Volunteers UNITE.

So its coming up to the end of my volunteering stint here in the South of China and on the rare occurrence I actually get given a few days holiday from time to time, I like to go and explore what China has to offer. This was probably my last holiday out here and luckily all of the volunteers had the same time off so we thought it was now or never to have one last time together before we went our separate ways. When we all thought about a place to meet, it only seemed logical to all go back to where this all began, where the adventure started, Kunming. I've done a few post's on Kunming before but after going back there again I have definitely decided that it is one of y favourite places in the world. The weather is perfect, the shopping is great but it also still has that charm of China. Small amounts of Chinese architecture still scatter the city and it really is an up and coming place, not so far from the metropolitan cities such as Shanghai and Beijing.

Some of the volunteers took 16 hour trains to arrive in Kunming, I however rolled out of bed and met Natalie to get the just 1 hour bus to Kunming. The people of Yunnan, the province I live in, say that my home town Yuxi 玉溪 is the best place in the south and the nicest place to live. I happen to agree and it was oh so convenient to live so close to the capital. Everyone was there pretty early but Natalie and I decided to rock up late...as usual! When we arrived it was like nothing had changed. It was so surreal. My first few weeks in China were spent teacher training in Kunming and I associate the city with such incredible happy memories. It was so great to see the guys from Sichuan and the other volunteers from Yunnan, or the "Yunnan 5" as we like to dub ourselves! We stayed in a really cool hostel called 'The Hump'. We had been there a few time for drinks as it has the most incredible roof terrace in the middle of the city. The rooms were really nice and I actually enjoy sharing with 9 other random people - meeting fellow travellers normally results in lots of advice and sharing stories of adventures. We dropped our bags and headed to the one place we knew so well from our previous trip - foreign street!

I love foreign street, but its not as western as it sounds. It has the best restaurants, the best street shopping and a really cool atmosphere. We went for dinner, did a little shopping and headed to a bar called 'The Box' (incidentally this is where most of the messy events of the weekend occurred - they did sell nice cookies though) We then met a group of American people who were studying in the city so we invited them back to the hostel for a few drinks. By the time we got back, it was about 1:30am ish and everyone was either crashing out or going out to the clubs. Becca (the most amazing person ever) and I decided to just hang out together and have some drinks. It was so great and such a perfect night.

The next day we all decided it would be more than a good idea to extend our reunion in Kunming and booked ourselves in for one extra night there. The weather, as usual, was perfect and we all decided to go our separate ways in the city and just enjoy the day. I spent the day with Odette, mostly drinking, going shopping and chatting to Chinese make up artist in the MAC store, the guy had trained in London and assumed that Odette would want to look JUST like Lady GaGa - she didn't. After spending way too much money we headed back to the hostel and decided to grab a bite to eat and then head out for another night. Things started in the Box bar and pretty much ended there. I don't remember much, but lets just say calling it a messy night would be an understatement. Sorry for using the term 'messy night' I know I sound like a 16 year old on Smirnoff ice but its a more than appropriate term for that night!

Needless to say, the next morning everyone was feeling pretty rough and we all decided to just relax on the roof terrace until it was time for us all to catch our mode of transports home. It was really sad saying goodbye as, for a lot of us, we probably would never see each other again or for at least many years to come. I personally enjoy to 'hug it out' so it was really nice to have a really awesome time before we all went travelling and then back home to University. I know I'm going to keep in contact with everyone and I'm already looking forward  to more trips away to Asia and beyond together. Thanks guys for being the most incredible bunch of people and I would not have wanted to do this with anyone else, hope you all have safe journeys where ever you end up and have the most amazing time!

Oh and ... Wode pongyou zai nali?  我的朋友在那里？ 我爱你！！