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This is the 5th ‘episode’ of another of 'our' travels.
All the ‘episodes’ describe our journey from our arrival in Vientiane (capital of Laos) in mid March 2010, through to our intention to 'arrive' in Hanoi (capital of Vietnam) at end April. This ‘episode’ describes our journey south from Jianshui to XinJie (Yunnan), and then into Vietnam.
As always, if you want to 'see' more detail in an accompanying picture, click it to enlarge.
Please note that we've tried to 'attach' or 'anchor' photo's applicable to the text. At the end of the text, we've added a heap of other photos that help depict our journey. You will probably have to go to page 2, and slide to the bottom to see all. Cheers
South from Jianshui - an overview
Episode 1 described our travels from Vientiane through Laos to China, and into the provincial capital of the Xishuangbanna region of Yunnan - Jing Hong. We also described how we departed Jing Hong the same day and ventured into the backblocks of southern Yunnan - to Meng Hun, Meng Hai and Meng Lian (where we ended episode 
Approaching Red River valley
Note the topography - this is less steep than nearby areas, but still way, way, steep.1).
Episode 2 dealt with our arrival by air from JingHong to LiJiang (capital of the LiJiang region of Yunnan) and our exploits in and around LiJiang.
Episode 3 described our journey from LiJiang northwards through Tiger Leaping Gorge (of the Yangtze River), onto HaBa, and through magnificent scenery to Gyeltang (also known as Shangri La).
Episode 4 saw us in DaLi, KunMing, TongHai and JianShui. Where the previous episodes described our northwards journey, this episode saw us change to a southerly direction.
Heading South and into the wild unknown
On our continuing journey southwards (to Vietnam), we'd read that there was tremendous scenery in the mountains near the Laos/Vietnam border area; of rice terraces. So, we left JianShui for YuanYang - being the region - and the town we aimed for (for accommodation) was XinJie. We had an inkling when we hopped on the bus that this was going to be an 'interesting' journey. In the main, 'public' buses (ie, pick up / drop off passengers along the route) have 20 seats. Where buses don't pick up / drop off, and follow freeways between cities, they tend to
be the 45 seat (or sleeper) bus and generally clean. We've learnt that 20 seater buses that follow freeways tend to be clean, the backroute buses are less so. The bus we got on was a 20 seater and far from clean (ie, dust in crevices, etc.), so we had our first clue that we may not be travelling on bitumen.
No freeways on this route, and the road quickly turned from narrow bitumen to potholes and patches of bitumen. The little rattly bus ground its way up hill after hill through little agricultural villages and thickly forested areas (
of Sydney Blue Gums - making us somewhat homesick as we deeply breathed in the eucalyptus aroma's). Now on a gravel road, up and up we went, through the clouds till we reached sunshine and were looking down the near vertical hillsides to the clouds below. Thoughts of heaven didn't escape us - except that we were in a rattly little bus, crowded with ethnic Chinese people chattering in their mother tongue (mainly Hani, but some Yi). Eventually, we reached the top of the range and had to descend down to the Red River valley. At one point, the bus
traveled the best part of 30km to actually go about 1 km (as the crow flies). On one extreme bend we'd noted a village way down below... after nearly an hour on the bumpy dirt road traveling downhill and encountering countless switchbacks, we came to a point near the village where we could look up many hundreds of metres and see the road we'd traveled on an hour before...
way, way, way up there. We later crossed the Red River and the bus stopped at NanSha. We changed buses (into an even older and more rattly little bus) to begin again the constant grind up the next mountain range. Fortunately, this time the road was paved and so much better, and so the journey seemed easier, and shorter.
On the second bus were two other non-Chinese couples (a French couple, and a Japanese pair). After arriving at the XinJie bus station and without knowing each other, we all entered the 'terminal' (read - austere waiting room), and after a few minutes joined 'forces' to try and make sense of the town as no-one appeared to have a map. One had a 'contact' to a guide, and called her. The
guide had reasonable English and became invaluable. She directed us to accommodation (each to places according to our different needs/wants), and organised a minivan to take us sightseeing in the later afternoon. The immense density of very small paddy fields carpeted up the extremely steep hillside made for great photography in the late afternoon sun.
The staff at the hotel placed us on the top (6th) floor merely because we were non-Chinese (don't ask us why, we don't know). The price was good, the room good, and the view fantastic (all the way down to the valley floor some many km's away). The guide had married a Sichuan person, who's brother had a restaraunt - so guess where we ate.
With a great meal in our tum, we headed for bed. Sometime during the night we were awoken by a thunderstorm. It must have rained for a while for when we awoke, there was fog out the window of our sixth floor room. A couple of hours later, the sun broke through but the steep valleys we'd seen below us from the window were still shrouded. About noon, when the fog cleared, we went in a covered tuk-tuk
XinJie - steep topography
The paddies with water have been plowed (or soon will be) in preparation for planting out with rice seedlings. The 'green' paddy's have been sown with rice as a nursery in order to 'lift' and 'replant' into the nearby paddies. to go viewing again (this time to different hillsides). The energy expended by the Yi and Hani (minority) peoples to construct these hillside paddy fields would have been immense. While construction occurred over several centuries (after the incumbents were chased off their lowland homelands by the Han), it doesn't take away the magnitude of the effort.
We had for a while considered traveling westwards from XinJie to Luchun. We'd heard and read the road traverses more steep countryside (
therefore read... the bus twists and turns for hours) and that is particularly beautiful. Part of the appeal was that few tourists travel the road. But, that also means crude/basic facilities at the destination. Given that we figured we'd done this already, we've decided to head for HeKou and cross the border into Vietnam (and spend a little more time there than earlier assumed).
As noted, the road from XinJie to NanSha is quite good. We expected the road from NanSha to HeKou to be similarly good -
NOT SO, HOW WRONG WE WERE!!! The Chinese Gov't is building a hydro dam on the Red River in a steep gorge some 75km from the Vietnam border. Given this, the road
that currently follows the river valley will become flooded and so a new road at an 'elevated' level is being built. Like so much 'engineering' in China, the end justifies the means! The 'higher' road is being blasted/bulldozed, and all loose material is allowed to fall down the hillside onto both the current road and into the Red River. After blasting/bulldozing, a bulldozer clears the way on the current road to allow traffic movement. As a consequence, our bus was traveling on a dirt road, avoiding boulders, etc., etc. Fortunately, a good rainstorm the evening before limited the amount of dust (but as the day progressed, the sun ensured an increase in dust).
Eventually the bus arrived at HeKou, and after a beer and some wontons, we made our way into Vietnam. We took a minibus to SaPa to enjoy R&R for a couple of days before making our way to HaNoi. Before commenting on our journey in Vietnam, the next section offers a very brief overview of our thoughts about our journey in China.
The end of the China segment of the journey
Overall, we've loved our time in China. That
is not to say it has always been easy - far from it. The constant smoking by males (who don't give a damn towards anyone else), the hocking & spitting (the Chinese prefer to discard their wastes rather than place it into bins, etc.), and the ignorance of some males towards anyone but themselves was extremely discouraging. But, for us, that was more than offset by the wonderfully warm people we encountered, the hospitality at our various accommodations, and the sights we encountered. Perhaps the most enduring feeling has been the gracious help given us by so many Chinese (largely women) who often knew no English.
Though buses have no smoking signs many Chinese appear not to take notice. Early on we learnt that other passengers (& driver) haven't got the guts to enforce. So, we decided to take matters into our own hands and whenever we traveled on a bus we 'belittled' the smoker by pointing to the 'no smoking' sign and indicating they put it out. On a couple of occasions where the smoker appeared reluctant to agree, he was 'helped' by having the cigarette removed from his mouth. Unlike our earlier experience in China where smoking
XinJie - an Ox meets a Buffalo
Judy prides herself in her birth year (Ox) and has great admiration for the Buffalo. appeared allowed, we really enjoyed the smoke free environment while traveling between places.
Anywhere one goes in the world where there is no commonality of language, hand signs and body expressions play a big part in communication. We so often chuckled after an 'engagement' when we reflected the miscommunication of our hand/body signals. Trying to get a bottle of soy, and being presented with animal offal is but one of many such examples. That said, like in any country where there is no commonality of language, the Chinese food vendors did an amazing job of trying to please us and 'help' (
or was it 'educate') our culinary experience.
Our most enduring feeling is that patriarchy is both alive and extreme in China. But, for us it was largely the women who made the Yunnan region we visited so warm and engaging and hence so enjoyable. While we came away with much admiration for the 'feminine' aspect of China, we also noted that the
one child policy is producing a lopsided gender 'balance' (ie. instead of 52%!f(MISSING)emale & 48%!m(MISSING)ale , for the under 30 population China has about 40%!f(MISSING)emale and 60%!m(MISSING)ale). We fear
XinJie - Hani people
What amused us is that the farmer women would often wear a straw hat against the sun - but always on top of their traditional head gear! this male dominance may have long term cultural consequences for China (and maybe the rest of the Pacific region if China becomes 'masculine' in attitude).
- - -
As every 'traveller' knows, there are always amusing oddities in one's travel that create a chuckle at the time, and continue to be remembered long after. Perhaps the 'oddest' oddity we experienced in China occurred early on.
We were in a very rural backwater town, and their weekly market was in full swing. Weekly markets attract villagers and rural folk for miles around - both trying to sell their wares (of the past week) and also to buy manufactured goods for their (outlying) circumstances. On this day, every food vendor in the region was also in attendance. And, one, was offering BBQ'd pigs penis (
apparently, the Chinese male will eat anything said to be an aphrodisiac). The 'oddity', though, was that as the vendor was 'preparing' these for BBQ-ing, she was using a men's shaver to remove all the hairs!!!
A little time in Vietnam
One of the attributes about SaPa that we enjoy (we've been there several times), is that
the ethnic minorities can communicate in English (learned from tourists and primarily used to sell them trinkets). We know several H!Mong and Tay women that have a reasonable command of English, and we seek them out to have a chat about their lives, what's 'been happening', and what the Vietnamese are 'doing' to them. For us, it's nice to get a 'picture' of local affairs (other than people trying to sell). We know this is contrary to what we have been doing while traveling (
we'll never get to know anything about other places unless we don't go there), but it's still a nice experience.
We wandered around SaPa on the first day, catching up and chatting with those we knew, and meeting others who were interested in talking with us. It was a lovely day, and in the afternoon we went wandering off to places where tourists don't go, so are largely quiet and peaceful.
On the 2nd day, we hired a motorbike and went west to Ban Xei (or Xei village). We'd not been on this road before and were astounded at the quite steep topography and the beauty of the steep valleys and natural forested areas.
These villagers don't see too many tourists in their locality. Some are quite friendly, but others (especially youngish teenagers) were afraid of us.
On the 3rd day, we hired the same motorbike and ventured further afield. It opened up as a magnificent day, and we thought we'd go south over the mountains to a valley and explore the other side. We'd been over the mountains several time. First, one travels up some 1000m to the top of the pass (about 30 mins from SaPa). Then, the road descends into a valley some 2000m below. Last time we were there, the road to the pass was under repair (widening). This time, it was OK, but the road down the other side was under repair. Having made our decision, and not knowing the state or the length of the 'repairs', we 'soldiered' on. We discovered that the 'repairs' were for the full 2000m downhill!!! Bummer!!!
At the base of the mountains, at a village called Ban My, we stopped and consumed a delightful Vietnamese style drip coffee. Having a bit of a caffeine hit, we ventured eastwards (never been there before). We found a most delightful valley, wonderfully scenic, rolling
hills, and very friendly people. We assumed that (until very recently) as this road has not been on any public bus route that western tourists would take, the locals here were expressing the 'normal' Vietnamese friendliness (
otherwise 'lost' in tourist oriented places). After about 100km, we sadly began the return journey (
sadly, as we'd have loved to continue onwards).
For the next day, we'd organised to catch a long distance bus from SaPa to HaNoi. Until recently, there was no reasonable road for bus transport between the two destinations. So, it was night (sleeper) or day (hard wooden seats) train. The bus was a Hyundai 45 seater with lovely soft padded seats. These were needed as for the first half of the journey the bus twisted and bounced around innumerable sharp corners. For the second half, wed become somewhat 'tired' of the constant
rocking and rolling and 'needed' the soft seats to cope!!! We'd been told that the bus gets into HaNoi around 8pm, and that it was a short taxi ride to the CBD. We arrived on time, but there were no taxi's and we really didn't want to go into the CBD and haggle over accommodation. So,
we walked into a nearby hotel, and with no-one speaking English, only a young teenager was able to 'decode' our sign language. With a decent room, we wandered the street and found a non-English speaking restaurant (but again with a young teenager able to decode) and had a great meal. After a good sleep, the next day we caught a local bus into town and secured a nice hotel room in the 'Old Quarter' of HaNoi.
We depart from HaNoi for KL next Tuesday, and arrive home next Thursday.
This is the fifth (and final) 'episode' for this trip.
Till our next 'adventure'....
Cheers
😊
ps
Our next 'adventure' took us to Central Europe, and the account can be found at...
http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Germany/Bavaria/blog-507749.html 😊
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