New year journey to Qujian and Guangxi

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28 Jan 2003



foggy & cold in the morning. by the time I get to NanSha it was already 8. it won't take more than an hour to GeJiu. carry on to KaiYuan with another hour. connection seem good. from north bus station took the bus to LuXi, a quite flat road and took only 3hrs. from there many buses to SiZhong that was only an hour away. never dream of getting to SiZhong in a day, road networks was so amazing in this part of Yunnan. only 16:00 when I arrive! settle in a small hotel not far from the mini bus station. contact Fat and he was in WuLong. strange guy...once he said he will come to meet me tomorrow and minute later he was arrive in SiZhong. fine...can share the bill! hahaaa...ahahaaa...


relaxing day
29 Jan 2003



couldn't recognize anything on the way to LongQing, it was just one year ago. went back to the same guesthouse. not much changing in town, only 1 internet bar open up. special market today for the last day before new year. but not as busy as the normal market day. ask around for the Miao flower festival. still people has different reference for the places. same...a long way away for walk. will see. Spend the afternoon walk to DeWan where they has a temple, the legend said the stone material was flew there by itself, so..they build the temple there according to its will. easy walk with some local indication, only 7km away. not mch scene on the way there. DeWan is a village with 300 familes. the temple is located on the small hill outside of the village, a bit climbing and you will get there. but no one in there so we couldn't go inside to see. not important anyways.

reaching HeiEr
30 Jan 2003



decided to walk to HeiEr, feel great under the warm sky. doesn't remember the route much, took some wrong turn but by asking people got us back to the right track. surprisingly get to the view point in 3 hrs. where we take a break for an hour, enjoying the view of the HeiEr valley. think better go to Zhang's house instead of wasting our time here for Mr Tian(a man we meet the day before in Longqing, he live in Heier as well). so...off we go, there are many people in Zhang's house, find out they are killing a pig for a banquet. before new year, most family will kill a pig(if they can afford) and invite friend for dinner on their own schedule. and today is Zhang's family for hosting, we are just right in time. since they are busy, we took off to check out the high water fall which I hadn't visit last time. about 5km away, we walk fast since it was bit late in the afternoon, and this is the route one could walk into LuXi region. we could see the fall in a distant, it look nice but I think the lower fall I saw last time is better, we were so hungry and thirsty, my belly actually druming loudly! we decided not to go all the way to the fall but just watch it in the distant. walking back and Zhang's house dinner is almost ready. I don't think we can leave tonight but stay in. a lot of foods and drinks(alcohol), as they had many guests tonight ,so we slept on the sofa in the evening. in HeiEr there are 16 villages, each with its own family name, like DaZhai, everyone name Zhang. Zhang's father is a shaman, we saw a boy brought by his father to this house, and Zhang's Father, wrote some scripts on the boy's face and recite something into the boy's eye, and the boy sickness would be healed.

switching
31 Jan 2003



couldn't sleep...no way...people just keep walking around all night. and there was 2 chickens inside the room, Juses!!!! go to looking for Mr Tian see if he could put us up. in fact he only has a boy and a girl, not other visitor, so...they put us each in a bed...our own bed !!!my god! the harder thing are how to say goodbye to Zhang and move here. anyways...we did it smoothly later in the afternoon. Tian's son took us to the lower fall cause Fat hadn't see that before. I wouldn't mind too. Still nice as I could remember. there is a pool which you could swim convinencely, Fat jump down and hell....he cry out said the water is icecy! so...I turn back. we decided to walk a little bit on our own to the NanPan river see if there are any boat going down to WuLong , but the water was low in this season, it would be ok when water is high, there will be boat go that direction...but not now! we had our last dinner before new year in Tian house, and slept in a comfortable bed on my own tonight

new year day
1 Feb 2003



sleep quite well, but Mr Tian prepare meal at 06:00am. kind of opening meal for new year. so....we struggle up and ate our breakfast, than go straight back to sleep again. I give myself a day off today. still....went out for walk to the water fall in the afternoon, this time we follow the stream up, and find out the water actually pass through 2 villages then down to the fall, so....it wasn't as clean as Mr Tian said it was.

short hike
2 Feb 2003



lucky here they don't do much fire cracker, at least they won't start at late at night, perhaps the only noise are come from the duck Mr Tian had in his house. today his son and his friend took us to the gorge, down the valley we walk, and the we need to climb along the rock surface by the river, since there are no trial at all. but it wasn't difficult for the climbing, actually I was enjoying it. the gorge is about 300m deep, both side are wild plants and trees, but not much a great scene though, many local fisherman came here fishing. the boys enjoy their fire cracker all the way, and they don't understand we want quiet otherwise we won't be here.

move on
3 Feb 2003



still no bus service yet, so...we decided to walk back to LongQing. but it got quite cloudy and rain too. very cold indeed. it send us walked faster than usual, unexpectly we got back in town in 3 hrs. don't want to hang around too long, all I want is a shower and a decent toilet. so....speed to WuLong. and I got all I hoping for.

Cai Hua Shan festival
4 Feb 2003



most people said there is a Hau Shan festival in LuKu, so...we go there. on the truck we saw many Miao people and they still stay on the truck after we arrive, they said they were going to QuBei for the festival. what a long way to travel especially on this truck!!! the festival ground was set on the paddy field near a small river by the hillside, people began to arrive from different direction. all you can feel....RED....! the Miao color, so sharp that hurt your eyes somehow! today is the 3rd day, will have singing contest and wrestle. seem like we just miss the climbing pole contest yesterday, so...we hang around to see a little. took some pictures. the wrestle here is more like kicking contest, 2 people only use their feet to kick the other feet, until one fell down. I find it quite boring.

into GuangXi
5 Feb 2003



cloudy and begin to rain. bit cold too. just miss the XiLin bus or perhaps there never was a bus at 09:00am as they claimed. anyways....they said the next bus will be at 15:30. ok than....let's spend some time in LawPing. perhaps here never mean for me. same shitty weather when I was here few months ago. no chance for the caihau picture. don't want to wandered too far as I want to make sure they sell the ticket for 3 o'clock, finally...we got the ticket by noon. so....can go do internet. weather getting better by noon. actually it was hot when we are on the bus. almost 5 hrs later we are in XiLin. a lot of shop and hotel are not open yet because of new year, so...check in the one next to the bus station.

market day
6 Feb 2003



market today, but not many people attand. some Miao people. 1st time see the white Miao in this area. nice hat dress and belt. afternoon we try to walk to ZhouBon cave, said it is only 8km away. but once we start, and after 7km and people still said it was a long way ahead. so we gave up and walked back. beside...the area around are not very interesting. stone mining ground all along the route, so dusty that we don't want to hang around for long.

going to DeEr
7 Feb 2003



we had an arguement with the bus driver, he try to charged us 1 yuan more on top of our ticket we had brough from the counter before we drove out. sure I refuse. and it ruin my mood for the whole morning. as we near DeEr, we saw so many people. and later we find out it was the same like this all through new year week, and TiaoPo will held in different area in the area. and also we find out this year there is no festival in DeEr. that mean we come here all for nothing...shittt! and also we has miss the other festival early in this area too.

searching for festival
8 Feb 2003



heard they won't held the festival this year in DeEr. but might have in other village. and someone indicated that in ZhangJiaZhai have festival today, so..we walk there as I had been there last year, I might still remember the way to get there. but the festival there was 3 days ago...finishedddd! only saw the festival ground still stand there with it high pole. walk back .. another exercise for today!

move on to GuiZhou
9 Feb 2003



yes...seem like very busy today, but...it was the same yesterday and the day before yesterday. think we should leave. get on a bus, only back seat left. on this bad road, suffer! change bus in LongLin thought I had travel this road before, but amazingly I couldn't remember much of the scene on this trip. the part between GuangXi and GuiZhou is quite beautiful. XingYi has 2 bus station. east and west. bus to Yunnan direction are from the west station.

the Shui people's area
10 Feb 2003



it only take about an hr to get to KuGan. But need to change transportation at the main highway junction with a tuk-tuk. KuGan is a small village live mostly Shui people. but what I meet mostly are Han. settle in a small family house for RMB4/night. set out for a walk to a Shui village. catch the wrong trail, finally came across 2 women on the field and show us the right direction. this area are full of caihau, golden yellow color everywhere. we cross a ridge and the other side is total different. only crop. PoZhian is the village we are heading to. you won't see it until you are near the village. it is a village with all Han style roof top house, look old style but mostly new build. quite nice village in fact. meet a young man who willing to show us where a tunkou is. in an old house where one settle on top of the main entrance of the house. it is the only one left in the village nowaday. later we decided to walk to the other Shui village nearby which said to has a hot spring, so the village...with no surprised...call RiShui. also the young man volunteer to take us there as well...why not then! a nice walk but very hot with no water. finally we get there in 1.5hrs. not much for a hot spring, only some warm water coming out together with the stream. later we find out there is a train station not far from here, where we can take the train to WaiShei and back to KuGan easily. so we kept walking to the train station. and did our round trip to KuGan in one day.

market in GuiZhou
11 Feb 2003



walk to GuiZhou for market..ha...haa...but we were invite to the government office(we thought we were being invited)before we took off, cause they heard we are from HK and Singapore. but once the find out we are only individual tourist, they lost interest. fine...since we want to see thing on our own. 1st we took a tuk-tuk to a village and from there we start walk to PingDian. perhaps people in GuiZhou are not as friendly as in Yunnan. a guy ask money from us for gave us direction. because of that we lost our way cause I refused to pay. but later we back to the right track. market in PingDian wasn't what we expect, we only saw one Miao woman selling herbal medicine. a big market but we are not interest. we decided to came back by train through WaiShie. as usual train always delay, this time for an hour. done nothing today. back to KuGan, rest a little than I went for a walk on my own(old problem...can't travel with the same one for long time). actually climbing the hill where there is a temple and find out t wasn't that bad for a view. did get some good picture.

back to Kunming
12 Feb 2003



cloudy and start to rain. think I will go back to Kunming with Fat. perhaps LawPing was not my place. always cloudy weather when I was there. catch the fast train at 09:10.very crowd, it was came from GuangZhou, that's why there was man cantonese speaking on the train. weather become clear and sun come up. it was hot. get to Kunming by 2pm. I decided to stay in the KumHu and Fat want to stay in Camellia cause his backpack was store there. bit cool out in Kunming. said goodbye but we met up for dinner at night, cause there was China against Bazil tonight on tv, so we watch in my hotel lobby. never ate any foods that bad food in my life. I mean...I don't believe any Chinese people can cook this kind of bad food, if they are brave enough to open a food stand, they at least can cook normal. but this one next to the hotel in front of the entrance of the hot spring bathhouse, we order 4 dishes, not one can eat...juses!!!! so...we went to GuangZhou restaurant where Fat ate before has dimsum. we ate in a quick pace. finish and gone, cause Fat was stay in camellia, a distant for him to walk back.

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