Surviving in china

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hi all

sorry for not answering all of you in person, didn't
expect so many of you to actualy write... i've also
been away from a computer for a long time...

i left you about a week ago, before climbing the
mountain near dali.
the hike was nice, even though some routes were closed
up the mountain. we climbed to the snow line, and it
was quite cold (as you could see in the picture)

after that we started going north-west to do our
off-the-beaten-track hike. it appears that in april
there is good weather, but most of the winter damages
havn'e been fixed yet. the roads are full of
land-slides, bridges have disappeared, and the ride
was VERY slow.
buses here are not EGED... and since communication is
very difficult (if possible at all) it has some
strange (sometimes funny) situations.
for example - when you get to a bus station and say a
name of a city - 5 little chinese start yelling at you
and pushing you up some vehicle, even if you just
wanted to know when the last bus is leaving...
on the bus, which is vey long, we were afraid to
drink, because we couldn't know when the next toilet
stop is going to be...
anyway - we had a 7 hours ride one day, another 9 the
next day, then a local bus to a small village, and
from there we had to walk 15 km to a smaller village
(because that road was totally blocked). the scenery
was amazing, the entire ride was in valeys, between
snowy mountains, waterfalls, villages, etc.
that is where we met our guide. the problem was that
on that day i got really sick, and we were up on the
mountain, with the closest city (about the size of
raanana) is about 2 days away. it was quite scary...
we headed down to the town that was about 40 km from
there, and after i got better we headed back, again
with the long buses.
many little experiences along the way, mainly with the
chinese people, trying to communicate with them,
seeing them in real life (for example - eating chicken
legs as a snack on
the bus and spitting it on the floor...), etc. i won't
make this mail too long, not to bore you too much, and
to keep some stories to when i am home (so you will
still want to talk to me then)...
pictures of the bus rides are attached (one regular
bus and one sleeper bus)
another picture of a kid's pants - what a great way to
keep your pants cleen when you still don't know to go
to the toilets... (tilles - promised you a bare butt!)
bye,
R

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