Lhasa

:: Potala Palace by Night ::

Our first impression upon scooting into Lhasa from the train station was 'oh no', this magical place has been turned into another Chinese 'Han' City. Thankfully as we wound our way through the new apartment buildings, hotels and KTV bars we found ourselves arriving into the backpackers area which borders the Old Lhasa we were hoping to see.

Streets lined with Butchers selling fresh cuts of Yak, Shops full to the ceiling with Yak butter and people on pilgrimages doing rounds of the Monasteries soon filled the backstreets of Old Lhasa.

Potala Palace is obviously on top of everyones list as visitors to the city. Knowing this the local bureaucracy has outdone themselves inventing the most obtuse system to acquire tickets humanly possible. Queuing up the day prior to your visit, before sunrise, passport in hand, you are ushered through into a holding pen to wait until they open the Ticket booking office. Once at the window you obtain a ticket booking receipt for an allocated time which you need to get in the front gate of the Palace the next day.

The Next day you turn up , show your ticket booking slip and enter the palace, only to walk 25 min through the palace to find the actual ticket purchasing booth. Upon location of said booth you surrender your ticket booking slip and passport and (200RMB later) are issued with tickets, 36 hours after commencing the process. Needless to say, the rigmarole was worth is. The palace is an iconic building and seeing the Dalia Lamas tombs inside is remarkable.

:: Debating Monks at Drepung Monastery ::

One of the most unusual things we went to see was the Monks Debating at Drepung Monastery. At 3pm every day the heated, noisy (need sound below) debates get underway. One monk sits on the ground while the other barks points at him, finishing every statement with a loud slap of the hands. It really was quite extraordinary to see and hear.

:: Potala Palace ::

The next leg of our journey takes on the mandatory Jeep trip to the Nepal border. Over 5 days we will bump along dodgy roads, visit Lakes, Monasteries and the highlight, Everest Base Camp. The weather seems to have been stable here recently so signs are good that we will get a good view of the big hill.

Our Next report will be from Kathmandu...stay tuned.... and don't forget to leave comments below if you are so inclined.

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The Highest Train Journey in The World ....

After 45 hours of smooth train riding we have arrived in the Tibetan capital of Lhasa. We spent the first night on the train from Chengdu to Xining on a normal sleeper train before transferring to the swanky "Rocket to the rooftop of the world" in the afternoon. This superdooper train has state of the art engineering and is more spacious and comfortable than your average Chinese sleeper trains. During the train swapping process there was an excited rush of local tourists who barged onto the new train to claim their territory - even though it's seat assigned and we were all to sleep in the same bed number, and thus the same position on the train as the previous night. Once settled it wasn't long before all the equipment and facilities were put through their paces and all the computerised gauges admired. The only complaint on board was that the hot water tank, a vital necessity in the noodle making process, was slow to heat up so there were lots of people wandering around with dry noodles bowls at a loss what to do.

During the first hour on the new train we were subjected to a lengthy description of altitude sickness and every possible affect it could have on the human body. To be honest it went from funny to slightly unsettling. At the end of the health lesson there was a stern announcement of ...."Smoking is very very bad for you - this is a non smoking train" ... yeah right no such luck more like the kind where everyone smokes in between the carriages and waves the smoke towards non existent air vents.



The most interesting section of the train line is between Golmud and Lhasa, it's here that the special diesel engines, capable of operating efficiently at 3-mile-high altitudes, get put to the real test running over track laid on permafrost.


Out the window we saw some incredible scenery, snow capped mountains were plentiful. We also whizzed passed China's largest freshwater lake, Qinghai Lake. Due to the altitude along this section oxygen is pumped into the train cabins to fend off altitude sickness. Although I'm not sure how much sense this makes if you have to get out and breathe the real air when you arrive in Lhasa.

On the final morning on the train we were all roused at dawn by loud music. The amusing thing about long train journeys in China is that everyone gets up really early in the morning and then discovers that there's nothing to do and ends up going back to bed again. By the last morning some passengers discovered that the oxygen nozzles over each bed were now dispensing air once turned. It spread like wildfire and pretty soon everyone had their nostrils up against the valves taking deep breaths - for it to function correctly a tubed face mask must be connected up! In our carriage a woman "suddenly" became overcome with sickness and was dragged to the next carriage and back again by well wishers, with so many helping and rubbernecking they completely crowded her out so it was hardly surprising that she was overcome and couldn't breathe.

We reached Lhasa earlier than expected and stepped out of our "safe oxygen" chamber and out into the "real air".... everyone quickly forgot about the thin air and in true Chinese style rushed at full speed towards the exit and onto the bus to bags seats.

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China's Wild (Sth) West...

:: Lijiang ::

Since departing Myanmar we've spent the month of August high, high up in the Chinese mountains with yaks. Internet has been sparse so once again we're doing a big catchup on all our highlights of the past few weeks. This entry also concludes our time in China; on the 2nd of September, we hop into our bunks and travel on the highest train journey in the world (reaching 5072m) from Chengdu to Lhasa, Tibet.

From Myanmar our route back into China was a flight to the city of Kunming. We'd spent a few days here before so it was a familiar stomping ground. After a sneaky Big Mac we were ready to tackle the tasty noodle soups and skewers served up in the Muslim quarter. After a couple of days of getting back into the swing of using our Mandarin numbers and elbowing our way onto public transport we were ready to head north and tackle the rest of the Yunnan province - and further afield.

:: Dali ::

Our first stop was Dali an ancient city that has undergone extensive restoration. Flanked by a mountain, and surrounded by high city walls and a moat this city is a mecca for Chinese tourists. We spent quite a bit of time watching all the ridiculous photo opportunities that people were taking outside the city walls amidst downpours of rain. As a major tourist destination there were no shortage of restaurants to cater for demand. One thing that has shocked us is that since we were here eight months ago the price of meat has risen by a whopping 45%. Luckily we saw this fact on TV otherwise we'd still believe that people were trying to rip us off. Unfortunately we left Dali before realising that one of the most famous "chinglish" signs lived there, it's a famous sign over a squat toilet that simply reads "No shitting in the toilet". Moving north in the full brunt of the region's wet season we reached the picturesque city of Lijiang. Despairingly we reached the labyrinth of the old town as darkness was falling and when there wasn't much room at any of the inns. Arriving under such conditions is always the worst part about backpacking, particularly when the bags are getting heavier and wetter. Adding to the stress were armies of tiny Chinese tourists barging around with umbrellas held at a dangerously eye gouging height - well for me anyhow. Whenever they tried to pass Marcus they bizarrely would attempt to raise their umbrella over and above his! The following morning bathed in sunshine, Lijiang looked a lot more appealing - although the peril of the sun umbrella was still threatening. We managed to find a perfect little traditional Naxi courtyard guesthouse complete with a friendly pregnant owner who when asked when the baby was due replied "it's coming in two days".

The old narrow streets of Lijiang are lined with small waterways and little bridges making it a quirky little place with lots of character. The local ethnic minority in the region is the Naxi people and their Dongba religion and culture, of Tibetan origin, is an important part of the music, paintings and lives of the people. Lijiang is also an extremely popular destination for rich domestic tourists; after dark the bars and restaurants are full of this breed favouring expensive imported Heineken in place of their cheaper local brew. The rowdiness and noise level gradually elevates as rival bars compete in "sing offs" across the canals. Literally one bunch of girls trying to out-sing the other, what's more is that it appears to be the same song that they sing all night, every night.

After getting caught out in the rain badly once, we decided to invest in some very stylish ponchos... and they're not of the normal variety... we got ones that would definitely keep us and our backpacks dry. Designed to cover one's entire body on a motorbike (Marcus's has a see-through bit at the front so the headlights can shine through) this rain attire means business, we left Lijiang as ready for rain as Noah was for the great flood.

Our next stop was a 2 day hike through Tiger Leaping Gorge, allegedly the deepest gorge in the world. Again, it's a heavily visited spot but thankfully the bus tourists are all confined to the bottom of the gorge close to the river (and near the bus parking lot). The hiking trail wanders high up the gorge along a tranquil scenic route far away from the hustle and bustle below. Hiking the gorge is relatively straightforward, you leave any big luggage under lock and key at the start of the hike and take off with a small bag, some water and a map. There are guesthouses dotted along the trail and red arrows mark the way. In total the trek takes about 8 hours. Most people complete it in an easy two day outing leaving lots of time to enjoy the scenery.

We set off early aiming to reach the halfway mark that day. There is only one place that you can go the wrong way, there are red arrows literally marking every conceivable wrong move you could make except this first one. A bunch of locals saw us go off in the complete wrong direction and said nothing - they've since been hexed. Three hours later we were still scrambling up the side of a mountain in the rain trying to find non existent red arrows. After asking a local to direct us to the right path he sent us up higher, way up into the already elevated altitude. Eventually after 7 hours we found a group of houses and asked for some help with getting back to civilisation. Weather conditions had made wearing our motorbike ponchos compulsory so we must have looked a right sight when the people answered the door to us. A local man walked us a couple of kilometers down the other side of the mountain back onto the trail. I'm sure he was wondering where we left the motorbike!

After a dismal first day and a hard seven hours of climbing we ended up a mere two hours into the hike. We turned up like drowned rats at Naxi Family Guesthouse and were greeted with cups of tea, piping hot showers and superb food - some of the best we've had in China. That's the way we remember it ... maybe it was the relief of finding the path with the red arrows. Anyhow after a good night's sleep we woke up without too much muscle fatigue and managed to complete the hike. After the previous days exertions the remainder of the hike seemed like a dawdle - all we'd to do after all was to follow the red arrows to the end and enjoy the spectacular views and incredible mountains all around us.

:: The End of the Rd. - View from Seans ::

We stayed the second night in Walnut Garden where lots of backpackers round off the trek before heading back via taxi to pick up their big bags and head on to the next destination. Our excitement didn't end there however, heavy rainfall had caused two landslides on the road back forcing us to clamber over the debris watching out for falling rocks. Luckily/unluckily a minivan was stuck in the middle of the two landslides so he was able to ferry us the few kilometers between landslides.

Our next stop was the charming old city of Zhongdian (3400m) where we chilled out for few days soaking up the hot sun and getting used to the thin air. Of all the old cities we've been to in China this is by far our favourite, its small scale, restored buildings, cobbled streets and the lack of tourists around made it a perfect place to relax. The aroma of bbq-ed skewers wafted from the old town square all day as stall upon stall cooked up beef, pork, potato and veggie skewers. In the evening the stalls were cleared away to make room for the locals to dance in the square. The dancing was attended by everyone from the old ladies of the village, to the local policeman to toddlers ... and surprisingly it wasn't all put on for tourists... there were only a few of us there watching on has they danced for hours nightly. It was neighbourhood aerobics in it's purest form.

:: Dancing in Zhongdian ::

We found ourselves traveling along the same route as Aussies Blake & Ros and Stu & Jane. After a couple of packs of cards were introduced we settled into a couple of competitive nights of cards interrupted only by last minute dashes down to make the skewer ladies before they packed up for the night. Jane and Stu suggested a day trip of picking a nearby mountain and climbing it with a picnic. The contents of the picnic quickly expanded to included a kilo of the finest yak cheese and a couple of bottles of Yunnan red - that was all the incentive the rest of us needed. The following morning laden down with a massive picnic we marched up the selected mountain and polished the lot off. After a fabulous picnic we made a somewhat giddy decent back into down ... no ordinary hike indeed... positively flashpackery.
Our next stop in the weird town of Daocheng, as it's national park Yading is currently closed there is no reason to spend any time in this place; you stop for the night and then escape as quickly as possible the following day.


We arrived in Daocheng after a horrendous day of traveling. Not only did we get a puncture that day but as night fell and we were climbing hairpin bend roads over an extremely high pass (no trees or vegetation to be seen out the window) the engine started making funny noises as the universal joint totally gave up on us. Thankfully we made it to the top and pretty much freewheeled down the other side of the mountain into a town where we were met by a mechanic. After a bit of old school soldering and hammering (using the car headlights as a flashlight) the universal joint was miraculously fixed and we rolled on into the kip that is Daocheng.

:: Litang Monastery ::

Escape from Daocheng to our destination of Litang the following morning turned out to be another nightmare. A minibus driver agreed to take us and a price was negotiated and agreed - then he refused to leave. These antics went on for couple of hours spreading to all the drivers in town until they were demanding a ridiculous amount of money. We got so infuriated that we all ended up ignoring them, going for a beer and telling them we were quite happy to wait for the bus the following day rather than bow to their greed. At 2pm tickets went on sale for the bus, by 2:01pm in a massive crush the tickets were all sold out leaving us with limited options. Luckily we found a driver returning to Litang and all hopped in willing him to drive us out of town before he changed his mind like the rest of the drivers. Nobody relaxed until we were a couple of miles out the road and well clear of Daocheng.We stopped for a couple of nights in the Tibetan town of Litang - highlights included giving the yak meat dishes a go and visiting the monastery.

:: View Over Litang ::

Our next stop was the wild west cowboy Tibetan town of Tagong located in the middle of the Sichuan rolling grasslands. Tagong is a one street colourful trading town - the local woman wear heavy silver jewelery and weave a red braid and yak bones into their hair. Most of the local men have long flowing hair and stride around in cowboy hats. We stayed in Gayla's Guesthouse a Tibetan home converted into funky accommodations - the dorm rooms were there most ornate one's we've seen to date.

After a couple of one night stops in Danba and Kangding we hopped on a super deluxe bus (unintentionally) and floated into Chengdu city hours ahead of schedule. Luck continued to be on our side when we found out that there were only two tickets left for the train to Lhasa on the 2nd of September. (The Tickets are sourced from the black market, such is the demand...)

The next thing on the agenda is to go and do a big shop for foodstuffs for the train, the Chinese are the masters of individually wrapped snack foods, entire supermarket floors are filled with every type of snack imaginable. There's no excuse for boarding without preserved eggs, vacuum packed skewers, jellies and a carefully chosen range of noodle dishes.

So, that's the saga so far, it's time to say farewell to China and take the a train up to the rooftop of the world, Tibet & Nepal, here we come.

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Kunming

Our route to warmer Kunming in Yunnan province took us on a snowy journey through Liping, Kaili, Duyang (we went here by accident) and on to the provincial capital Guiyang where we caught the overnight train to Kunming. At all the stops along the way people stared at us more than usual - it's definitely not tourist territory around here. If you smile and say "Ni Hao" to small children here there more likely to burst into tears than do anything else.

We travelled along brand new toll roads for most of the journey - new road engineering has produced roads perched high up on huge concrete bridges hundreds of metres in the air. These new roads rise high above hilly terrain and where they can't they use tunnels to go through. From the bus we spotted a couple of "new cities".... cities where hundreds of thousands of apartments have been constructed. For the moment these cities lie completely empty. No doubt part of a huge government relocation project in the near future.

We spent a week in Kunming doing two things... looking around the plethora of sports and outdoor shops around the city and internet catchup. After spending hours and hours in an internet cafe uploading pictures and getting the blog up to date we finally have a clean slate and conscience.

Currently we are in Jinghong in the south of Yunnan province... This weekend we'll be heading towards more sun - in Laos.

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Zhaoxing : Wooden Bridges, Metre High Arsonists and a Beard Butcher

The journey from Sanjiang to Zhaoxing is a breathtaking ride up high into the mountains. There are amazing views of surreal green terrace fields and valleys below - through the fog we caught a glimpse of some of these. The experience is aided by the new smooth road that snakes along the route.

Zhaoxing, another wooden Dong village which has a picturesque location in a green valley, it looks like a Swiss alpine village tucked away in the mountains. With it's five drum-towers and many covered bridges over little rivers it has a unique character of it's own. Local craft making is a big industry in this town. Women make an indigo cloth which is pounded for hours with a wooden mallet; the dyed cloth can be seen hanging out to dry throughout the town. The cloth is embroidered and used for batiks and traditional clothing.

The village streets are overrun by an army of small boys up to no good. While their female counterparts are off helping around the house these 4 year olds are busy throwing bangers (grenade style - they've seen the movies) in doorways, under old peoples feet and into rubbish bins then running away around the corner. It's like Baghdad - the explosion noises are deafening. Those who have no bangers can be found in little groups on the ancient wooden bridges with a lighter and any flammable item the arsonists can find - toilet paper seemed to be easy to source! The fires are lit with great excitement, once they've gone out, a search party heads out to find more fuel. It's not the wisest of "games" to be playing in a village constructed solely of wood.


Marcus couldn't resist getting a closer look at the "exploding banger underwater" move .... after revealing he'd a supply of matches in his pocket he quickly attracted a crowd.

Marcus picks up the tale...

One of the obvious activities while travelling is getting a haircut, well for most anyway. I have had the nervous pleasure of striding into barbers in Mongolia and China, gesticulating vaguely then walking out a dollar or two lighter, clean cut. Under our hotel in Zhaoxing was a small hairdresser so I decided to head in to get the usual blade 3 all over ( beard included).
As is custom I set a price before he got going - it would cost 10 RMB which is 1 euro.
Round 1 - Gesticulation from barber (translated as " do you want a hair wash?"
(The old tactic of changing the service to change the price me thinks....so " no thanks")
Round 2 - clippers vs hair, no problem at all.
Round 3 - clippers vs beard, quick run through, no problem.
Round 4 - Barber produces a cut throat and starts tidying up the outline of the beard, during this he motions to the washing station - OK, I think, he wants to lather me up and do a proper job.
Round 5 - Mr barber guy washes my hair and starts getting out all these steamy towels.
Round 6 - The razoring continues...and continues...I'm thinking he has made a mistake and is balancing things up...but it continues...and continues...until he is done.
Round 7 - Merv or Chopper ? ......(Oh and all that razoring was still 10RMB )

We had Zhaoxing village completely to ourselves.... all the other tourists had sensibly stayed in the southern provinces out of the winter cold. The tourist information centre was closed for the winter and even the locals were wearing multiple layers and huddled around fires to keep warm. Marcus remarked that something is wrong when it's too cold to enjoy a cold beer.

Taking a hike a couple of miles out of the village (to keep warm) we decided that we'd be miserable further north where it's even colder being cold all the time is too much effort ..... so we're calling a spade and spade and running south to the sunshine.

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Chengyang Village

:: Chengyang Wind & Rain Bridge ::

A guesthouse owner commented that no tourists were coming to Chengyang these days because the main road between Longsheng and Sanjiang was "broken". It is a perfect way to describe the "route"; for hours we were thrown around in a little local bus, there were road works (huge boulders and deep holes) the entire way and the conditions got progressively worse as we approached Sanjiang. As usual all the men on the bus chain smoked so to get a breath of fresh air meant opening the window and letting the biting cold in. Our little bus had a double bed and mattress tied onto the roof - this was a light load in comparison to some of the other buses which had beds, sofas, entertainment units and huge boxes stacked high. When stuck in these situations all you can do is let the mind wander and hope that the good road is just around the corner. We stopped a few times en route to squeeze in more passengers, let a man on with a bag of piglets and to let the old woman and her roof top bed off.

Making it to the town of Sanjiang just as darkness fell we located the local minivan drivers and went about finding one to take us to the small Dong village of Chengyang some 20km away. As usual 10 minutes were wasted trying to find a driver who would take us for the correct price there were at least six vans sharking around us with out of this world quotes. We eventually found an honest guy who wanted the business and climbed into his van, half an hour later, after we'd a bum on every seat, we headed off.

Chengyang is made up of eight minority Dong villages, the Dong villages were traditionally built alongside rivers so people lived opposite each other. To connect the villages "Wind and Rain" covered bridges were built. The covered wooden bridges are built without using any nails, the interior corridor is ornately carved, they contain tower like kiosks and a long bench lining each side - a resting spot for the locals (selling spot to the tourists these days). Chengyang or Yongli Bridge is regarded as the best preserved "Wind and Rain" bridge in the region.

In pitch darkness the van let us off at Chengyang Bridge that apparently lead to the Ma'an village. We were barely out of the van when an official looking guy in a uniform appeared from nowhere (just like the troll in Billy Goat's Gruff) and told us we couldn't cross the bridge without a ticket. Taking out our miner headlamps we told him we'd be back tomorrow and looked around for the concrete service bridge. In the darkness we settled for the first guesthouse we came across that had a light on. Wandering around looking for food later we happened upon a small new guesthouse & restaurant run by a local tourism graduate Yang and his girlfriend. He generously invited us to his nephew's "one year old" birthday party - a Dong tradition where the whole village is invited to celebrate. He lead us to his sister's house and into a room full of people of all ages sitting on little wooden stools around a big cooking fire in the centre of the room. The women were busy stirring huge mass catering pots of what looked like stew over the fire.

We had a fantastic evening where everyone welcomed us to the village. When it came to eating multiple servings of sour fish, pickled pork, pickled vegetable and bowls of rice congee (rice porridge) were placed on the table (The Dong like their sour food). The grandfather of the family sat beside us serving warm rice wine and leading the table in the local toast "pong bei". We were initially concerned that our presence might leave things a little tight on the food front... far from it ... there was enormous quantities that we never even touched. We were very lucky to have tasted all the Dong dishes in this setting. Dong food is very distinctive, lots of the dishes are pickled and prepared like a stew, their local speciality is pickled duck which is best eaten a least 5 years later. (The duck is dried over the fire then packed in pots for at least 5 years - the longer the better)

The villagers told us that the best time to visit the Dong minorities is during Chinese New Year. This is the one day the Dong people are permitted to marry - there will be about 200 marriages this year. This brings the whole village out in celebration as dowry exchanges and traditional parades are part of the Dong wedding tradition.

:: Ma'an Village Drum Tower & Performers ::

We moved to "Yang's Guesthouse" the following morning and explored the surrounding villages. The houses are wooden and built in a unique Dong style with the proud focal point of each village being a drum-tower. For a small donation you can have your name immortalised on slate in one of the towers. There is a thriving local industry in the area and on our walk around we saw the local butcher slaughtering and gutting a pig, rice being thrashed, quilted covers being packed and the busy local market's comings and goings.

:: Some for pickling, some for dinner & maybe even some for the pooch ::

The Dong minority didn't have a writing system of their own until 1958, their history and stories were all recorded and passed down through songs. The most popular form of song is the 'grand song' which contains various themes ranging from love stories to historical events to moral lessons. These are all performed by a chorus, and the formal performing place is the village drum-tower.That afternoon at the Ma'an village drum-tower we got to see some locals (some of which we had met at the party) perform these songs and dances - we even got to join in in the finale!

Cold weather and subzero nights are keeping us on the move.

Thanks to the generosity of Yang and his family, we fantastically unique experience in this village. When the road is "fixed" it is a worthwhile spot to spend a couple of days exploring.

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Picturesque Ping'an

:: Terraces all around ::

From Yangshuo we caught a bus north to Guillin followed by a bus up into the mountains to the Zhuang minority village of Ping'an perched high up in the Guangxi mountains amongst spectacular terraced rice fields. We had read and heard that there was a chain of villages, representing different local minorities worth exploring around this area. We weren't hitting it during the season to see the area at it's best but we hoped for the best.
A small local bus dropped us off and we hiked up the mountain (with our backpacks) into the village. Lots of old women with big baskets on their back were loitering around the bus stop hoping that some tourist would pay them money to carry their bags up the mountain. Sedan chairs were also on hand for those in need. We like to think we packed light enough to be able to drag our packs up a mountain... and we did ... eventually.

:: Remember - no nails (but hopefully foundations) ::

Tourism has taken this little Zhuang village over, most of the houses have been turned into wooden hotels and guesthouses. When we were there the locals were in from the fields,using the low season downtime to construct new hotels and restaurants. Some of the construction looked very precariously balanced and there were steep drops down hundreds of feet everywhere. We pretty much had the whole village to ourselves in the evenings when the Chinese day trippers left on their tour buses.

The main attraction for tourists visiting this area is the terraced rice fields. Each season brings a different look to the slopes. The terraced fields are built on the slopes winding from the riverside up to the mountain top dividing the mountain into layers. This complicated irrigation and farming tradition has been in place for 800 years. About 66 square kilometers of rice terraces are built into the hillsides. It looks like great ribbons or chains that wind from the foot to the top of the hill. It's amazing to look around 360 degrees and see the impressive sight of terrace upon terrace.

:: Ping'an villages nestled amongst terraces ::

On our first day in Ping'an we hiked the paths around the area to look out over the various viewpoints. Along the way we met the local indigenous Yao women huddled around little fires selling dried chillies, chili paste and handicrafts. Traditionally these women all have long long black hair, about 2 meters long (needless to say - much taller than themselves), that they wear wrapped up around their head in a scarf. Even the old women keep their hair long - and there's not a strand of grey to be seen. If the price is right these ladies will gladly "let their hair down" for a photo opportunity. Apparently their village has an entry in the Guinness book of records for the Longest Hair Village.

The following morning we got up hoping do a hike over to another local village but a dense blanket of fog brought low visibility and really cold weather. It was too nippy to hang around hoping for things to improve so we headed back down the mountain for the bus to Longsheng. Our plan from here was to move through several minority villages heading up into Guizhou Province.

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And Now....On with Yangshuo....

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So as you have no doubt noticed we are making good on our pledge to get the blog up to date. Today we have posted five new entries bringing us up to the New Year. We will post the next installments in the coming few days (we don't want to overdo the posting...).

Once we are up to date, we plan on moving to a more current, short/sharp posting approach which will be able to provide snapshots of our current location.

As always the Journey Map is the best place to see where we are currently; don't forget to check out our photos and don't be shy about clicking on our ads or adding comments. We also have some new pages coming soon with lots of travel info, so stay tuned for that.

We hope all is well with you and yours.

marcus & dee

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After dosing up on BBC TV (just a tad more independent than Chinese news ) and our share of Indian curries, the batteries were recharged and we were ready for our re-entry into China in time for Christmas. Taking a train to Lo Wu we crossed the border into Shenzhen and bought bus tickets Yangshuo, our Christmas destination.

Shenzhen falls within a special economic zone (SEZ) in China, most products real and fake that are made for export pass through or near this area, as a result it is well known as the place to pick up fake goods at the best prices. Inside a multistory shopping centre beside the train station you can find hundreds of small retail outlets selling leather goods, electronics and jewellery. You can browse through watch catalogs of all the top brands, Tag, Omega, Rolex etc. and the one you want will be promptly pulled out of speaker system or other hiding place. It's a buyers market, the sellers are practically dragging people into the shops and the bargaining is fierce. It's definitely a place to head to with an empty suitcase, particularly if you enjoy haggling.

According to the lady behind the counter in the bus station the bus to Yangshuo departed at 10am and would take 13 hours to get there. It turned out to be a sleeper bus - that's a bus with three rows of bunk beds down the centre of it. It also happened to be an antique with well worn disgusting pillows and dusty blankets. We clambered aboard, engine running, got into bed and waited for the bus to depart. An hour later we had moved about 50 meters to a different spot in the bus station. Finally when we did pull out we did a big loop around the city picking up more passengers (as is the case with most Chinese bus trips). 3 hours later we passed Shenzhen airport ...meaning we were still within city limits. The bus finally reached Yangshuo 22 hours after it departed, road works and traffic jams, that brought us to a complete standstill for hours were to blame. Cabin (read tin coffin with duty blankets) fever was running high!

:: The River Li ::

Yangshuo is a well known backpacker hangout in China. It's a small but growing town nestled in a remarkable limestone karst landscape. We decided that it would be a good location to spend Christmas and New Year thinking that it would have suitable Christmas cheer. It turned out to be a wise choice as we got to enjoy all the festivities. Christmas Eve saw us in "Buffalo Bar" run by a long time local Aussie, Alf for Christmas dinner complete with stuffing and funny looking shots. Outside, locals dressed in Santa hats sang western Christmas carols they had learnt in English class. A week later we were back to Alf's to ring in the New Year (and maybe once or twice in between).

So a three week stop over Christmas/New Year... what did we do with all the time? After extensive searching the first morning we found the perfect room with a huge sunny balcony on top of "7th Heaven Cafe and Hotel". then we rapidly started to read through the hostel's book swap shelves. The intention during this time was to work on getting the blog up to date, the connectivity problems caused by the Taiwan earthquake put that idea to bed. Meanwhile a satellite arrived for installation in "Buffalo Bar" and the hope of catching Boxing Day Test Cricket from the MCG saw Marcus putting in a few hours of effort to try and get things working.

:: Our balcony & view ::

Aside from that we took it easy enjoying Happy Hours, woodfired pizzas and great Chinese food. We rented bikes for a few days and took off into the surrounding countryside to explore dusty roads running alongside rice fields - the beautiful scenery of the karst backdrop made this a memorable experience. We took a river boat trip up the River Li from Xingping to Yangdi - again amazing scenery. Finally we took the time out to do a cookery course in a local school. No excuses for not eating Chinese in the future now.

:: Great scenery for cycling ::

:: Remind us to cook the beer fish for you ::

Eventually we decided that it was time to cut the cord and leave. An ideal opportunity presented itself when we won the "Buffalo Bar" weekly table quiz - it was as good a time as any and we might as well go out on top!

Click for more Yangshuo photos

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SARS - Macau and Hong Kong

:: Viva Las Macau... ::

Somewhere on the train between Xiamen and Guangzhou we changed our minds and decided that we'd go to Macau first, arriving there on a weekday and then proceed to Hong Kong. The weekend gaming craze in Macau has resulted in soaring hotel prices along with huge demand for rooms.

After 442 years of rule the Portuguese handed the 24 sq km Macau peninsula back to the People's Republic of China in 1999. Like Hong Kong, Macau has the status of a SAR (Special Administrate Region) in China, for 50 years China has promised non-interference in its social and economic systems. To enter Macau you must officially exit through a Chinese border, Macau even has it's own currency the MOP. (Dee's 3rd favourite currency after the HUF and the EEK)

:: The Facade of St Pauls Church ::

Macau has recently dethroned the Las Vegas strip has the world's biggest casino centre (by Revenue...almost 7 Billion USD in 2006). All the biggest names in the gaming industry i.e. Sands, MGM Grand, Venetian and Crown are all racing to get a piece of the pie and are mid construction of casinos on a 1.8 mile plot of reclaimed land and indeed any piece of land they can get their hands on. Around 10 new casinos are in development, putting huge strain on local resources. Typically Macau is visited by the Shanghai high roller or rich Hong Kong resident who can reach Macau by ferry in an hour. Walking through some of the older Chinese casinos you can see the clientele mostly gamble on blackjack, baccarat and a dice game called Dai Siu rather than the typical Las Vegas slot machines and card games. The new Wynn's hotel and casino is a smaller replica of it's big brother in Vegas. When all the new big Vegas style casinos are completed the city will look very different. All this is great economically for Macau however, the rapid expansion of the gaming and tourist industry has presented Macau with a serious labour shortage problem which threatens further growth.

Macau has a beautiful old centre of hilly cobbled streets, Portuguese style architecture and back alleys. The tourist information guys here are some of the best around. Thanks to great sightseeing maps with suggested walks you can easily cover the city in a day. The best known landmark is the Church of Sao Paulo - destroyed by a fire in 1835, all that remains of it is an impressive facade. As to be expected there are plenty of designer shops and fancy restaurants to spend your winnings in!

After a couple of days of feeling poor in a rich man's land we headed for the ferry to Hong Kong. Unfortunately our ferry ride coincided with the tail end of a typhoon which was reeking havoc in the South China sea. When we moved out of the sheltered waters into the open sea our catamaran was violently thrown about in the rough seas. The journey across was none too pleasant, most people were clutching (and filling) sick bags. After an extended journey due to adverse weather we disembarked in drizzly Hong Kong.


Our accommodations in Hong Kong were in the salubrious Chungking Mansions, Nathan Rd, Kowloon. Located literally steps around the corner from the infamously luxurious Peninsula Hotel (complete with 5 brand new Rolls parked in front when we walked past), the two couldn't have been further apart in every other sense. Chungking Mansions is a large 16 story building with a higgledy-piggledy arrangement of guesthouses, apartments, Indian restaurants, Pakistani "messes" and wholesale watch outlets. Our quarters were a snug room with a small window that opened out into an atrium that never saw any daylight. The scenario of walking up and 11am and totally believing it was the middle of the night occurred numerous times. On entering Chungking Mansions the senses are overpowered by a strong aroma of great Indian food. It left the mouth salivating - hard not to be tempted to eat Indian every night.

:: Pretty much sums it up - guesthouses,watches, and curries ::

One of the highlights was a trip to the Hong Kong History Museum. Millions have been spent on this brand new museum and it offers a fantastic insight into the history of Hong Kong through multiple audio visual theatres and displays. They even have a scale model of an Aberdeen Junk along with period shopping streets and government buildings. The time line covered goes from pre-historic through settlement, Opium Wars and the handover of Hong Kong back to the People's Republic of China. It's well worth spending lots of time exploring. We were kicked out of the museum at closing time. Luckily the Science Museum was still open so were able to go overboard on culture and education. (A great tip is that these Museums are free entry on Wednesdays)

Over the past few weeks we've been far away from any evidence that Christmas is approaching. We were quickly reminded of what time of the year it was by the Christmas trees, Santas, Christmas music in the shops and sales fever that was in full swing in Hong Kong. Across Victoria Harbour the sky scrapers were competitively lit up with festive messages.

:: View from The Peak

Hong Kong comes alive at night as darkness falls. We took the steep Tram to the top of Victoria Peak to see dusk fall and the city skyline and junks in the harbour light up below us. It's almost like the city comes alive at night. Down below the street markets like Temple Street night market are in full action. A handy thing about Hong Kong markets is that they put on price on things and usually it's very reasonable. It takes some of the heartache out of constantly having to bargain for things.

You cant visit Hong Kong without exploring the range of great cuisines it puts before you. The Indian messes in Chunking Mansion draw people in from all over the city and we found ourselves naan-in-hand more than once there. Around the corner was a great Vietnamese place and of course the infamous Dim Sum abounds.

Taking a day trip we ventured over the far side of Hong Kong island which is surprisingly green and undeveloped. 5.3% of Hong Kong adults are millionaires and most of them live in real estate in this prime location. Dropping down into the seaside town of Stanley we wandered past the seafront restaurants and jealously watched people tuck into big baskets of fish and chips over frosty pints. We lost the jealously when we reasoned that we can have fish and chips any day of the week and not have to get up for work in the morning. (Sorry to all those who may be in work right now reading this! )

:: The Star Ferry still costs 30c AUD ::

Hong Kong is a fantastic city. The sloping backstreets, busy Star Ferry and narrow trams give the city an historical feel. The new high rise buildings and bustling streets visually jammed with neon business signs add a modern vibrancy to the equation. Finally the mix of people, cultures, cuisine and presence of English as a language truly does make this the definative city where East meets West.

Click for more Macau & Hong Kong photos

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Xiamen & Gulang Yu

:: Cue Pianos...hit the lights; Let's get the island...um...walking ?

Travelling south through Fujian province we stopped in the coastal city of Xiamen and took a ferry out to the tiny island of Gulang Yu two kilometers of the coast. In 1902 the island became an international settlement and many consulates were based here in huge colonial mansions. It almost reminded us of a land in Disneyland, big themed houses, flowers everywhere, quaint windy streets lined with seafood and biscuit speciality shops and sandy beaches. It looks so perfect and manicured that it almost looks manufactured. At night huge multicolour laser lights sweep across a big rock formation in the centre of the island light up the sky. The absence of traffic heightened the theme park experience. Cars, motorbikes and bicycles are banned from the island. The only thing that can run you over here is the police golf carts. It was refreshing to be able to walk around without the constant need to dodge motorbikes and cars running lights before making illegal turns.

The island is also known as Piano Island, as early as 1913, students in schools run by foreigners started learning the piano. The enthusiasm spread to more ordinary people on the island resulting in many accomplished musicians. In the evening times piano music filled the air as the locals played. A very strange thing to experience in China - maybe not in a theme park.

If you're getting married in this neck of the woods it's simply a must to have your wedding photos taken out on the island. We were entertained by numerous couples decked out in their finery walking along the beach, staring out wistfully towards the ocean as the camera clicked and waves rushed in completely soaking them. It is customary in China to have your photographs taken two weeks before the wedding day so all the brides wear jeans underneath their white dresses. I'm not sure how good a dress that's been soaked with seawater, dragged along muddy paths and picked up a few grass stains from the "park poses" is going to look a fortnight later.
Xiamen city is famed for its street food and seafood. We did our best to sample some of the best, some egg-McMuffin type things loaded with corriander, chilli and pickles and chicken bites dredged in cumin and chilli. Its always great to see new street food in each city and Province.

Planning our next stop to be Hong Kong we hopped over to the mainland to buy train tickets. We happened by chance on the information that there was a ferry to Hong Kong. Enquiring at the ferry office we found out that the ferry goes once a month and was leaving that day in a couple of hours. For a few minutes we were Phileas Foggs, seriously contemplating making a mad dash back for our bags with a romantic vision of sailing into Victoria Harbour in style on a once monthly vessel. In the end we decided we were a little tight on time that day and lucky enough not to be racing an 80 day hourglass. We stuck to the original plan and bought tickets for Guangzhou.

Click for more phots of Xiamen

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Wandering through Wuyishan...

:: Tip-toe through the tea plants.... ::

Dropping down into the remote west of Fujian province we stopped in the mountain resort area of Wuyishan. We got here after two horrendous bus rides, it was getting dark and we were dreading doing the accommodation search especially on a Friday night in a popular Chinese tourist spot. Anyhow, we caught a taxi to the hotel area and the taxi driver pulled up at the local 4* hotel. Taxi drivers and touts usually get a kick back from hotels for bringing customers in so naturally the taxi driver was heading for the biggest kickback opportunity. After going in and fleecing them for a hotel brochure with a handy map of the area on the back, we explained that their hotel was lovely but we were bargain basement clientele and looking to spend less than 100y on a room. They were appalled!

We started walking around the town - with the taxi driver hanging precariously out the window of the car trying to lure us back into his cab so he could take us to another hotel. He was very persistent and highly annoying .. he even tried to drive in front of us to cut off our path. We ignored him and kept walking .. next thing we are accosted by a woman on her bike who tells us she'll show us to a hotel that's just "around the corner". (This is all done in charades). Anyhow, eventually we give up carrying our load and drop the bags and I totter off with her to inspect. We go up a lane full of construction, round a dusty corner... bamboo scaffolding everywhere and then into a small hotel entrance. I go up to see the room (feeling like I should have turned back 10 minutes previously). It was unbelievable ... full on huge hotel 5* quality room, brand new carpet, classy curtains, kettle, green tea in container, towels, two huge beds, wide screen TV .... and all for 60 Y. I couldn't believe it. Trying my best to contain my delight I shrugged and said that I'd pay her 50 Y (5 euros, 8 aud) ....they said no... I pretended to walk and they said OK. Marcus reckoned it was a bit mean to squeeze the extra 10Y out of them but I got caught up in the moment. When we all came back to the lobby the annoying taxi driver was still hovering trying to convince us that the place was terrible.

:: Just to prove our standards haven't dropped... ::

Wuiyshan is an area 60 square kilometers in size, the small resort area lies alongside the River of Nine Bends. Chinese tourists come in their droves to bamboo raft around the nine bends and clamber up thousands of steps to the top of a pinnacle called "Clouds Nest". Our small map from the 4*hotel illustrated some interesting trails around the national park so we decided to avoid the tourists and signposted walkways and trek through the park using that.

:: The famous plants in the flesh ::

Wuyi Mountain is home to Dohongpao black tea. In 2002 a mere twenty grams of this tea was sold at auction for the record price of 21,700 US dollars. "True" rare Dohongpao tea comes from four tea plants over 1000 years old that grow in a cliff in Wuyi mountain. Each year the trees yield only 1kg of tea. Cheaper Donongpao tea made from tea plants cloned from the original plants in the cliff is available to the Great Unwashed. If you want the real deal you'll pay dearly for it! You can get pretty close to where the cave is and I think we saw the tea plants. There didn't seem to be much security around so maybe it was a decoy picture opportunity spot.

:: 9 Bend river from above ::

Pretty much following our noses we hiked through beautiful hidden valleys with hundreds of tea plantations and little houses. The tea plants were flowering so the vista was made all the more spectacular. The map proved inadequate so we had to look for some local advice on the path out. After hiking for a few hours we began to get worried about how we were going to get home and hoped to hit the road or the river that we could follow back into town. We eventually emerged back onto the tourist trail before dark - for once we were glad to see the Chinese tour groups. Walking 200 meters we turned a corner and fortuitously found ourselves at the very top of "Cloud's Nest" looking out on an amazing view. We stood for a while admiring the view and watching tourists struggle up the thousands of steps that we'd saved ourselves the trouble of. On the way home we became the main attraction for all the bamboo boats . Without fail each boat shrieked "Lao Wai" (foreigner) with delight as they spotted us and frantically waved and shouted "hello". Obviously it was a novelty/highlight to see two foreigners in the wild.

:: "More of the eggplant & greens & less of the bugs please " ::

Each province we've been to has had very different kinds of restaurants and street food. In Wuyishan all the food is laid out on a stall in front of a restaurant for people to inspect. This makes ordering dinner easier because you can see what looks good or spot something new that inspires you to give it a go. The dead meat like wild boar, pork, beef, chicken is put on one side, vegetables, wild mushrooms and big cocoons of grubs (didn't inspire us) are on the other and alongside there are cages of pheasants, geese, ducks, chickens and cute fat bunnies. Each night when we went back to our favourite restaurant we were secretly pleased to see that no one had fancied rabbit that day.

Check out some more photos of Wuyishan here

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Spectacular Wuyuan County, Jiangxi

Wuyuan County is home to some of the best-preserved ancient village architecture in China. It's covered in woods and along with its inland location, remoteness and inconvenient transportation has left it cut off from the rest of China for many years. As a result numerous ancient villages along with their way of life dating back to 740AD have been preserved and life ticks by at a pace from bygone eras.

There is not a large amount of information in any guidebooks on this area so we had to rely on a small list of villages and our phase book to get local information on how to get around where to go when we arrived. The mode of transport in this neck of the woods is on the back of a motorbike.

Arriving in Wuyuan we were immediately surrounded by motorbike guys, eventually one produced a map and a friend and they took us to the small village of Sixi. A couple of hours later we'd found a hotel, negotiated a deal with the motorbike guys for their services for a few days (without one word of English) and worked out our route to all the villages. As backtracking was not an option we'd have to ride on the back of motorbikes with all our gear - easier said than done when your labouring up a hill on a 125cc bike.

We stayed in Sixi village our first night. A tiny idyllic village with a small river, covered wooden bridge, narrow paved streets and courtyard houses. After spending the last few months around big cities it was amazing to sit in this environment and watch life (simple uncomplicated life) go by.

:: Likeng Village ::

We were the only tourists around and so got the best room in the (only) local guesthouse. The life in the villages may be primitive but the hotel had a lot of interesting features you wouldn't get elsewhere in the world. We figured we had got the honeymoon suite when we realised the bedside lights and main light had built in flashing blue and red LED's ; when you turned them all on you couldn't help but feel like you were at a road traffic accident. Not exactly what you'd call "mood lighting".

Seeing as there were no restaurants in the village we had no option but to eat at the guesthouse. Next ensued some great fun as we tried to communicate what we felt like for tea. We ended up heading into the kitchen and picking up a collection of veg to put together for dinner. As for protein we were lead out the back of the kitchen and were shown a coop of chickens for us to pick from...resisting the urge to end one of these guys free-ranging today, we were then shown down to the stream where there was a fish lazing in a netted bag in the water. I always thought that a goldfish dies when you overfeed them (DL isnt that right ?), but this guy was a huge healthy looking goldfish.

So we chose the family pet for our dinner and he was surprisingly good done with ginger and chilli.

:: Typical village building with open courtyard ::

Staying in the village we were exposed to the daily routine and methods of the inhabitants. Life here was changed when they got electricity about 25 years ago, but apart from the TV that brings, life has developed slowly over the centuries. Women washing clothes in the stream were carefully placed downstream of the spot where women washed the vegetables fresh from the fields. One thing you notice in the countryside is how green and healthy the vegies look. Well we got plenty of first hand insight into how the Chinese farmers achieve this. Big wooden barrels of poo sit outside every house. Left to ...mature a while and then diluted with water, this natural fertilizer is liberally splashed onto the fields daily (hence the thorough wash in the stream).

:: Fresh fish for dinner ::

Heading off early the next morning on our bikes we were rugged up and waterproofed as the clouds above looked ominous. Having not been on the back of bikes much before we both soon realised that regular stops are the key to relieving the excruciating pain involved with sitting bouncing along dodgy roads with your knees up around your ears. It was great fun.

Our drivers and guides braved the rain and cold air with their trusty caps on. I don't know how their faces didn't freeze and fall off.

:: 800 Year Old Rainbow bridge in Qinghua ::

Our journey took us winding through spectacular valleys, through little villages and over some good and some atrocious roads. While it was nice to have the place to ourselves, we saw photos of the area when the rapeseed fields are in full golden bloom and it looks spectacular.

Please read the Wuyuan link above as it will give you some more information and background that I wont here. Each village had its highlight and each had beautiful structures, mostly houses, made exclusively from wood (no nails) with careful joinery and intricate carvings for decoration. Our guides were so patient and generous with us. With no more English than (seriously) Let's go, OK and yes, every stop was a game of charades ....stooped walk and a cough (Old sick people came here to die (or as we found climbing stairs in one house - were laid into coffins), acting out the production of rape seed oil from the plants etc...again, these were great guys who looked after us and showed us a spectacular part of China.

One part of the village wanders we found funny was the way we marched into peoples houses to have a look around. Any time of day, straight in the front door, some "Ni Haos", then go poking around the carvings or rooms of the house. The occupants were obviously very proud of their houses, often offered us tea and always asked the obligatory question of where we were from.

:: All of the houses had an open roof section - so were pretty fresh ::

On the second day we altered our pre-planned route to take in what we were told were some caves. Well, we were glad we did as these were the best caves we have ever seen. We waited huddled against an electric heater as the cave guide turned up to turn on the lights and show us through. We then walked into a huge complex of recently built paths and stairways with computer controlled audio and lighting that was nothing short of spectacular. The huge spaces, the beautiful formations all lit with colour knocked us off our feet as we completed the tour over the next hour or so, emerging from the caves in a little electric speedboat. The caves are a must for anyone venturing to Wuyuan.

:: Spectacular Lingyan caves ::

Safely back in Wuyuan city after our 3 days touring the county we planned our next leg which would take us on a connecting bus to Wuyishan, having thoroughly enjoyed our time in Wuyuan.

Click here for a slideshow of shots from Wuyuan

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