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Published: February 27th 2012
We made it to
Kunming before noon which gave us opportunity to admire constantly changing landscape on the way. Suddenly we could not see any rock formations and lush green fields but dry earth and desert plants. The mountain range in Yunnan is amazing and it kind of feels like spring is always there. Kunming town is located nearly 1900m above the sea level and temperatures are always mild and pleasurable. We did not intend to stay too long in Kunming as we only wanted to get our Vietnamese visa sorted over there. We took a local bus from a train station to the lake area and walked around to find some place to stay. We wanted to stay in Cloudland Youth Hostel but some guy we met told us there was even better place by the lake. Sadly all we could find around the lake was some old youth hostel with horrible accommodation so we decided to have a walk to Cloudland (around 1km away). It was not difficult to find it and thanks to the walk we also found great food street where we had some of the best ribbon noodle dish in China.
Cloudland is a great
place, with nice atmosphere and good facilities. We had to take a little bit more expensive double room for the first night as it was fully booked (120Y/12£) but we were promised to be moved to a dorm the next day. After dinner we really felt like having some drinks and hostel bar serves really nice gin and tonic. Not something we would normally spend money on but sometimes you just need to have what you want ;-) The visa process was nice and easy – one form, one photo and 50$ each, 3 day waiting time. We put our arrival date in Vietnam for the 20
th so we had 10 more days in China. It felt kind of weird to know that soon we would be leaving but it was also very exciting. From the embassy it is only 5 min walk to the train station so we went there to book our forward transport. Bus stations in Kunming are quite far away from the town so it was much more convenient to take a train. We were not sure if we would get any tickets but we managed to get tickets to Lijiang for the same night. We
already paid for our dorm beds but we did not care as time was ticking and we could not waste any more of it. We got half of the money back for the beds so it was not that bad.
We got to
Lijiang around 6 in the morning and we felt like the train station was in the middle of nowhere. It was completely dark and we really had no idea where to go to get a bus. We found some nice Chinese couple that spoke perfect English and they helped us us with locating a bus stand. The problem was that there were hundreds of people waiting for buses. It was also the first time that we encountered toilets without door – just a short brick cubicles inside the room where people just squat and do their business. Not the type of toilet I find acceptable ;-). We had to wait around 45 min for the bus but we finally managed to get to the Old Town. Believe it or not but it started snowing a little bit. I don't know if it is us who always bring such weather to places we visit or it has
the moment
Beata's favorite photobeen a lot of coincidences so far hahah Fist thing we saw was KFC so we went in for a cup of coffee. As I mentioned before KFC and McDonald’s have become our favourite coffee shops in China;-) Their filtered coffee is way better than any of the 3in1 sachet crap they serve all over the place.
Old Town of Lijiang was just a minute walk away and we loved it straight away. As it was only after 7 am the town was just coming to live, sun started to appear behind clouds and the atmosphere of the place was just fantastic. We choose Panba hostel on the other side of the town and it took us double the time to get there just because we were stopping all the time admiring the streets. This place has so much character and charm that no pictures can do it's justice. Panba hostel was fantastic as well – no wonder they have had such amazing reviews from travellers. It is located in quiet part of the town, has newly refurbished facilities and fantastic staff dinners (20Y/2£ pp only) when you have opportunity to try 5-6 different dishes and chat to other
travellers in the same time.
Lijiang has a lot to offer when it comes to food and there are many food streets around giving you opportunity to try local dishes. We are not huge fans of them as they all seem to be deep fried and very heavy but nevertheless completely different tastes. With a location of 2400m above sea level, Lijiang offers fantastic air quality and it is a luxury in China so it felt great. In theory you have to pay the entrance fee to the Old Town (80Y/8£) but no one is checking it. It only comes handy when you want to visit some sights like pagodas and lake. We actually managed to get to the lake park without a ticket – probably because we used the back door ;-) We spent our time in Lijiang just wandering around this beautiful town, trying food and just relaxing in sun. We went over and over again through the plan of visiting Tiger Leaping Gorge but unfortunately Tomek developed nasty cold and we opted out. It is a dificult trek and you really need to be in a very good health for it. Shame though;-(
We also
took a local bus to the near by village of
Baisha where famous Chinese Medicine doctor is having his practise.
Dr. Ho is well known around the world and people go the village just to meet him. We did not have any medical problem (just cold) but we really wanted to meet him and chat with him. His practise is very easy to find as he has got loads of posters and paper/magazines trimmings displayed in front of his house. We met Louis – from France – at the bus stop so we went there together. Dr. Ho's office walls are covered with magazines pictures, articles about him and stories of his patients. At the age of 90 he has amazing stamina, enthusiasm and he is so energetic that it is hard to believe. He also showed us his hand and his skin is soft and wrinkles-less like skin of a young child. He has got guest-books segregated by countries and languages so you can see how many people actually visit him. I was asked to translate his ideology into Polish so that he could share it with other Poles. He is trying to be prepared for everybody ;-)
I also found an autograph of a famous Polish traveller in one of the books and then I recalled that my mum mentioned it to us after reading an article in one of the magazines – how weird. So Dr. Hou believes that smile, positive approach to life and love is all you need to stay healthy.
“Your body health is a reflection of your mental health” - he says. He looked at us curiously and said
“You look very happy – that is good”. I guess we passed the medical check;-) He does not charge for a visit so we gave him a gift of 50Y (Luois gave another 50) but he said he could not take it unless we would accept his “healthy tea”. This is the stuff he cures cancers with (he has a lot of proven cases of that) so we were glad to try it. The hour we spent with this guy made our day if not week. We felt such a positive energy so for that reason it is worth to visit him. He waved us goodbye and said:
"Come in 10 years, I will still be here". Beside that they serve amazing food
in that village – fried wheat noodles with veg were the highlight. We also took a pick on the
Jade Dragon Snow Mountain that is supposed to be the starting point of Himalayas.
From Lijiang we could have gone to Shangrila but because of the time constrain we decided to go to
Dali and then back to Kunming. That would also leave us some time to visit yet another Rice Terraces of YuanYang. Dali is mentioned as the ultimate hang out place for travellers so we definitely wanted to check what this was about. We stayed in
Jade Emu Hostel that is probably the best place we stayed so far in. Run by Australian owner every little detail is taken care of. Starting from soup and shampoo for free, through local prices of food and drink to no fee on booking transport. They have completely opposite strategy to most hostels that is about keeping people in by offering affordable prices. What is the point of earning on beds only when you can have people eating, drinking, booking tours with etc.? Believe us, everybody stays in even though this place is not in the centre of Old Town.
We
met some people that were staying for a month or longer. I am not sure if it is because of the fact that LP says that Dali is a place to stay or just because they wanted to stay in nice hostel. We found Dali nice but not enough interesting to hang out for more than few days. Lijiang has much more to offer in our opinion. We climbed the hill to the temple spot (1,5h up the mountain) to get nice views of the lake and the town and the rest of the time we just spent relaxing. We both still had minor colds so we were not up for the cycling or top of the mountain climb unfortunately. I guess worth mentioning is the Buddhist restaurant that everybody in town talks about. This place is run by monks and offer 5Y eat as much as you want vegetarian buffet – the cheapest feast we had in China.
Next we went back to Kumning and Cloudland again. The bus arrived just in time for us to pick up our visas so that we would not waste any more day in Kunming. We still had one more place to
visit before heading to Vietnam – YuangYang Rice Terraces, the only place in China that needs to be visited in January. The terraces were so stunning that they deserve separate blog entry though!!!
Additionals: - To get to Coudland in Kunming just take a bus 64 from the trains station area (just ask locals where is the stop), 1Y only instead of 20Y taxi. - In case someone wants or needs to contact Dr. Ho, here are the details: Baisha Village, Yunnan Province, email: jdsmchmel@yahoo.com.cn, Fax: 0888-5142015 - In Lijiang there is an opportunity to take a trip to spend a day with Tibetian Tribes and visit The Snow Mountain - cost around 200Y pp but you spend a lot of time in a minubus moving around that is why we opted out
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TinNiE
" Half the fun of the travel is the esthetic of lostness "
^^
I love this photo.