Minichan

Topic: Which would you rather do: flip burgers in some American shit hole

Anonymous A started this discussion 12 years ago #37,504

...or live like a king in an Asian paradise?

Anonymous B joined in and replied with this 12 years ago, 3 minutes later[^] [v] #505,074

Anonymous C joined in and replied with this 12 years ago, 2 seconds later, 3 minutes after the original post[^] [v] #505,075

Why is Avatar the Last Airbender banned in China?

Soph joined in and replied with this 12 years ago, 6 minutes later, 9 minutes after the original post[^] [v] #505,076

Your body language says 'stoic' but your physique says lumpenprole.

HaikerensGuide !dBGi/iH4eY replied with this 12 years ago, 1 minute later, 11 minutes after the original post[^] [v] #505,077

@previous (Soph)
get on irc

Syntax joined in and replied with this 12 years ago, 55 minutes later, 1 hour after the original post[^] [v] #505,086

That photo is wayyyy outside the city. Shit hole Camden New Jersey, is close to Wharton State Forest, with lakes and vistas and all a forest should be.

Kunming according to those who live there

Amazing which expat said this: Matt said that

"All of Kunming basically smells like fermented urine."

Roberto

Kunming is a fucking joke. There is nothing to do here.
I wish I never came here. I should have just gone to Manila. I would have been having a blast right now instead I'm walking around this depressing place they call Kunming.
This place is a f**uk joke. There is nothing to do here.
I wish I never came here. I should have just gone to Manila. I would have been having a blast right now instead I'm walking around this depressing place they call Kunming.

April 2012

BillDan

When you take a shower in Kunming you risk getting cholera.

Learn to get shit faced with the locals and other alcoholic foreigners who can't control their cravings for cheap booze. Since China is basically a culture of alcoholics you will have little problems finding new friends in this department. If you need a foreign drinking buddy to ramble on in English with you can go to Salvadores and with a little work you will work yourself down to the coveted outside seats. Once there you can get really blasted and start acting loud and rude and you can even start hitting on every Chinese girl that walks by. You may even get into some fights with Chinese guys half your size and get arrested and thrown in jail for awhile. This seems to be one way of getting immersed into the local nightlife scene, though not the only.


'''One Hanging light bulb Matt said this:

"the water in my flat goes out for one or two days at a time, and it usually starts in the late morning. It seems to be a summer thing. Is this normal for people around Kunming, or is it just my place?"

Kunming is such as depressing city...

Every time I eat Chinese food I sh*! it all out 10 minutes later.
The food around here sucks. How much rice can you eat? Really? No wonder these people around here look like sticks. Rice with a tiny bit of meat mixed in doesn't fill me up.
I bet if I was in Manila or Quezon City, I would be able to find something to eat that fills me up.

If I stay here much longer I am going to look like I was in a Nazi Concentration Camp.
I also don't like the fact that there are no clothes dryers in Kunming. I hate leaving my clothes out to dry.

God this place sucks....

laotau

Well I have a bad attitude because I'm hungry. I can't find anything to eat except a bunch of f*uk rice.
I need some meat.
The food in this city sucks.


TigerTiger

If you want good international food, and civilization go to Hong Kong. But you cannot afford to live on a teachers salary.
If you want acceptable international food, and affordable (just) housing go to Shanghai, and the women there are not as aloof as HK. You will earn twice as much money teaching but you will work much harder. The girls are easier to bed, but they will take it out of you in other ways.


"
Kunming, live in terms of not dying, yes!
live well - impossible!"

BillDan 2013

As far as immersing yourself in the local cuisine goes I refer you to my other insightful posts on that topic in another threads, but I have learned a simple technique on how to deal with this problem. To be more and more immersed in the local food culture you need to develop things to do while you are constantly evacuating your bowels. While sitting (hopefully) on your toilet and reeling from exhaustion and dehydration from your last viral induced diarrhea episode look it as a time to get those tones down better. You can write Mandarin phrases on the tile wall in front of your toilet and practice them when you are not gritting your teeth in pain. So the bad food and after-effects can become your friend.''' Your learning partner so to say. Also you will have lots of fun meeting locals and practicing your Mandarin as you try to find any sort of effective medication for your la duzi. If you go to a doctor you can enjoy the experience of having an intravenous solution of what is probably just saline rammed into your hand by a 16 year "nurse" who moonlights selling doufu on the street. You will soon find yourself feeling like a local.

Even Dirtier - Chinese Toilet Habits

Children learn bad toilet habits from young. They will literally stoop and pee or defecate on the street, despite there being a public toilet 10 meters away.


Apart from the germs spread by spitting and blowing your nose everywhere, there are other things you have to contend with in China. Perhaps the vilest of these are the toilet habits of the Chinese in Kunming, so vile so that they deserve a chapter to themselves.

Some may argue that these are cultural differences. But I beg to differ. There are cultural differences that can and should be tolerated, and there are just plain nasty habits that hark back to an era of primitiveness when we still walked on all fours. China has squat toilets and Western style toilets. The squat toilets are traditional and are a cultural difference. But the toilet habits of many Chinese are not. They are extraordinarily dirty. Sometimes, I think even a dog has cleaner potty habits than many of them.

A toilet in Chinese countryside is usually a harrowing experience and one you will unfortunately remember for the rest of your life (unless you're Chinese). First, the smell: you can usually smell a Chinese toilet from far off. When you enter, you may run back out. What greets you are a row of rectangular holes in the ground and all around them are strewn lumps of stale feces and used toilet paper. There are no doors on the stalls, sometimes, even no partitions between the holes. But those are just the very sometimes when you’ve eaten some of China’s finest prepared laxatives, prepared in a dirty restaurant by dirty people. So you quickly glance around, then run back in, clutching your aching stomach in agony. You very gingerly step towards the toilet, taking utmost care not to step on any stale shit or used toilet paper and do your business.

If you are lucky, you will use the toilet in privacy. But if you aren’t, some Chinese person will enter, see you, a foreigner squatting and start giggling. If you’re in a school, then you may very well die of embarrassment when the kids see you and not only giggle, but beckon their friends, loudly proclaiming, “Waiguo laoshi shang cesuo” – Foreign teacher using toilet, and the whole lot come running in and trying to see if your bottom is blue in colour.

Yet, I feel the behavior of the kids is tame compared to the animals whose are so primitive they can’t defecate into the toilet and throw toilet paper in the toilet or wastebasket provided for the purpose. You start asking yourself if they know what a toilet is to be used for in the first place. What is wrong with these people? Is this how they behave in their houses? Do they like to see stale shit on entering the toilet? Or do they get woozy from the stench and accidentally position their rear ends wrongly.

City people will claim these are dirty countryside habits but this is a blatant lie. For two years, I lived in a provincial capital in China's northeast. I worked in a modern high rise building on the eleventh floor in the most cosmopolitan area of the city. You could smell the toilets when you got off the elevator, despite the doors to the toilets being shut. The act of going to use the toilet was filled with apprehension, because 75% of the time, when you entered, the toilet was unflushed by the last occupant and full of reeking shit. Judging by the amount of shit, sometimes it was the last 2 or 3 occupants. On many occasions, I almost puked. And even in the squat pots, they spit on the floor, not in the pot. So when you go in and squat, you're staring at frothy spit in front of you.

Children learn bad toilet habits from young. They will literally stoop and pee or defecate on the street, despite there being a public toilet 10 metres away. The vast majority of Chinese children have never worn a diaper. Instead, they have a big slit that, when they stoop down, opens and allows them to pass whatever. Or if it’s a baby, the mother will hold the baby up, and indecently open the baby’s legs as wide as possible. Once I was on a train and there was a toddler who wanted to use the toilet. Rather than take the child to the toilet 5 metres away, the mother opened a bottle and had the child pee in that. Have some of these people no shame, no sense of what is decent and acceptable to civilized people? Really, what do these people think sometimes? Is there shit in their heads as well as in their lower parts?

The state of Chinese toilets is the one thing most repulsive to foreigners in China. And this is the thing I most cannot understand about China: the toilet habits of not all but so very many. I can understand the lack of privacy - Chinese people grow up with the community and family so they do everything together, including using the toilet. So to them it doesn’t matter if there are no doors. But for the filthiness, there is just NO excuse. When I went hiking about the countryside in England, I came to a conclusion that humans are different from animals. Animals shit everywhere and don’t care. Humans, on the other hand, have a sense of decency, self respect and an appreciation for hygiene.

Chinese people are human right, so why can’t they realize that the sight and smell of shit that’s weeks old is repulsive? That toilet paper thrown everywhere is unsightly and disgusting? Really, you don’t have to have a brain to realize this. But like obeying traffic laws, littering and queuing, this is just another example of the Chinese state of mind where common sense and what is practical and beneficial to the society takes second place to uncivilized impulsiveness, selfishness and stupidity. And dirtiness.

Anonymous F joined in and replied with this 12 years ago, 2 minutes later, 1 hour after the original post[^] [v] #505,088

@previous (Syntax)
> mad

Anonymous Z-1 joined in and replied with this 12 years ago, 3 minutes later, 1 hour after the original post[^] [v] #505,090

@previous (F)

Anonymous F replied with this 12 years ago, 5 minutes later, 1 hour after the original post[^] [v] #505,092

@previous (Anonymous Z-1)
sup, brie?

Falco !a7Q.SWNEJw joined in and replied with this 12 years ago, 15 minutes later, 1 hour after the original post[^] [v] #505,094

or get a college degree an… oh wait that got you nowhere didn't it

Anonymous I joined in and replied with this 12 years ago, 38 minutes later, 2 hours after the original post[^] [v] #505,100

@505,086 (Syntax)

That photo is in 翠湖, the very MIDDLEof the city, you senile old retard.

Syntax replied with this 12 years ago, 8 minutes later, 2 hours after the original post[^] [v] #505,103

@previous (I)
You do no I no how to Google for images of city called Kuntming?

Syntax double-posted this 12 years ago, 28 seconds later, 2 hours after the original post[^] [v] #505,104

Syntax triple-posted this 12 years ago, 1 minute later, 2 hours after the original post[^] [v] #505,105

Oh the charm the charm oh so much Charm lololoo
no no no no no lolololo

(Edited 36 seconds later.)

Syntax quadruple-posted this 12 years ago, 1 minute later, 2 hours after the original post[^] [v] #505,106

Syntax quintuple-posted this 12 years ago, 1 minute later, 2 hours after the original post[^] [v] #505,107

Now see how fair I can be - pics from east west a bunch of sky to er get a bit away from mass of concrete n steel

There is probably a Pagoda down in there hidden or even a park or three but geeeeeeshhhhhh

Syntax sextuple-posted this 12 years ago, 12 minutes later, 2 hours after the original post[^] [v] #505,109

Last post as work is done done done and client has been billed and that is always nice and weekend plans are in need of clone again - Friday is cast in concrete so to speek dancing to a Jitterbug band nor was it my idea - Partner gals insisted on - wots a guy to do but enjoy enjoy and more enjoy life so will Indy miss me not b on net? lololol

!OhBrie5EHg joined in and replied with this 12 years ago, 5 minutes later, 2 hours after the original post[^] [v] #505,110

@505,092 (F)
im brie, sup?

Anonymous K joined in and replied with this 12 years ago, 8 minutes later, 2 hours after the original post[^] [v] #505,111

I... I would rather live like a king in an Asian paradise, man.

beckyderp !8ElfFaoFao joined in and replied with this 12 years ago, 2 hours later, 5 hours after the original post[^] [v] #505,113

@505,103 (Syntax)
@505,104 (Syntax)
@505,105 (Syntax)
Honestly, this city does look pretty depressing.

Matt, do you have any pictures of cool parts of the city?

Anonymous M joined in and replied with this 12 years ago, 44 minutes later, 6 hours after the original post[^] [v] #505,114

@previous (beckyderp !8ElfFaoFao)
Tons. Let me find them.

beckyderp !8ElfFaoFao replied with this 12 years ago, 1 minute later, 6 hours after the original post[^] [v] #505,115

@previous (M)
Cool. I'm interested!

Anonymous N joined in and replied with this 12 years ago, 42 minutes later, 6 hours after the original post[^] [v] #505,120

@OP
I'm guessing you got tired of the former after 18 years.

Anonymous O joined in and replied with this 12 years ago, 3 hours later, 10 hours after the original post[^] [v] #505,133

@505,086 (Syntax)
those people sound like very nasty people

Triptych !!/xkPL9myM joined in and replied with this 12 years ago, 21 minutes later, 10 hours after the original post[^] [v] #505,136

I'd rather be a student in a v good Canadian university.

Anonymous D replied with this 12 years ago, 1 hour later, 11 hours after the original post[^] [v] #505,138

@previous (Triptych !!/xkPL9myM)
kill yourself

Triptych !!/xkPL9myM replied with this 12 years ago, 7 minutes later, 11 hours after the original post[^] [v] #505,142

@previous (D)
No, Auttie, I don't plan on it.

Anonymous something-else replied with this 12 years ago, 3 minutes later, 11 hours after the original post[^] [v] #505,143

@previous (Triptych !!/xkPL9myM)
it's not who you think it is. disregard the name field

Syntax replied with this 12 years ago, 1 minute later, 11 hours after the original post[^] [v] #505,144

@505,113 (beckyderp !8ElfFaoFao)
That traffic photo - I have posted it b4. At the time I had no idea it represented the city itself. I have been (not been) to Kunming. I don't count being in any city where I land at an airport and transfer to another airline or switch planes. It just does not count. I always fly the best class an airline provides and insist on a window seat. I enjoy the view on landing but I am usually asleep b4 takeoff if the airline allows me to strap in and fall asleep and not be disturbed. So I have observed Kunming City but only from a view of landings. I am sure I was sleeping at take off.

So I knew Kunming was mostly a city of concrete n steel. Not that it used to be. Based on expat conversations on GK, the commies came in with bulldozers after a quick notice to residents and bulldozed the city down as fast as they could and replaced it with what one sees in the photos I put up.

I have little doubt there are nice parks in there somewhere. Even a pagoda? Pagoda's in downtown San Francisco and Los Angeles. Perhaps I should put up photos of my next door neighbors pagodas and gardens. Fantastic unique and people from all over the world visit for a rest pit. I live in a wonderful city but in no way do my neighbors amazing unique gardens represent the rest of Cardiff by the Sea - Encinitas or Carlsbad 10 mins north where I own condos/houses as investments. This one photo represents the best of my area yet 4 minutes East of this is the 5 freeway. 8 lanes of traffic and soon to be expanded to 10? 12? YET its adjacent to farm land (strawberries mostly and unique designer veggies)

South of me by 15 minutes is a Jungle of Concert and steel San Diego downtown which still includes a seedy section filled with homeless people (not kidding) Yet 5 minutes away from the seedy is the Ocean and bays and lots of people having fun Kayaking Scuba diving frolicking in multiple ocean bays.

No doubt Kunming has parks gardens and cool places. A carefully taken photo could show a censored view of the real Kunming.
@505,133 (O)

> those people sound like very nasty people
Indy aka Matt, argues that a few angry expats are the cause of the bad press. Huge amount of bad press about Kunming. Indy said about the city logged in to the City's web site GK

"All of Kunming basically smells like fermented urine."
http://www.gokunming.com/en/forums/thread/8847/the_smell?page=2 DAMN JUST DAMN I forgot until this moment to grab that link and the Topic on the China site is 'THE SMELL LOLOLOLOL

As best as I can figure it out, most of the expats that live there along with Indy are there because the alcohol is cheep and many as Indy could not handle the SMOG of Beijing. And apparently the Tuberculous problem is much worse in Beijiing then Kunming.

Factual articles about Kunming water being even dirtier then water in ones toilet boggle my mind as how is that possible? I worked lived in Siberia Russia on and off for a year. Once for a solid 6 months and the water out of the pipes comes in BROWN CHUNKS - The best hotel got the chunks out but Qualcomm said no more of that hotel because of prostitues knocking on doors at all hours trying to entice us as prey. No sleep so moved to the 2nd best hotel with Brown chunks of water - Horrid amounts of chlorine so the poor people don't die from such. I bought bottle water by the case and hand washed with hot plate heated water - much like camping one does wot one does to survive.

Kunming is not on any list of cities listed in the top 1000 to visit in China - Test me on this with Google fact check- I tried about 10 lists as say the Forbes list - gave up - ITS NOT THERE

Expats have it right - it reads like a terrible place to live - Sure looks like it - a nice garden or pagoda or tree is not going to make up for that long list of filth feces in street spitting everywhere and and wot Indy said

80,000 years of culture - Yet how is it possible that after 80,000 years HYGIENE fails to be important? Kunming is listed as a 3rd 5th tier city. I still have NO CLUE Y expats are there rather then cities on the list that make the 1st tier grade. Beijing is OUT re horrid Smog terrible chocking Smog - Kunming has days that are worse then Beijing but not that many. Expats say Kunming Smog gets worse each year so Matts lungs which have yet to heal up (he said so recently on the China web site) He is going to have to get the hell out of there b4 that city kills him.

YET with what all the expats write about negatively, they for the most part are clueless about how really bad Kunming is. More to say about how bad it is based on a lot of research and ya no I will be providing that in detail once all the i's are dotted and t's are crossed.

Indy Matt himself attempted to get out of Kunming- He put an add on a web site trying to get into Vietnam - Cambodia - No takers - No one wanted his skills.

Doubt becky will read this far down in word salad - Matt's never once took courses to teach school. His track was to be a professor of languages - Requires a PhD. He failed that end point as rejected. 15 years from start to finish BS to MS degree and he could go back to attempting to become a Sous Chef but that wood take a lot of years - A waiter? He could maybe do that (doubt his social skills suffice) Or as he did Teach - He taught school at Sacred Heart Academy for a few years - HE CANNOT get a reference from that School - If Leo Vargas ever dares return he can first hand tell everyone what That school is willing to tell about Matt. Bottom line not eligible for re-hire

AH Y did I mention becky? Because she will remember a published PM where Matt says to her how he does not want to teach school because he does not like teaching. (paraphrased) have PM on file lol

>Honestly, this city does look pretty depressing.
> those people sound like very nasty people

I have to have faith that among that long list of expats who post and gokuming is only one of several web sites that host for expats, there are many good people who for whatever reason end up stuck in a 3rd -5th tier city. Given that as an Electronics Engineer who traveled the world on other peoples money - I have lived for a bit in some seedy locations - for a few days a week hummmm not much longer then a few weeks and THEN MOVED ON QUICKLY LoL

I loved Siberia brown water chunks and all because I never again turned on the tap and damn well made sure that any place I ate out at had those extra large tanks that held water from the deep wells with trucks to deliver - Qualcomm/Globalstar had a list of approved and otherwise safe places to eat.

Did not shower camping out on backpacks mountain climbs or my years on n off in Afghanistan with Congressman Charlie Wilson's crew chasing them Russkies out of Afghanistan in the 80's - Never a shower but lots n lots of well water to live off of. No one got sick eating the food there - In Kunming

BillDan is a terrific writer with a food blog. Has a lot of fans and of the many things he writes about food and Kunming and so many many to chose from

To be more and more immersed in the local food culture you need to develop things to do while you are constantly evacuating your bowels. While sitting (hopefully) on your toilet and reeling from exhaustion and dehydration from your last viral induced diarrhea episode look it as a time to get those tones down better.

You can write Mandarin phrases on the tile wall in front of your toilet and practice them when you are not gritting your teeth in pain. So the bad food and after-effects can become your friend.

(Edited 1 minute later.)

Syntax double-posted this 12 years ago, 2 minutes later, 11 hours after the original post[^] [v] #505,146

oooops the missing photo

Triptych !!/xkPL9myM replied with this 12 years ago, 21 minutes later, 12 hours after the original post[^] [v] #505,151

@505,143 (Anonymous something-else)
Irrelevant.

Anonymous something-else replied with this 12 years ago, 5 minutes later, 12 hours after the original post[^] [v] #505,152

@previous (Triptych !!/xkPL9myM)
As you are.

Cheers.

Syntax replied with this 12 years ago, 28 minutes later, 12 hours after the original post[^] [v] #505,155

@505,151 (Triptych !!/xkPL9myM)
I am so going to be so mad at self in a few minutes - been holding back on my daily 10 run and now its full noon sun over haid.

I still O u a favor

and now because I think this image says it all and that photo above - Tide is at 3 feet and rising which means more up trails of bluff then I really want to do this full Sun in face day

Temps rising so damn if only I could just say NO NO and not do a Run - ah damn ah hell - oh the pain - buttttt maybe a wave will crash in2 my shoes and then SHOES OFF and Swim instead - water is 70+ degrees

OUT OF HERE but I said that 15 minutes ago

Anonymous Q joined in and replied with this 12 years ago, 26 minutes later, 13 hours after the original post[^] [v] #505,156

@previous (Syntax)
Illegible gibberish.

Syntax replied with this 12 years ago, 4 hours later, 17 hours after the original post[^] [v] #505,185

@previous (Q)
In other words you read it and found something thrilling yet not quite up to your standards

ok thanks for mostly liking it

Anonymous R joined in and replied with this 12 years ago, 22 hours later, 1 day after the original post[^] [v] #505,419

whaT ABOUT A MCDONALDS IN CHINA

Syntax replied with this 12 years ago, 21 minutes later, 1 day after the original post[^] [v] #505,422

@previous (R)
@previous (R)

> whaT ABOUT A MCDONALDS IN CHINA

I am super busy work wise n getting ready for early small supper prior to dancing. Great question and for accurate answers to your question try this
http://www.gokunming.com/en/forums/board/3/food_drink

In search box put in McDonald's
Trust me on this lots n lots of information about your question. Mixed bag of what you are going to find.

beckyderp !8ElfFaoFao replied with this 12 years ago, 1 week later, 1 week after the original post[^] [v] #507,558

@505,114 (M)
Can you post some pics, Matt?

Syntax replied with this 12 years ago, 6 minutes later, 1 week after the original post[^] [v] #507,563

@previous (beckyderp !8ElfFaoFao)
I am a sucker for doing this but I am going to do one for him - This he put up on TC rather then show you here and there are more terrific pics really very nice pics over on tc

He told Trytch that is where he lives LOL - No one lives in any of the great pics he posted - for instance this one IS 8+ hour drive from Kunming and google says 8 hours if no traffic.

Suspect his electric Hoverround's battery is not up for the 17 or so hour round trip and now b4 becky can insult me zoooooooooom------------> feets to sand byyyyyyyyy

beckyderp !8ElfFaoFao replied with this 12 years ago, 2 minutes later, 1 week after the original post[^] [v] #507,566

@previous (Syntax)
Okay, bye!

Syntax replied with this 12 years ago, 6 hours later, 1 week after the original post[^] [v] #507,646

@previous (beckyderp !8ElfFaoFao)
Jiaozi Snow Mountain
I expected an insult and wot did I get ..so just for that you get one more of how really nice wwwwwyyyyyyy outside Kunming can be as quick 5 hours 54 mins without traffic and has toll road(s)
Currently its says drive time is 7 hours 11 minutes. Jiaozi Snow Mountain

Can do 7 hours from Tip of Mexico border to Oregon in about the same 7 hours. Suspect one needs a pee break n such on way so Indy if you do this trip plan on a bit more tyme. Hoveraround? Carry a AC Gen and battery charger and gas for Generator. - Plan on camping out for a bunch of hours while hoveraround charge.
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