An early start this morning to get out to the Stone Forest, a massive collection of grey limestone pillars, in a town called Shilin about 80 miles from Kunming. Legend has it that the immortals smashed a mountain into a labyrinth for lovers seeking privacy. I walked to the bus station where a very helpful bus driver helped me find the ticket office and got the bus to Shilin. Luckily the entrance to the site was only 5 minutes from the site entrance. I was undecided about whether to go here as the lonely planet guide had pretty much said don't bother - it is crowded and expensive, but to me it was definately worth the trip. There were other tourists there, but not that many (maybe because I got there early) and even if there were the place is so big it would be easy to get away from them. It was also nice to see some of the minorities from the area acting as tour guides in their native clothing. Walked around for about 3 hours and then went to catch the bus back. The bus obviously waits until it is full before leaving and so I had to wait for over an hour to leave and then the journey which had taken an hour and a half on the way took 3 hours on the way back! Walked back to the hostel and had something to eat and then went for a walk to try and find an art gallery in a disused factory I had heard about. Gave up looking after about an hour and went back to the hostel.