Advertisement
Published: July 18th 2010
Special day at the temple
These lovely ladies in national costume posed for our photo!! That is a huge revolving prayer wheel on the hill next to the temple.On our last day in Shangri La we awoke to the sound of Buddhist monks chanting - om ra hari om… om ra hari om … - with temple bells and horns breaking the morning serenity. From our hostel room window we could see the huge automated prayer wheel in the hillside temple complex spinning faster than usual as it reflected the early morning sun.
As it turned out, this was a special day (although no one could enlighten us about why it was special) with a whole range of activities in the town square. Many local people were dressed in traditional Tibetan costume, there was lots of music and dancing, local politicians handed out awards and gave speeches promising all sorts of benefits from the Middle Kingdom government. By lunch time the event had finished; the politicians drove off in their chauffer driven black vehicles, the monks retreated to the confines of the temple, and the locals drifted off to celebratory lunches in the many local restaurants.
Rob was lucky enough to get his photo taken with members of the local rock band whose hit “Shangri La” was a feature of the celebration. Joining the spirit of the
day we adjourned to N’s Kitchen for a yak meat BLT, salad and a couple of local beers. That night we feasted on nachos and pizza at the Compass Café, and had an excellent bottle of Shangri La dry red wine - just what the doctor ordered for the cool evening.
Next day (Sunday 27/6) we had a leisurely lunch at N’s - delicious baguettes - and headed for the bus station for the 3.5 hour express bus back to Lijiang (52CNY each $8.66), and then a quick taxi to the new Lijiang railway station (only opened in April) for the overnight trip back to Kunming. The new train has 2 levels of sleeper compartments - the lower ones are the traditional 4 bunks, but the upper level VIP compartments had a double bed and a single bed (not sure of the cost).
We decided to try another hostel in Kunming, The Hump, as it was more central and had offered “rail station pickup”. We waited in the station coffee shop for one hour for our “pickup”, which turned out to be “William” the ever smiling work experience hospitality trainee on his second day who offered to escort
Skin Shop
There must be some ferocious animals in them thar hills!! us to the hostel by local bus. We stood outside the busy station for a further 15 minutes while William attempted to flag down several drastically overcrowded busses.
Well William was severely flustered by this stage, and with only the bus fares the hostel had given him (3CNY $0.50), suggested we walk to another bus stop some distance away! We relieved his anxiety by flagging down a taxi and paying the fare ourselves - 18CNY $3!
When we arrived he tried to carry the bags, but alas his small frame was not sufficient to climb the 3 flights of steep stairs to get to reception. William learned a lot on his second day, but apparently not the bit about being on time to meet people at the station as a few days later we overheard a Dutch couple complaining to reception that the pickup had not shown up and they had to make their own way by taxi!
The Hump proved to be a good choice, because of its central location, but reception naturally forgot to tell us about the late night music from the bar below and the other one across the lane way. The only
recognition that there was a problem was the packet of ear plugs provided in the room. Well Donna spent all night ear plugged but the bass rhythm still kept her awake. Rob on the other hand who suffers from much degraded hearing heard nothing and slept like a log all night! Yes there are some benefits in getting old!
The Hump also has some odd customer relations policies - as the room we had booked was not available for an hour or so, reception gave us vouchers for free coffee in their restaurant which was nice. But when we ordered two Lao beers they charged 45CNY ($7.76) about 5 times the going rate at the bar down stairs, and that’s where we spent happy hours for the next few days! The strange thing was the bar was also called ‘The Hump”.
One of the benefits of being able to spend more time in Kunming was Ajisen Ramen, the Japanese noodle chain restaurants that in China are affordable. We had several good meals there and sampled the cheap and delicious Japanese Kirin beer on several occasions. One lunch time we also decided to sample the Chinese version of KFC
named Dicos, which are showing up in every Chinese city. This particular outlet was squeaky clean brand new with staff still eager to please. We had some delicious if not slightly too spicy (remember we are 3 chili people!) chicken pieces and fries. Within one hour we were both headed to the toilet for a full chili overdose cleanout!
The weather in Kunming was overcast and rainy every day. On one day it seriously rained, but the locals didn’t care as it had not rained for the past 8 months! We braved the rain and went to the bird and flower market, which is also a good general souvenir market, and caught a 1CNY public bus to the area where there are several computer malls. Computer accessories are quite cheap in China - we bought SD micro memory cards for about 50% of the Australian cost.
On the way Rob’s Australian Crocs decided to expire ( he bought them from Rivers in April) so we made an emergency trip to a small shoe shop where Rob found the only pair of size 45 (11.5) “DooDoggie Brand” black sneakers in China. New shoes on foot we headed off in
Cross bows!
They have some seriously heavy duty weapons too!! the rain to the computer malls, and discovered some of unusual local plant life in a municipal flower bed - see picture. All went well until we got back to the hostel and found that the black dye from Rob’s new shoes had leaked onto his white socks - so much for quality control!
The rain hampered our ability to see much of Kunming, which is a good Chinese city with plenty to see and do - we will come back again. On Thursday 1 July we took the overnight train soft sleeper compartment (302CNY $50each) to Nanning, a large city near the border with Vietnam. We shared the compartment with an American family from Oregon. Arrived in the morning and walked to the Lotus Land Hostel (120 CNY $20 double room shared facilities but they had cheap 6CNY local Liquan Beer).
There is not much to do in Nanning, it is essentially a hop on/hop off point for buses and trains to Vietnam. We managed to occupy ourselves shopping at WalMart ( a new experience for us, but not as good as Carrefour’s) and dining at a local Ajisen Ramen outlet - it is strange that Japanese
food is so popular in China, the result was queuing to get a table and some menu items not available.
Before we left China we decided on the spur of the moment to go to Yangzhou near Guilin. We have been there before and it is one of our favorite Chinese locations. We found a very cheap flight on E-Long (the Chinese version of Expedia) to Guilin (120CNY $20 each) with Hubei Airlines which went broke and was taken over by Sichuan Airlines only the previous day. Well you know what they say about cheap things! We took the CAA bus to Nanning airport (15CNY) with plenty of time for the flight.
At the airport the departures board showed flight NS3204 but no boarding gate - we waited till boarding time at 1705hrs but no boarding information was posted. We went to the Information Desk who had no information - other irate passengers gathered at the desk asking “where is the plane? Then a breakthrough - the plane had left Guilin late and would now leave at 1835hrs. We were bussed out from the terminal to the plane - a small corporate jet with two rear engines and
Rob & friends!!
Outside a Chinese medicine shop. a cabin so small that Rob could not stand up properly.
Forty minutes later (advertised flight time was 55 minutes) we arrived at Guilin airport - and the one cabin crew had enough time to serve a small in flight meal! We caught the CAA bus to the Airport Hotel in Guilin (40CNY for both $6.66), got ripped off on a taxi to the bus station (20CNY $3.33) and then got ripped off again on the Yangzhou bus (20CNY $3.33). Four hours after leaving Nanning we arrived at the Bamboo House Hotel (120CNY $20/night) - we have stayed there before in the nice quiet rooms off West Street.
Next morning we walked West Street and surveyed the changes since our last visit in 2007 - it’s more commercialised but still retains the charm of the little fishing village nestled in the vast karsts which surround the town. The most dramatic change however is the loss of the famous Drifters Café, a casualty of the economic climate, and the infiltration of McDonalds in the location where Minnie Mao’s restaurant previously was.
The loss of Drifters was soon overcome when we discovered some of the staff had set up
as The Minority Café and Jacks Pizza - both have the same menu as Drifters including lemon chicken, cordon bleu, shepherd’s pie, and apple crumble as well as local beer fish and other Chinese dishes.
Over the next few days we ate in Minnie Mao’s, an excellent Indian restaurant called Kali Mirch, Jacks, Hong Kong noodles (excellent wonton soup and fried wontons) and Minority. During the day we wandered West Street picking up bargains including Kipling bags, but we don’t think that Mr Kipling knows he is selling in Yangzhou. It was very (40C) HOT in the afternoons so we adjourned to air conditioned restaurants and treated the dehydration with large quantities of excellent cold Liquan beer. Rob wanted a hair cut because of the heat; he asked for a number 3 and got a 1 and no head massage like the last time!
Reluctantly, on 8 July we had to head off to Nanning by bus - 5 hours on a large comfortable air-con bus for 120CNY each $20. The scenery on the way was spectacular and made the time pass easily.
The next day in Nanning was taken up with booking the bus to Hanoi (148CNY
$24.50), a bit more shopping, our last Ajisen Ramen meal and cheap beers at the hostel.
On Saturday we left the constant heat (high 30’s and humidity) of Nanning and headed to Pixiang for the border crossing to Vietnam. What an excruciating experience - 6 separate passport checks, immigration, customs, and health check which all took over an hour, and we got through quickly because of our APEC cards! This all takes place over a distance of about 2 kms, up and down hills between buildings in various stages of major demolition and renovation, with the only relief being the golf buggies that ferry you through each frustrating step of the process - real 1950’s communist authoritarianism still lives! Finally, back on the bus bound for Hanoi - this will have to wait for the next blog edition.
Tebby and Brian, thanks for the email and hope you have a great time in South America. Our daughter Magenta who you met in Vietnam is currently somewhere in Nicaragua for the next few months. She has been working in Banff Canada.
Adel, good to hear Craig is doing so well. Hope you are felling better - we are
thinking of you.
In the next blog we’ll tell you how we got ripped off in Hanoi, successfully completed a weight INCREASE course in Hoi An and plan to splash out like a pig in mud in Nha Trang.
Bye for now
Love
Rob & Donna
Advertisement
Tot: 0.109s; Tpl: 0.017s; cc: 10; qc: 61; dbt: 0.0582s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.2mb
