This is where I'm documenting my travels around the world. I'm back in LA now, but still trying to post all those blogs and pics that I didn't get around to while traveling.
So read here to find out how my work in China went and my subsequent travels around the world went.
Countries visited: China, Vietnam, Cambodia, Thailand, Germany, Netherlands, UK, France, Czech Republic, Ireland.
Trying to take advantage of our last day in Nha Trang to check out the sights, Andrea and I decided to rent some bicylcles and vist Cham Towers as well as pay a visit to local market for some lunch. The bike ride was pleasant since this city is pretty much flat, but there was the rain. Fortunateley the air temperature is still somewhere in the low to mid 70's and the rain is not cold, but it is wet. Even though we had our rain ponchos I still got plenty wet. The towers were impressive, but only three towers have survived the elements and the war. We got a tour guide who gave us a brief history of the towers and their usage.
After leaving the towers we headed for the market and were greeted by a large labyrinth of stalls. We've learned to be more selective with the food we see since our experience in Hanoi, so now we only buy one item to split and see if its worth getting a second one. This proved handy when we bought this yummy looking fried banana. It was more of a plantain and pretty starchy. Still good, but not quite up to our expectations. As we ventured into the market we checked out our options. When we saw this stall that had the most interesting selection we sat down. Thinking that we would be able to pick out the toppings for our bowl of rice Andrea grabbed the guide book prepared to figure out how to avoid the organ meats. But as I was away getting the drinks, it turned out we were just given an assortment of toppings from veggies to different types of meat. But as we tried them it turned out they weren't meat at all, but a tasty assortment of veggie fake meats. The fake chicken even had a fake bone (or ventricle) made out of a hard piece of pasta. Aside from the chicken our plate included fake fish, fake liver and fake bologna. Well I wasn't sure how fake the bologna was since neither of us really wanted bologna fake or real. Some mysteries are better left alone.
With plenty of free time on my hands I've decided to try running again. As many of you may know I've had a pretty serious case of plantar fasciitis, which has prevented me from running these past 2 years. I did take a stab at running in Beijing with Stephan, and noticed I didn't have any pain. So I've tried running in the early morning before the rains start, which also happens to be the cooler part of the day. It's amazing how different things are when you are running. For one, I don't get harassed by all the motorcycle taxis who want to take me somewhere. I guess its seems more obvious that I have no need for that when I'm running. Also I don't get harassed by the various shop-keepers who try to charm you into their stores or restaurants.
A few of the more interesting things that have happened on my runs are racing some school children in Hoi An while they were riding their bikes and racing a young boy in Nha Trang as I was crossing a bridge. In both cases I was pretty much just trotting along, but the little bit of competition gave me an incentive to pick up the pace, and it was fun. In Nha Trang I happed on the famous basket boat fishermen...or fisherwomen. And the most interesting thing I saw was a cockfight on the beach. There was a group of men forming a circle around these two fighting cocks, but the fight looked more like a sumo wrestling match as the roosters were pretty much just pushing each other around. I was really wishing I had my camera but some things just don't transfer on film anyways. So I hope to enjoy future runs and look forward to what ever other interesting things I'll happen upon.
After a long day of snorkeling out off the coast of Nha Trang, we thought we should take advantage of the fact that we were staying in a party town, as designated by our guidebooks. So we decided to check out the bar scene. After having a beer at the Guava I was already feeling a bit tipsy. This was the most active bar that we had seen and it looked pretty swanky. Andrea and I knew it was going to be a wild and crazy night the minute we finished our debating whether one of the light fixtures is using an incandescent or halogen light. We did hit up another bar on the suggestion of one of the dive instructors from earlier in the day that we met at the Guava. The other bar definitely looked hopping. But aside from one other person I think Andrea and I were the oldest people there by at least 5 years and possibly 10. Ouch! We had our "Smile" a fruit smoothie with rum, we played a game of foozeball, connect four and enjoyed our complimentary mojito. We were out of there by 11pm...so much for a crazy night on the town.
Oh and I learned that divers get a high similar to getting stoned..so now I see why its so popular..but still I have no interest in it.
I was a bit concerned that trying to snorkel in the waters around Nha Trang would be minimally interesting at best. Since the waters around the beach were a bit turbid I figured there wouldn't be much to see. But after getting out to one of the islands off Nha Trang in the marine protected area we could see the waters starting to take on their greenish blue color. We got into our wetsuits and prepared to get in. I jumped into the water and started to see what I could find under the sea. I didn't see much of anything. But as I headed closer to the rocks seemingly out of nowhere a school of small blue fish appeared. Then more an more fish until I could see the colorful coral beneath me. Though I never did see the clown fish (no Nemo) I was still impressed with everything that I saw. I'm just amazed with all the colors of the fish and the coral. I was, however, a bit disappointed to see a stretch of dead and dying coral. It was such a contrast to the beautifully colorful part of the sea.
I only snorkeled for a total of 2 hours and though I thought that would hardly be enough time, I was very much ready to head back to dry land. The coolest part of the whole experience was how calm and tranquil it felt while I was under the water. Even though all around me the currents were pushing me towards the rocks and the rains started to get more and more intense. As we headed back to the mainland I was pretty exhausted, and I had to fight off a bit of nausea from the rocking boat and the diesel fumes.
Since it appears we are traveling through Vietnam in the rainy season, we were really taking a chance at trying to check out the beach in Nha Trang, which is billed as having some of the best beaches in Vietnam. Well if that is true, I don't think I'll be hitting up any more beaches in this country. Though I think its more a factor of the rains which bring in debris and any thing else that is on the streets onto the beach and into the surf so the water takes on a brownish tinge and the sand is littered with all sorts of debris from palm fronds to plastic bits. We were lucky enough to have had a clear morning when we arrived from our overnight bus trip from Hoi An, so we still went down to the beach. After finding a nice spot under a palm tree we settled in and tried to nap on the beach. But we received an onslaught of merchants trying to sell us bootleg books, and sunglasses. Though we clearly had both these items and it didn't seem to deter the vendors. At first we tried being polite saying no thank you, but that just seemed to encourage them to further engage us and try to sell us other stuff we didn't want. We finally ended up shooing them away without much of an acknowledgment. And it seemed that Andrea was taking more of the vendors.
One of the highlights of our trip was going to Hoi An. This small town is known for its droves of tailors. Andrea seemed more prepared than I with ideas for the clothes she wanted to get made. I pretty much just went along for the ride, but soon was motivated to buy myself a fully tailored new wardrobe. It was fun and addicting. If only my bank account could afford it I would have bought far more clothes than I actually did. I did eventually get a couple of suits and some jackets made for me and shipped them home. It was so much fun going through the whole process of picking out the clothes we wanted, then making specific requests for some alterations and the fittings. It was a bit awkward putting on winter coats in 80-degree weather with humidity, but Andrea and I knew they would come in handy when we land in Europe in a few weeks.
We stayed in Hoi An for about a week, which was hard for me to believe. But there was lots to do between the fittings and fine dining and general lazy days exploring the town and trying to stay dry while the town nearly flooded when the river cutting through town breached its banks (which hardly fazed any of the locals).
Andrea and I took a day trip out to Halong Bay. Halong Bay has these amazing rock formations that jut right out of the bay for some impressive views. The weather was a bit gray, but we still had some impressive sights. Here are just a few pictures that I snapped up.
In my quest to buy some new running shorts, since I ended up leaving my last pair behind in Zhongdian, I popped around the markets in Hanoi and looked high and low for a new pair. Since I bought my last pair in Beijing for around $US 2 I knew how much I wanted to pay. When I found a pair of shorts that I liked I checked on the price. The woman said it would cost 20.000 Dong..that's just over $US 1. They were exactly what I was looking for, but I wanted to see if she had another color. She called into the abyss behind the clothes rack, where I heard a bit of ruffling, then suddenly a new pair emerged the exact color that I wanted. I said I'd take it and she quickly stuffed both shorts into a plastic bag for me and asked for 40.000 Dong. It was almost too much effort to argue with her so I figures I'd buy both shorts for what was almost $US 3. Of course I didn't realize just how much a deal they were until I got to my hotel and noticed the price tag for the "Made in America" shorts see pic below.
Here are some pics from our visit to Hanoi. It's hard to believe but I am actually missing China. Its a bit more crowded here and such a faster pace of life here than any place we've been to in China. Part of that is due to Vietnam's 1 million vehicles and over 18 million motor bikes that seem like they are all up in Hanoi! This heavily motorbike dominated transportation system makes crossing the street something between a zen moment as the bikes magically part all around you as you cross the street or just pure insanity as you just pray they don't hit you. This all depends on your point of view. One reason for the high number of motorbikes here is that there seems some sort of property tax that is assessed based on the frontage width of the buildings here. So you see lots of tall skinny buildings on very narrow streets with of course limited parking. This design scheme certainly make for a quaint looking city, but after Andrea and I went up and down several flights of stairs checking out several different hotels I was certainly missing the low-lying buildings from LA.
Andrea and I just arrived in Hanoi last night. We had a bit of a rough time getting down here. Andrea got her bag slashed on the overnight bus to the China/Vietnam border then we had to spend all morning yesterday at the police station so she could file a report. We hiked the approximately 2 miles to the train station from the border since there were no taxis in sight and being that we already agreed not to take motorbike taxis we were laden with all our belongings. All along our sweaty and mostly quite walk to the train station we were greeted by folks trying to sell us something or another, but all we wanted to do was buy our tickets to Hanoi. When we got to the train station we were greeted to a closed ticket booth with not a single sign in English explaining either opening hours or any other useful bit of information for us. We tried to motion the buy inside to give us some information, but he just waved us away. Finally after a few minutes he came out of his booth and in the few words in English that he knew we got a quote for 2 tickets on the next train to Hanoi. It just so happened we had exactly enough to cover the cost of the tickets with the money had converted from our left over Chinese Yuan and left us with about 20,000. Once we agreed to the price he hurriedly rushed us onto the train. We didnt' even have time to grab some food and we were already getting hungry since we hadn't eaten anything since the night before. Fortunately the train stopped at some point on our journey and Andrea ventured out to buy us some food. She came back with one small rice and tofu dish and a bottle of water...d'oh! We had been placed in 3 berth high cabin that was already full with Vietnamese travelers. Our inability to communicate with them and their constant smoking left us annoyed at our fellow cabin mates. But eventually they started trying to talk to us and eve put out the cigarettes. We learned our numbers from them and they had fun looking through our Lonely Planet guide book. We couldn't understand a word they said, but we at least broke the tension and made the 6 hour+ train ride more bearable. When we got to Hanoi, our new friends whisked us off the train and past the guards, since apparently we had actually paid someone off rather than obtaining an official ticket. I guess that is why we were stuck in the staff quarters of the train rather next to the engine car.
We were a bit disoriented getting out of the train station. We were left with no local currency, in a part of town that didn't show up on our map, and no way of reading the signs. We were also a bit wary given that all our research on Vietnam warned us of the numerous scams that foreigners encounter. We wandered the meandering streets for what seemed like an eternity in search of an ATM. All the while we were fending off touts asking to take us to any number of hotels. When we found an ATM we had high hopes, but alas, it was not meant to be. So we wandered further in the direction of the hotel we hoped to stay at. After walking a bit more we saw a swanky wine store so we stopped in and asked for an ATM, she pointed us in the right direction and jackpot it machine took our cards and I instantly became a millionaire....Well I took out $2 million Dong...which I think is about $124 US.
We ended up getting into a cab that tried to rip us off, then we looked at a bunch of overpriced hotels that looked crappy. Finally, someone showed us a picture of a place that looked nice and said the right words, two beds, air conditioning, breakfast included and cable TV all for $15. It was one of the cheapest quotes we'd gotten and sounded the best so after 3 minutes of walking around the city again with our bags and going up 5 flights of stairs we made it....It was nice, soft bed too. We topped off our evening by eating a very delicious chicken and bacon sandwich on a French roll and watching HBO after taking a nice hot shower and enjoying the air conditioned room. Its amazing how small comforts can really change your mood.
Andrea and I were very grateful to have made friends with Stephanie, a very cool Canadian girl doing some research in Kunming. She opened up her stylish flat for us to crash for a couple of nights so we could purchase our Visas for Visa for Vietnam and catch an overnight bus to the border.
Kunming is not all that exciting, but it would be a nice place to live or work. The streets are wide and well paved just like in Beijing, but there are substantially fewer cars and many more bikes in this city. Which makes a huge difference to the air quality…ah…blue skies. Being that the city is home to just over 3 million people, and a host of universities, it has many amenities that any foreigner can appreciate…especially ones that have been away from home for just about 3 months. The area around the main University has restaurants and cafés that caters to foreigners, including Salvador’s Coffee House where I ventured to have my second burrito in China. I have to admit it wasn’t too bad, though that could also be since I have not a good burritos in a long time.
Not much else exciting to report from Kunming, other than Andrea and I finally found a Wal-mart in China. It was definitely an experience. It didn’t really feel like walking into Wal-mart like in the States, but some interesting notes of culturally appropriate merchandising, there was no automotive section and the bicycle section was HUGE! Too bad I didn’t take any pictures in here, but here are some interesting photos from around town.
Clean and modern Kunming...the future of China...?
China in transition..
Maybe this is what happens to pork on too many growth hormones...
Ok, so maybe it's not that cheap, but in our quest to find the cheapest way into Europe from Southeast Asia, I stumbled on this great website www.discountairfares.com. So thanks to the results we got, we are now flying from Bangkok to Dusseldorf for just $430....that's less than 8¢ a mile! (oh and on a side note read this article on the demise of the ¢ sign.....so sad)
Andrea and I left Zhongdian and are now in Deqin. Its a smaller town in Northwest Yunnan Province as close to Tibet as Andrea and I could afford to be. You need to get a permit to travel in Tibet and it costs several hundred dollars, so this is good enough for us. Since the whole county has been named Shangri-la, the small towns in this area have all been claiming to be the actual Shangri-la. Though I really like this town, it’s a bit too small without all the amenities that I was getting pampered with down in Zhongdian, so I can’t quite put the name of Shangri-la on this town. But of course the whole reason for coming here was to avoid the potential crowds that we’d encounter at every other major tourist attraction because of Golden Week. This is one of three week-long holiday given to the Chinese in the year. This one is for National Day, commemorating the founding of the People’s Republic of China on Oct. 1 1949.
We stayed at Tashi Lodge, which was located about 6 km from the main part of town. At first I was concerned that we would be so far away from the center of town, but when we arrived in Deqin, I was very happy to not have to stay there. The place looked more like a truck stop town and reminded me of Mairana, the town I lived in for 2 years in Bolivia. I’m sure this town has some character, but its a bit it’s not exactly the character that I was looking for on this trip.
We managed to squeeze in a hike to a nearby glacier. I’m sure it was the altitude and not that I’m out of shape that made me lose my breath and struggle to make it up to the top. The hike was just a bunch of switchbacks heading straight up the mountain. I was passed by a number of people on horses that are rented out for the less than fit and I have to admit that I was tempted to jump on one. But we pushed on and enjoyed the view then had to try to keep our knees from giving out on us as we hiked all the way back down.
As a treat for finishing this grueling hike, I got to break out the Mexican chocolate that I had been traveling with. I had originally wanted to get up early one morning and milk a yak and use that for the chocolate. But had we done that, Andrea and I wouldn’t even have been able to make one cup of chocolate. So we split the cost of two liters of regular cow’s milk with our fellow guests and indulged in the delicacy of Mexican Chocolate….mmmm so tasty.
Because the entire county in north western Yunnan Province has been given the name of Shangri-La, there is often a bit of debate as to which town should be officially described as Shangri-la. So when I asked a woman who worked at a local handricrafts store if I was in the actual Shangri-la, she said I needed to find the Shangri-La in my heart. Well I think I found it the other day. We started our day off by going out to the hot springs near town. It was about 30 minutes away and we descend into this small ravine where at the base was the hot springs. Given our initial disappointment with hot springs in Xi'an we weren't quite sure what to expect. When we saw the large pool of water with steam coming off of it, we knew that we had indeed found the kind of hot springs we had been hoping for. There was a bit of confusion with the entrance fee since the accent in this part of the country is different. We had thought the entrance was 130Y. I seriously contemplated leaving rather than pay this exorbitant price. But Andrea suggested since we were already there and paid the cab to take us there, we should just suck it up and pay. So we handed out 200Y each looking for change and the guy kept saying no. I was getting more annoyed. Not only would I have to pay a crazy high amount but I wouldn't even get change! Well it turned out the price was only 30Y each...d'oh! So we gave him a 100Y note and all was settled. We got in, changed into our bathing suits and took a dip in the nice hot water of the spring. Then we touched the slimy floor...eww. So we tried our best to swim and walk on our toes instead. It still felt nice to be fully submerged in hot water for the first time in months (though I did have a nice hot bath in Qingdao).
The set up of the hot springs was nice, but nothing spectacular. But I would recommend it for anyone who is staying in Zhongdian for a more than a few days.
When we got back to town we hunkered down at the bar across from where we were staying to update our blogs and enjoy some hot chocolate. We were prepared for a completely lazy day of doing nothing then heading off to dinner at this Indian restaurant we found the night before called the Puppet Café. How do you not go to a restaurant called the Puppet? Well in the midst of our lounging, Andrea started chatting it up with this girl from Australia, Eleanor. Halfway through the conversation she invited us out to join a tour group that was going to visit a Tibetan family outside of town, to do some yak herding, have a traditional Tibetan meal and then go visit the school she was teaching at where high school aged children that are too poor to go to high school can learn hospitality skills (ETTI). Their education is subsidized by the Australian government and private donors. It sounded like a great deal so we shelved our plans for the Puppet Café for another day. We met the organized tour group that was also going and were off. The road was bumpy but not too bad. It took about 20 minutes to get out to the town, then we walked through muddy streets to get to the home. The views were spectacular. It was a clear and crisp evening with the mountains surrounding us and yaks all around us. When we made it to the small wooden shack that houses that yaks during the cool autumn nights we were greeted by a very kind and generous Tibetan family. They instructed us on how to call the yaks in. I took a short video, so you can click here to check it out. (insert video link here).
Meeting with the students was another highlight. They were using this opportunity to practice their English and we got to learn more about the school and where these students come from.They even tried to teach us the dance they did in the square, but we weren't the best students.
When we got back to Shangri-la, we had been invited by Eleanor to a 30th birthday party of a friend of hers. I took this to be a great opportunity to unload the bottle of cachaca I had been carrying around with me. Well I had no idea that Andrea and I would be dancing it up all night and drinking up Caipirinhas ...but wow, it was such a a great end to a magical day!
We woke up early today to meet up with the Brits and Australians we met up with at the gorge so that we could share a taxi to a nearby wetlands. We made plans to meet up at 8:30am so we thought we'd get up early to grab some street food. Unfortunately not much goes on in town before 9am. Not only were there very few food vendors out and about, but there weren't even any taxis for us to take out to the wetlands that early. So we went to the Compass Café, this very nice western style café. After finally heading out to grab a cab we did a bit of negotiating to get out to this place. It was supposed to be only 7km away so after much haranguing on the price, mostly thanks to our newly made Australian friends Tamima and Mez who speak near perfect Mandarin, we talked the taxi into taking us for 60Y out and back and wait for us there. That's just under 10$ US for the 6 of us. Not a bad deal. When we finally made it out to the place, we were a bit disappointed to see that it was not a very exciting wetlands with trash strewn around. Then they wanted to charge us 30Y to get in which we still would have to pay for the horseback riding that was our original motivation for going. After a bit of haggling again we ended up getting in for 120Y between the 6 of us and had quite a ball just in haggling. At one point we tired to get the to throw in a free mini yak, they they didn't budge.
When we finally got in, it was slightly less impressive and turned out the only way to get around inside was to rent a horse. Here we worked out haggling magic to negotiate an additional 10 minutes on the horses for the same price. And we were off. Our local guides were chatting it up with each other and having a great time, as were we. We saw some free range pigs, some rummaging cows and a big expanse of wetlands. I was a bit concerned that Andrea's horse was going to bite my leg since every now and then it kept snapping at my horse, which were both being pulled by our guide, a very sweet older woman dressed in traditional garb. She was so sweet, she even snapped up my camera and took a bunch of photos of me, Andrea, me and Andrea, me, Andrea and everyone else...well you get the idea. Since Andres still had her camera, she was able to snap up a few photos of them photographing us.
When we finally used up our 30 minutes, we decided to take up try our hand at some archery. I loaded up a few videos of all our attempts. Andrea showed off her Oklahoma roots by firing the arrow right into the target on the first pull and then repeating the feat only moments later. I did manage to hit the target on one of my three attempts...so not too shabby. All in all, our second day in paradise has been fun. And now we are going to do some hostel shopping this evening hoping to find a more charming place than the one we are staying in now. But the good thing is we managed to get our laundry done...one thing about packing lightly is to constantly keep up on the laundry...or bear the wrath of an odoriferous journey.
Yes, this is indeed paradise*! I can attest to that fact since when I got off the bus in Shangrila (Zhongdian). After hopping out of the cab that whisked us away from the bus station into the old town we immediately fell in love with this quaint little town. It has a very weird vibe to it. Somewhere between the Bolivian Altiplano, a Colorado mountain resort and some hippy tourist town with Tibetan influences. I just love it. We were greeted with dancing in the main square as today happened to be the mid autumn festival (though I later found out they do this every night).
Then while walking around looking for a place to stay we happened on a staring contest between two young boys, they couldn't have been any older than 6 and 7. When we finally got to a place to stay we set out and quickly picked up the potato on stick, which is basically 4 baked potatoes covered in chili sauce then grilled...mmm so good. Then we went to eat at the Kamapa Cowboy restaurant which was something like a log cabin with a mixture of Native American and Southwest US decor and Tibetan influences. Our meal was the most divine pork ribs and cucumber salad ... And to those of you who know my fascination with popcorn I almost cried when I saw the waiter bring out a fresh bowl of sweetened popcorn to the table of people eating and drinking on the patio. The town has truly lived up to its name...at least for me ;-) Oh and we happened to run into the hikers we met on the Leaping Tiger gorge. Its so fun to run into the same people again. We are off to explore the Napa Hai Lake tomorrow.
*For those of you unfamiliar with the work of James Hilton, in his novel "Lost Horizon," Hilton describes an idyllic Tibetan mountain monastery that has discovered the fountain of youth. The town's name was Shangri-la. In 1996, the Chinese government created a task force to find the really Shangri-la based on on clues from the novel. Zhongdian fit the bill due the presence of a Tibetan monastery in the general area described by the book, and the supposed discovery of a plane crash that occurred in the 1930's.
Our hike to the Tiger Leaping Gorge was phenomenal. We ran into a pair of Brits at our hostel that were going to do the gorge trek. So we decided to coordinate with them in order to share a cab to the bus station. We also got some great advice from them on leaving most of our stuff in the town at the trail head then picking up our stuff after the 3 day hike to continue on to the next town called Zhongdian (also known as Shangri-la). I had seen pictures online that show these jagged mountains and spectacular views on the hike. And I have to say the pictures don't even come close to how beautiful it was. The hike is fairly vigorous 20km up and down semi-steep mountainsides with a few areas proving more of a challenge than others. Since we weren't on much of a schedule we decided to take a leisurely three days to hike the gorge rather than the more grueling two day hike. The trail is fairly well marked with red arrows pointing you in the right direction and the trail is fairly well worn. And along the trail at various points there are guesthouses where you can stay the night or just get some food and water. Our first day we did the short 3-hour hike to Naxi's Guesthouse. It was so nice to get a hot shower and be able to lounge around for the rest of the afternoon and evening and eat some very good food.
The second day was a bit more taxing since we would be walking from early morning into the evening in order to arrive at the base of the gorge where a tiger is supposed to have leaped across, hence giving the gorge its name. All along the last 2 hours of the hike we kept seeing signs pointing to Tina's guesthouse. I felt like I was on the road to Las Vegas from Los Angeles with those famed "Eat at Joes, 200 miles" - esque signs. So when we finally got there I was eager to check out the guesthouse that was responsible for all that trail graffiti. It was only so-so. Fortunately it did have a warm shower and beds for us. The third day we got up to hike down the final leg of the gorge. There was a perilous ladder and a safer route to get down. We took the safe route down though we did take the perilous ladder to come back up. It wasn't as scary coming back up, but I did notice that one part of the ladder had just a tree branch propping up the ladder...yikes! But Andrea and I survived. The river at the base of the gorge looked like it would make great white water rafting if it weren't for all those jagged rocks.
After getting our fill of the gorge(eous) views we decided to head back to continue on our journey to Zhongdian. Since there had been some concern at the start of our trip if we would even be able to the hike due to a landslide we were a bit curious at how we were going to get back. The landslide blocked the road but not the hiking trail so we had no idea what to expect. It turned out we could take a taxi to the landslide and then have to cross over on foot then find another taxi on the other side. Since it was early enough and we didn't feel like paying the now 4 x's higher taxi fare we decided to walk to the landslide and see if we could get a taxi from there. It was a pleasant hike, though we had an unspoken fear every time we saw rocks on the road, knowing that another landslide could happen where we walked. We made it to the landslide zone and saw that a tractor was being put to use to clear it up. We had to wait until the tractor had a mouthful of rubble and was taking it to be dumped over the cliff so we along with everyone else that was waiting there could scramble over the rubble. I almost made it over unscathed until my left foot sunk about 2 feet into a soft patch of sand and gravel leaving me with a few cuts and now a quickly fading scar that I can show off to prove I had an adventure. After walking on for another half hour or so a taxi came zipping by and stopped. There were already two hikers in the car asking if we wanted to share the cost of the cab for the remaining 10 km or so...it didn't take long for Andre and I to jump on that offer. We got back to the town, picked up our stuff and found a our bus that would take us to Zhongdian.
The title of this blog was in reference to our countless attempts at getting back to our original hostel so that we could get our stuff and move into a hostel that was closer to the center of town. The map we were given was practically useless since it showed barely a few of the streets, there weren't many street signs and the streets looked so similar. Our countless pleas for assistance to the local townspeople yielded a chorus of "ye ji itsu zho guay" which means go straight ahead then turn left. After hearing this at least four times we indeed went full circle until we were guided by a surly looking guy who said "follow me" then darted off with our map in hand down a dark and narrow alley. So we figured what other choice do we have other than to follow him, so we did. We passed right by the first place that we had asked directions from and had they told us to go right. If we had only gone to the left we would have been back at our old hostel with two turns. Of course we picked up our bags and headed back to the new hostel sure that we knew the way this time, but alas, we got lost again. This time we were helped out by a Chinese New Zealander who visits Lijiang often and knows his way around. Tired, hungry and a bit embarrassed for keeping Peter and Jenny waiting for us we dropped our bags and headed out to find some dinner.
After getting lost multiple times around Lijiang, I realized that every time that Andrea and I tried to remember or actually did remember where we needed to turn, we would constantly refer to an event that happened when we passed a certain spot. Like the spot where the guy told us "follow me" and led us into the dark alley. This became a new reference point for us to know that we were going in the right direction. Or the mini plaza that we passed where our Chinese Kiwi lead us to our hostel. It's interesting that when we are forced out of our way of orienting ourselves such as through absolutely useless maps, or when grid streets are only a distant memory we are forced to rely on other mental triggers to point us to our destination. Thankfully, the town is not that large and there are enough people here that either speak some English or can at least understand the few words we know such as "zainar" (where is) and pointing to a point on the map.
(Oh and those "digital crumbs" that I left to help us find our way back didn't work quite so well since I ended up taking photos of things that weren't quite as unique as I thought...say a red lantern or wooden door. At least we made it back...eventually.)
Our next stop was Lijiang. We've been told this is one of the most beautiful towns in China. Well that's a tall order to live up to, but in addition to the town's inherent beauty, we found out that there is an excellent hike to be done a few hours away. We arrived late at night by plane since taking the bus would have exceeded our newly decided on 15-hour rule. We were greeted to stars (the first I had seen in months) and cold weather. Everyone was in thickly padded coats and I felt like I had just arrived on the Bolivian Altiplano. Fortunately Andrea had made a reservation at our guesthouse and had arranged the hotel to pick us up. There were no street lights out on our ride into town, only winding mountain roads, so the stars were amazingly bright. However that also meant we really couldn't see where we were going or what the town looked like. So it was quite a surprise the next morning to find out selves in this beautiful quaint old town with a labyrinth of cobble stone roads.
We had made plans to meet up with Peter and Jenny, so in an effort to not get lost I decided to take some digital pictures of the various twists and turns in order so that we would could find our way back (read the next post to find out how well this turned out).
We found Peter and Jenny and they had already hired a minibus to take them to Jade Dragon Snow Mountain Park. Andrea and I decided to tag along. It was great we strolled up to this park and took a cable car ride up to Yak Meadow. And you know what you see in Yak meadow...yaks!!! I was so excited to finally see one of these creatures, but was a bit disappointed when we got there and could only see these little specks off in the horizon. We tried our best to get as close as possible, but there were in a fenced off area that we were not allowed in so I began to do my yak calls. It wasn't very effective since I don't actually know how to call a yak, but I did get a yak to give me a dirty look before resuming its meal of wild grasses.
The zoom on my camera is only so-so, but I did get some pics and was happy enough to call it a day. Fortunately Andrea suggested we turn back and go check out a temple with prayer flags that we could see on the horizon.
When we got there it was interesting but nothing too exciting until we heard a local doing a real yak call. He got the yak to get closer to him and even enticed the yak with an apple. We were just frozen with anticipation...would we really be up close and personal with a yak? Well the local man brought the yak down to within about 10 feet from us and we snapped up dozens of yak photos including the young calf that came along in tow.
It was such a great experience. The yak has always been one of my favorite animals, mainly because I love the exotic sounding name of this creature and few people even know what one looks like. I have to admit that I was one of those people up until I met one in person.
Oh and the yak jerky is great too, we got to stock up on the stuff in town for our hike to Tiger Leaping Gorge.
Along with the Great Wall, the of Xi'an are thought to be one the greatest draws to China. We were fortunate to have Song and Jackie leading us since we were able to catch the local buses that led us to the historic sites in Xi'an. Andrea and I were very excited when we were told that we would stop off at the Imperial hot springs before hitting up the Terra Cotta Soldiers. Well perhaps we had a different notion of what a hot springs would be becauhttp://www.blogger.com/img/gl.link.gifse we both packed our swimsuits and towels, but were very disappointed when we realized this was just a historic sight where the Chinese emperors would bathe and come to relax. So we had to content ourselves by looking at the Tang dynasty architecture and washing our hands in the warm waters.
We finally made it to the site of the Terra Cotta soldiers and were amazed with how extensive the grounds were. Thanks to our Lonely Planet suggestion, we decided to catch the 360 degree movie theater that showed a short film on the man behind the soldiers. After watching the film I was even more impressed with the statues. For those of you who don't know, the terra cotta soldiers are a collection of over 8,000 life-size sculptures that were buried along with Emperor Qin over 2,0000 years ago. The movie showed that the soldiers were destroyed by angry villagers shortly after his death. Emperor Qin is credited with having unified China. According to my Lonely Planet, Emperor Qin had angered the monks who were also the scribes, and they then excluded him from the history books, only for any evidence of him to be unearthed in 1974. As a result of the sacking most of the soldiers are in some sort of broken state. Though it seems the restoration team has done a good job of putting them back together in the grand hallway. The grounds are quite extensive and even after spending several hours looking at all the soldiers we hardly saw them all, since there were still more buried. And they will remain so until new restorations can be developed that will protect the paint that the soldiers were originally painted with since too to their age they deteriorate when exposed to the air.
