Blogs from Dali, Yunnan, China, Asia - page 18

Sat down to write this and realised its been two weeks since the last one.... seems time flies when you are buzzing around Asia. Since then we've gone to Saigon and explored a bit of Vietnam, flown up to Hong Kong and shopped till we dropped, then joined a tour group for China where we arrived last Tuesday. Im currently sat in a photcopy shop on their internet PC in downtown Dali, absolutely shattered after hardly sleeping at all last night, but I'll explain that later. Anyways, we last 'blogged' from Cambodia, and the day after took a 7 hour bus journey (3 hours longer than we'd thought) from Phnom Penh to Vietnam and Saigon. Should call it Ho Chi Minh city really, as the name changed after the communists took over, but I keep spelling ... read more

Hi, After 3 exhusting days of travelling from Laos, I finally arrived to Dali in Yunan province. While waiting for the passport stamping at the Chinese border, I was pushing with all the other people (in China acts as a Chinese) in order to save my rights. To my surprise, the policeman ordered us to stand in the line, otherwise he won't continue. Am I crossing back to China? The other evidence to the fact that I was back to China (except the stamp in my passport), was that on the night bus from Mengla to Kunming, the vomitting woman was travelling with me again (might it be the same woman that following me in all the buses and vomits???). In the first part of the ride (for about 6 hours), the road was very curving ... read more

Feet blistered and scabbing....three days through the gorge ended in success! On a wet, gray morning we left Margo's cafe - bellies full of muesli, fruit and yogurt and a spring in our steps. Gerry recruited 3 British travelers to join us in our trek the night before. Clair, a 28 year old failed entrepreneur (in the nightclub business), and Dave and Andy, two young guys who just completed a 3 month expedition through Borneo, completed our 5 man hiking crew. Our packs weighed down with strange Chinese snacks and water, we tackled the gorge ferociously...errmmm..everyone but me. As it turned out I was the weak link; struggling behind the team trying my hardest to catch my breath as we ascended. Yes, I said ascended..up, up, up we climbed into the clouds. We watched the villages ... read more

We again carried the luggage first down the uneven stairs and the cobbled road, until the tarred road running up the Lion Hill began. The weather was bad, it was drizzling and Peter and Klaudia waited with the luggage under a tree until Stephan returned with a taxi. We had hardly arrived at the bus station, when somebody shoved Peter and Klaudia into a small bus, while Stephan bought the tickets. And we were gone, heading for Dali, where we could not spend much time due to the uncertainty concerning our visas. We arrived in Dali in the late afternoon, the bus suddenly stopped somewhere (we were definitely in Dali because we had already seen the pagodas, but this was not the bus station), but the spot seemed to be the right one, as a lot ... read more