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In an attempt not to be too negative, I had to be persuaded to keep the title of the last blog as 'Good Morning Vietnam' instead of my preferred 'Good Riddance Vietnam'. However, as we boarded the train at Hanoi, that's kind of how we felt..... BUT! there's a lot to be said for the phrase 'better the devil you know' and our relief to be leaving Vietnam was born more out of the fact that we'd escaped without loss of valuables or limbs, rather than looking forward to China.
Don't get me wrong, China has always held a fascination for both of us, but this had been somewhat diluted over the last nine weeks, with stories of a culture and people that want you to like their country but won't be willing to help you do so. We really wanted to enjoy China, but we thought that about Vietnam. To add to this, the loss of our guidebook would not be a good start, and although not life and death, I feared it may well be the last straw for Sam.
We arrived at the Vietnamese border before midnight and disembarked the train to board our Chinese equivalent, which was
The burning of incense...
....so that the smell rises and reaches the Godsan instant improvement in comfort. Our passports had been handed over to the rather military looking officials on the train and we were questioned as to our business in China; was it our first visit? what were our jobs were back home? and so on. As they left, we knew they'd be back and for now our guidebook remained hidden, and Sam had gone one step further by re-covering it in Hanoi. From the outside it now looked like a German novel.
On their return, they informed us that under government orders they were to search our bags. We agreed, wondering how they would react not if, but when, they found our attempts to deceive them...
He pointed at Sam's rucksack, and his female colleague stepped forward to begin a thorough search. They questioned Sam on a few things before scrutinising the Vietnam Lonely Planet. The fact that we had one version would surely give us away.....? After ten minutes, satisfied that there was nothing untoward they gestured to Sam that she could start repacking. I sat watching all this from my top bunk. Of course, I knew the book was in my bag, and I was convinced a similar
search would find it. But that search never came. They only chose to search one bag, and by sheer luck Sam's happened to be in front of mine.
It was such a relief, you'd have thought we had a kilo of coke in my bag and narrowly escaped the death sentence. It may seem an over-reaction and we overheard one guy boasting that he "never travels with guidebooks", but we never claimed to be hardened travellers, and we wouldn't want to be if it breeds that level of ignorance and arrogance. These books don't only give potential itineraries, they also inform you of customs and 'cultural etiquette' (dos and don'ts) and it would have been near impossible to remember all that stuff for so many different countries. Anyway, that hopefully justifies our pre-search tensions and brings the whole guidebook saga to a close.
I awoke some hours later entangled in the wires of my ipod, it was light outside so I thought I'd take a peek out of the window to see what China looked like. Two things were immediately striking; those limestone karsts we've seen on the coasts throughout Asia had followed us inland and looked very strange
jutting out of otherwise flat land. The second thing was that every square inch of available land was being farmed.
After coming out from behind the curtain, I noticed one other thing; Sam was now awake and pulling a ridiculous face from the bunk beneath.
I don't know what we had in mind, but when we arrived in Guilin it was much busier and bigger than we had imagined. We soon found a hostel to dump our bags and lay our heads. It would turn out to be somewhere we would end up making a rather unplanned extended stay in due to not being able to get a seat on the train to our next stop on the date we had planned. This was mainly due to us getting carried away with things to do in and around Guilin.
There's been a very obvious change in the culture, noise and appearance from Vietnam to China. For now at least (this may well change when we get to Beijing) there seems a lot less noise from the traffic. HOWEVER, this can be good and bad. You may wonder how this could possibly be a negative? Well, strictly speaking
Karsts and paddy fields
On the train into China it's more of a potential hazard, although at the same time it is good for the environment. What I'm talking about are electric mopeds. These have the ability to sneak up on you without any engine noise, and what's more they (the riders) often cruise around at night without any lights on. I can only guess they do this to save battery power, otherwise it can only be a cruel game of 'scaring the shit out of the tourists'. Sticking with traffic noise, the sound of all those horns has almost completely gone. Unfortunately, the honking has been replaced by the slightly less frequent but infinitely more disturbing sound.......hawking and spitting!! This is done by anyone anywhere (even on the planes), and with great vigour. You know what I mean, that sound you produce when you bring that irritating layer of phlegm up from the depths of your lungs, so far down it's almost irretrievable, but a 2 second loud hawk gets that baby into position to become a masticated missile. Apparently, tourists have been so put off by this, the government has campaigned to stop the flow of flob in the major cities.
General way of life seems to
One of the Longhairs
Hair visible with bun at the front = Married with child have much more order here to, and I'm pleased to report that bins have a place in society here (an invention the Vietnamese have chosen to ignore), making the whole place look very clean.
Thinking online access maybe a problem in China, we took time to look for an internet cafe the evening we arrived. We eventually found it after following a sign leading down some stairs off a back street to a place underground that was the biggest internet cafe we've ever seen. We heard they were scarce after a fire in one had killed 25 which led to the closure of many. It wouldn't suprise me if it had been caused by a cigarrette as the youths here just seem to play computer games and smoke themselves to death; China is not a good place for the non-smoker!
China is, on the whole, much more westernised than than we had invisaged, and the residents of Guilin's more affluent neighbourhoods were born to shop, although their dress sense leaves alot to be desired. Restaurants can still be a little tricky, with turtle, rat hotpot and dog (to name a few) often on the menu when there are English translations,
A slightly shorter longhair
But what they wouldn't give for her colour. other times....who knows what we're eating??
As the title suggests, we've also completely lost the Western toilet, which has been difficult enough to find at times throughout the other parts of Asia we've 'BEEN'. How the elderly and infirm cope with squat toilets is still a mystery, and travelling through these places now, hopefully means we'll never have to find out. There were of course times in Africa when all you're presented with is a hole in the ground, but you have no expectations there. Here, the first time you enter a 'reasonable' public toilet, you do expect to find some loo roll.........nope! Luckily, we always carry some, but consider that a warning if you're thinking of coming here. Although armed with toilet roll, you have to give Sam a degree of sympathy when whilst we were out she experienced those horrible griping pains you get low in the stomach that proceed the imminent evacuation of something non-solid. The race to a public 'inconvenience' with increasing pains was frantic to say the least. Once there, a place to hang her backpack could not be found, and dropping it on the 'wet' floor was not an option. Crouching, with backpack on,
in that predicament, deserves a medal, if not an immediate warm shower.........I could offer neither.
Anyway, where were we.......Oh yeh! things to do in Guilin.
An easy gauge for how good a place is can be judged on how many pictures we take, and although we won't keep all of them, our first few days in and around Guilin saw us take over 500 photos between us. The majority of these were taken during our second and third day after booking two trips. The first was a place called Longsheng Rice Terraces, and the second was a cruise up the Li River.
The Longsheng rice fields, also known as 'Dragon's Backbone', is a remote place that was only joined to modern civilisation by a new road completed in 1997. The mini-bus drivers who take you up and down the final, steep and winding section of that road treat it as a formula one circuit, giving a hair raising ride for those with a window seat.
Talking of hair-raising, before we climbed up to the rice terraces we stopped in the valley below to meet the women of the Red Yao - who are known as 'Longhairs'. The reason
Bamboo rice
Secret recipe, but bloody gorgeous being that their customs dictate that they only cut their hair once, and that's when they marry. Before this it is grown continuously but always kept covered from the view of others, only to be revealed to their husbands on their wedding night. After cutting, the growing begins again, often with the cut hair being attached. Equally strange is how they choose a husband. Basically, they will sing to their chosen man, asking questions within their songs. He, in turn (if interested), will sing back the answers to those questions. All going well she will at some stage during the courtship throw him an elaborate string ball she has made (unknown distance) and IF he catches it, they marry!.......It's probably the reason why karaoke and baseball are so popular in China. Showing affection to the opposite sex involves men touching the women's feet with their own, but the women's response is infinitely more Western as they pinch the man's arse! The Longhairs wear their hair (which can grow over 1.8m in length) in various styles that signify if they're single, married, or married with children.
The rice terraces are spectacular and get better the higher you go. Once Schumacher had
dropped us off, we began the hike to the top, stopping halfway for lunch. On the menu for lunch was bamboo rice, a unique way of cooking and presenting rice in the very stuff this village was built on, and easily the best rice we've ever tasted.
Once at the top, the views of the terraces and surrounding valleys are amazing. In order to capture this special moment, a German couple asked if Sam would take a photo of them together. Handing over their camera, they walked over to a small wooden signpost and sat down to pose for the perfect picture, with the terraces in the background below. As Sam raised the camera and gave it time to focus, there was a sudden loud 'CRACK' as the signpost gave way and the couple disappeared backwards over the edge. I've obviously (whilst travelling) discarded my 'ambulanceman' outlook on these situations, instead swapping it for a photographers', as I turned to Sam and asked if she got the shot? We both hurried to the edge to join the ten or so people who had gathered to peer nervously over....... Fortunately for them, a path 15' below the steep bank had ended
their fall somewhat prematurely. Unbelievably, both appeared to have escaped any broken skin or bones. The girl was visibly shaken but OK. It was now, with consent from her boyfriend, Sam took the shot...... No terraces. No valley. Just the two of them in a heap a little worse for wear, on the path below...
The start of our third and equally scenic day around Guilin was spent aboard a boat on a four hour cruise up the Li River. The Li River meanders through the best of the limestone karst formations in a landscape that I previously thought only belonged in mythical story books. So picturesque in fact, that one of the many views can be seen on the back of a Chinese 20 yuan note.
As with most of these tours, once you're on the boat/coach, you're then offered further attractive add-ons to your trip. We decided on this occasion to do both the trips that were on offer, and although the first isn't really worth a mention, we did get some good pictures of certain individuals. The second, in contrast, should be a must to anyone coming to Guilin or Yangshuo, where our cruise ended. For
this, ironically, we had to join one of those Chinese tour groups I've slated relentlessly throughout our travels, as no-one else on the boat booked up. We were the only Westerners as the group was herded around and instructed to "follow the flag" that our guide (like all Chinese guides) was holding aloft. The group (sheep) mentality of the Chinese, I'm convinced, is a comfort thing and maybe they don't have the confidence to do these things alone. The other reason of course is that these excursions are often cheaper when done en masse. Anyway, we were in fits of laughter as we ran, following our new found allies as they barged past anyone who dared to come between them and 'The Flag'. We were eventually given some tickets and set free to find our seats in the amphitheatre that overlooked the Li River. Everyone here had come to see a show that is quite famous by all accounts and is directed by movie maker Zhang Yimou. Who? I hear you ask. Well this guy is held in high regard over here and has been placed in charge of directing the opening cerermony of this year's Olympic Games in Beijing.
Impressions
The name of the show on the Li River The show takes place on the river and due to the performance being at night, is visually brilliant. Obviously we couldn't understand the small amount of spoken Chinese but the story centres around a fishing village and its customs. There are 600 performers and the backdrop cannot be beaten, with no less than 12 karsts being lit up by powerful floodlights.
Not being part of a tour group can be infuriating at times. We visited some more large caves whilst in Guilin, but there's a snag in doing this alone. The coloured lights that illuminate the caves' interior are on sensors. The device that activates these sensors are inserted into the end of a tour guide's torch. So we've had to wait (even though individually we've paid more) for noisy tour groups to make their way through so we can follow behind and try to look at and take pictures of the good stuff before the lights go out. It's a scandalous ignorance towards the lone traveller who wants to enjoy a peaceful walk through the caves that they've paid good money to enter.
There are many more sights around Guilin but one of our favourites are for free
A cormorant fisherman
A trained cormorant can catch up to 50kg of fish a day and they are the stunning Sun and Moon Pagodas, which you'll see in the photos.
As I mentioned earlier, all these things to see and do meant we'd left it too late to get a seat on the train out of Guilin on the date we ideally needed to leave on, so we decided we would fly out to save time. Before booking our flight to Xi'an, we bumped into a Dutch couple who changed our plans. They spoke of a National Park that they considered so beautiful, it was a must if we weren't committed to anything. Within two hours we had booked the four flights that it would take to get us there for two days and away again.
We were once told about a place in Australia that we should go to, it was called The Navy Pier (you may remember it from a previous blog) and that turned out to be one of the highlights of our trip so far. Let's hope that our spontaneity would pay off again in a National Park by the name of Jiuzhaigou.......
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Jessica86
Li Jiacong
Hi! nice photos ! I'm a girl from Beijing and have been there last October.How did you take the wonderful pictures in the Cave? I tried many times and they all turned out to be blurred. I have been to Guilin then to Yangshuo and Longsheng. The longhair women are of Yao minority ethnic groups. They are "Red Yao"----a branch of the Yao.They wear vivid pink clothes. Singing is the Southeast minority people's custom.Since they live in the mountain area they can convey their feelings and emotions by singing.The majority people of Han don't have the customs. My mother had sit on the chair and I took a photo for her.I felt a little afraid so I didn't sit on it to pose for a picture.Poor German couple!