Tibet 1.1 - Chicago to Kunming (June 11-15)
So after a nearly 26 hour trip from Chicago to Kunming China (5hrs to LA, 2.5 hrs in LA, 13hrs to Beijing, 3hrs in Beijing, 3hrs to Kunming), I was tired and stinky, but grateful to have finally arrived at my destination. I was met by Feng and Lei who picked me up at the airport. Feng is another mycologist who is a student of Zhu Yang. He will be the other mycologist joining on this trip. Lei is a botanist and a postdoc at the Kunming Institute which is hosting this expedition. He’s also a former postdoc of Jun Wen, the de-facto leader of our expedition from the Smithsonian. Considered a ‘force of nature’ by Rick Ree.
Along with our driver, we navigated through the streets of Kunming to find a bank where I could exchange some US currency for Chinese yuan. Kunming is a crowded city. Lots of chaotic traffic (that I’ll save a separate blog for) and lots of construction too. Apartment buildings from what I can gather. New building construction was lashed together by what looks like synthetic bamboo. Likely a form of metal rebar or something
Anyway, they took me to a great lunch just outside the north gate of the Kunming Botanical Institute. We ordered a ton of food that I couldn’t stop eating. The food on the flights over were lousy so having this meal
really hit the spot. They then took me to my guest house and checked me into this nice suite. I also met the other Chicagoan, Jackie, who is a student of Rick Ree’s at the Field Museum. I told her we should meet up for a dinner and a beer after I cleaned up a bit and had a quick nap. That nap ended up lasting 4-5 hours and by the time I got up Jackie was already gone. Thankfully too, cause I was still tired and went back to bed.
My first day was mostly uneventful. Jackie went to mass and was surprised to hear that no one had bothered to contact either of us regarding the trip the whole day. I called Jei so I could send off an email to my parents and only then did I hear that they were sending the vehicles over that afternoon so we could load them. I was wondering how they were expecting to inform us other than driving up and announcing 'were here, now pack your luggage and put it in the truck since were not leaving until tomorrow.' Ah well. I finally met Jun when the vehicles came by to load some of our luggage. Up to that point, there seems to have been very little in terms of a set schedule. The only plan so far was to meet promptly at 7AM to put in our last bit of luggage into the vehicles before heading out to China’s ‘wild west’.
That night we got together with Fredrick for dinner, a french botanist doing his postdoc here. He’s been here 2 years and had a pretty good grasp of the language. We went with 2 more of his Chinese friends and lastly, Rosemary who is a mycology student from Camaroon studying Ganoderma. We had chinese hot pot that night for dinner. Delicious! The floating chilies on the boiling broth reminded me of an episode of "No Vacancy" where Bourdain visited a hot pot in Sichuan. Though my hot pot was just on the boarder of my spice tolerance, I doubt it was nearly as destructive as the hot pot on that episode. Fredrick even mentioned that he ordered the mild hot pot. I thanked him for that.
Anyway, I’m here. A new day has just started and I’m eager to move onto Tibet. I don’t have ready internet access, but from what I understand there should be internet bars to encounter along the way. My next destination is Shangri-La (AKA Zhongdian). You can read about this region in the latest issue of National Geographic (May 2009). I have the copy my dad gave with me on the trip. Something else to do if mushrooms are hard to come by.
Peace.
andy....
Along with our driver, we navigated through the streets of Kunming to find a bank where I could exchange some US currency for Chinese yuan. Kunming is a crowded city. Lots of chaotic traffic (that I’ll save a separate blog for) and lots of construction too. Apartment buildings from what I can gather. New building construction was lashed together by what looks like synthetic bamboo. Likely a form of metal rebar or somethingAnyway, they took me to a great lunch just outside the north gate of the Kunming Botanical Institute. We ordered a ton of food that I couldn’t stop eating. The food on the flights over were lousy so having this meal
really hit the spot. They then took me to my guest house and checked me into this nice suite. I also met the other Chicagoan, Jackie, who is a student of Rick Ree’s at the Field Museum. I told her we should meet up for a dinner and a beer after I cleaned up a bit and had a quick nap. That nap ended up lasting 4-5 hours and by the time I got up Jackie was already gone. Thankfully too, cause I was still tired and went back to bed.My first day was mostly uneventful. Jackie went to mass and was surprised to hear that no one had bothered to contact either of us regarding the trip the whole day. I called Jei so I could send off an email to my parents and only then did I hear that they were sending the vehicles over that afternoon so we could load them. I was wondering how they were expecting to inform us other than driving up and announcing 'were here, now pack your luggage and put it in the truck since were not leaving until tomorrow.' Ah well. I finally met Jun when the vehicles came by to load some of our luggage. Up to that point, there seems to have been very little in terms of a set schedule. The only plan so far was to meet promptly at 7AM to put in our last bit of luggage into the vehicles before heading out to China’s ‘wild west’.
That night we got together with Fredrick for dinner, a french botanist doing his postdoc here. He’s been here 2 years and had a pretty good grasp of the language. We went with 2 more of his Chinese friends and lastly, Rosemary who is a mycology student from Camaroon studying Ganoderma. We had chinese hot pot that night for dinner. Delicious! The floating chilies on the boiling broth reminded me of an episode of "No Vacancy" where Bourdain visited a hot pot in Sichuan. Though my hot pot was just on the boarder of my spice tolerance, I doubt it was nearly as destructive as the hot pot on that episode. Fredrick even mentioned that he ordered the mild hot pot. I thanked him for that.Anyway, I’m here. A new day has just started and I’m eager to move onto Tibet. I don’t have ready internet access, but from what I understand there should be internet bars to encounter along the way. My next destination is Shangri-La (AKA Zhongdian). You can read about this region in the latest issue of National Geographic (May 2009). I have the copy my dad gave with me on the trip. Something else to do if mushrooms are hard to come by.
Peace.
andy....
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