Special Guest Post: Grandpa Fred

Today's post is a special guest entry from my grandfather describing his adventures with my mom in Kunming following my departure from Shanghai...


I’ve been waiting a month for divine revelation to tell me how to add on to the end of Alan’s blog about our China trip, but alas, it has not come. The words have been buzzing around in my head all this time, so it is time to get them out.

The road (paved road) ends about 5km out of Kunming. From there it is only rough stones about the size of two bricks. These stones are uneven, so it’s very rough. Our van rattles and vibrations to the extent that we must shout to carry on a conversation. We are on way to Lake Nuguru which is about 200km from Kunming and will take us about six hours to get there.

Our driver doesn’t speak English but it is evident that he has driven this road many times. It is breakneck speed all the way and this is on mountain roads that ascend to ridges and then descend into valleys. Out driver explains with his hands that there are six more ridges to cross. Anything that moves up ahead must be passed, so we bear down on them and shoot past no matter what lies ahead. In addition there are numerous rock slides that have fallen on the road and in some places the road is washed away with only one lane remaining. You might say that the road itself is “a trip.” Our driver is in love with his horn, blowing it at everything that moves or might move along the way. He blows it on curves , also, which is a good thing.

Alan left us in Shanghai where Brad very graciously supplied transport to the airport for him. Later, after a five hour delay, we flew south on China Eastern, one of China’s excellent domestic airlines. We were met at the Kunming airport and taken to a prominent hotel which had an impressive lobby but nonfunctioning plumbing (we had to change rooms).

The next day it was a two hour flight to Lijang, an ancient city that is the home of the Naxi minority group. We had planned to make this part of the trip on our own, but thankfully, Dr. Peter Tang and Brad realized that would need help so they made arrangements for us. ijang reminded me of Waikiki. The Naxi culture was there somewhere but it was hard to find with all the souvenir shops, restaurants and bars catering to tourists from all over the world, but mainly from China itself. We found a place called Sakoura that served everything from congee to crepes for breakfast.

Out accommodations were in a guest house (“300 years old”) perched on the side of a hill with tiny passageways and doorways. The beds were the hardest yet but that was the least of our problems. There might have been a shower somewhere but it wasn’t in our room. Toilets were down the hall.

One evening we attended a concert of traditional Naxi music, a must in Lijang. This same music with ancient instruments was performed for the last emperor of China hundreds of years ago. Lots of clangs and bells played by wonderful old men who were very serious about there performance. Every afternoon the Naxi ladies in there traditional dress performed their dances in an open plaza……just like the Kodak hula show in Honolulu.

This morning it was into the van and off to Lake Nuguru. We finally go over the last ridge and drop down toward the extensive lake dotted with several islands. Instead of going to our “hotel” the driver took us down to the lake shore. We were ushered out and into a rough hewn canoe with about eight others and paddled off toward one of the islands that had a pagoda. Numerous other boats were going and coming and being paddled by minority ladies in their colorful dress as well as some men.

We climbed to the pagoda and found that it was a Tibetan Buddhist with prayer wheels around the outside. Prayer flags fluttered from lines strung among the trees and wild dahlias marked the landscape. Judy spoke to the monk on duty inside.

Then it was back into the boats and back to where we started.