Into China

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Sun. 7th. May.
We're in the foyer waiting for our tch tch man to take us to the airport for our flight to Kunming. Not that we're in a hurry to get away mind. At check in, the man knows who we are before looking at our documents. How often do you get that at an international airport. It probably had something to do with our being the only europeans on his list. I had ear plugs at the ready but the returning holiday makers were remarkably quiet. The noise hit us in the arrival hall in Kunming -- absolute bedlam. A reservation lady took us under her wing, but it was 5 mins. before I realised that she was speaking english because she rabbited on so quickly. Luckily Jim understood bits and so we were shepherded to a taxi, and taken to our hotel. The 20 min. drive showed us a clean, ultra-modern city, overflowing with flowers and trees, and obviously overrun with bicycles. Our hotel is perfect. Peacocks were waiting in the foyer to greet us and their dead, stuffed freind was on display behind reception. Noone speaks English, so we just follow our nose and find a restaurant that was waiting to close as soon as we'd finished eating at 9:30. Here we go again!

Mon. 8th.
We set out to find the Holiday Inn, who will hopefully have an english speaking travel agent. As we are sitting down trying to de-cipher the map, a lovely man called Lei took us in hand and gave us a guided tour of the city, before leaving his phone no. in case we needed him again. The lady at FITS travel agent was brilliant and we've booked a 6 day package with her, starting tomorrow. As we walked back to our hotel, we marvelled again at how beautifil Kunming is. Let's hope we haven't seen the very best of China first. For dinner the restaurant we chose looked great, but they just put plates of fried rice in front of us, and didn't have any chicken or pork to go with it. The next place was perfect. Down a back alley, and everything we orderded arrived piping hot, even if the portions were huge. Ask us to tell you what happened when the old man in the wheel chair wanted to go to the loo !!!... Walking back to our hotel, we passed through a beautiful park aglow with fairy lights and close on 100 people doing Tai Chi to music. We sat in the moonlight and watch, enthralled.

Tues. 9th.
Our taxi drives through busy traffic to deposit us at the ultra-modern train station for 08:00. The porter stays with us for an hour, until the train arrives, and then whizzes our bags onto the overhead luggage rack. Every seat is taken, and until it thins out 4 hours later, it's not a very comfortable ride. The fields are full of people working, and it seems that every inch of land is used. It's a wonderful patchwork, and impecably kept. On arrival at Dali, our prayers are answered when we see our name on a plackard, and are taken to a hotel. We use the term loosely. It is only one night and the next place might employ cleaners! The restaurant we found for our evening meal wasn't very good, and unfortunately we had a window table. Everyone stares at us with completely blank expressions.

Wed. 10th.
Utter confusion! Our english written itinary is different from the chinese translation, and so we come down from breakfast(!!) expecting to go on a day excursion, only to discover it's changed into a 4 day tour. Off we go to pack and hope our laundry will still be at the shop when we return. We are in a party of 8, and luckily one lady, Vera, speaks a little english, so that we know the time to come back to the coach, etc. Very handy. The scenery on the way to Li Jiang is stunning. A backdrop of mountains, and acres and acres of agriculture. Rice is eaten about 3 times a day, so can you imagine the amount of rice paddies there are to feed the population. This area is known as China's garden because of the good growing conditions, and most of the country's food is produced here. The highlight of the day is a visit to the old city in Li Jiang. This is an immaculately preserved 800 hundred year old warren of houses, shops and restaurants, interwoven with fish-filled streams, linked by small bridges. The architecture is breath-taking, and the whole complex is spotless. One young lad gave us a flier for a pub, and 10 mins. later came up to us again. When we told him he'd already given us one, he said "Sorry, but you all look the same to me!". Priceless! - especially when we were the only europeans there. We were taken to one of the restaurants for dinner, and again it was awful. Our group cannot understand why we eat so little. Back to our rubbish hotel after an 11 hour day to fall into bed exhausted.

Thurs. 11th.
A 10:00 pick-up and we discover our group is halved, and we're lucky to have Vera and husband, Bonny, still with us. We return to this hotel in 2 days, so we happily wave good-bye to our backpacks, and head off to Shangri La. Lots of stops along the way, but the best was "Tiger Leaping Gorge", where we descend lots of steps to watch a torrent of water crashing over huge rocks, but no Tiger! The climb back is arduous, and some people opt for a sedan ride, which to us looked very precarious. The 2 kids who carry it are pencil thin, but they trot up and down all day - once is enough for us! It's a real white knuckle ride on this mountain road. It's narrow, with a shear drop on one side, and rocks, goats etc. littering what little road surface there is. Leaving the moutains behind us the road is new, flat and wide. The slanted sides of the houses and the smiling faces of the locals tell us we are finally in Tibet, and it's magical! We really can't explain why. To bring us back down to earth, dinner is again awful, and even though we are staying in a brand new hotel, it's falling to bits. We are taken to a Tibetan home to taste the local food and drink (yuk), and treated to a traditional song and dance evening. On arrival, the girls, in their traditional dress greet us with a song and put white silk scarves around our necks. There are probably 50 people present, but we are given pride of place by a huge pot, with logs blazing away beneath it. The room is majestic, with 4 huge pillars and beautifully carved walls, and brilliantly painted scenes on the ceiling, and yet this is just a normal home. When you are happy with the entertainer, you stamp your feet and shout, " Yazu, Yazu, Ya Ya Zu!", and put your scarf around the singer's neck. A super night out. Back to the hotel and thank goodness for the electric blanket!

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