, Auntie Betsy and her husband. Altogether, thirteen people from Hong Kong, the US, and the UK. They're all a funny group of people and the small tour size helped in being flexible. We flew to Kunming where we met our Cantonese tour guide, A-Jing. Follow the story along with the pictures! So simpul. You can start at Kunming by click on me above or jump to the other cities here: Dali Lijiang Shangri-La Hong Kong

Question: Which do you prefer, peeing off in the bushes for free with clean fresh air or peeing at a pitstop for 5 RMB with stinky stale air? How come we never pee in the bushes..
Complaint: Mandarin is annoying sounding language. Chinese people have no manners. During the dance show, everyone was chatting, giggling and worst of all, one their cellphone chatting and giggling.
Comment: All of the women in Yunnan were beautiful. We saw numerous unique ethnic groups and nearly all of them, I kid you not, were amazing. They had strong facial features, clear skin and tone bodies. They didn't look like the standard Shanghainese, pale-skin skinny round faced beauty. It was different and wholly good. The Aunties wanted to marry me off to one of the wealthy landowners who had a beautiful daughter. Because men move into the women's household in their cultures, they figured they could stay with me while on vacation. Didn't happen, sadly.
Note: I tried new foods! A purple banana - flesh was mildly sweet and mildly fragrant with a slightly gooey texture. Tamarind - the flesh around the seed pods is tangy and sweet. Chinese rice wine (I don't know the name, the bartender wrote the name in Chinese for me)- tastes similar to sake. Roasted goat - not too gamey, but dry and kind of tough. Local hot dog with chili powder - not really a hot dog, more like a spam dog, the chili powder made it taste ten times better. Roasted sweet potato - starchy, mildy sweet. Roasted potato with chili powder - mild potato with a nice kick. "Hoi Sum Gwo" - looked like a pear but tasted like mild honeydew. Pomelo - tastes like pomelo, though it was drier than I remembered. "Wunnam Fo Teui" - Ham from Wunnam, famous, slightly salty, but not as good as Virginia in my opinion.
Key Purchases: KweiChow Moutai - the wine that Mao served to Nixon! Granite Painting - a piece of granite cut and polished smooth that looks like a classical chinese painting of mountains and fog. Giant Pocky - it's pocky, but huge!