The rain in China falls mainly on the plain, and the mountain and the valley, and the plateau

Rain, rain, rain and guess what? More rain!

Today is our 5th day in China and it's the 5th day it has rained. Not Vietnamese monsoonal rains, but constant drizzly Melbourne in May or perhaps October rain that is ever present and very wet. We are in Yunnan province which is one of the southernmost areas of China and home to Tiger Leaping Gorge, lots if Ethnic sub groups and the totally excellent Brothers Jiang restaurant in Kunming where they serve the best Across The Bridge noodles (named across the bridge because the guy that named them had to go across the bridge from his house to get them...) either Shell or I have ever tasted.

We got here via a 25 hour overnighting bus extravaganza from Luang Prabang which has set the standard in terms of painful and surreal travel experiences. Whilst it's probably deserving of it's own post (in the near future - coming soon!) it's suffice to say that anyone who reckons it's exciting or adventurous to cross remote land borders is either

a) an idiot;
b) a masochist; or
c) both

Maybe I'm being harsh but the pain is still fresh in my mind.

Anyway, getting back to China, what we have seen so far is great! I am now a great admirer of the Chinese Road and Rail infrastructure. The toilet infrastructure, in general, needs some prompt attention.

We got to Kunming, the capital of Yunnan province, at about 8 am in the morning and went straight to our hostel where we managed to wash the stench of the bus ride off us and go and do some exploring around town. Yunnan is on the footstep of the Tibetan plateau, averaging about 1900m elevation for most of the middle and northern parts of the province. The higher altitude gives the benefit of milder temperatures, which when mixed with incessant rain and spending a month in the tropics means that we are cold. As for Kunming it is a standard big city with traffic and a nice park that we walked around and also a nice cinema where we watched Kung Fu Panda one day, and then Hancock the next.

Not terribly exciting, but it did have the Across the Bridge noodles at the Brothers Jiang restaurant which gave us our first real view of Chinese manners in a busy situation: There are none! This restaurant basically just does these noodles (actually a noodle soup) and the locals love it, so much so they arrive in their thousands at midday and wrestle each other for seats. The way it works is thus:

1. Pay for your food outside, sight unseen and, as every thing's written in Chinese, possibly not what you are after. But pay nonetheless
2. Enter the dining area, which is roughly equivalent to a rugby scrum, and try and find a non existent seat
3. Get dragged by a waiter into another section of the restaurant, where he tries to claim some seats for you but with no luck
4. Stalk people who look like they might be finishing their food, getting ready to pounce on the seats. Just like a really busy carpark at Chadstone
5. Panic, telling yourself (or your husband/wife) that you don't understand how this works and we will never get our food and do you think they will give us our money back...
6. Finally get waved down by a good Samaritan who gives you his seats as he and his mate leave
7. Have a waitress snatch your receipt from you and replace it with 1 large plate of raw meat, 1 small plate of vegetables, 1 small plate of nibblies such as cashew nuts and pickles, and a bowl of the freshest noodles you have ever seen.
8. Have same waitress dump a 3 litre pot of boiling stock in front of you.
9. Add meat, followed by vegies and noodles
10. Enjoy!

It was really stressful, but really good food. We also had another top shelf meal in Kunming but as for the rest of the food, the oil the Chinese put in EVERYTHING is starting to take it's toll on our health and sanity when it comes to eating. Other things that are weird are the mass spitting that takes place in all public places by Chinese people. Everybody, and I mean everybody, lets fly with a big hock and grolly combo at any and every opportunity. Yesterday Shell and I were having a quiet cup of tea in Dali and a little 5 year old kid walking along with Grandma pulled out a beauty and Nanna didn't even bat an eyelid. Very disturbing.

But it's not all bad. We are enjoying ourselves, having spent a couple of days in the Ancient Bai capital of Dali which was pretty and had wicked walls surrounding the old city. Also our mandarin is coming along nicely. Between the two of us we have mastered:

• Hello
• Goodbye
• Thankyou
• Yes
• No
• Excuse me
• Steamed Rice
• Bill (as in restaurant bill)
• Toilet
• Numbers 1 - 99 (more or less)

It's quite a lot of fun. Well that's enough lists and anecdotes from me. Hopefully the rain clears up and we can walk Tiger Leaping Gorge (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tiger_Leaping_Gorge) on Monday and Tuesday and then after that we head off to Chengdu to check out the Pandas.