TUN Day 13: 09/02/09 - Around Kunming

We signed up for a tour to visit 石林 (Stone Forest) coz it was very much cheaper. The whole tour costs 120 or 110 yuan per person, can't remember exactly, while the admission to 石林 was already 140 yuan. But we encountered a few probs before we could get on the tour. The first tour wanted to charge us 180 yuan when they realised we were foreigners and of course we didn't want to pay that and wanted to go on our own when the guesthouse owners found another tour agency for us. This second agency could charge us the same price but they wanted us to hide the fact that we are not locals from the tour people.

Being on a package tour has its pros and cons. The tour first brought us to this temple that would otherwise have cost another 10 yuan for the admission fee but that was before they brought us to a jade shop.

So it was only in the afternoon that we reached 石林 and due to that, we only stayed there for around 2hrs or maybe even less than that when it was supposed to be the main highlight. The tour guide told us that it was the off peak season but from the looks of it, it definitely suggests otherwise.

A big piece of rock that looks precariously held between two small cliffs but in actual fact, it has already been in that position for eons.

石林 from the highest point within the park. 石林 used to be underwater but when the tectonic activity that formed the Himalayas happened millions of years ago, this whole mass was pushed up to where it is now.

This highest point within the park happened to be a pavilion and this was the actual situation on it. There was only one narrow staircase leading up and down the pavilion and here, everyone was squashed while trying to make their way down.

If you ignore the fact that there are people within arm reach in every direction around you, the sights over here are actually very pretty.

There were lots of sites within the park where the stones resemble something else, much like cloud watching. Of course, this involves quite a bit of imagination too. I remembered this looked like a cat when i was taking the picture but now i think it looks like a terrier.

This is Pigsy or 猪八戒 from the classic novel Journey to the West or 《西游记》;

And this is 唐三藏 or Tripitaka. Someone from the tour was asking where was 孙悟空 and then another guy replied that he was still fighting against 白骨精 coz we passed a site earlier on that was actually the filming location for that scene for the CCTV dramatisation of the novel.