Yangshuo is a lovely little town at the foot of the mountains, surrounded by small villages & rice paddies. It was a bit of a hippy town in it's day & it still has that relaxed feel about it. It was decided that to enjoy our surroundings fully we would go on a bike ride. I havn't ridden a bike for about 15 years & it is safe to say I am probably the worst bike rider in the history of the world! I was absolutely terrified. I couldn't tell you about a single sight along the 25km trail we cycled. No, I kept my eyes planted firmly on the ground in front of me as the image in my mind of me flying through the air & landing face first in the dirt played over & over. Not fun, never again, the end! Andrew did say something really nice at the end though, he said that if Nicole Kidman & I were both auditioning for the role in BMX Bandits, they would have definitely picked me!! Bless! P.S Everyone else had a ball & said the ride was spectacular....whatever!
To make up for my horror morning, I decided to have a traditional Chinese "relaxation" massage. Again, I think we lost a lot in translation cos I spent the next hour going "ow, ow, ooooowww!!" while the tiny Chinese lady laughed & laughed! As if that wasn't enough pain for one day I then decided to be really brave & have some acupuncture. It was actually really nice & relaxing & something I will do again at home.
Another flight & another new city - Kunming. Merely the departure point for our final overnight train (unless you count a visit to Walmart). An 11pm departure, 8 hours with stops every 15 minutes, no air conditioning (temps in the 30's), toilet smells wafting through the cabin all night.....enough said??
Photo: Walmart - Chinese style!
We arrived in Dali early in the morning & were lucky enough to get our rooms straight away. Dali is a gorgeous little town in the shadow of Cangshan Mountain. The old town is surrounded by a beautiful, stone wall which we were lucky enough to climb onto for stunning, panoramic views of the whole town. A short trip out of town is the Three Pagodas complex. Entrance into the complex was quite steep & you can see the pagodas from the road so being tight arse backpackers, we took our photos over the wall & went back to town!!
Photo: Our view of the Three Pagodas!! (I should note that the slight haze over all our photos from China is the ever present smog)
Later that day we were walking back into town & we noticed a parade of people walking down the street throwing fire crackers & singing. We got all excited & started taking photos and waving at the marchers. We were trying to figure out what they were celebrating when suddenly we noticed a small glass box being carried on a platform by a dozen or so men. These men were being followed by a huge group of women crying & waving their hankies. It was a funeral.....whoopsies! We skulked off sheepishly before we were arrested or something for being disrespectful.
Photo: Does it look like these guys are grieving??
Not long after that we were doing some shopping & we noticed a couple of older, Chinese men trying to take sneaky photos of us......with massive cameras bearing giant lenses...not so stealth! We took photos of them taking photos of us & we all had a laugh. Another memory we will take away from Dali was the discovery of the best chocolate milkshakes in the world....random but true.
Photo: I love being a rock star!
Now it was time to embark on the epic Tiger Leaping Gorge trek. Day one was a lazy 10kms to Mr Nice's house....and yes, he really is nice! The hike was tough, uphill mostly & very hot but it was merely a taste of what was to come. After a fantastic dinner, reasonable sleep & lovely cooked breakfast it was time to hit the trails again....all 18kms of them! The other thing I forgot to mention is that this hike is at approximately 3,000m altitude so being out of breath is a given. The trek itself turned out to be not too bad & the views were magnificent. Miles & miles of mountains and the never ending river crashing below us. I can't say I was sad to see Tina's (our next bed for the night) as we came around the final bend but I was sad when it dawned on me that we still had about 2 hours of downhill to negotiate before a hot shower. It was the downhill that was the killer....must have old knees or something :) Finally we were down & it felt like quite an achievement, quite a mountain to conquer.
Our ordeal didn't end here however......next morning we were soooo happy to discover that we would the travelling by mini van back to the starting point instead of having to walk the 10 or so kms along the flat road back to town. Sounds good aye......weeeeellllll, due to roadworks we spent most of the hour it took to negotiate the road, clinging to the side of the mountain approximately 700 metres above the afore mentioned crashing river & trying avoid being crushed by earth moving equipment or slipping off into oblivion. Can't tell you too much about the drive as I spent most of it with my head between my knees watching my life flash before my eyes...still it all worked out in the end!
This brings us to our next brief stop in the town on Lijiang. Lijiang is a strange contradiction of old, traditional buildings & lots of neon lights. It kinda reminded me of Disneyland....not in a good way!! As a matter of fact they actually charge to enter the "old" town but we managed to avoid paying every day quite easily just by walking past the surprising lax ticket office....makes us wonder if anyone actually pays?? Still we had a great time shopping here where haggling is somewhat of a sport. Lijiang is very popular with Chinese tourists (don't forget the Chinese have only very recently been permitted to leave their own village so the majority of tourists everywhere in China are Chinese). As there are soooo many Chinese tourists, our western money doesn't really excite the local stall holders much. This was proven over & over as we witnessed bus loads of Chinese, toting dozens of shopping bags each back to their tour buses at the end of each day. Our 100yuan each really didn't hit the sides. One funny story from Lijiang occurred one night after dinner. I spotted a "local" guy all dressed up in traditional garb, riding along on his horse with his dog on his lap. I whipped the camera out to take a photo & mid click he started to yell & point at me....turns out he doesn't dress up for the love of it. He wanted money & I wasn't paying. As I made a hasty retreat, I checked the offending photo.....a lovely shot of my sleeve!! In the panic I must have tried to cover the camera up just as I took the photo.....all that drama for nothing!! Oh well, it still makes me laugh!
Photo: Looking out over Lijiang at dusk
So a morning flight from Lijiang took us to Chengdu. A dirty, smoggy, unfriendly city in south western China. Apparently they havn't seen blue sky there for over ten years....I guess that explains why they were so unfriendly. Our visit to Chengdu was not about the city though....it was about the pandas. The city is famous for its Giant Panda Research Centre. I took over 300 hundred photos of the pandas so it is safe to say I'm in love. We came across a group of about 8 juvenile pandas who had just been fed and we were lucky enough to witness an hour long display of eating, playing & general showing off from some pandas who clearly love their public!
Photo: Number 67 of 300 shots......
That afternoon we headed into town where there is the Wenshu Si Temple & a fantastic vegetarian restaurant. Who knew tofu could taste like.....well anything?! Walking around the grounds of the temple we came a cross a group of old, Chinese men sitting under a rotunda, playing some sort of chess like game. They spoke no English & we had no idea how the game worked but we had a fantastic time barracking along for whoever was winning (we think) & they all wanted to pose for photos...very sweet really. On the way back to the hotel we decided on a detour to Tian Fu Square - where there is a giant statue of Chairman Mao waving out to his adoring public. It wasn't the statue which was memorable, rather the trip getting there. We were lost, nothing unusual for China, when a young guy spotted our bewildered looks & crossed the street to help us. We had a rather sad map & having taken one look at it, he decided that it would be easier for him to show us......so he walked with us, about 10 minutes down the road until we got to a corner where he could point the way. With a smile & a wave he went back to his business.....what a sweetheart.
Next morning we headed out of town to see the Giant Buddha. It was, well, giant. The photos tell the story but sadly the smog seemed to be the main star of the show. We did seem to attract a bit of attention from a group of teenagers who were ahead of us in the queue. When we got to the bottom of the Buddha, one of them got up the nerve to come over & ask for a photo. We posed & smiled & thought it would end there. Then I felt another tap on my shoulder & the young fella was back, this time with his mates & girlfriend. We all had to have a photo. The girls were so shy they wouldn't look us in the eye & hid behind there boyfriends when we talked to them. They were very sweet though & obviously very excited by there first encounter with some "western folk". I don't think I'll ever get used to being a tourist attraction. I seem to be rushing through this blog entry but it is only because I am so excited to get to Tibet..........
P.S Did I mention I love pandas??
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