It being Sunday there were many people out and about. I made it up to the street that the temple was on and after hearing that Kunming sites weren't that exciting or large I was mistaken when I noticed a temple down a sidestreet and stopped to take a look and a few pictures. It turned out to be a small Tibetan Buddhist temple. I spent an hour or so there taking pictures and looking around the small grounds. Part of that time was spent hanging out with a little Chinese boy who loved to have his picture taken.
The entrance to my little Tibetan Buddhist Temple
My new little friend
Got a little shy....but don't let this picture fool you. He was a ham!
After saying goodbye to my new friend I decided to keep going up the street to make sure that was the temple, mostly because I didn't pay to go and there really wasn't anyone else there....A few blocks later I arrived at a much larger temple. The Yuantong Temple was much much larger than my earlier find and had obviously had a fire as they were rebuilding much of the middle portion and there were about 109091283910 fire extinguishers.
Ceremonial fish?
A little bit better prepared now for the next fire.
wishing you peace
The temple itself was fairly busy. Nothing too different from what I saw in Korea, although the colors were a little brighter. I had fun putzing around and taking more pictures. It was an afternoon wellspent for such a unremarkable tourist location. From what I hear Kunming lacks attractions but is mostly used as a base for other places to the north. I too will soon head north to Dali on Tuesday after I try again to get myself a Myanmar visa on Monday.
Buddha himself
This guy had a tough Saturday night and fell asleep waiting to avail his next customers fortune.
On my walk back to the hostel I stopped to listen to the haunting tunes from this cross dressing couple....strange.
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