"Things your mother told you NEVER to do!!"

Things started pretty much uneventfully in Kunming as we landed found our hotel and had a little look around this 'small' city of 3.3 million people. We did the tourist things of visiting the markets, squares and shops before heading back to the hotel. Our tour guide had told us of a really cool place to go and see called the 'Stone Forest' which was 120km's away but he wanted the best part of 70 quid to take us there for a few hours......not in our budget. So we headed off to the train station and managed to get get a train to the nearest town for v. early the next day.

At 7.45 we boarded the 3 hour bone rattler to Shilin and were greeted by car attendants selling gear and Chinese people sleeping away to pass the time. Then a young guy called 'Who' joined us and started trying out his English which was fine. Apparently he has just graduated and is going to work in a hospital but he wasn't a doctor much to my disappointment.

'we were told he could snaffle us in through the back entrance of the 'Stone Forest' for a quarter of the price'

Anyway we got to Shilin after discussing the life, universe and everything and Who seemed like he wanted to help us get to the 'Stone Forest' so we started negotiating with a local cart and horse man for a ride......but in Mandarin.

Next thing you Know we were told he could snaffle us in through the back entrance of the 'Stone Forest' for a quarter of the price but with a 20 minute walk after the 15 minute cart ride.....seemed like a deal to us. Clearly we weren't thinking about the walking 20 minutes into a forest with 2 chinese blokes we had never met before until about 10 minutes into our walk.

At this point I (Nick) got really worried but Mr was still cool and we headed off through some more the undergrowth. Our Chinese lead was going at a super pace and leaving us behind and even Who seemed a little cagey. Was this going to turn out like a film script i.e. 'English couple disappears in Chinese wilderness'.

Almost 45 minutes later we came across our first sign of life but this just managed to get me more worried as it was a guy coming the other way with one hand behind his back! It really was brown trousers time......

Anyway he strolled by without incident (apart from the coronary I was having) and we were told to keep quiet as we were near the entrance. Eventually we started to hear the noises of people in the distance as as this got louder we saw some bent bars in a fence that led us into the park......aaaahhhh relief.

Who sorted out our payment with some heavy negotiation and refused to take any money from us in return so despite the scare this had turned out to be a bargain. The 'Stone Forest' was ok with many rocks dotted over hectares (see the photo's when I find a pc that can do it). All in all though it was all a bit of an anticlimax after our adventure. At the end we sad goodbye to Who, who went off in the direction of a police hut (only joking) and got a bus back to Kunming....what a day!