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Published: April 19th 2011
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Dazhai
Dragon Backbone's Rice Terraces I didn't realize how touristic Guangxi province was until I arrived at the Dragon's Backbone Rice Terraces. I hadn't done any research on it at all really, and it was only when my bus pulled over and I found myself standing once again in front of one of those infernal entry gates that the Chinese government is so good at putting up at every sight of even the slightest interest, that I knew I had returned to the backpacker trail. The other big give away was the other backpackers on my little bus, and the many Yao old ladies hounding me as I got off, to carry my bag to the village for a fee.
After two weeks of not seeing any foreigners it came a little as a shock. Not that I mind being on the backpacker trail. I am not one of those snobs who thinks that anything mentioned in the Lonely Planet or done by tour groups is not worth their time. I have never gone off the beaten track for the sake of getting off the beaten track, but simply because something of interest might be either on or off the beaten track. And if it
Dazhai
Views along the way to our hotel is off, so be it, and if it is on it, so be it as well.
Actually I am rather ambiguous about the whole thing, when I don't see a foreign face for a long time I get rather anxious and a feeling creeps in that I want to be back amongst the other tourists again, when I am amongst them I have the precise opposite. And so I zigzag on and off the trail and it suits me quite fine.
So here I was at the Dragon's Backbone Rice Terraces in the company of two lovely Australian ladies, surrounded by colourful old women hell-bent on taking our backpacks of our backs and into their baskets while we were equally adamant that they wouldn't succeed. We followed a bloke up the hills to a hotel which he promised was cheap and had great views. All the way up we had those oldies tagging at our bags, and whining about not getting them. I feared the worst. But the worst didn't happen. We ended up at a fine hotel, the old hags eventually gave up and the views were superb. It was peaceful and cheap at the top of
Dazhai
Reflecting rice paddies the slope where our hotel was. I was nursing a cold and this seemed like the perfect place to hang out for a couple of days to recuperate.
And so I recuperated and enjoyed the views, and did my laundry and exchanged some books with the Australians giving me the chance to read something new after 3 weeks of having only the Lonely Planet to read. I did a few short walks, but nothing to strenuous, just a little further up the mountain to view the famous rice paddies and their reflections. But mostly I did nothing and enjoyed it!
But the good times must end and so it was time to move on. This time to the Chengyang Wind and Rain Bridge, another place with an entrance fee and with tour busses arriving by the dozen during the day. But come night? Nobody! I had a room with a balcony overlooking the bridge and I was the only one in the hostel, in fact I probably was the only tourist in the village at night. So during the day I retired to my balcony and read or looked at the tourists flock into the villages and take
Dazhai
Little villages and paddy fields photo's of the bridge and in the evening or early in the morning I walked around by myself with not a tourist in sight. The best part of the day was probably my evening beer on my balcony overlooking the river and the bridge. This is what you travel for I mused, relaxing to the soft sound of a river and one or another wonderful view and sipping a cold beer.
Yet again I eventually moved on, this time I returned to Kaili where I had passed through but a week earlier to buy a train ticket. I returned because of the upcoming Sister's Meal Festival, the Valentines day for the Miao minority in which they wear their most beautiful frock and men try to win a girls hand. Unfortunately they had moved up the dates and so I was only able to see the first day before having to take a train out. Fortunately I didn't mind, because as it turned out it has become a very, very touristic event, not so much for foreign tourists but with domestic tour groups. The road to the village where the main events were going to be staged was actually so
Ma'an
View of the Chengyang Wind and Rain bridge from my hotel room full of cars and busses that we ended up in a traffic jam! It was actually quite frankly a very frustrating day, where a lot of pushing and shoving went on and a lot of camera's were not pointed at the Miao but at the few foreigners around. I couldn't walk anywhere without a gigantic digital SLR with a tele lens the size of a small car pointed in my face. We left early tired and disappointed, but happy to be out of the mess.
And now? I am in Guangzhou waiting for my flight out. I have a wedding to attend in Perth, three weeks of rest & relaxation before returning to China for more. Perth Australia, and this while the whole plan for the last 5 years has been not to fly there, but to get there by any other means. Never fly forward was my motto, but in this case I have to break it. It is for a very good cause and really it doesn't make much difference, except perhaps in my mind. I will still continue with my original plan of getting to this southern continent overland and eventually by boat. This is just
Ma'an
Having fun a little interlude.
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colleen
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your travels
How I really wish I could hitch a ride in your back pack! I have a spirit inside me that wanted so much to have been as lucky as you have been to be able to travel as freely as you seem to do. I hope that someday I can see 1/10th of what you have seen so far.. Keep on travelin'!!