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Published: November 4th 2008
Ok. This is really hard for us because we're all lazy. So we're going to try to do some little blogs on what we've done/where we've been but seriously dont expect much. Soooo started of the trip couchsurfing in Hongkong at michaels place. It was on the 73rd floor in the center of Kowloon, it was of course free, cause we were couchsurfing, but we were staying with 2 israelis, 2 austrians and michaels chinese friend so the 3 of us shared a tiny mattress in an apartment with no furniture. Excellent for getting over jetlag. Summing up Hong Kong it was pretty smoggy, humid, hot and we were all messes so nothing much accomplished besides visiting the peak and Stanely. We trained from Hong Kong to Guangzhou to Guilin. Found out in Guangzhou that China is frickin hard to do anything in if you dont speak chinese. Spent ages there trying to get to Guilin, people give you completely wrong answers to your questions, if they dont know what your saying they just make it up.
But then we got to Yangshou and sort of learned how to get by. We stayed in Yangshuo for 4 days at the Amourous Feelings Hostel...haha yep. By this tricky little chinese man (Larry) who met us at the bus and conned us into getting our whole stay there planned out. We rebelled the first day and toured around the village. Very cute, surrounded by limestone peaks....and i donno rent the painted veil cause it took place there and it still looks the same. Very touristy though, which was good for us because people knew some english. So the best part of Yangshuo was meeting these 3 english travellers from Liverpool. So hilarious and gave us loads of tips on haggling, they seriously even haggle back home. They next three days we biked through the countryside to a watrercave (had a huge mud bath/fight), went bamboo rafting in the rain, frickin cold but we got tons of chinese tourists with our water guns, and went to some terraced rice fields, way up in the mountains. Yangshuo also included an intense drunken game of Jenga with old Chinese men...you havn't played Jenga until you've played it in China!
Next we went to visit Maureen in Qujing (about 1h and a half east of kunming). We loved staying here, went to Maureens classes to carve pumpkins/talk with her students, watched english movies, relax and jsut saw how the normal chinese live. The kids at the university were so excited to meet us, we took so many pictures with them that i couldnt even smile by the end. All of them find it crazy that we have the freedom to choose our own university courses and that we can leave our country! It was so interesting to hear about Maureens travels and life in China, definitely got even more excited after that.
So now we're in Lijiang, coolest place ive ever been to, reminds us of what China would look like in disneyland. Old, carved wooden buildings surrounded by mountains and not even polluted. Just got back from hiking the tiger leaping gorge, which was incredible, the hike took us 2 days, we saw very few other people on the trail which made it even better, best part of the trip so far. Tonight were heading up to Xining, our starting point for Tibet. Got really lucky and met 2 crazy canadians (actually victoria) who had been trying to find a cheap way into tibet for a month....so we're joining them and some others for the train into tibet, then on to nepal. So thats it so far. Travelling is awesome.
casey talking.. china is cool. toilets suck here. actually they dont even have toilets. just these holes or trenches with pee all over the floor. We eat dumplings a lot. i like the pea vines and lily roots. umm men have long fingernails here which is weird. the mountains are frickin beautiful..like almost better than B.C. night trains are fun.. sometimes theres some weird kooks on them though that you have to sleep next to. we've mastered 1-10 in chinese now. i can also say pumpkin.
ali talking...This is gonna be a crazy trip! im lovin the simple life here in china, stumbling upon random tiny villages up in the mountains where they still dress in traditional clothing and have never seen a white person in their life. they just farm all day and live the LIFE! sometimes cant really tell if we are in a dream or not. pretty much the only thing ive mastered in chinese: Ni Hau La De....Hello, no spicy! Bye for now, Peace and Love Cya in Tibet!
K we can't figure out how to upload our pics or videos yet. And we're about to start our journey into Nepal so it might be awhile.
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Joce
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AHHHH!!!
my little ladies... i got the link to this blog, i have wanted to hear from you all so bad. i miss you like crazy and am glad to know that you are safe and having fun. keep me posted on all your travels, cuz come end of jan/feb i have seirously put some thougth into comin to visit and hang out for a bit. fill me in. miss you and love you all xoxoxox