User profile: bluppfisk

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Forums > Travel Yunnan > Kunming to Ubon Ratchathani (Thailand) and most of all: back

Hey

I'm planning a cycle trip in the spring break from Kunming down to Thai Ubon Ratchathani (to see a friend and shit). Now, this is a call for tips and advice. For instance: which border crossings can I do overland (from Yunnan to Laos and from Laos to Thailand) and can I then get a visa at the border?

Is Myanmar accessible for cyclists (i.e. could I skip Laos and go through Myanmar to Thailand instead?)

And thirdly, I'm probably not cycling back due to lack of time. Are there busses/trains from Ubon or elsewhere in Thailand that will take me back to Kunming? Or need I switch transport? Which would be the most ideal way to get back, considering that boxing up a bicycle for a plane is a pain and that putting it into a bus is no good news for the gears?

Other tips and advice are also welcome!

fiskjäveln

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Forums > Living in Kunming > VPN services, which one?!

fixmylag sounds promising. It must be really fast then, also for intiating new connections? How does the smartphone support work? Do you need extra software to use it or can you just use any VPN-software to access the service? I.e. Can I use it on my android-phone without additional software?

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With regards to the roads, I have some first-hand experience, riding a bike in February 2012. Luang Prabang to Phou Khoun and Vang Vieng on highway 13 is pretty smooth sailing, until the last 15-20k before VV, where you suddenly get intermittent road-wide gravel gaps (at least one every 500m) until, well over 100km past VV, you reach the junction to Thalat, where you can opt for the much better maintained highway 10 to Vientiane.

Here is "highway 13", on one of its longer street-wide gravel gaps (imagine the dust):

www.crazyguyonabike.com/[...]

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It was also a great place to spend some time. Especially the Middle-Eastern section, where bearded patriarchs in expensive-looking garments showed their tapestries and jewels. Yes, it's all in a sterile modern building now, but I almost felt like in an Indian bazaar: with a little fantasy, the walls melt away, the scent of incense fills the air, camels lazily circle above the white roofs and fakirs test their arses.

A lot of the goods sold there were also fake (not real Jade, a different kind of Eaglewood). But the owners were mostly honest about it (though not everywhere, I learned from someone who worked there as a translator).

I went home with a couple of coins from Bhutan and an invitation to the country and a set of funny photos.

The fair moves on to Chengdu and Beijing after that. There it'll be free, because business with the locals is generally better, according to some salesman whose Chinese translator was surprised that I bought the 30 RMB ticket "just to look around".

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Ah okay :) I must've been lucky or the guards must've remembered me after exiting first.

I understand that you haven't made it to the top? I did this last year: getting to 5396m was a pretty sweet experience, but it would probably be unwise to do this without a guide. Especially if you've never been hypoxic on a mountain before (I hadn't).

Photos and story on www.crazyguyonabike.com/[...]

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If by bike, coming in from the East side of TLG will probably cost you nothing. I haven't ever been checked on that end despite my multiple entries and exits.

Reviews

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First and last experience. Absolutely horrible. I came in late with a big flesh wound. The doctor sewed it up and told me to come back in the morning "perhaps to redo it, and to change the bandage". When I did come back the next morning, they just changed the bandage and sent me off.

When I peeked at my own wound, I noticed it was horribly done. "Like a vet did the stitches," as someone commented. I then had to stay a night in a different hospital in order to do it right, with a 40% chance of getting infections. This cost me a lot more, thanks to Richland fucking up in the beginning.

Whatever X-rays were taken were not printed out and given to me so I couldn't go to another hospital for a second opinion or treatment.

The nurses didn't seem to know where half the things were and the doctors had to repeat orders to get basic things like scissors.

In the next hospital, it was noticed that I had fractured my jaw in two places. On the five X-Rays taken at Richland, they did not notice the fractures.

Pretty sure these people are not actual doctors and are therefore criminal.

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Super place. Really cool interior, lots of good beers and drinks, fun toilet inside the telephone booth, and an interesting clientele.

Cons: pretty hard to find, no matching glasses for the imported beers, and home brews need some work.

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Teaching and support lamentable.

Four people signed up for the highest-level class and got a teacher who does all the talking, refers to herself as 老师 and makes classes absolutely uninteresting. As of this moment, only 1 person is still going on a regular basis.

While staff is friendly, they are absolutely incapable to help out with visa matters in an adequate way. Lack of information beforehand, lack of support and lack of information during the visa process meant that I am waiting forever for my residence permit to be processed, without any information about why it's taking so long, why they can't get started ... I'd say this school is a good option if all you wanted is a visa, but they can't even handle this properly.

Anyone giving this school a 5-star rating hasn't been to any decently-run schools in Kunming, such as Keats'. The only redeeming quality is facilities and space, those are indeed excellent.

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Have been studying at Keats for almost four semesters now and I'm very enthusiastic about the quality of the teachers and the commitment of the school's staff.

One point of criticism is that I think they could put in some effort to group people of the same level together, rather than base it on who was together in last semester's class.

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I stayed here in the early days of March 2013. Dave and his wife are swell owners, the staff attentive, the food good, rooms in perfect order, WiFi fast enough... Much like the old hump, the entire place is an excellent place to relax and make friends. And that is what you come to do in Dali, after all. The location is a bit isolated from the old town, but nothing is really far away in Dali. Besides, it makes for a better starting point to walk up Cangshan.