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Published: March 28th 2011
I know that I’m uploading these two blogs back to back but it’s a long story as to why.... as I write this I am currently snowed in, in a remote town on the Tibetan border and there is no internet access, so as soon as I get out of here and back to relative civilization I will post these two blogs together.
Before I go into my current situation however let me pick up from my last blog. It was off to the Sichuan province, namely Chengdu which was further South than my last location, progressively moving southwards in order to get to Vietnam (if I ever get that far..... never expected to spend this much time travelling China but it really is an amazing place). It was another 16 hour train journey which again was fine, got a bottom bunk this time which was way better. At one stage I was so engrossed in my book that I was missing out on some fabulous scenery along the way. My main reason for going to Sichuan was to see the pandas, and I’m glad I went there because it was here that I met my travel buddy Mel from
England who I’ve been travelling China with ever since! Our first day together we wandered the city a bit, that evening we went for hotpot with an English couple Jodi and James from Leeds that we’d met. Hotpot is very famous in this province, especially famous for being really spicy and believe me it was that! It was by far the spiciest food I’ve had in all my time in China, our mouths were on fire but it was really tasty all the same. Myself and Mel went that evening to a Sichuan Opera show, this was fabulous the show had a mixture of everything, singing, dancing, traditional instruments being played, a comedy skit, shadow puppetry and an amazing “changing faces” performance at the end. This part was incredible, the performers had on masks and in split seconds their masks would change it was unbelievable; this is a very famous part of the show in this province. The next day we went to see the pandas at the Giant Panda Research Breeding Base with Jodi and James. The pandas were amazing; I thought they really looked like people dressed up in giant panda suits as they were very surreal. We
watched them sit, usually leaning up against a tree and eat bamboo with such human like movements it was incredible to watch.
After Chengdu myself and Mel were off to Kunming in the Yunnan province in the southwest, this wasn’t my original plan however there was no train tickets to where I had wanted to go to for another three days, so I decided to reroute and go with Mel. By the way this time I was able to do all the train ticket organising by myself without any translator, truly a very proud moment for me, after six months I could finally buy my own train tickets speaking in Chinese! We visited Guandu the “old Kunming” which was on the outskirts of the main city and this was wonderful. This place, it is said is so ‘real’ that it is practically a national historic park and basically everyone in the neighbourhood was actually born here it’s been reported. We actually happened to visit on Women’s Day so it was buzzing, there were performances going on throughout the whole area, women dancing and singing it was great. The area was full of little gazebos and there was groups of
locals sitting in each gazebo just hanging out; some were playing cards others were playing music and different people were singing, we got many looks as we sat down to watch and enjoy them but they were all so friendly but maybe a little awed to see us!! We spent a whole day here soaking up the atmosphere. That evening a lovely local guy helped us find our way to the nearby park in exchange for walking with us and practicing his English. Next day in Kunming we went for a trek up Xi Shan (the Western hills). It was a beautiful day and the scenery was lovely. At the top was Dragon gate where there are beautiful grottoes, sculptures and corridors built into the mountain and it was here that we got molested by lots of old little Chinese ladies wanting their pictures with us; this was very funny we were posing with all these little ladies for ages and they were giggling away!
Next stop was Dali, a little further north still in the Yunnan province. Quite a touristy little area however the old town was very pretty and our hostel was beautiful just outside the town
but in the shadow of the amazing 4000 metre tall Cang Shan (Green Mountain). We strolled around and ventured into the less touristy areas and into places where the locals lived. We saw the three pagodas which are quite famous in the area. A pagoda is a tall slim tiered structure and they were built centuries ago to scare of the dragons (thanks to Mel for this info.).... there are many of them throughout China. Unfortunately I dropped my camera here and it broke so I’ve been relying on the guy’s photos until I am back in a city to buy a new one. That night Mel and I found an amazing bar playing ska music and selling spirits of all kinds including Jameson, so a great night was had! It was here that we first met Adrian from Switzerland who is now travelling with us also. Next day Mel and I hiked up the mountain; it was a really tough climb especially with the sun beating down on us however I did get a nice colour! There was a chair lift up but we decided to climb instead and for most of the way the chair lift was above
the climbing path as if mocking us! We were the only two crazy people climbing the mountain all the Chinese people were waving and smiling down at us from the chair lift as if we were crazy, but it was very satisfying when we got to the top in just over an hour even if we were almost dead! It was at the top that we ran into Adrian again, however I didn’t recognise him and proceeded like an idiot to ask where he was from etc even though we’d just met him the night before. I don’t know if it was a case of too many Jameson’s the previous night or maybe I was a little delirious from the climb. Anyways the three of us then walked the 12k together along the mountain, this was a breeze as it was a perfectly paved and basically flat path and it was during our walk that Adrian decided to join with us on our travels. We stopped halfway for some lunch in a little eatery which was really primitive (however most in China are, whether they are halfway up a mountain or not!) The lunch was fantastic which was further enhanced
by the breathtaking views of the mountains surrounding us. That evening we of course went back to the pub which is so uncommon in China (it was run by British guys) and had a few drinks and played some cards and a random local joined us. The next day Mel and I did a Chinese cooking course. It was brilliant there was a hilarious Polish guy, who was a bit of a disaster in the kitchen, a Russian guy and a girl from Burma also doing the course. We cooked a dried tofu salad, gongbao chicken and fish flavoured eggplant (or aubergine to you and me), it was all amazing and of course we got to eat all our own dishes. We were presented with a little recipe booklet of our dishes before we left, so I’ll definitely be trying the dishes all out whenever I return home for you all to try!
After Dali the three of us headed off to a place called Shaxi, still in Yunnan. Shaxi is a little off the beaten track for the regular tourist but this made it amazing, however getting there was certainly an experience, we were on a very local
bus with people sitting everywhere with all kinds of packages and the ride was undoubtedly a bumpy one but the scenery along the way was beautiful. Shaxi is located in the true Chinese countryside and the weather was gorgeous so we hired bikes and cycled the whole day around the surrounding area in through little villages, it was great to see all the locals going about their daily lives especially in the fields where they were all working hard, with their donkeys and carts and baskets on their backs. We stopped in one of the villages and wandered into a local temple where there were lots of little old men playing a Chinese board game. The locals were all so friendly to us smiling, waving and saying hello (getting very excited when they said hello to us in English and we responded!) Day two in Shaxi we pretty much did the same thing just cycled around the area going in a different direction. This day we stopped at another little local temple and there were lots of women inside. Some of them were making beautiful flowers and things out of crepe paper as offerings, others were cooking over a little
fire, they invited us to sit down for a bit (communicated of course through a lot of demonstrating and sign language!), then they made us lunch it was fantastic; it was like a soup with a type of rice noodle in it. The experience was magnificent we spent about an hour here just taking it all in, and even though there was a complete language barrier it didn’t matter these ladies were so friendly and welcoming towards us and were really enjoying us being there as much as we enjoyed being there.
The Tiger Leaping Gorge was the next adventure on my travels. This is one of the deepest gorges in the world, measuring 16km long and is 3,900m from the waters of the Jinsha River to the snow-capped Haba Mountains and is said to be an unmissable trek in China. It is so named because legend has it that centuries ago when locals were chasing a tiger it apparently jumped the gorge at the narrowest crossing and thus escaped! Day one we set of at 11am after a good breakfast the weather was a little overcast which meant visibility of the snow-capped mountain was a little hindered but
it also meant it was perfect weather for hiking. The first two hours was steady going then we had a little tea break at a guesthouse (by the way amazingly I now drink tea, albeit it is green tea!), the next two hours were the toughest hiking I’ve ever done, this part was called the 28bends, and it consists of a continuous uphill hike with of course with 28 bends, however there are definitely way more than 28 turns for sure! We eventually got to another guesthouse for another break and debated whether or not to stop here for the night, but we decided to head on to the next one. In total we hiked 7and ½ hours this first day and we were totally shattered by the time we arrived at the guesthouse where we going to spend the night. However the view we had while we had dinner here was spectacular, the sun setting over the amazing snow-capped mountains. It was here we met Peter, a Londoner who we were to see a lot more of on our travels. The toilets in this hostel were stunning and we had heard a lot about them not because of anything
to do with their cleanliness or that but because of the breathtaking views they offered. There were outside and had no glass in the windows but instead looked out onto the mountains! Day 2 of the hike was considerable easier thankfully. This was actually Paddy’s Day and in the morning at the hostel before we left, I met my first Irish person since I’ve been in China and ironically we had to remind him what day it was! So it was a glorious day even got a little sunburnt but it made trekking a little harder but the route was a lot easier than the previous day. After getting a bit lost, we finally found a path (a pretty scary path actually...) down to the gorge, where we could finally get up close with the water that we had been seeing for the past two days. It was beautiful. That evening in true Paddy’s Day style we kind of went on a bit of a pub crawl between the hostels and got suitable drunk on not very much alcohol at all however we are putting this down to the altitude, the sheer exhaustion and the heat of the day!!
Shangri-la was the next stop in the Yunnan province as it was right on the Tibetan border and it was meant to give a true feel of Tibetan culture without actually going to Tibet. I would have loved to travel Tibet but it is forbidden to travel Tibet in March as it is the anniversary of something and there is a threat of riots, typically I would have to be travelling China in March. Anyways it would have worked out quite an expensive and complicated journey if I had gone because you have to have a special permit and you can’t go alone you must have a guide, maybe sometime in the future I’ll go there... So Shangri-La was good however it was very touristy but the locals all around with their amazing traditional dress and headwear was fantastic to see. Although one thing was that there was a drastic change of weather no more sunburn, the winter woollies had to be dug out of the rucksack again, it was freezing I’m guessing being so high up was part of the reason, altitude was 3,200metres here and it was amazing how quickly you were out of breath even on the
shortest of walks. The best thing about Shangri-la was the day we visited the “Ganden Sumtseling Gompa”, this is a 300year old Tibetan monastery complex with around 600monks. Luckily though we happened to visit at just the right time because as we climbed the steps to the main area of the monastery there were hundreds of people and some sort of procession was going on. It was really cool to watch. Then we followed the crowd into one of the temples and after a few minutes we realised we were in a queue of people who were giving offerings and being blessed by monks, some chanting as they were walking around. The crowds were immense and there was no choice but to just continue on, so we gave some money, it wasn’t a requisite but we thought we should seeing as everyone else was, the amounts been given were tiny though so it was okay. We were given a prayer bracelet and we got blessed by one of the Tibetan monks, well we assume that’s what happened, that’s definitely not something that happens every day!
Then it was off to Deqin where I am stuck now. It was supposed
to be a 6-7hr bus journey and we had decided to go here as the scenery was meant to be really rugged and gorgeous and there was a glacier here that we thought would be cool to see. So we set off, we had met Peter from London again in Shangri-La and he was doing the journey with us, the journey lasted almost 12 hours, it was a bit of a nightmare journey. Firstly the bus driver pulled into the mechanics along the way which really didn’t fill us with confidence then the road and weather conditions along the way were horrendous. At one point a lorry had broken down on the road so there was a huge tail back. But listen to what happens next.... everyone gets out of their vehicles and next thing we know they are basically fashioning a new road, random civilians just there and then along the side of the mountain with their shovels from their trucks building an alternative route. Why they couldn’t have tried to move the lorry instead is beyond me?! They got everyone of the buses while the driver’s manoeuvred the buses down the “new road” then we got back on
again and we were back on the normal road. Next thing was the weather, there was really bad snow and at one point the bus got stuck going up a hill but he had snow cahins to attach so it was okay, these were put on with the help of any willing participant on the bus and we were off again! When we finally arrived Deqin was not exactly what we expected, it was quite run down and the guesthouse we checked into was the worst I’ve stayed in during my whole time in China. It was freezing cold, with disgusting toilets and no hot water but we went out for dinner which was really good and decided we’d sort things the next day. The views were stunning and we went to the next village over but everything seemed to be shut down not at all like the research we’d carried out on the area. Tried to get to the glacier but were unsuccessful. At this stage I decided I’d enough and was going to head back the next morning to Shangri-La and head to my next destination. Eh but discovered this wasn’t possible, we were snowed in, and there
were no buses out.... We were stuck. Since that morning that I wanted to go another 5 days have passed and we still can’t get out. Only good thing is that we did actually make it to the glacier and it was magnificent, although the 2 hr hike up to it in the rain wasn’t the nicest but it was stunning when we got to the top. So tonight I’ll have been in Deqin for a total of 7nights and we are ready to crack up at this stage. We have gotten drunk twice, played a lot of cards, watched a lot of DVD’s on our laptops, spent a lot of time in bed, found a pool/snooker hall and have caught up with all our travel diaries. There is a little community of foreigners here that meet up every day to discuss the chances of getting out of here any time soon; there is the three of us, then Peter from London, three American girls who were on a week holiday from their semester abroad at university in China, an older American couple who are teachers in China and two older Polish travellers, one of whom is so eccentric, the
stories he tells are priceless he’s met Ghandi and the Dali Lama and has been to 80 different countries. So for now I’m stranded, no idea when ill get to upload this or how many more days we are going to be stuck here. I’ll add in an update note before I post this to the internet.
By the way sorry for the length of this blog, but I currently have a lot of time on my hands to kill..... and also this travel blog is my personal travel diary that I’m going to get made into a book when I go home. So although some of the details/stories may be very detailed or long winded this is as much for me as for you guys!
Update... so finally got a bus out the morning after I wrote this blog however it was a 29hr bus journey details to follow!!
By the way there is terrible internet where I am at the moment so photos for these blogs will follow as soon as I can get a better connection.....
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Eddie
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Glad you got out!
Hey. Glad you finally got out. Lookin' forward to your next update/pics. New school looks fantastic. Been very very very very busy but will send class/new scholl pics soon plus mail plate to mom. Be well & miss ya, Ed