DAY 54 - KUNMING DAY1

Fintan and Dave by the Flaming Bar in 'Nice Club'

One of our primary objectives in Kunming was to get the Hummer a full service and oil change before heading into the harsh conditions of the Himalayas. We sourced a GM garage on the outskirts of town so at 10am we braved Kunming traffic and eventually got there. Obviously the majority of the garage had never seen a Hummer before so as per usual, crowds of people flocked to see it. We eventually got the car into be seen and explained what was needed through a series of complicated translations between the service woman and Dave through Jason our guide. While we were waiting for a quote in the sales lobby, a well dressed Chinese man called Mr.Zhang who happened to be the owner of the GM garage approached us and told us through Jason how he loved the CrazyJourney idea and invited us to his new club "Nice' that evening. Needless to say we obliged.

Mr.Zhang outside his 'Nice' club. The guy was a legend!

Following the GM garage, the boys hopped in a taxi in search of an iPhone for Fintan and a new hard-drive for the documentary footage. After a mind-numbing 2 hour search through Kunming’s mobile phone malls with no luck, we eventually gave up and returned to the Hotel.

We’ve noticed a considerable change in climate since reaching Kunming with temperatures dropping close to freezing by night. That evening, the boys had to get out their winter jackets for the first time on the trip to brave the elements. We all went for dinner in a French Café near the hotel for a much needed change of cuisine. A few croc monsieur’s later, we bundled into a taxi and headed to ‘Nice Club’.

The Boys and Mr.Zhang hit the Hennessy

We weren’t sure what to expect from this place but as soon as we arrived we knew we’d be looked after when Mr.Zhang escorted us upstairs to this incredible club for free rounds of Hennessy and bottles of Tiger. The only trouble we had was communicating with Mr.Zhang who didn’t have a word of English. In fact the majority of communication was through drinking games of rock, paper, scissors which every Chinese girl seems to love for some reason! A few hours into the night, the curtains behind the stage were pulled and out came this middle aged man in a white suit. He invited girls up to the stage and began to sing and hand out DVDs to the screaming crowd. We eventually discovered through Jason that this guy was a famous Chinese pornstar, the Oriental equivalent of Ron Jeremy! After a cracking night and a 4am trip to Mickey Dee’s, we hit the sack.

Chinese Ron Jeremy Woos the Audience