Visiting the Minority Village and Flying to Guangzhou Today

Yesterday, we got to tour and visit the Minority Village in Kunming. I got 18,000 steps in yesterday, easily, after our long walks around and seeing all the different minority people represented there. Kunming and the Yunnan Province are known for being the largest province with the most diverse minority population. The majority, are the Han people. 

The entrance of the minority village. Behind the sign is a half fake, half real tree native to the area.

There are many wild Asian Elephants in the province. But these statues are the closest we got to seeing them. They are also known for having wild Peacocks.

One of the many bridges at the Minority Village. Behind us is Diachi Lake. The story behind it is a wife lost her beloved husband, for reasons unknown. The lake was created by her tears of grief for him.

More of the lake and the traditional boats we saw.

The entrance to one of the groups represented in the Minority Village. They had folks dressed in traditional clothing. Some singing and dancing. In the right hand corner were some gongs.

One of the men from the minority village ran a gift shop. He was playing this instrument. We saw a whole group of people playing this instrument around Green Lake Park. We found it to be the Kunming version of the recorder.

This was a bell to ring for good luck. One was for your family. Two and three had their own meanings. Kameron rang it 9 times. Im not sure what that means, as it only went up to 3. I think it means 3x the amount of good luck!

Kameron with one of the Dragon Boat planters at the Minority Village.

We also got to see a Buddhist Temple (two actually, one more traditional for the area-- this one, and another one that was Tibetian-- not pictured). It was neat to see how different they were.

After a long day of sightseeing, we got a late lunch and a long rest at the hotel. Kameron is enjoying playing games on the iPad and drawing pictures with us. 

We also got to meet David. He is one of the guides (head guide) here in Kunming. He also went with the children, like our son, who had attended the Kunming City-Lifeline Camp in Mississippi last year. He has an excellent repoire with Kameron. He helped explain some things to him and gave us some more insight and information about Kameron. We just adore this guy! And as you can see, so does our boy! 

For dinner we were able (and feeling adventurous) to make the 11 minute walk by ourselves to Salvador's Coffee House. We had heard it had excellent Western food. Many of our fellow Kunming Lifeline Family had highly recommended this place, and it did NOT disappoint! Kameron got first: a double scoop of ice cream and Jalapeno Chicken Bagel Pizza. It was such a treat to be able to show him a thing or two, for a change! Like how we eat pizza in the US, not with a fork and knife (well you can), but with our hands. He embraced it and seemed to enjoy this. However, our boy who loves spicy things, is NOT a fan of jalapenos!

We seem to bond the most, over food. Food is love! He likes to pour and make our tea and coffee. And he shares food with us. And he has quite excellent taste and hasn't steered us wrong yet! We also have been enjoying making tiny paper airplanes, in the hotel, and throwing them at one another-- when someone isn't paying attention. He is also a prankster, and loves to scare dad a lot!

Today, we are running a few errands and getting ready to leave Kunming for the US Consulate City of Guangzhou, this Friday afternoon. There we will finalize the adoption and get Kameron a new Visa. We have really enjoyed our time here in Kunming. We are looking forward to experiencing our next destination, in Guangzhou.

Some interesting things about our hotel, it has NO 4's. As in no 4th or 14th floors:

Apparently, in China, 4's are unlucky.....

And today for breakfast, Kameron's curosity about all this coffee mom and dad are drinking, got the best of him....

With enough milk and sugar... "Its ok." 

We got to Skype with our boys at home today. It was lovely! Kameron is getting less shy and was able to speak with them a little. They mostly giggled, said hello, and made silly faces at one another (boys!! :)) Kameron and Noah played a bit of peek-a-boo and it was darling! Warms my momma heart so much!

In 6 days (China time), we get to leave China and head home to Boise on Thanksgiving Day. Anyone who wants to greet us at the airport, is invited to. We land on Thanksgiving Day, November 26th, in Boise at 1:30 pm. We cannot wait to see our boys at home and finally get to be all together, as a family.