The day we left Kunming was the sunniest day we had seen since arriving back in China, and we were due to be spending the next nine hours of that sunny day on the train. We had been on budget drive when we were sorting out transport to our next destination, Dali. The train was going to be an old, hard seat, slow train. The worst thing about travel like this is, although it is as cheap as chips, you will inevitably be squashed next to a chain smoking, noodle slurping, hacking, spitting man and his equally noisy family. As we were having breakfast the morning we were due to leave reality kicked in and we had a change of heart. Nine hours in a smoky, wooden benched carriage? No thanks! So we cut our losses and headed to the long distance bus station.
Here we quickly managed to get on the next bus heading to Dali. Despite their being a bus every 15 minutes from 7:30am to 7:30pm every bus is jam-packed with people. Even the trains are fully booked two days in advance, there seems to be a constant exodus and exchange of people all over this country. Looking out over all the big gleaming coaches in the bus station I felt a sense of ‘we made the right choice’, now we will be enjoying a shorter trip to Dali in comfy seats and clean air. Of course this was not to be the case, getting pointed towards the only mongrel bus in the station I realized I was silly to think anything else. We climbed onto a cross between a mini bus and really old coach, waited while the driver went and got more people to get on his bus. With people hopping on and off all the time having a chat and going out for a cigarette every few minutes it seemed we would never leave, but eventually, once every available space had been taken we headed off, to the sound of the creaking and groaning of every joint on the bus.
The main reasons against taking the train: noisy, smoky, cramped atmosphere, and time. We were seated just behind the driver, the most dangerous place to be in a bus as collisions are not uncommon here due to the freestyle driving they employ. We always try and move towards the back of the bus but it was not possible this time. Soon after leaving the driver lights up the first of his constant cigarette chain between here and Dali and shuts the window. The good thing about the bus was despite the creaking noises and constant smoke we didn’t have to be sandwiched between a whole Chinese family eating their lunch or dinner., just Sam and I on slightly more cushioned and comfortable seats.
The road to Dali was a good one, a large three lane motorway with not too much traffic and for once the driver drove at a non pant filling speed which was nice as we had the front row seats. Strangely for a Chinese road there were quite a few traffic cops and speed cameras but the drivers radar detector made sure we were not caught. Also policing the road to ensure the highest level of road safety were cardboard cutouts of police women and men every few miles straddling the central reservation.
Cardboard policemen aside, the journey took us past some other strange sights. First up about an hour from Kunming was the world dinosaur valley, not sure what was in the valley but the villages before and after all had dinosaurs painted on the walls. A few hours later we drove through an area obsessed with mushrooms, the small old villages with white washed walls were decorated with huge paintings of mushrooms… and each house had a different type painted on, no two houses were the same. One mushroom village had also built some huge bright yellow concrete mushroom shaped buildings on the hill behind. All in all the journey was a short one by Chinese standards, this was helped by the fact we are both reading books that have the ability to make us fall asleep after 3-5 pages…. Sarah is reading Moby Dick and Sam Catch-22. Despite their literacy status we have not found either particularly fast paced.
Dali is an old Chinese walled town sandwiched between some big mountains to the West and a great big lake to the East. Unfortunately it’s also really touristy with bars and restaurants geared towards western tourists and local minority women trying to hawk marijuana to you whenever you walk about. We think the Chinese tourists who visit get more of an education into Western tourists as opposed to the minority people living here. Anyhow its nice to look at and the surrounding countryside is stunning, the people are friendly and the food is good! Tomorrow we are planning on hiring some bikes to cycle through some nearby villages and down to the lake where we can catch a ferry further afield and explore the area.
More photos and details to follow soon!
Monday, 7 July 2008
Friday, 4 July 2008
Celebration!
We forgot to say, as of last week we have had over 10000 views of our photos on flickr!
Thats a lot of people!
Thats a lot of people!
Revival!
Hello everyone! Its been a while.. Sarah and I have decided to kick start this beast back into operation as we are heading deeper into the darkness and internet is becoming more difficult to find! Instead of the luxury of emails we are going to try and write more here so you guys can keep track of what we are up if we can't email you all!
After A LOT of deliberation on what we were to do next and problems with visas and my new passport everything has fitted into place nicely and we are back in Southern China. Because the British Embassy managed to make my new passport quicker than the two weeks stated (for the unreal price of 160 pounds - looks like ferrero rocher all round at the embassy) we were able to make it back into China in time, just one day before the re-entrance date on our visa expired. This was a good thing as despite Chinas 'One world, one dream' mantra it is now very difficult for foreigners to obtain a Chinese visa.
We crossed the 'friendship pass' boarder crossing North East of Hanoi and caught a bus to Nanning, the capitol of Guangxi province. Fortunately we were able to get a night train that same evening out of Nanning as, despite its population of 1.5 million there was nothing interesting to keep us interested and the city was just another modern characterless Chinese city (this sounds bad but really its true... more about this soon).
The transition from Hanoi to Kunming has taken us from one kind of dampness to another.. Seven in the morning in Hanoi had us both profusely dripping in sweat unable to dry all day, and Kunming has RAINED non stop for the past three days! Its not even tropical rain, its cold wet drizzly grey rain just like in England! The coldness comes from the altitude - 1890 meters and the wet because its the wet season from now until the end of August! Our arrival in Kunming was a bit of a shock as it had been raining heavily all night and most of the city was under at least a foot of water! To get to our hostel we had to wade through the floodwaters, sewage and various floaters.. nice!
Kunming is yet another Chinese city, this one is the capitol of Yunnan province with a population of 1.2 million. Chinese cities may sound exotic and interesting to the uninitiated but really they are not, the main characteristics are... large featureless glass buildings, huge amounts of construction building more large featureless glass buildings, destruction of anything remotely old or holding character to make way for more large featureless glass buildings, huge amounts of traffic and car fume pollution and shopping malls so vast and filled with luxury goods you could mistake yourself for being in Dubai. Anyway, we have been using Kunming as a base to see some surrounding sights and to prepare ourselves for journeys into more remote parts of Yunnan.
Yunnan is the sixth largest province in China and more interestingly for us is only 50% Han Chinese, the remaining 50% is made up of various ethnic groups who have resisted Han influence and still hold strong local identities. Due to the regions remoteness and ruff rugged terrain its always been a bit of a renigade and has had a history of breaking ties with Beijing.
On a map you will find us just north of Laos and North East of Burma! The scenery here is varied, from thick tropical jungle down in the south (near Burma) to huge mountains in the north (near to Tibet and Sichuan).
We are hoping to travel North East from where we are now towards the mountains of Sichuan and Tibet through various villages and ethnic groups. There are Tibetan areas of Yunnan and Sichuan we are going to try and visit but the word on the street is that they may still be off-limits... We would like to take the 8 day mountain road into Lhasa (capitol of Tibet) from here but its a complete no-no for the Chinese Police, we would be turned back as soon as we leave Sangraii-La. Even though China says Tibet is open to foreign travelers its actually very difficult to enter... the rules are you can only enter via the train or plane or bus from the northern route, you have to be a member of a tour consisting of a group of people all traveling on the same passport type (ie uk), all hotels and tickets must be booked in advance and thats the only place you can stay all through an agency in advance, no visiting a list of monasteries provided by the government (generally the big ones), no traveling outside of Lhasa unless arranged by the same company the original tour was booked through and only after 12 days prior notification by the Tibetan tourist authority (Chinese). All in all its a stupid process that would cost us a fortune in time and money and has only made us more critical of the Chinese handling of the whole situation!
Anyhow, if a journey towards Tibet is not possible we are planning to taking the road North East over the Sichuan mountains towards Chengdu. Not sure of our exact route yet but it will have to take us out west way as in five weeks we will need to be entering Pakistan!
On a different note we have just been reading that the UN has declared this year the year of the potato! With rising costs in rice and failures in wheat harvests they have decided that spuds are the way ahead.... this article has also given a list of the average consumption, in grammes per person per day of various countries in the world, the average being 104 grammes per person per day. China comes out slightly over average at 110 g/p/d, USA 150 g/p/d... us brits doubles that at 310 g/p/d. staggeringly the people in Belarus on average eat 950 grammes per person per day! Thats 50g short of a Kilo each of potatoes EVERY DAY! We found this funny!
Anyway, watch this space for forthcoming updates on our views and stories on traveling in China!
After A LOT of deliberation on what we were to do next and problems with visas and my new passport everything has fitted into place nicely and we are back in Southern China. Because the British Embassy managed to make my new passport quicker than the two weeks stated (for the unreal price of 160 pounds - looks like ferrero rocher all round at the embassy) we were able to make it back into China in time, just one day before the re-entrance date on our visa expired. This was a good thing as despite Chinas 'One world, one dream' mantra it is now very difficult for foreigners to obtain a Chinese visa.
We crossed the 'friendship pass' boarder crossing North East of Hanoi and caught a bus to Nanning, the capitol of Guangxi province. Fortunately we were able to get a night train that same evening out of Nanning as, despite its population of 1.5 million there was nothing interesting to keep us interested and the city was just another modern characterless Chinese city (this sounds bad but really its true... more about this soon).
The transition from Hanoi to Kunming has taken us from one kind of dampness to another.. Seven in the morning in Hanoi had us both profusely dripping in sweat unable to dry all day, and Kunming has RAINED non stop for the past three days! Its not even tropical rain, its cold wet drizzly grey rain just like in England! The coldness comes from the altitude - 1890 meters and the wet because its the wet season from now until the end of August! Our arrival in Kunming was a bit of a shock as it had been raining heavily all night and most of the city was under at least a foot of water! To get to our hostel we had to wade through the floodwaters, sewage and various floaters.. nice!
Kunming is yet another Chinese city, this one is the capitol of Yunnan province with a population of 1.2 million. Chinese cities may sound exotic and interesting to the uninitiated but really they are not, the main characteristics are... large featureless glass buildings, huge amounts of construction building more large featureless glass buildings, destruction of anything remotely old or holding character to make way for more large featureless glass buildings, huge amounts of traffic and car fume pollution and shopping malls so vast and filled with luxury goods you could mistake yourself for being in Dubai. Anyway, we have been using Kunming as a base to see some surrounding sights and to prepare ourselves for journeys into more remote parts of Yunnan.
Yunnan is the sixth largest province in China and more interestingly for us is only 50% Han Chinese, the remaining 50% is made up of various ethnic groups who have resisted Han influence and still hold strong local identities. Due to the regions remoteness and ruff rugged terrain its always been a bit of a renigade and has had a history of breaking ties with Beijing.
On a map you will find us just north of Laos and North East of Burma! The scenery here is varied, from thick tropical jungle down in the south (near Burma) to huge mountains in the north (near to Tibet and Sichuan).
We are hoping to travel North East from where we are now towards the mountains of Sichuan and Tibet through various villages and ethnic groups. There are Tibetan areas of Yunnan and Sichuan we are going to try and visit but the word on the street is that they may still be off-limits... We would like to take the 8 day mountain road into Lhasa (capitol of Tibet) from here but its a complete no-no for the Chinese Police, we would be turned back as soon as we leave Sangraii-La. Even though China says Tibet is open to foreign travelers its actually very difficult to enter... the rules are you can only enter via the train or plane or bus from the northern route, you have to be a member of a tour consisting of a group of people all traveling on the same passport type (ie uk), all hotels and tickets must be booked in advance and thats the only place you can stay all through an agency in advance, no visiting a list of monasteries provided by the government (generally the big ones), no traveling outside of Lhasa unless arranged by the same company the original tour was booked through and only after 12 days prior notification by the Tibetan tourist authority (Chinese). All in all its a stupid process that would cost us a fortune in time and money and has only made us more critical of the Chinese handling of the whole situation!
Anyhow, if a journey towards Tibet is not possible we are planning to taking the road North East over the Sichuan mountains towards Chengdu. Not sure of our exact route yet but it will have to take us out west way as in five weeks we will need to be entering Pakistan!
On a different note we have just been reading that the UN has declared this year the year of the potato! With rising costs in rice and failures in wheat harvests they have decided that spuds are the way ahead.... this article has also given a list of the average consumption, in grammes per person per day of various countries in the world, the average being 104 grammes per person per day. China comes out slightly over average at 110 g/p/d, USA 150 g/p/d... us brits doubles that at 310 g/p/d. staggeringly the people in Belarus on average eat 950 grammes per person per day! Thats 50g short of a Kilo each of potatoes EVERY DAY! We found this funny!
Anyway, watch this space for forthcoming updates on our views and stories on traveling in China!
Tuesday, 20 May 2008
AAAA Scenic Spots
We know we haven't written to you for a while. As we are due to be leaving China in two days we decided to at least give you a taste of what we have been up to in the country.
Since leaving Beijing which can, in short, be described as big, hectic, friendly, modern and varied. We have headed down to the south of China. We took a 28 hour train journey to Guiyang in Guizhou province. We travelled hard sleeper, equivalent to third class. The bunks are three high with the top one stuck up in the roof of the train. We had experienced this once before on our trip to Datong and decided this time, we would opt for the middle bunk. You may still not be able to sit up but it is less claustrophobic as you can actually see out of a window. The train, as usual was jam packed with smoking and slurping Chinese men and families with screaming kids. The train journey was pleasant though, the countryside changed from the more rugged, harsh scenery which surrounds Beijing to the the lush green hills and rice terraces of the south. We really felt like we were in the tropical regions now!
Arriving in Guiyang was the start of our trip down the Vietnamese boarder. The following day was the ascent of the Olympic (One World, One Dream) torch to the summit of Everest, or Mount Chomolungma as it is called in China (this is the Tibetan name). We watched this for a bit, enduring the painfully amusing live interviewing. Not the easiest thing to do, interviewing two Chomolungma mountaineers on live tv as the torch makes it's slow progress to the summit. We had to get going.
We were heading to the nearby town of Anshun. On arriving at the bus station we were sold a ticket for a bus leaving in four minutes, after a mad dash to find the bus we were on our way. It was a hair-raising bus journey, which means the driver didn't like driving on his side of the road and strictly obeyed the rule of tonnage. After finding a hotel and grabbing a good breakfast of dumplings and red rice porridge we jumped on another bus to the 'World Famous AAAA Scenic Spot Waterfall'.
Huangguoshu Falls, after the farce of getting overly complicated and expensive tickets, were really lovely. Walking through a scenic Bonsai tree garden, with lots of very cool big-little trees and little-big trees you come to the top of the escalator, yes that's right, an escalator which takes you down the side of the valley. We hadn't brought a ticket so took the stroll down to the various viewing areas. The route, went behind the waterfalls, we got very wet but standing behind a big noisy waterfall is great fun! We also met a Chinese couple, the husband could speak a little English and they were very keen to have a chat, where had we been, he recommended some places to go, got very excited about the Olympics (as all Chinese people do when you mention it - 'One World, One Dream!')jobs and the weather in England, They were both really sweet. We do have one confession, we took the escalator back up the valley, making sure we adhered to the strict, no photos, no sitting, hand on the rail rules - Beat walking back up!
Next on our trip was the Longgong Caves, after a slightly later than planned start we hopped on a local bus and headed out of Anshun again. What we didn't realise at the time was the motley crew on our bus would actually become vital to our trip and by the end of the day we would be a team. The bus consisted of four students of varying excitability and a middle aged couple, the couple seemed normal enough until the husband produced from the depths of his clothing, jars with live bugs in. The largest one being what looked like a locust, which started chirping away. After getting passed round the insects disappeared from whence they came.
The Longgong caves covers a a massive area. You start your day overlooking rice paddies and limestone karsts, it's beautiful as the karsts are really dramatic and the rice paddies act like flat mirrors on the valley floors, so you get some great reflections, interrupted every now and then by women planting or water buffalo ploughing the muddy waters. Though only a small section is open to tourists the whole area is made up of karst caves stretching 15Km running through about 20 hills and has 90 interconnecting caves. The largest cave on the trip was about 80 meters high and 50 meters wide.
We didn't realize we were supposed to be moving as a group and were happy when the Chinese bus people rushed off in normal Chinese fashion, snapping pictures of the scenery to enjoy it at a later date. We ambled along, getting some pictures and watching the people at work in the fields. By the time we were close to the Chinese again we got shouted at, in an excited, friendly way "We are waiting for you!" We then saw we were all needed to fill up a river boat. The boat which had, what can only be described as bright orange, square rice cakes for buoyancy aids, chugged us through the fields to a tiny village. The village only seemed to be inhabited by very agile old women and chickens. Walking up the street they would come running at you holding bright pink incense sticks. I managed to side step/run away from one and after a walk through a bamboo wood we got to a large Buddha cave. I did buy incense from a cute child on the path who was selling them for her blind mother, so a good deed. The Buddha cave was very tranquil, monks were there to offer prayers and fortune telling. You could pay them to say prayers for you and could buy incense sticks the size of people. After been moved along by the Chinese again we climbed up the side of a hill and went into the first of the caves networks. The caves are garishly lit by lights of all colours, but they are really impressive, steep and winding walkways take you around large stalagmite formations and through narrow gaps. The stillness in the caves interrupted every now and then by chirping coming from the Chinese mans clothing. We ended up at the top of a large and jungly looking valley. With no clear markers on where to go we all ventured down. Then, much to our delight there was a zip wire! The Chinese students got us a slight discount off the price. Unfortunately non of them could afford to do it (though it wasn't expensive at 20RMB), so they cheerfully said goodbye to Sam and I, planning to meet up further down the valley and asked us to wave at them as we went by. The zip wire looked a bit more rickety than the one we took off the great wall and after being told to read the safety instructions in English, started to panic as it said to make sure you apply the break at the end... what break? when? what will happen if we don't? with no further explanation we were strapped up, shown where to pull on the break and told not to touch the wire. Sam went first, speeding off into the distance, yelling, and stopped like a rag doll being thrown in the air at the other end, which created some chuckles from the people attaching me to the wire. So, after seriously thinking about backing out, off I went. The zip picked up speed pretty quickly, I managed a wave to someone below me, but my attention was soon turned to, when do I pull the break? The red flag was being waved at me, I was pulling as hard as I could, I wasn't slowing down! The slightly padded wall was fast approaching and all my weight was now on the break, it might as well not be there! I then shut my eyes, prepared for the worst and screamed, a scream of pure fear, I got thrown into the air... I then opened my eyes to Sam and the two zip attendants wetting themselves laughing. Of course, the little Chinese man was there with the spring loaded wire to stop me. Forcing my legs to stop shaking, laughing for being alive and regaining composure we then ventured into their tiny office and got pictures printed of both of us coming into land, we both look really worried, even Sam has the fear in his eyes and arm muscles, pulling on that break which does nothing expect scare the big Jesus out of you!
We finally managed to find the Chinese guys again, waiting for us in another huge cave, even more grotesquely decorated with a large 'light waterfall' streaming down a section of the massive cave. After a long and Chinese style hurried walk through the caves we came out and, after getting more directions from locals, debating about which choice of route to then take, went round to some boats! Finally, this is what we had been waiting for, boats through caves! It had an adventurous and surreal side to it. Luckily, we had hardly met any other tourists all day and we were the only ones in the caves and on the boats so it felt like we were on our own which added to the adventure feel, silently being punted along the narrow tunnels and across cavernous halls. The purple, red, green and blue lighting added to the surreal side of things casting strange shadows and light across the cave walls and still water. We then changed boats and headed off into the cave network again. This time meeting a orange and white baseball cap tour group coming other other way, but the caves instilled a sense of serenity in the Chinese and they were all really quiet (apart from the Chinese chirping locust) which was great! Emerging into daylight again we headed off, on the home stretch now, we had been walking/trekking for about five hours, this area is massive. We separated from the Chinese for the last bit, they went off to see yet another cave, but Sam and I were exhausted so started to find our way back. It was then we really appreciated having the Chinese around as it took us ages to figure the right way out of the scenic area. Ironically the bus we found to take us back to Anshun had to be full, so we sat around and ended up waiting for the Chinese guys to finish their sightseeing. It created some giggles when they realised, for once, we had been waiting for them! It was a fun day, getting lost in the jungle valley, zip wires, boats through caves, it really did feel like some sort of big team building exercise.
We then spent the rest of the day getting to Kaili, to the east of Guiyan. From here we wanted to visit some minority villages, there are over 13 different minorities living in this region. We chose to stay in greatly named Petroleum Hotel. At 80RMB it was the cheapest stay so far, and it showed. After lugging our stuff up 6 floors of dirty green carpeted stairs and dumping our stuff in a damp ridden room we headed off for some much needed food.
Now we are further south, the food has taken on a more spicy flavour. Even our breakfast dumplings in Anshun were served with a dish loaded with finely ground chilies and spring onions, the locals mix in a small amount of soy sauce to create a fiery paste for a hot morning blast. Our dinner in Kaili was probably one of the hottest things I had eaten so far, including Sams spicy home cooking! Sam also had a really spicy dish. Described on the menu as 'medium-spice' I wouldn't want to see what horror 'spicy' would produce!
As a result we both got off to a slow start the next day with dodgy stomachs. We went to CITS (China International Tourist Service), in most places they are useless and want you to pay lots of money for tours, but this one had a good rep and told us about events happening in the surrounding villages. It was market day in Taijiang, not far outside Kaili, so we hopped on a bus to go and check it out.
Since leaving Beijing which can, in short, be described as big, hectic, friendly, modern and varied. We have headed down to the south of China. We took a 28 hour train journey to Guiyang in Guizhou province. We travelled hard sleeper, equivalent to third class. The bunks are three high with the top one stuck up in the roof of the train. We had experienced this once before on our trip to Datong and decided this time, we would opt for the middle bunk. You may still not be able to sit up but it is less claustrophobic as you can actually see out of a window. The train, as usual was jam packed with smoking and slurping Chinese men and families with screaming kids. The train journey was pleasant though, the countryside changed from the more rugged, harsh scenery which surrounds Beijing to the the lush green hills and rice terraces of the south. We really felt like we were in the tropical regions now!
Arriving in Guiyang was the start of our trip down the Vietnamese boarder. The following day was the ascent of the Olympic (One World, One Dream) torch to the summit of Everest, or Mount Chomolungma as it is called in China (this is the Tibetan name). We watched this for a bit, enduring the painfully amusing live interviewing. Not the easiest thing to do, interviewing two Chomolungma mountaineers on live tv as the torch makes it's slow progress to the summit. We had to get going.
We were heading to the nearby town of Anshun. On arriving at the bus station we were sold a ticket for a bus leaving in four minutes, after a mad dash to find the bus we were on our way. It was a hair-raising bus journey, which means the driver didn't like driving on his side of the road and strictly obeyed the rule of tonnage. After finding a hotel and grabbing a good breakfast of dumplings and red rice porridge we jumped on another bus to the 'World Famous AAAA Scenic Spot Waterfall'.
Huangguoshu Falls, after the farce of getting overly complicated and expensive tickets, were really lovely. Walking through a scenic Bonsai tree garden, with lots of very cool big-little trees and little-big trees you come to the top of the escalator, yes that's right, an escalator which takes you down the side of the valley. We hadn't brought a ticket so took the stroll down to the various viewing areas. The route, went behind the waterfalls, we got very wet but standing behind a big noisy waterfall is great fun! We also met a Chinese couple, the husband could speak a little English and they were very keen to have a chat, where had we been, he recommended some places to go, got very excited about the Olympics (as all Chinese people do when you mention it - 'One World, One Dream!')jobs and the weather in England, They were both really sweet. We do have one confession, we took the escalator back up the valley, making sure we adhered to the strict, no photos, no sitting, hand on the rail rules - Beat walking back up!
Next on our trip was the Longgong Caves, after a slightly later than planned start we hopped on a local bus and headed out of Anshun again. What we didn't realise at the time was the motley crew on our bus would actually become vital to our trip and by the end of the day we would be a team. The bus consisted of four students of varying excitability and a middle aged couple, the couple seemed normal enough until the husband produced from the depths of his clothing, jars with live bugs in. The largest one being what looked like a locust, which started chirping away. After getting passed round the insects disappeared from whence they came.
The Longgong caves covers a a massive area. You start your day overlooking rice paddies and limestone karsts, it's beautiful as the karsts are really dramatic and the rice paddies act like flat mirrors on the valley floors, so you get some great reflections, interrupted every now and then by women planting or water buffalo ploughing the muddy waters. Though only a small section is open to tourists the whole area is made up of karst caves stretching 15Km running through about 20 hills and has 90 interconnecting caves. The largest cave on the trip was about 80 meters high and 50 meters wide.
We didn't realize we were supposed to be moving as a group and were happy when the Chinese bus people rushed off in normal Chinese fashion, snapping pictures of the scenery to enjoy it at a later date. We ambled along, getting some pictures and watching the people at work in the fields. By the time we were close to the Chinese again we got shouted at, in an excited, friendly way "We are waiting for you!" We then saw we were all needed to fill up a river boat. The boat which had, what can only be described as bright orange, square rice cakes for buoyancy aids, chugged us through the fields to a tiny village. The village only seemed to be inhabited by very agile old women and chickens. Walking up the street they would come running at you holding bright pink incense sticks. I managed to side step/run away from one and after a walk through a bamboo wood we got to a large Buddha cave. I did buy incense from a cute child on the path who was selling them for her blind mother, so a good deed. The Buddha cave was very tranquil, monks were there to offer prayers and fortune telling. You could pay them to say prayers for you and could buy incense sticks the size of people. After been moved along by the Chinese again we climbed up the side of a hill and went into the first of the caves networks. The caves are garishly lit by lights of all colours, but they are really impressive, steep and winding walkways take you around large stalagmite formations and through narrow gaps. The stillness in the caves interrupted every now and then by chirping coming from the Chinese mans clothing. We ended up at the top of a large and jungly looking valley. With no clear markers on where to go we all ventured down. Then, much to our delight there was a zip wire! The Chinese students got us a slight discount off the price. Unfortunately non of them could afford to do it (though it wasn't expensive at 20RMB), so they cheerfully said goodbye to Sam and I, planning to meet up further down the valley and asked us to wave at them as we went by. The zip wire looked a bit more rickety than the one we took off the great wall and after being told to read the safety instructions in English, started to panic as it said to make sure you apply the break at the end... what break? when? what will happen if we don't? with no further explanation we were strapped up, shown where to pull on the break and told not to touch the wire. Sam went first, speeding off into the distance, yelling, and stopped like a rag doll being thrown in the air at the other end, which created some chuckles from the people attaching me to the wire. So, after seriously thinking about backing out, off I went. The zip picked up speed pretty quickly, I managed a wave to someone below me, but my attention was soon turned to, when do I pull the break? The red flag was being waved at me, I was pulling as hard as I could, I wasn't slowing down! The slightly padded wall was fast approaching and all my weight was now on the break, it might as well not be there! I then shut my eyes, prepared for the worst and screamed, a scream of pure fear, I got thrown into the air... I then opened my eyes to Sam and the two zip attendants wetting themselves laughing. Of course, the little Chinese man was there with the spring loaded wire to stop me. Forcing my legs to stop shaking, laughing for being alive and regaining composure we then ventured into their tiny office and got pictures printed of both of us coming into land, we both look really worried, even Sam has the fear in his eyes and arm muscles, pulling on that break which does nothing expect scare the big Jesus out of you!
We finally managed to find the Chinese guys again, waiting for us in another huge cave, even more grotesquely decorated with a large 'light waterfall' streaming down a section of the massive cave. After a long and Chinese style hurried walk through the caves we came out and, after getting more directions from locals, debating about which choice of route to then take, went round to some boats! Finally, this is what we had been waiting for, boats through caves! It had an adventurous and surreal side to it. Luckily, we had hardly met any other tourists all day and we were the only ones in the caves and on the boats so it felt like we were on our own which added to the adventure feel, silently being punted along the narrow tunnels and across cavernous halls. The purple, red, green and blue lighting added to the surreal side of things casting strange shadows and light across the cave walls and still water. We then changed boats and headed off into the cave network again. This time meeting a orange and white baseball cap tour group coming other other way, but the caves instilled a sense of serenity in the Chinese and they were all really quiet (apart from the Chinese chirping locust) which was great! Emerging into daylight again we headed off, on the home stretch now, we had been walking/trekking for about five hours, this area is massive. We separated from the Chinese for the last bit, they went off to see yet another cave, but Sam and I were exhausted so started to find our way back. It was then we really appreciated having the Chinese around as it took us ages to figure the right way out of the scenic area. Ironically the bus we found to take us back to Anshun had to be full, so we sat around and ended up waiting for the Chinese guys to finish their sightseeing. It created some giggles when they realised, for once, we had been waiting for them! It was a fun day, getting lost in the jungle valley, zip wires, boats through caves, it really did feel like some sort of big team building exercise.
We then spent the rest of the day getting to Kaili, to the east of Guiyan. From here we wanted to visit some minority villages, there are over 13 different minorities living in this region. We chose to stay in greatly named Petroleum Hotel. At 80RMB it was the cheapest stay so far, and it showed. After lugging our stuff up 6 floors of dirty green carpeted stairs and dumping our stuff in a damp ridden room we headed off for some much needed food.
Now we are further south, the food has taken on a more spicy flavour. Even our breakfast dumplings in Anshun were served with a dish loaded with finely ground chilies and spring onions, the locals mix in a small amount of soy sauce to create a fiery paste for a hot morning blast. Our dinner in Kaili was probably one of the hottest things I had eaten so far, including Sams spicy home cooking! Sam also had a really spicy dish. Described on the menu as 'medium-spice' I wouldn't want to see what horror 'spicy' would produce!
As a result we both got off to a slow start the next day with dodgy stomachs. We went to CITS (China International Tourist Service), in most places they are useless and want you to pay lots of money for tours, but this one had a good rep and told us about events happening in the surrounding villages. It was market day in Taijiang, not far outside Kaili, so we hopped on a bus to go and check it out.
Sunday, 20 April 2008
Wednesday, 9 April 2008
Siberian Logging
Interesting to find this article on the BBC news website this morning, we certainly saw a huge amount of wood heading towards China and trains which had a lot more than 30 wagons on them, these trains were running every couple of minutes. We were supprised at the amount of logging taking place and seemed to pass many villages which had cut down all wood for miles around them... W e doubt the Russians will be doing anything about it any time soon!
Siberian Logging
Siberian Logging
Sunday, 6 April 2008
Another sign which made us laugh...
We found this one in the zoo...
It says "for the safety reason please do not leap across the rail"
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