It’s very difficult to wake up when your room has no windows and it’s freezing cold and raining outside. We both battled to get going this morning – sore and stiff from two days hiking. We decided to take it easy and spend an extra day here before heading back to Lijiang and then to Chengdu.

We have had to dig our shoes and fleeces out of our packs – my feet don’t know what is going on but it is rewarding to stroll through puddles without getting wet for a change. We went in search of breakfast on the way to the bank and found the well know Noah Cafe and an excellent western breakfast. That’s 2/2 brilliant meals here. Fully stuffed we walked it off while looking for a China Construction Bank branch. The only item on the to-do-list for the day was to deposit cash for our Tibet tour. Once again through sign language and a bit of blind luck we managed to deposit money into an account – could have been anyone’s account. We got confirmation later from the tour operator. Relief and success !

I got to spend a couple of uninterrupted hours on the PC at the hostel uploading photos and getting the photo link to posts working more or less how I want (it’s not pretty but it works).

After getting some laundry done using a fantastic contraption (I think it is called a ‘washing machine’ ?) we hung it out on the hostel roof with the aid of Martin’s wash-line and a break in the weather. The afternoon was spent wandering the streets and alleys of Shangrila old town. The place is tiny, completely geared for westerners and empty but with slightly more ‘character’ than the other ‘tourist’ towns we have been in. It has the added benefit of having a number of outdoor gear shops, mostly ‘North Fake’, and mostly clothing, but any gear puts an unjustifiably large grin on our faces 🙂 We didn’t find anything except a cap for V but it was ball. It only took only a couple of hours to stroll around the entire town. I snapped some cool looking buildings, streets, doors and windows. A great way to chill out in an enjoyable little spot.

After another (that’s 3/3) excellent meal (home made pasta and pizza) at a well know, Italian run restaurant in China ! (Helens Pizza), we returned to the hostel and started chatting to an older Italian guy. He is a true walking encyclopedia of Chinese towns and transport links (apparently he has been touring here for years). Once he starts imparting information it is impossible to get him to stop but the end result is that we will head North and loop back to Chengdu. Only the first 300km is difficult (takes 12 hours by bus) – we’ll see some incredible scenery and possibly a beautiful national park if the weather clears. A large portion of the trip is above 4000m – I’ll leave the details to V but it looks like we’ll be buying bus tickets tomorrow and heading off on Monday morning.

[Pictures: a Tibetean Stupa in Shangrila old town. The yak burger restaurant is to the right (out of shot)]

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Day 2 of TLG turned out to be an epic through no fault of our own. We did not get lost again in case anyone was wondering.

Part 1: A lovely stroll
Not off to a great start with luke warm showers and a bland breakfast of scrambled eggs for Sim and rice porrige for me against Sims advice. Next time I promise to listen to my love when he tells me to pic something that’s good for walking instead of trying something new. Anyway we were back on the trail by 9.

The weather was cool with the occasional drizzle but it was a marvelous 2 hour walk from Halfway to Tinas guesthouse. We passed 2 waterfalls in full flow after last nights heavy rainfall, and the only people we saw on the trail were a couple of locals. It was great.

Part 2: Raging river and ladders in the sky
After arriving at Tinas which is located on the main road we continued on down to the river. It was quite steep and necessitated another ‘donation’ but we were pleased to find that the donation got us a clean path with regular bins and chain handrails in some of the more precarious bits. At the bottom we came across a huge rock in the middle of the river and some enterprising locals who had built a rickety walkway to it and were charging a fee to get across. This was becoming a trend on this trip. We declined payment and carried on along the path to where another local had set up shop. This time they were charging for the path to get to the actual Tiger Leaping Rock (around N27.25621, E100.16494 :gps:(GPS)::27.25621::100.16494:gps:) and to get out of the gorge on their path and ‘sky ladders’. This time we paid of course and if the weather had been sunny instead of drizzly we would have hung around at the lady’s makeshift cafe as it really had a wonderful view and was quite nicely done. The river not far below us was roaring away. The rapids looked particullarly vicious and you would not want to fall in.

We continued on to the Tiger Leaping Rock which was basically 3 large rocks jutting out into the river. The LP says that the legend is that a tiger used the rocks to leap over the river thus escaping the hunter that was pursuing him, though where he would have gone once he got to he other side is a mystery as it’s a sheer rock face. I suspect that there may be more than one big rock jutting into the river and they are all trying to capitalize on the legend.

Regardless we had fun clambering over the rocks and staring at the rushing rapids, but since we were both getting a bit damp we decided to push on. Next we came to a fork in the path with a sign directing us to the ‘safe path’ and the ‘ladders’ no surprise which path we took hey. The ladders were made out of bits of welded reinforcing and wood taking you straight up the rockface. Probably would not have passed any sort of safety inspection in the UK or anywhere else for that matter, but they were actually quite solid and we made it up with no trouble at all.

Part 3: Beeeg rocks
We arrived back at Tinas at around 1pm. The descent into the gorge and back took us around 3 hours and was hard on us but well worth it. Though it had drizzled pretty much continuously since we had started down, the trail was still negotiable and we thoroughy enjoyed it even if my knees were starting to complain. We stopped in at Tina’s for a coke and had the intention of hanging around for some more hikers to share a taxi back to Janes. The info we had been given was that a taxi would cost us about £8 but on further enquiry we discovered that they were charging £20 as there had been some rockfalls on the road. We gasped at the price and opted to start walking as we had not seen any more hikers coming down. We calculated we could probably make it back to Janes by 4pm with a combination of walking and hitching. At worst we could walk all the way if we had to. About 10 minutes in, a taxi pulled up and we landed up paying £3 for him to take us to the first rockfall about 3 km away, an exhorbitant price in retrospect but it got us further along our way.

The rockfall was a serious one. Huge boulders had broken off of the vertical cliff face and had smashed down onto the road completely covering it. You have to check out the pics to understand. At first we though no way are we climbing over that but seeing some locals cross over we decided to press on. Sim went first with me not too far behind him. We got it over and done with as quickly as we could. It was not an enjoyable experience and when Sim loosened a watermellon sized boulder it reinforced the fact that this probably wasn’t one of our brightest ideas.

On the other side of the rockfall, was a large group of Chinese tourists who had evidently had part of their day tour upset by the blocked road. They cheered us when we got safely down and one of them kindly offered me a wet wipe after we had rinsed our filthy hands in a puddle in the road. The lady spoke good English and told us that there were a further 2 rockfalls disrupting the road but that they were much less serious than the one we had just clambered over. There was a fleet of stranded taxis (stuck between 2 rockfslls) a little further along the road and we paid £5 for one of them to take us 10km to the next rockfall.

The Chinese lady was correct, this rockfall was much smaller, just a couple of smallish boulders strewn across the road and was already being cleared by the workers who were constructing the road. We were still a bit nervous at the thought that there could be more rocks coming down, but the workers did not seem terribly worried.

There were no minibus taxis waiting on the other side though so we walked maybe half an hour before coming to a tunnel and the third and final rockfall blocking the tunnel exit. Serious construction was going on on the other side of the tunnel sending massive boulders flooding the tunnel exit so we waited with a French couple and some workers untill the excavator on the other side took a break.

A quick scramble over the rockfall along with everyone else and we were on the other side. We had hoped to be able to team up with the Frenchies and share the cost of transport if we found any, but they clearly were not interested in being anywhere near us and at first walked off very fast but then stopped and let us pass when they realized we were keeping up with them.

So we walked, and walked along the muddy half constructed road. When the wind let up and the rain eased it was rather pleasant and not at all difficult. We eventually managed to hitch a lift for £1 after maybe an hour of walking. You rarely get anything for free in this country and people who are going in your direction anyway will still charge you. The French couple passed us on the back of another vehicle along the way.

Part 4: More spiky French and getting to Shangrila
Back at Janes we retrieved our luggage and enquired about getting to Shangrila. There were 5 other people going that way, another French couple, a British couple that had hiked back from Halfway guesthouse plus a chinese girl. The French had already organized a minibus taxi for £20 and were sharing with the other three. We asked the French couple if there was space for 2 more, but got an evasive half answer. On further enquiry we were told that there was not enough room and that 7 people in the taxi was dangerous. Bear in mind that 7 people and their gear fitted just fine into the same type of minibus taxi that got us to Janes in the first place. This was the second time today that we had come across spiky (to put it politely) French people. Do we smell? Do we somehow offend them by our obvious lack of style? What? We always try to be friendly and at least polite to other people we meet along the way and would jump at the chance to share costs.

Sadly we also suspected that the staff at Janes were trying to get us into another £20 taxi. I say this because it took further prodding from us for them to eventually tell us that there are regular buses to Shangrila that leave from just up the road and cost £2.50 per person. Plus when the young girl told us this she immediately got an earful from one of the other ladies.

We trudged back out into the drizzle and down the road. A couple more enquiries along the way got us to a parking lot on the side of the road. We saw the Chinese lady who had given us the wet wipe and told us about the other rockfalls. As soon as she spotted us she came over to see if we needed help. Just goes to show that there are still goodhearted people out there.

We were on the bus by just after 4. Sims pretty good with his estimates of time and was spot on again. It took us around 2 hours to get to Shangrila. Along the way the scenery took on a decidedly Tibetan nature. The house styles changed (all have prayer flags on top) and we saw yaks grazing. Instead of fields of rice, some other grass like crop were being farmed (hey we’re not farmers ok) and the people’s faces seemed to have taken on a more Tibetan look.

Shangrila or Zhongdian as it was previously called until the government decided to change the name to something that would lure tourists to the area, was chillly and since we were dressed only in shorts, t-shirts and strops, we definately felt it whilst we waited for the city bus.

After an exhausting day we found our hostel to be a thoroughly charming mud brick construction, with a friendly owner, nicely decorated though windowless room and a super hot shower. We finished it all of with well deserved and delicious ‘free range’ yak burgers (probably thd best meal we have had in China) and went to bed, scrubbed clean and well fed.

[Pictures: V at the first waterfall on the way down from Halfway Inn. V Crossing a bridge at the bottom of TLG. The sky highway on the way back out of the gorge. Sim topping out of the insane ladders. The TL rock far below. Yak burger on the menu]

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An early and yummy breakfast with real bacon and we piled into a minibus with five other people for the drive out to the start of the Tiger Leaping Gorge (TLG) hike. We tried to get a bit of dialogue going, but the two poms were reluctant and the rest just plain unfriendly. It was a quiet trip out made even longer by the continuous traffic jams and roadworks but V and I passed the time with a little more Bill Bryson. The weather was clearing as we arrived at Jane’s guest house around 12 and realizing that we had at least 6 hours of hiking to do we stored our packs and hit the trail while the rest of the arrivals sat to have lunch – we guess due to the delays that they decided to hike tomorrow.

We almost took a wrong turn early on but my V got us going in the right direction and we started to climb. It was a pleasant hike and we were making good time in the overcast but warm conditions. A small 10l day-pack ensured we weren’t slowed too much by excess luggage and we hit the first toll booth (a ‘donation’ of £1 each and some expensive bananas), after passing through a few farms, feeling strong. Form there the trail got steeper and more tricky but by no means hard. Very few people were out on the trail and after passing one of the bigger Naxi villages we started up what was supposed to be the hard part – 28 switchback bends to get to the top of the gorge.

As we approached what we thought was the top (around N27.18825, E100.09781 :gps:(GPS)::27.18825::100.09781:gps:) we walked past a roughly painted sign at a farm-stall indicating that we should rest up and refuel for the 28 Bends ahead ! We ignored the warning and plodded on. Just after going round the ridge was another sign… “Game On”… I had to laugh.

I counted 29 bends to the top (the error possibly induced by lack of blood to the brain as it rushed to my skinny legs) and it was tough going but we topped out in 4 hours (precisely what was estimated from Jane’s). The view from the top, in fact for the entire afternoon, was magnificent. Some industrious and annoying locals had erected a boom and were charging for photos to be taken from the viewpoint – we declined. From the high point (around N27.19024, E100.10272 :gps:(GPS)::27.19024::100.10272:gps:) at 2600m the path descended, much to V’s frustration after climbing all the way up, through stunning forests and along gorge edging trails. With the views of the TLG it was an amazing walk. We had been concerned about our gear selection for the hike – some websites had recommended hiking boots, rain gear etc. We had no problems at all with strops, shorts, a change of underwear, thermal tops and umbrellas. Two hours after leaving the viewpoint, and not a moment too soon, we ambled into the Halfway Inn (Total of Six hours including a 15 minute lunch break and about 30 minutes of ‘strategic rests’).

There are some annoyances on the trail. Telephone poles and wires obscure the view for large portions, the roads at the bottom are an eyesore, litter is as always an issue along with horse dung, and every obvious rock has guest house advertising painted all over. It is still a stunning walk. The Halfway Inn is huge, slick, clean and advertises great views of the gorge from the toilet. We sat on the terrace enjoying the incredible view with a beer and barbarian portions of food until the cold and then rain sent us inside. Another awesome day (maybe 15 000 hotdogs).

[Pictures: V looking a little worse for wear at the top of the 28 bends and looking back from where we hiked. More in linked gallery]

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Turns out that the deluxe room doesn’t have solid walls all the way to the ceiling so we were up with the Spanish couple next door on skype till late last night. The morning’s mission was to finalize our Tibet plans and it ended up absorbing the entire morning. We exhausted all the possibilities for an overland crossing from here with the help of the hostel owner (May – who is from Inner Mongolia). She was fantastic; on the phone to agencies for us and getting information via QQ (Chinese Skype) and email all the while checking people in and sorting complaints. It seems impossible to get the additional military permit you need to cross from Shangrila into Tibet this year (even for locals). No matter which way we decide to do it (and there are a lot of options) it’s going to explode our budget.

We overheard an American chap talking about a similar plan but after spending a few minutes chatting to him it soon became clear that he was substantially more clueless than us and also unbelievably annoying. We couldn’t believe his arrogance. Complaining that there were not enough staff to solve all his travel problems instantly. These were hostel staff going above and beyond to help, not travel agents ! We decided to take a walk to clear our heads and consider our options (with the added benefit of getting away from the yanker).

We strolled through town and out towards the Black Dragon Pool with the ambition of taking the mandatory Lijiang photo. We had heard that you could avoid the £8 fee getting into the attraction by going around it but we didn’t try very hard and ended up coughing up. The weather was really not being helpful and we were generally disappointed with the park (and our shots of the pool). We also found the ‘free’ entrance which was easily accessible with a 20 minute walk up the road to the end of the park where a stretch of Mao era graves proved interesting.

On the way back into town we decided to celebrate Ro’s birthday (Happee Happee) with a treat and stopped at The Nordic Cafe. It was just like stepping into an American coffee shop – amazing find. We overloaded our sugar tanks on Oreo cheesecake and diluted it with an excellent coffee. For the next few hours we wandered around the old town gathering supplies for the Tiger Leaping Gorge (TLG) hike and trying to decide on Tibet. Lijiang is the least interesting of the tourist towns we have seen. Alley after alley looks as if the town planners used a Photoshop clone tool, even down to the ‘Silver-smiths’ hammering out flat-bar.

Back at the hostel we spent a frustrating evening plotting, but we now have a plan. We will spend a week backtracking to Chengdu after Shangrila (first time on the trip we have had to return to a place). The tour will take us by train to Lhasa and we’ll spend 8 days in Tibet (Land Cruiser and a guide) taking in the sights including Everest Base Camp. It will cost a whack (conservatively £1000 ea) and we hope to get the price down by having other travelers join us.

Have to mention dinner. We selected an arbitrary restaurant and sat down. After being presented with tea we watched a 20 minute hissy fit by what we assume was the head (or only) waitress. No idea what it was about but it was accompanied with flying order books and a lot of shouting. What a primadonna ! Eventually we gave up waiting and left – ended up eating back at the hostel. We are both looking forward to getting out to the TLG tomorrow – hope the weather improves.

[Pictures: Our shot at Black Dragon Pool. What it should look like with fancy camera, good weather and a generous helping of talent. Cake !]

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The ‘Dali’ and ‘Lijiang’ galleries (up to 13 Aug) are now up to date. I have also started adding some code to posts so if you click through you should now get a thumbnail gallery of all the photos taken the day the post was written (at the bottom of the post). Obviously, since I don’t upload photos as often as I post, it will be a little retroactive and will take some time to add the tags to all the old posts. Keep an eye out for the ‘Click to see full post, comments and linked gallery photos‘ links at the bottom of posts.

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Not much to report for today. We fetched our visa extensions from the PSB in Dali with no troubles – we now have until September 17th to get out of China. I have to admit that the PSB in Dali is brilliant, unbelievably efficient and a pleasure to use. Back at the hostel it took 15 minutes to arrange and catch a local bus for the 4 hour trip to Lijiang. We have become accustomed to getting buses to anywhere without any hassles – it’s just such a pity that for Tibet the regulations don’t permit it.

The trip was on reasonably good and straight roads with the odd bit of rain. Unfortunately the mountains to the west were hidden by cloud. We listen to audio-books and dozed. Our hostel information recommended that we take a taxi from the bus station – a minibus quoted us £2 we laughed at the guy and got a taxi for 90p (we are occasionally getting it right).

Lijiang old town is a compact and demarcated theme park village surrounded by the new town. Our hostel is good (the Garden Inn) even if they botched the reservation they made good by putting us in the ‘deluxe’ room for the first night. On arrival we got straight to the business of sorting out our Tiger Leaping Gorge hike and asking about Tibet. It looks like Tibet may not happen overland from this side but we haven’t given up yet. This news put us both in a disgruntled mood which was enhanced by the lack of food in our tummies – not a good combination we have decided.

In the evening we went for a stroll in search of food. Lijiang has very little to offer in the form of authenticity but what it lacks in that department it makes up for in over zealous lighting and blaring music from the endless bars around the main squares. The place was teeming with tourists (of all kinds) – not really our scene but we’ll give the place a thorough once over tomorrow.

[Pictures: Looking down the stream behind the snack street in Lijiang old town.]

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So the big day arrived. Time to stop relaxing and procrastinating and get out into the hills a little. After a quick breakfast at the hostel and a brief chat with some of our hostel buddies (a lady from New Zealand who works for Ice Breaker, the guys who made my merino wool t-shirts, and her dad who teaches English and lives in China) we hit the trail with a map in hand – what could possibly go wrong ? We started off in the general direction of the mountains and found ourselves walking through small farms and around new streets. There are lots of new building clusters in this area with a similar feeling to a complex in SA but without the walls, guards, electric fences and sewers.

Coming across a movie set turned tourist attraction we knew that we were at least heading in the right direction. No idea what the movie was, but the ‘set’ looked more like a mini fortified village. The ticket cost and general cheesiness prevented us from going inside and we carried on to the trail-head where we acquired tickets and a pamphlet. One of the guards insisted that we read the information carefully – it outlined security and other risks on the mountain along with tips on what to do in case of an emergency or getting lost. We had been told that there had been muggings in the past on the trails and had left everything valuable behind so we were not too concerned.

We soon realized that getting lost or into any kind of trouble on the mountain would take a superhuman effort. The ‘trail’ is a 2.5m wide, perfectly paved stone concourse complete with handrails, warning signs, toilets, rest pagodas, water taps and fire hydrants ! We were all alone as we climbed stairs up and up toward the contour path passing only one guy who was pulling weeds from the side of the trail. It took around 90 minutes of hard step-mastering on the mossy path through thick forest to reach the contour path – I can see why most people take the cable car but chatting all the way made it easy.

After a short rest on a convenient bench we strolled off along the path. It was wonderful. The trail wound it’s way along the mountains offering stunning views of the town and lake. Sections have been carved (reasonably aesthetically) into sheer rock faces and the trail cuts back into gullies as it approaches waterfalls with the greater mountains towering possibly 1000m overhead. Light rain encouraged us to stop under misty and cloud covered mountains to have a little lunch before heading back towards the chairlift. We took the hard way down – a muddy, slippery and dis-used horse trail that weaves it’s way down under the path of the comfortable looking chairlift. After trekking downhill and through a vast mountainside graveyard we successfully navigated our way back to the hostel. An excellent five hours out in the hills – we deserved the beer.

The proprietor and head chef at the hostel is a French guy who has been in China forever and he sold us on a ‘Special’ dinner menu. At 7pm we were on the benches with most of the hostel’s guests eagerly awaiting sups. It was excellent and simple. A cheese platter with real cheeses (including pecorino, brie & rocquefort) real breads, a salad that I even found delicious and a fruit salad for desert. We have not had real cheese and bread since Russia and I was shocked that he had been able to source it here. Combined with his home-brewed witblitz and the lively company (we preferred the quieter Belgium couple as opposed to the Poms and Israelis) it was a fantastic dinner, an unexpected treat.

[Pictures: None – we didn’t take the phones on the hike for fear of being mugged. Will upload pics from the camera soon]

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I woke up this morning feeling pretty terrible – so another day off for us after a quick walk into town in search of real medication. Pharmacies in China have been a challange. We walked in and were greeted by helpful staff who could not understand a word we were saying (our fault not theirs). We passed walls of little wooden drawers each containing various kinds of dried roots, mushrooms, animal parts etc. Chinese traditional medicine seems to be a booming industry (as ever). Along with all the other ‘Snake Oil’ we passed what could only be decscribed as ‘real’ Snake Oil – or what looked like a partially disected snake in a jar of liquid. After scanning the shelves in vain I made some ‘sore head’ and ‘coughing’ actions – the staff presented us with a few items in Chinese packaging. Evetually we found some real medicine with bad English on the box and inserts that at least indicated a few familiar active ingredients.

Back at the hostel we lounged in the lounge. V got a chance to scan some recent National Geographics and other books – I lasted less than an hour after taking a pill. After a good snooze I am feeling much better. It was raining on and off for most of the day – hopefully it clears so we can get out for a hike tomorrow.

Dinner on Foreigner’s street was cheap and nasty. I think we would rather have simple Chinese food than ‘western’ food prepared with all good intentions by a Chinese chef, it was barely edible.

[Pictures: Boring one. The lounge at the hostel. It is a fantastic place. The Lily Pad Inn – highly recommended]

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The ‘Longji Terraces to Anshun’ gallery is complete. Grab a strong coffee. Should be able to catch up the rest tonight/tomorrow.

[UPDATE: It’s done.. Added ‘Anshun & Around’, ‘Kunming & Around’ and ‘Dali’ which is incomplete – enjoy]

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Well we’ve taken a couple of days off from sightseeing and generally energetic activities. Yesterday we went into Dali (the new city) to sort out our visa extensions. What a great experience – the first time in my life I have ever been inside a government building where the staff outnumber the people needing assistance. Very pleasant and efficient but our visa will only be ready on Tuesday so we will be here for another two nights.

In the afternoon we took a short stroll around Dali old town to pick up some supplies for a hike and some odd looking fruit to try. The old town is a bit of a mix – some parts have been rebuilt (not restored) and look quaint but sterile. There is a bustling ‘Foreigner’s Street’ where a travelers needs can be adequately fulfilled complete with last night’s Glenmorangie (even though two doubles cost most than a nights accommodation it was worth it). The main ‘shopping’ streets are far from interesting, photocopies of what you see everywhere – we are bored of this stuff – bring on the mountains ! Away from the main streets we found less than authentic buildings in hastily poured concrete peppered with the odd derelict original structure. Golf carts full of domestic tourists rolling up and down the streets does not help – possibly we are missing something or we have just seen it all before.

Today was a bit of a cop-out. We planned to go for a hike up and along some of the mountain trails but neither of us was in the mood. I’ve picked up a stomach bug and a bit of man flu (and everyone knows that is far worse than any other kind of flu) so we decided to rest up and chill out. With time on our hands we have started to think about changing plans again – not good me thinks. We are barely 1400km from Mt. Everest at the moment and it’s killing us (that’s like being in Cape Town and having Everest in Joburg !). We have mixed reports of road closures on the route we want to take to Tibet and there seem to be a lot of complications and costs involved. The option of going to Nepal is incredibly tempting. We will definitely exit China over budget (but then again we expected to stay only six weeks – we’ve been here two months with another four weeks to go !). So after many, many hours agonizing over the options we have decided to stick to our rough original plan – Lijiang and the Tiger Leaping Gorge, then Shangrila where we will try to find a route to Lhasa (hopefully we won’t need to fly or double back to Xi’an). From Lhasa we’ll do a standard ‘tour’ including the Chinese Everest Base Camp, return to Lhasa and make our way back to Kunming (as cheaply and quickly as possible). Real trekking in Nepal is going to have to wait for another trip. So close. The costs, time and lack of gear will just not do it justice.

We spent another few hours walking around Dali old town again looking for some tops for V (and finally have been successful) but I think we are both reaching saturation point in China. We need to get to another country. Tibet will do just fine 🙂

PS… The last 5 eps of this years ‘Doctor Who’ were brilliant and bow-ties are cool. Geronimo !

[Pictures: So that’s what a nights accommodation and a meal looks like – but it did taste amazing, Dali old town, Ridley Scott’s ‘Alien’ egg fruit]

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100 (百) Days on the Road !

We’re even impressed with ourselves. Special reward: a late afternoon nap 🙂

Of the 4500 hours on the road so far I doubt that V and I have spent a total of more than one separated by a distance greater than 10m. It all comes down to the fact that my V is just awesome (still calculating her position on the Hotdog scale) and I love her more every day !

So what to do to celebrate ? How about an hour on city buses followed by 6 hours on an inter-city bus (mildly frightening at times) and another half hour city bus to get to the next destination. Sounds just about right. We are now in Dali (another travelers paradise with all the toppings) in what seems to be a magnificent hostel (The Lilly Pad) just outside the old city wall. We are both exhausted but I think we may go in search of a well known bar (rumored to be fully stocked) in the hope of finding a good scotch. Cheers all.

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So off to do some sightseeing. We first got excited about the Stone Forest outside Kunming :gps:(GPS)::24.754333::103.276944:gps: when V came across some photos last year – we HAD to see it even it has received a bad wrap as a Chinesified theme park. It was easy to get there – city bus out to the East bus station and then onto a 1.5hour inter-city bus out to Shilin. The entry fee seemed high (£17.50) but in retrospect it was well worth it and I was very happy to have a digital camera – the cost of film would certainly have left us bankrupt.

We crossed into the park on foot and immediately headed away from the crowds following the ring road road anti-clockwise drooling at the beauty of the rocks for some distance before coming to a trail on the Southern edge of the park. Having popped open our umbrellas to provide portable shade it was a stunning stroll, crossing paths with one other person, around lakes then to and through some amazing mushroom formations. The paths are beautifully built and snake their way past, occasionally incorporating, the formations with utmost respect for the environment and aesthetics – an impressive display for China we thought.

We continued the loop around and found our way into some even more impressive formations with paths dropping down through tight squeezes, under overhangs, around columns – it was just too much fun with colourful butterflies and the odd mongoose scattering ahead us. The map boards are not the easiest to understand but we didn’t really care.

Eventually we crossed the ring road and headed into the major forest with even more impressive paths, deep gullies, staircases and towering outcrops – it truely is a stone forest. Encountering a steadily increasing number of local tourists and the accompany noise as we approached the main viewing platform the experience became diluted but we were determined to snap the ‘got the t-shirt’ shot from the viewpoint. We got the shots after queuing for 20 minutes or so just as a thunderstorm was rolling over but luckily it barely drizzled. Our experience shows that local tourists are usually concentrated between the car park and the major attraction. With that in mind we sharpened our elbows and made for the eastern side of ring road as fast as the passing thunderclouds. It wasn’t long before we found another trail and solitude once more if only for a short while.

The Chinese love naming their rock formations with the excessive use of imagination and we enjoyed trying to decipher what they were on about at various places before getting back into the tour groups near the entrance/exist. This area is worth the crowds. The grounds in between rock formations have been flattened and manicured to perfection. It didn’t take long for V and I to find our dream back garden – all that was missing was a rock swimming pool (BTW: The skate park, trampoline and MTB pump track goes in the front yard). In all we spent over four hours wandering around the park and can say without a doubt that the Stone Forest rocks ! It was awesome like 100 000 hotdogs (We need to take a closer look at the ‘Hotdog Scale of Awesomeness’. I know it tops out at 100 Billion for celestial encounters so we may need to adjust the curve a little).

And the bus ride back…. Well that went great until we got off the city bus at the ‘wrong’ stop. Got back on it and did an entire loop to the long distance bus station again only to find out that we actually did get off at the correct stop on the previous attempt but started walking the wrong way. I think we were just totally stoned after all that awesomeness.

We’re back 🙂 Excited and to be moving on to Dali tomorrow.

[Pictures: Behold ! Having a ball in the Stone forest and a pic of our future garden (in my mind)]

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Photos »

So we are back on the western tourist trail and it feels good but the beds are very hard (typical). Our hostel (Camelia Youth Hostel) is a converted hotel that was recently renovated. The rooms are huge, minimalist and clean with a bathroom containing the first normal shower we have seen in China. Last night was reasonably quiet but warm without air-con and the mozzies feasted on us (well me). After toast for breakfast (yes please) we headed to the Public Security Bureau to extend our visa. The main reason to be in Kunming was that we have only a week left on our visas and reports indicate that the process can take a week. The helpful officer at the empty PSB office told us that we need not apply until our last day (although if declined, which is unlikely, we would only have the rest of the day to get out of China) and recommended that we rather get the extension in our next stop (Dali) as their system is computerized and should take only one day. I hope she was not just trying to get rid of us because she wanted to finish her game of mahjong.

Kunming, albeit pleasant, is just a big city with few interesting sights for us so we jumped at the chance to get out sooner. We’ll probably be back here for 3 days to get our Vietnamese visa in any event. We strolled around a couple of city blocks in search of supplies. First stop was a book store (danger) to find some maps of Laos, Vietnam and Cambodia. Second to a WalMart (a real one) to stock up. We left the WalMart with a 100% success rate (which is rare for us) including 40 instant tea sachets, deodorant (something you cannot get in China), mozzie spray and an electric mozzie mat with enough tabs to decimate Kunming’s mosquito population. I resisted the urge to buy a £10 electric fan to add to the facilities in our room. Exiting the store we gulped down a Red Bull in an attempt to stay awake and stumbled back to the hostel (BTW Chinese Red Bull is nowhere near as nice as the western one – for starters it’s not carbonated).

We spent the afternoon planning, plotting, doing chores and unsuccessfully trying to stay awake. We have been using a trick to make the granite-hard beds a little softer: Remove duvet from it’s cover (every hostel has a duvet even in 30C+ heat), fold it in half and stuff it under the fitted sheet so that your torso is supported. Some of the beds are hard enough for these measures to make a difference.

In the evening we wandered downstairs to get online – the entire reception area and courtyard were packed but deadly quite – the only sound being the whirr of laptop fans and the muted clicks of keyboards. It seems backpacking around Asia has become a teleconference. There’s no need to socialize when you can get online with all your buddies back home. I suppose we do exactly he same thing when we can but it is a little sad.

[Pictures: Have been lazy taking iPhone photos for posts lately. Promise to get better at it soon !]

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Not much to report for today. When we got to the bus station our bus was missing – the only possibility looked like a crummy old sleeper bus. We started questioning ourselves – how long is this trip going to be !? Just before our scheduled departure a more reasonable looking bus pulled in and we climbed aboard holding out noses as we deposited our backpacks in the fishy smelling hold (yuk).

It was a five hour trip on good roads. I spent most of it with my eyes closed listening to ‘The Naked Scientists’ podcast (reminder to self: try mix coke and wallpaper glue someday) and Bill Bryson reading ‘In a Sunburnt Country’. V and I love his stuff. We both nodded off a few times and arrived in Kunming around 14h00 and shortly thereafter spotted our first westener in 4 days ! A misjudgment on my part meant that we ended up slogging the 2+ km to the hostel through the city centre on foot (should know better than to trust my instincts when it comes to directions). We deposited our gear, tried to check email (the Internet connection is painfully slow here) before heading out for western food. Suitably saturated with the Colonel’s masterful bounty we retired to our room with the ambition of doing absolutely nothing but the mosquitoes had other plans for us.

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It was bound to happen sooner or later. A really crappy day. We left Anshun this morning. The bus trip was only four and a half hours and we did pass through some wonderful terrain. We crossed over a colossal suspension bridge that ran straight into a tunnel which was cool, and just before reaching Xingyi we crossed the Malin gorge with huge waterfalls plunging to the depths below – a beautiful new suspension bridge high above the gorge in the background. Other than that we were both feeling tired and subsequently irritable.

Xingyi is another characterless boom city of concrete, chaos and dirt. Our plan was to spend 2 nights here and explore the gorge tomorrow but on the bus we changed our minds and decided to spend the morning in the gorge and get out of town by late afternoon rather than spending a second night. Unfortunately we found to our surprise that the buses to Kunming only run twice a day and not wanting to stay longer in this dive we bought a ticket for early tomorrow morning.

It took some walking around the bus station to find accommodation – another typical Chinese Businessman’s hotel complete with in room supplies including condoms, ladies underwear, Chinese knock-off little blue pills and sanitary wash that ‘kills all diseases’. By the time we had checked in it was too late to head for the gorge. So we have stopped here for nothing. If we try to look at it in a positive light we could say that we are just breaking up the long trip to Kunming, but honestly, almost two weeks of bad meals, isolated villages and dingy cities has left us longing for some western comforts. We hope Kunming will revive us. Should arrive there tomorrow afternoon and expect to stay for at least 5 nights while our visa extension is processed. It will give us time in a backpackers hostel with travel oriented hosts, Internet, some other honkies to chat to and some western food. We’ll catch the next beautiful gorge fully refueled – bring it on !!

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