Gorkha, what an amazing hotel!

Last night here in Lhasa, we have been so incredibly lucky to have stayed at the Gorkha Hotel. So this sounds like some shameless plug but you would not believe how amazing the staff and the owner of this hotel has been.  Just today the hotel owner (Karma) took Fiona and I to a monastery and drove us around to show us some beautiful countryside and mountains. He lent us his driver so we could run some errands.  I just came back from playing tennis with Karma and his friends at some ritzy tennis club. It sounds strange right? but he is an amazing guy. We have even swapped emails and will probably keep in touch with him.

 

So both Fi and I both have crushes on these 2 guys working here. Good looking nepali guys!! lol. We've been laughing all day about it and even Karma knows and has been making fun of Fi about her crush cos she makes it so obvious! Each time she walks by reception she has this huge smile on her face. It's hilarious! Anyway, the staff really are great, so friendly. So sad to leave Tibet tomorrow, it's been like home here with everyone taking care of us esp when we were sick a couple of days ago.

 

So did a bunch of shopping today, posted all the souvenirs home. Stuff I bought was apparently fake antiques though, grrr...the ppl seemed so trustworthy. Oh well, it's all nice stuff and my non-existent apartment is already half furnished.

 

It's been so amazing here in Tibet, we were considering staying a few more days (most ostensibly bc of the hot staff here!! lol) but we are heading on to Mongolia. I'm really sad to leave, I really feel like this hotel has been a second home.

 

oh btw, if you want to check out fi's blog, her url is: http://fionastory.blogspot.com

 

9:03pm, 30th Aug 2004. Lhasa city, Tibet

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Mt Everest & Our Rescue Mission

So back in Lhasa city after 9 days of traveling on the landcruiser. It was such an incredible trip, can't believe how much ground we covered! I can't remember what I wrote in the last blog so from memory, we went to the following cities on days 5 to 9: Sakya, Shagar, Rombuk and then back to Shigatse.

 

So the highlight was definitely getting to Mt.Everest! Seeing the peak was amazing, I must have taken at least 50 photos of the peak alone, from all different angles and vantage points. We were so exceptionally lucky that it was a clear day when we got there, apparently during this season it's common to have cloudy days so another lucky mountain viewing day for us!  (Fuji being the other one).

 

The altitude at 5220m nearly did me in though.  I developed a throbbing headache walking the 2 hours to base camp, when I made it I just collapsed at the Everest tea house, drinking copious amounts of tea. It's hard to describe how I had to keep figuratively pinching myself each time I saw the mountain, this is the highest mountain in the world...who knew I would see it?!

 

We stayed there for a couple of hours, the others walked the extra hour or so to the glacier, I made it halfway, thought I would pass out so walked back to base camp. From base camp we had to all walk back to the town of Rombuk where our driver was waiting for us. How lucky for me that our driver realised that something may well have been wrong when we didn't arrive at our designated time and decided to bribe the local police official (PSB) and drive through the barricade. He met us halfway and sure enough, Mark and I were both feeling sick. Our driver was the best, definitely going above and beyond the call of driver duty.

 

So on our drive back to Shagar to our hotel, we happened upon an accident. Our driver stopped the car and I asked the ppl milling about what was happening. The landcruiser in front of us had broken its axle, hit the gutter (not a real gutter considering we were driving on mountainous terrain) and had rolled over 3 times. One more roll and it would have gone over. The windscreen was smashed up and had bloodstains all over it. Luckily no-one was badly injured, just the driver and the female passenger was hurt. The others in the car were standing around while Tenzin, our driver, went to work on the engine. Fiona and I bandaged the driver up, I issued my miracle drug, Ibuprofen, and our driver tied the damaged axle up with some rope. It was a pretty basic rescue mission. The driver had a sprained arm, was bleeding from his other arm, and yet he still wanted to drive his landcruiser the 4 hours back to the town. It was a slow and tortuous journey for all involved since the landcruiser had no windscreen and one of the headlights had busted. Our driver tried to light the way along the dark mountain passages whenever he could, the bunged up landcruiser kept breaking down along the way. We finally got back to town about 11pm, 5 hours longer than we had anticipated. It was certainly a drama-filled day!

 

Back in Lhasa city now, staying here for another 4 days and then flying on to Mongolia for another jeep journey around Mongolia. It's been a pretty incredible holiday so far but anticipating we will be back in Japan a LOT earlier than we expected given that we have covered quite a bit of ground here in Lhasa.

 

10:46pm, Sat Aug 27, 2004. Lhasa City, Tibet.

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Tibet Landcruising - Day 1 to 4

Have been on the road for 4 days now, traveling around Tibet in a beat-up 20 year old landcruiser. Our driver's name is Tenzin, he's a pretty cool guy; getting into snowball fights with us, making sure we get fed in clean restaurants, finding cheap hotels for us bc we are all on a budget. He only speaks Tibetan and Chinese so I have become the default translator on the trip. Fiona and I are traveling with 3 other guys; Mark, Tom and Alex.

Day 1 - Lhasa to Nam Tso Lake, 6 hours
This is the biggest holy lake in Tibet and it was breathtaking! It's the 2nd largest lake in China, surrounded by snow-capped mountains, fields of yaks, nomads. The colour of the lake was a gorgeous turquoise. We hiked around the kora (pilgrim) path, investigated caves and saw a monastery. The lake is at a pretty high elevation, about 5000m so we all suffered from AMS, Alex even fainted at one point but only bc he starved himself on the landcruiser ride up.
We stayed in these tents that seemed really cool during the day but at night it was sooo cold and we could hear the dogs howling all night. A storm hit us during the middle of the night and the tent started leaking! The funny thing was, our toilet was a communal patch of rocky dirt behind a big tree. It was pretty gross navigating through other ppl's faeces, esp during the early morning when everyone took their morning dump. That was certainly an experience. We left after one night.

Day 2 - Nam Tso Lake to Sygatse, 11 hours
This involved a LOOONG drive during the day on bumpy road and at one point through a snow storm. Despite the very old landcruiser we got and mostly bald tires, Tenzin is a great driver. This was a tiring day for all of us though since we didn't get any sleep during the night in those tents. We arrived into Sygatse fairly late at about 8pm, most of the hotels were full so we ended up at a hotel fairly far from town and stayed in dorm rooms that were incredibly filthy! Had to break out the sleeping bag again! I guess the fact that there was a toilet block was a plus, though it was little more than a trough. No showers in the dorm rooms! We had to go yet another day without a shower...my hair was getting so dirty I could barely run my fingers through it.

Day 3 - Sygatse

On this day we went to visit the monastery which was beautiful, this was where the previous Panchen Lamas were buried in these very elaborate chortens. We spent about 2 hours roaming around the monastery, visiting chapels. We then did the kora path up the mountain. At the summit we saw a gorgeous view of the old town. We decided to build our own chorten and put a little message inside, who knows whether any of us will be back. It would be funny if someone found our dinky little message.

So traveling with these guys has been ok. Mark and Tom are easy going and a lot of fun. Alex however is a different matter. He doesn't really do much with us, which is probably a good thing. In the afternoon we drove from Sygatse to Gyantse, about 1.5 hours away. After a false start with finding a hotel (where Tenzin very vehemently refused to stay in a hotel that Tom and Fiona found), we ended up in a nice hotel near the Gyantse Monastery that actually has shower facilities!!

Day 4 - Gyantse

Today we went to the monastery in the morning, again lots of exploring. Seeing old faded murals of buddhas. There was this one chapel that was dedicated to a demon god, or protector god, I don't remember what it was. That chapel involved going deep into a small doorway painted an angry red with a face of a demon on the outside. Inside there were all these scary looking murals of ppl being tortured, these masks of monsters hung all around the little chapel room. It was quite creepy.

We just came down from climbing the fort that was used to protect the Tibetans from an invading British army. In the middle of climbing the fort, there was an Anti-British Museum which was a laugh. The fort itself was enormous fun to explore, the altitude was wreaking havoc with our breathing but it didnt stop us from exploring ruined buildings, delving into dirty rooms, down ladders, through locked buildings. There were exhibits with models of Tibetans, by far the creepiest was a dungeon that was down a hole where you could see a model of a man with his legs cut off.

So there are only about 5 days left of this journey. It has been an eye-opening experience so far. I really love being in Tibet, it's a country that has so much history and culture. The ppl here are really wonderful! Oh, I just remembered on our last day in Lhasa, we went to the Chinese area of Lhasa to buy our airline tickets back out to Beijing...can you believe I got ripped off there??! I bought my airline ticket from the only government agency that is allowed to issue airline tickets, I got my change back and the guy gave me a counterfeit 20 yuan note! In a govt agency no less! I didn't find out until I went to pay for something with the change and the shopowner broke the news to me. The 20 yuan is not worth much at all but I was pissed that a chinese agency tried to dupe me. I went back to the same guy who gave me the change, he denied all knowledge and had the gall to look me in the eyes, lie and tell me that the note I was holding was definitely fake but he didn't give it to me. Such a liar! There were other experiences that day in the Chinese quarters; Mark having his sunnies stolen, me getting told off by the Chinese ticket ppl at the Potala Palace to f*ck off and flinging my money back at me, nearly getting ripped buying groceries... I was so glad to be back in the Tibetan quarter. It sounds ridiculous but that day left a really sour taste in my mouth.

So tomorrow our itin is covering an old and beautiful city called Sakya, I think about 6 hours drive away. The plan after we finish this landcruiser trip is to stay in Lhasa city for another 3 days and then flying into Beijing. Hopefully we get our connecting flight into Mongolia straight away.

6.38pm 21st Aug 2004. Saturday. Gyantse city, Tibet

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Drinking Yak Butter Tea with Monks

Yesterday was absolutely wonderful, I had the most amazing time. It started at a pretty horrendous hour though, had to wake up at 5.30am to catch a 6am bus to the Ganden Monastery. This is apparently THE monastery to visit if you don't visit any others, came very highly recommended. Reading from the Tibet guide though, the elevation was set at 4500m, about 1000m higher than the city of Lhasa. Due to AMS (altitude sickness) it's not a good idea to ascend to high areas unless you have been in Lhasa for a week. We had been in Lhasa for about 3 days. Fiona had second thoughts the night before about going since she is suffering from headaches, so yesterday morning she decided not to go. That left me, Tom and Mark. So at about 5.45am, Tom and I stumbled out blindly in the rain, through the maze of Tibetan streets to get to the bus stop on Barkor Square. Somehow we made it through the quirky turns without getting lost and arrived to a packed bus full of locals. Mark ended up oversleeping so he didn't make it.

The bus ride was completely crammed! I mean, no available space was left unused - the backseat alone accommodated 8 ppl! The aisle was filled with ppl sitting on small plastic stools. I proceeded to sleep for most of the way, it was freezing and still dark outside. I woke up to a chorus of "woahhh's", i guess the universal sound of awe. I looked out as the sun was rising out from the clouds, the bus was making its way up a long serpentine road to the monastery perched near the top of the mountain. Down below were a patchwork of fields, with this one long road meandering up the mountain. The clouds were hung low due to our altitude, the mountains looked so close. It really merited a few "woahhhs"!!

I could see Ganden Monastery at the top of the mountain, it was beautiful, the monastic complex sprawled the height and breadth of the top of the mountain with the main chapel in the centre. The monastery was the most ravaged during the Chinese cultural revolution, some of the buildings were ruined and rundown, the central area had been patched up.

We got some beautiful views down to the bottom of the mountain after arriving at 8am. There were only about 3 other tourists, the rest of the ppl visiting were pilgrims. Tom and I started exploring the complex starting with the centre. We walked around randomly, taking any stairs and ladders we could find, going into doorways that were open. Consequently we found lots of little cosy chapels, somehow stumbled onto a room that may or may not have been the toilet. I really hope it was but had my reservations as I did my business down the hole through the floor and found it all falling into another room....

The monks went about their business in the monasteries, they recited the sutras and we were able to see them practising without any pretense or pomp. It was a serene experience with the added excitement of finding different areas as we randomly climbed stairs and ladders that led us deeper into the complex.

By about 11am it started raining in earnest and I was frozen to the bone. We climbed onto a roof of one building and saw that on the roof of the next building there was a small shelter area where monks were tending to 3 boiling cauldrons. We were careful not to disturb the monks but in our wet, bedraggled state, we found ourselves crossing into the next building and climbing up a ladder to the roof to see if we could go under their shelter for a bit. The monks were so welcoming though and served us unending cups of yak butter tea. It was the most amazing experience thus far in Tibet, sitting with the monks, while it rained buckets all around us, trying to gulp down tea that tasted exactly like water with melted butter. Definitely an acquired taste that after countless cups, I still had not acquired. Different streams of monk kept coming up, most probably for the entertainment value of a couple of foreigners trying to communicate without a common language. The monks were wonderful, so friendly. We sat with them for over an hour as the rain poured around us, trying to make conversation, we tried to teach them english, they tried to teach us tibetan. About midday we saw that the rain had let up and we didn't want to disturb them any further from their daily duties, so we left and explored further up the monastery.

We wandered to the top areas, probably further than the normal tourist route. One of the monks directed us up some stairs and we found that it was another living area of the monks. We stopped at some windowsills and decided to have a snack when suddenly a voice high above our heads called out in greeting. It was a boy, probably about 14 or 15, he invited the 2 of us up to rest in the chapel he was looking after. So up we went and found ourselves in a chapel and this bright smiling Tibetan boy greeting us in Chinese. I was able to communicate with him for a bit and we shared our food with him. It was nice to find out about the daily lives of these monks, this boy called himself a "little lama" he had only lived in the monastery for a year. He had a thick stack of sutras that he was studying from while he looked after the little chapel. This was the only chapel we were able to take photos freely as all the chapels discouraged photo taking. It was a great place to rest for a bit as we waited for the bus to take us back to the city. I mentioned to our little friend that we wanted to hike up to the mountains to see the views and he offered to take us up there since he knew the area well. So we were taken around the back of the mountain to some more awe-inspiring views. By this time we were all getting along really well and during a really touching moment, our little friend said he would like to be our little brother, so I would be his big sister and Tom his big brother. That was so sweet! He even gave me his address so that we can continue communicating. He walked us all the way back down to the bus stop, on the way, we heard a shout from the roof of one of the buildings. It was the monks that we had yak tea with, they were waving good-bye to us.

On our bus ride back to the city, we had lots of fun with the locals since we were sitting near the back. Some of the older people were shy but the young ones were cute, constantly smiling. We played about with our cameras, even the adults getting into the spirit and having their pictures taken. It was great, they also looked out for us when the bus stopped for another monastery, made sure we got back to the bus at the right time.

The entire day was absolutely brilliant.

So tomorrow we are doing the 9 day landcruiser trip, visiting all the main areas and going all the way to the EBC. It's a little daunting since we will be on the road for a while, I'm sure we will be quite stinky by the time we get back but if Lhasa is anything to go by, I think this will be a fun experience. I probably won't be online til we get back, so in the meantime, take care.

5.02pm Tuesday 17 Aug, 2004

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I love Tibet!

Got into Tibet yesterday morning, the view from the plane was amazing. Snow-capped mountains, vast lakes. The plane made a landing between all the mountains, that was a little hair-raising but it was a very smooth flight.

We got a bus into Lhasa city that took about 2 hours (after waking up at 4am that morning, I fell asleep the entire way) and then proceeded to the popular backpacker hostel in the LP guide. Unfortunately we didn't realise that there was a huge festival happening today, so all the rooms and beds were booked out. After lots of phone calls, we managed to find a room in a hotel that was built about 2 months ago. The hotel is gorgeous.

On the bus ride, I met this great British backpacker called Tom, so we recruited him into our journey to the EBC. So that meant we had 4 ppl for our ride up there, then Mark met another guy at his hostel, a Canadian called Alex. That was great, we had enough ppl to organise a landcruiser ride all the way to Mt Everest base camp! After some discussions we settled on traveling for 9 days and visiting all the major sites in the Tibetan area. It's going to be an absolutely amazing trip. We set out this Wednesday and come back the following Friday. Since we are going to get so much done on this landcruiser trip, Fiona and I can head into Mongolia about a week earlier than planned. Everything has worked out so well.

So today was this huge festival at the Drepung Monastery. It actually started at 2.30am but we got there at 8.30am with a huge throng of Tibetans out to celebrate the yoghurt festival. It was so amazing to see this part of Tibetan culture. The Tibetans are such devout ppl, it was eye-opening to see how they practised their faith. We had to climb 30 minutes from the road to the monastery and then probably about a further 20 minutes through rocks to see this huge fabric with a picture of the Buddha on it. On our way into the monastery there was a huge crush of ppl and a rather narrow stairwell up. Everyone pushed en-masse up the steps and into the main entryway, it was rather dangerous given that one fall on those steps would mean being crushed, but the Tibetan ppl looked out for each other, it's so hard to explain but it wasn't the pushing and shoving that I was used to in China. At one point I was pushed off-balance and one of the Tibetan monks grabbed a hold of me and basically led me up the steps, holding me in a vice so that I wouldn't fall. She was so amazing but before I could turn around to thank her, she had disappeared into the crowd.

For our ride back into town, we hitched with the army! The stopped their pickup truck on the road and I waved to one of the army officers and asked in Chinese if we could get on. So all 4 of us, (Fiona, Mark, Tom and me) clamoured on with some other locals into the truck. That was pretty funny.

On to why I love Tibet so much. The ppl here are absolutely wonderful. They smile and are so friendly. The kids constantly shout out in greeting. We are living in the Tibetan quarters which has given us many chances to mix with the locals. One of my favourite moments yesterday was when we were roaming around the backstreets and stopped to watch a Tibetan dance performed by a girl on the street. I took a photo of these 2 cute little boys and showed them the picture on my digital camera. The squealed in delight and wanted to take more photos. They were adorable! The other kids in the neighbourhood soon clustered around wanting their pictures taken too. The adults then got into it, wanting to see pictures of their own kids. Even passer-byes were stopping to see the photos of the kids in their neighbourhood. I had a blast and got so many fantastic photos!!

The photos here in Tibet are priceless, especially of the locals. The colours, vibrancy and energy really shows up in the photos. Even the ppl are colourful with their ruddy cheeks and bright costumes.

I am having a fantastic time here in Tibet right now, so glad to be here.

Aug 15, 2004. Sunday. 4.22pm. Lhasa, Tibet

To Tibet Tomorrow!

We've been taking it real easy after our mountain trek, it's been nice to chill in our hotel room, eating lots of food and generally lazing around. We got a new room mate in our triple room and now have a new travel partner to journey into Tibet with! He's an Aussie guy called Mark who is keen to travel to Everest Base Camp (EBC) too. We totally lucked out meeting Mark, super-nice guy, really laidback and easy to talk to. Our original plans were to trek to the EBC but the journey there requires hiring a landcruiser which is really expensive! To hire the LC would cost about 6000yuan, but if we have 4 ppl on the trip it cuts the price down pp significantly. So now there are 3 of us, we just need one more backpacker, will probably find that person when we head down to Lhasa.

It's an early morning flight, getting picked up to go to the airport at 5.50am! So excited about seeing Tibet, been hearing really amazing stories of how friendly the Tibetan ppl are, the amazing scenery. We have to head out of Lhasa to really see what Tibet was like before the mass migration of the Chinese into Tibet. Apparently Lhasa has turned into a Chinese city so I am really keen to see outside of Lhasa. We will probably have to spend a week in Lhasa to acclimatise to the altitude, there is plenty to see in Lhasa, should keep us busy for that week. The symptoms of AMS sound pretty horrendous though, apparently we would be lucky if our only problems are vomiting and headaches!

It hit me that this is my last night in China. Probably will never head back here if I had the choice. I have seen most of the major tourist sites of Beijing and Shanghai a few months ago. Been to quite a few cities and am honestly not all that impressed. I loved Yangshuo though, so glad we spent the 5 days there, perhaps the activities somewhat spoiled us for the subsequent Chinese cities that we have visited. Looking back now, Yangshuo was so much fun, even the water cave, or what I now refer to as the 'death trap', was a good laugh. I think we were quite lucky to see the inside of the mountain pre-tourist hordes, considering we were only the 2nd group of ppl in there, it was about as untouched as we would ever get. Apparently the other water caves that have been around for a while are really spoilt with garish technicolour spot-lights illuminating stalactites that have grown grubby from too many sweaty hands touching it. Yangshuo was idyllic and will remain my favourite Chinese destination.

I can't believe we have only been traveling for 15 days, so much seems to have happened in the last 2 weeks. Hopefully Tibet will be awesome and we will be able to travel outside of the usual tourist zones. In order to do that though, we will have to wrestle with the PSB for permits, that I am not looking forward to. I don't know whether being able to speak Chinese would be a benefit or not. I know there would be resentment from the local Tibetan ppl given the destruction the Chinese government has caused (and continues to cause) to their history, their lands, the culture. I hope it won't filter down to individual travellers who share a Chinese heritage with the very ppl who are oppressing them. Hopefully this is just an errant and very narrow-minded worry on my part.

12.42pm. Chengdu city. Last day here! Fri Aug 13, 2004.

Hiking, electrocution and food poisoning.

What a crazy day yesterday! Absolutely nuts. Don't really know where to start so will just include the insane highlights...

To set the picture - we went up to the mountains for the "dramatic vistas" according to the LP guide. The day started off inauspiciously as we got on the bus and was shoved and pushed around as ppl scrambled for seats, it got particularly violent with Fiona getting scratched up and me exclaiming in exasperation, 'I friggin hate this country'...i know, not a very nice thing to say at all, I was just so irritated by people squeezing by me in the narrow bus alley in a bid to get to seats. I proceeded to sleep the entire way there on a little single seat behind the driver.

We got to the foot of the mountain and walked through one of the villages. A seemingly nice lady stopped us on the street and offered us a place to stay for 50yuan. We decided to check it out and saw that the room on the ground floor looked nice. We were in a rush to get to the summit of the mountain and back before night fall, so after some haggling, we paid for the room and left.

The hike up was great; waterfalls, trees, rickety old bridges, wooden pavilions, greenery everywhere, a pristine green lake that we crossed via boat. If it weren't for the hordes of Chinese tourists descending the mountain and having to navigate my way on the stone steps around the globules of spit, it would have been ideal... :)

We got 2 lots of cable cars back after racing for the last ones and the view from the first cable car ride was incredible...definitely dramatic vistas as promised.

Oh I forgot about the insane things that happened. The first one was getting screwed over at dinner when we got back to the hotel that woman ran. I ordered 2 dishes, the first was delivered to our table, it consisted of pig skin and fat. Pretty gross, but I figured it was one of the dishes that I ordered so nothing we could do about it. Ordering food is such a hit and miss affair, we have come to expect that we have about 50% chance of liking something we order. Anyway, after us half-heartedly pushing the fat around on that dish, we ate the 2nd dish and thought, hmm...the food here sux. That was when they delivered a third dish, my original order. I then told the lady we didn't order that first dish that was delivered, she assured me that I most definitely did. We figured, how much could pig fat cost? Imagine our surprise when we got our dinner bill! That dish was 2.5 times more expensive than the first dish I had ordered. I was so pissed at being duped like that. We coughed up the cash, went to our room feeling very unsettled. Found our ground floor room had these huge windows that open out to the courtyard and wouldn't lock. It didn't close properly either. The room at night was damp and actually rather dirty, in our haste to climb the mountain we didn't have a good look around. Now for the shower....

The lady came by to show us how it works. I forgot to mention that this lady only spoke the Sichuanese dialect. I know a few chinese dialects but sichuanese is not one of them, most of the time I kinda understand what is being said but this hot water shower thing was something that required 100% comprehension. The contraption involved an electrical power outlet into the hot water canister that was set on a wall above our heads. There was a power lever (one of the old-fashioned varieties that look like they belong on an electric chair to electrocute the prisoners), that was set next to the power plug. The power cord hung just below the hot water canister and connected to another plug on the side of the canister. There was a water lever (not a tap) that ensured water gushed out of the pipe. There was another nozzle on the canister but not quite sure what that did. The lady gave it a few good twists so I figured we didn't have to fuss with it. Does this sound like a safety hazard to you? Electricity power cords around water...?? Well, I kinda got the gist of it, reiterated what was said back to the lady in mandarin, she figured I understood. So I explained it to Fiona but told her I had reservations about this hot water thing. Fi was really gung-ho about trying it out so she stepped into the bathroom first....

As I was lazing around in bed I hear an explosion of water and then shrieks coming from the bathroom, I rush in and find that water has exploded out of the hot water canister and the most scary thing was sparks flying from the socket bc the electrical cord is getting wet. I shouted at Fi to get to the water lever and turn the water off. With that done, I gingerly stepped over to the power lever and pulled it up. After some zinging sparks, it all died down after which both Fi and I break out into peals of laughter. It was the most ridiculous situation and of course, neither of us had showers that night.

Now that room we were in was spooky. I don't quite know why I was so paranoid but I didn't feel safe there. Not being able to close our huge windows was a contributing factor, so was the big dude that came banging at our door at 10pm, ostensibly to give us a mosquito coil but he hung around for a while, checking out our room, there we were standing around in our pj's waiting for him to leave while he looked like he would sit down and watch the soccer game on tv with us. These were the same ppl who screwed us over for dinner, I didn't trust them at all.

I stayed up most of the night, the bed was clammy, I felt grimy, each little noise woke me up. After hardly any sleep, I hear Fi in the morning complaining of stomach pains. She got food poisoning from that dish of pig skin and fat....! At 7am we left the room without bothering to turn off lights, left the door ajar, it felt like we were breaking out of jail bc the doors were locked and we had to find an alternate way out through the kitchen.

We managed to flag a bus rumbling down the mountain road on the way to Chengdu city, it was completely full but as luck would have it, it was the same driver and his friend that drove us to the mountain (the same friend whom Fi insulted while getting on the bus!! lol, we were such bitches on the ride over). They recognised us and let us on board, we both sat on the luggage pad right in front of the bus and one of the guys proceeded to hit on me. What a crazy day at the mountain, all we wanted was to do some hiking... :) Definitely memorable.

4.22pm - Chengdu city. Aug 12, Thurs.

Sitting next to a fat slob at the internet cafe

...waiting for our bus to QingCheng mountain. There are ppl in these internet cafes in China that never leave their chairs. They chainsmoke as they play those online games or watch porn on the monitors.... just an observation as we have been in many an internet cafe.

So you might be wondering why I can still create blogs on my weblog despite the government blocks. I can't view, edit or delete any of my posts (which is annoying bc I can't really remember what I wrote) but I can intermittently create posts. If that doesn't work, there is an email function where I email posts to be weblog but the formatting ends up really messed up so I try not to use that option.

Wed Aug11, 11.18pm, Chengdu

Great Pandas & the Big Buddha

Went to the Panda research centre yesterday, pandas were adorable though seeing them splayed out from heat exhaustion in their cages was really disturbing. They do have an outside enclosure to play around in but the weather was just too hot for them. The pictures of them in their cages look rather awful, especially as they are just lying there, with no energy to move. The museum was interesting though, they showed a video going through the panda stages of dating, mating and breeding. These poor pandas have very little going for them in their love lives, not only are they too picky but they also only have the energy to have sex once a year. The likelihood of them naturally conceiving is so slim that they face extinction. This is where the scientists come in with these huge machines to conduct paternal DNA testing and artificial insemination...poor pandas. Interesting day yesterday though.

Have met a few backpackers that have been good to hang out with. Met this American guy yesterday who went on the same minibus to the panda research centre, we all ended up having Sichuan hotpot for dinner after roaming Chengdu city for an hour looking for a local restaurant. Finally found a great one after asking a few locals, all you can eat for 29yuan! The hot pot was so spicy I had tears in my eyes and sweat running down my face. It was sooo good!

Went on a day trip to Leshan to visit the Big Buddha today. For those Muni JETs out there, the only reason we went to see the buddha was because of the text in the ni-nen-sei text book about visiting Leshan. We thought, what the heck, we've been teaching the passage, we should see what the big deal was about. Took 1.5 hours on the bus to get there and we paid 70 yuan to basically look at other tourists. There were sooo many chinese tour groups there, do these ppl not work on a tuesday?! I decided to climb this look-out area that had a sign that said, "don't climb', found the gate unlocked so I persuaded Fiona to check it out. We got spooked since the stairwells up to the top of the turret were so dark. Sneaked back out the gate and met these 2 british backpackers outside, so all 4 of us went all the way to the top of the turret, ended up being nothing there. However we inadvertently started a trend bc as we came down, all these other chinese tourists were climbing up the narrow stairs to see what we were checking out. That was pretty funny. Nothing else was all that interesting, the Big Buddha was ... big. We
checked it out from all angles, at the head, from the river on a speedboat, from the riverside. It was an interesting day, not particularly exciting.

Oh we have booked our flights into Tibet for Saturday! So off to Tibet. We will probably end up back in Japan earlier than planned given we have cut out so much of our China trip. Tomorrow we are going hiking at one of the mountains an hour away. Will be there for 2 days, staying overnight in a monastery. Looking forward to being alone with nature, it should be awesome.

Aug 10, 10.26pm - Chengdu city.

soft sleeper all the way

arrived into chengdu at 7.30 this morning, 18 hours on a soft sleeper. by no means traveling in luxury (the LP guide has a lot to answer for, where were the potted plants, tv, wood paneling?!) but it was nice. 4 to a compartment, the other 2 was a chinese army dude and an aussie, both guys were quiet and considerate.

its been a good start, checked into the traffic hotel, 40 yuan for a bed in a triple, nice hotel. managed to get money out of the bank, found out organising tickets into tibet is easy. might visit some pandas today, go to leshan for the big buddha tomorrow. going to songpan for a horse trek for about 5 days. chengdu is a good city to be in. will be heading to tibet sometime next week. amazng what a good night's rest does to your disposition! am feeling great.

10.38am. Aug 9, 2004. chengdu city

Kunming City - it's nice here

Spent today hiking around the Western Hills and it was great. I was way too harsh about not liking China yesterday, I guess the train trip just did me in. This city is real chill and laidback, the locals here are friendly and whenever I ask them for directions or help, I don't see their eyes shift as they wonder how much to screw me over for. I like it here and perhaps our hasty departure was a litle premature. Never mind, to bigger and better things in Chengdu! Another 18 hour train ride tomorrow but in luxury!! Actually looking forward to this soft sleeper that is supposed to be top notch.

So today we hiked around the only mountain range in Kunming, it was really nice to get back to nature, stretched our legs out, visited some cool caves, temples, took a 17 min chairlift up to Dragon's Gate where some monk and his pals spent way too many years chipping at cliff faces to create the masterpieces that we saw. That was impressive. So I must be the clumsiest person alive, managed to slip on some stone steps on the way to viewing the Dragon's Gate. My arm is swollen and bruised...matches well with my legs as it is still a bruised and scabby mess. I am so clumsy...!

Am having money problems already! Can't access my ATM account! Grrrr...when I get back to Sydney I am changing banks.

Kunming City, Aug 7. 8.40pm

19 hour train trip from hell

Just survived a 19 hour train ride from Guilin to Kunming. We bought hard sleeper seats which I have never had a problem with having travelled on other long distance trains before via hard sleeper. This one was particularly bad though. I guess it didn't start off too well when I found this big, smelly, old man sitting on my hard sleeper. Mine was the lower bunk and usually ppl sit on that bed during the day. This guy was gross though, constantly wiping the sweat off his brow, looked like he was gonna hurl something big from deep within his guts. I asked him politely if he wanted to trade his middle bunk for my lower one since he was so comfortably spread on my bed anyway. He didn't have a problem with it. Next all the luggage compartments were full and I had to strap my big, fat backpack to the foot of my narrow bed. I threw the used blanket onto the rest of the bags on the baggage compartment and busted out my sleeping bag to the consternation of the other passengers.

So squeezed in this little bed with all my luggage, the speakers blaring some god-awful love story in chinese, I found it difficult to get to sleep. Added to that were these 2 chinese girls talking into the night about their crappy love lives and when I asked them politely at midnight to shut the hell up, they actually increased their decibel level. So lack of sleep, no food, feeling rather dirty, Fiona and I emerged bleary-eyed at Kunming station and thought about shortening our China trip. I know; whinge whinge whinge, you guys are probably sick of hearing about it. The ppl are just too pushy, rude and selfish. We have decided to cut out the entire Lijiang itinerary and head straight to Chengdu. We booked soft sleeper seats for the day after and have been assured by the lonely planet guide that it is luxurious and u can turn the damn speakers off.

So this means we have cut out a week on our china trip, although since it is high season here, it might take at least a week to organise our flights into Tibet. So we may well end up spending a week in Chengdu waiting for flights to sort itself out. So I guess our trip isn't really cut back after all. We planned to do the Tiger Leaping Gorge in Lijiang but found out it was closed for the month due to monsoon season and the danger of doing the trek in the rain. So that made up our mind about crossing Lijiang off.

I'm not sounding very positive at the moment, I guess just the constant haggling and dealing with the locals has drained me and Fiona out. We both agreed that Tibet is the place to be right now. Of course there is so much to look forward in Tibet, Mongolia and Japan that there is no point staying in a country that we are not really enjoying. Yangshuo was fantastic though and am glad we did it. Am glad I am in China too, if only to do what we can and see the beautiful scenery before it all gets revamped by the government. I guess I sound really negative about the people here, which seems rather rascist given that I am Chinese myself, but the pysche and mentality here has been conditioned to such a degree that it seems to be a completely different race. Mao has a lot to answer for, first the suppression of his people and then Deng suddenly lifting the lid on their poverty and giving everyone a chance to be entrepeneurs...I can see how it can really mess with the minds of the people.

Kunming is a nice city to rest in for the next day though and the Camellia Hotel where we are staying in is really nice.

Aug 6, 2004. 6.19pm. Kunming city

Minority Villages

The past couple of days have been fairly tame, went to Longsheng for the Dragon Backbone terraces. This was an interesting village that had pretty amazing architecture. The rice paddies were about 2m wide but they were stacked like steps along the mountain and they wound about in waves. The designs of the terraces were impressive but wasn't really worth the 4hr bus ride to get there. It was tourist mecca too, there were stonepath trails to take you from one view to another. Am getting a little weary of the hyper-commercialism of this place. So that took the entire day, a welcome change and not too strenuous on my sore legs.

Today we caught a local bus to a village called Xing Ping that Bill Clinton made famous on one of his visits. The village itself was really laidback, I imagine what Yangshuo would have looked like a few years ago before it became a mecca for backpackers. This one lady dogged us for ages wanting us to take the Li River tour. The boat trip price was rather high and while we were walking to the port, the sky opened up and we got drenched. So we hitched a ride back into town and decided to climb to the peak of one of the mountains for the view of the town. The climb itself was great though near the top it got pretty scary with the slippery steps. It got pretty steep and we needed to climb up a ladder to get to the top. Definitely not good for ppl with a fear of heights. The view was amazing though, and we were lucky to have it all to ourselves for about an hour. We just lazed around on the lone pagoda that was donated by a Japanese person, saw the skies change as the sun peeked out again. It was a gorgeous view.

The climb down was rather treacherous though, the steps were very slippery, quite narrow. I am getting weary of constantly fearing for my life, lol. Ok am exaggerating (slightly) it was a scary descent but do-able, just had to be careful and slow, one slip really would have meant going over.

So tomorrow we are leaving Yangshuo and catching a 19hour train ride to Kunming. From there we are heading to Dali and Lijiang. As we were languishing in our hotel room this afternoon, we decided to cross Emei-shan off our list, sounds like a huge tourist trap, 3 day up and down a mountain blocked with tourists and aggressive monkeys. Am getting tired of constantly fighting off touts, wondering who we can trust and who is ripping us off. I miss Japan, how straightforward and friendly people are. Maybe am getting homesick. Looking forward to Tibet and Mongolia though. And of course seeing the rest of southern China. Maybe the heat is getting to me.

Dragonbone Terrace - Longsheng

Looks like this censorship thing is a little sporadic... am able to access my blog from this internet cafe, but will have to be quick because Fiona lost her access soon after publishing her post. This is funny, a race against some blocking software I imagine.

We woke up to banging on our door this morning at 7.30am. We slept through the alarm and woke to some angry banging from the receptionist telling us our bus was waiting for us downstairs! We had booked a bus to go to a minority village in Longsheng, a 4 hour drive away from Yangshuo. We jumped up, got dressed and ran out the door in about 5 mins, then proceeded to sleep the 4 hours to Longsheng.

Longsheng is famous for their rice terraces, an awesome feat of architecture, just row upon row of 2m wide rice paddies, that slope and curve around huge hills. It's hard to explain. A little anticlimactic after we saw some awesome pictures on postcards though. It was a nice relaxing day all round, just roaming around the terraces, being hassled by women who live in the villages who wanted to show us their long hair.

Found it a little difficult to climb up and down the steps though, my legs were hurting and found that my thumb was infected from a deep cut yesterday from the cave. I am a walking mass of bandaids! lol

All else is fine, we managed to get train tickets for Kunming on the 5th so heading out of Yangshuo then. Tomorrow we are checking out another village made famous by Bill Clinton on one of his visits. It may well be too touristy so we might head back early. Am completely addicted to the bubble tea and noodles here.

Near death experience

So it has taken me the rest of today to process what happened at our water cave adventure. I think I was suffering post-traumatic disorder bc I came back to our hotel after the water cave and just crashed but woke up to a nightmare of sliding down a rock face to a canyon below. That was what nearly happened.

Let me start from the beginning: this morning Fiona and I went to meet Chufa who discovered some new water cave that he was keen for us to try out. Knowing that we were only the 2nd group of ppl to have explored this mountain made it really appealing. We were idealistic and full of pioneering spirit! No, we were just stupid. He wanted to try out this new cave with some guinea pigs and we happily paid for the privilege. The word water cave sounds misleading; it's more like an exploration from one side of a mountain to another. Inside the mountain there are canyons, sheer drops, water falls, stalactites and stalagmites, muddy pools and crystal clear waters. When we entered the mountain, my first thought was; this reminds me of Lord of the Rings...where Gandalf fell to his death.

So being the first few ppl to have checked out this mountain, there were no safety measures, no rails, 2 areas with ropes to scale rock faces, no nets, nothing. There were 3 ladders throughout the mountain Everything was going fine, probably about 2 hours into our exploration when we had to scale this rock face that had no hand or foot holds. We had to swing onto the rock face from a ledge and scramble up, it was a long drop below. The Fiona had scrambled her way up with the help of Chufa who was hanging off the side of the rock face, somehow wedged in. My turn came and I just kept sliding off, my sandals were caked in about 1cm of mud, so it was one slippery surface against another. Somehow I had managed to scramble halfway up, Chufa had grabbed my hand so the only reason I was not sliding off was bc he had a hold on me. BUT...his hold on the rock face was precarious so as I saw him sliding down towards me, I told him to let go of my hand otherwise he was going to slide right off. Once he did that, I slid down the rock face for about a metre, heading towards certain death or at the very least a couple of broken bones. I was just madly clawing about trying to find something to hold on to. Fiona was at the top having a heart attack as she saw me sliding down into the canyon. Somehow I swung my legs over to the left and got on a ledge, basically i was back where I started.

The next 10 minutes or so involved Chufa and Fiona trying to work out how I could climb up the rock face, I was trying to get the mud off my sandals so I could get some grip...I tried again, again getting halfway, this time both Chufa and Fiona grabbed a hold on each arm and pulled me up the rock face, it was a painful experience but I was just so glad they were both strong enough to pull me up. At the top I found myself completely caked in mud, my legs and arms cut up from the rocks.

Coming back to the hotel and taking a shower, I was able to take stock of my injuries; mass bruises all over my knees, scrapes all along my legs and arms. I am walking around with a slight limp bc it hurts so friggin' much. BUT am glad I am alive to tell this story. The rest of the cave exploration was just as bad but thankfully no more near death experiences, just lots of hairy sheer drops, tight crevices that we had to squeeze through, I think I was just blanking it all out as I tried to assimilate what had nearly happened.

It was a dangerous experience, one I would never repeat. The guide was irresponsible to have taken us through the mountain with no gear except for a hard hat and torch. I really don't want to think too much on what might have happened and how exactly they would be able to get help to us in the middle of a mountain with no set paths or lights to guide the way, how they would squeeze through areas that both Fiona and I barely squeezed through, walking waist deep through water, knee deep through mud. Don't want to think about it now otherwise I am going to get upset. Well tomorrow is going to be one tame day of going to a minority village. Very tame. I need it! Signing out, alive from Yangshuo.

Karst Country - Yangshuo

Got to Yangshuo yesterday after a long day of traveling. We completely lucked out getting off the bus and walking into the first hotel we saw. Funnily enough the hotel name is Fawlty Towers Hotel. The Hard Seat Cafe is right next door! lol The hotel came highly recommended from this website I had been looking up and luckily they had one double room left with its own bathrm for 20 yuan each...! yep thats about $US2.40 for the night. So the room has no air-con, the fact that it is somewhat below ground level makes it cool, though a little damp and musty! lol. It's a good room in a good location and Fiona and I were able to hang our washing all over the place.

Last night we roamed around the town and stumbled onto this road packed with stalls and cool shops. Despite my vow to not buy anything, the seal was quickly broken and 2 gorgeous dresses later, I have a package ready to send home already. Sux having no willpower. Fiona is no help either, she just keeps telling me how cheap it all is and I should buy up otherwise I will regret it. Of course she is right and tonight no doubt will be another shopping expedition.

We spent the day cycling around the countryside on our 10 yuan mountain bikes. So glad we chose the mountain bikes instead of the granny bikes bc the rocky roads were really bumpy!! The scenery was beautiful, in the beginning we had to stop every few hundred metres to take photos. Beautiful karsts rising every which way we looked, rice paddies, farmers pulling oxen. It was fantastic. We rode all the way to Moon Hill to hike up to the top and get a panoramic view of the town.Somehow we ended up meeting this guy called Chufu - of Chufu Water Caves! He discovered these 2 water caves (Black Buddha Water Cave, Chufu's Water Cave). As luck would have it, he discovered a new water cave, which he has named..."NEW WATER CAVE". We were enquiring about checking his old caves but he mentioned this new cave that only one other group of ppl have visited. It will take about 3-4 hours to go through the water cave, inside there will be wading through crystal clear waters, waterfalls, mud baths, lots of climbing up and down to go through the mountain and arrive at the other side. We don't really know much about this cave since no-one else has been through it (except for that one other group), he was pretty keen for us to try this one out and charged us a ridiculously low price [after some bargaining] of 50 yuan each. His normal charge is about 120yuan for his other caves, and he said this new cave is heaps better. Feel like such pioneers as we will only be the 2nd group of ppl to check it out. So tomorrow we will be meeting him and he will be conducting the tour himself. Pretty exciting stuff.

So after these negotiations, we continued cycling around rather aimlessly, trying to veer away from huge cow poo and big rumbling tour buses. We ended up on a little trail away from the main roads and cycled through that with the river Li on one side, gorgeous karsts rising on the other, rice paddies all around. Off to have some grapefruit stuffed with pork and maybe some beer fish (the local specialty). Signing out from Fawlty Towers Hotel, Yangshuo

Friggin' Chinese Censorship

As much as I would love to be updating my weblog right now, here I am in an internet cafe in Shanghai, finding myself blocked out of accessing it! Yes now I know I really am in China, their censorship laws are unbelievable.

So I guess you guys are going to be getting regular email updates from me, that is until they deem hotmail to be too controversial. Better not slag off the chinese govt anymore, they probably have spyware on these terminals and I may well find myself carted off after I hit the send button.

Am in Shanghai right now, good news is weather isnt as hot as it is in Japan. Can you believe i was only here about 4 months ago and my favourite restaurant has already been closed down? Was a little disoriented trying to find our way from the bus stop to the youth hostel, some buildings have changed their neon signs and that was what I used as landmarks the last time.

We managed to book airline tickets from Shanghai to Guilin tomorrow, so heading out of this beautiful smog-filled city at noon. Am itching to get to inaka and experience the fresh country air. From Guilin we are going to Yangshuo to view cool karsts, caves and probably do some hiking around the mountains. If you were puzzled as to what karsts are, you're not alone, I had to google it to find out. Sounds pretty cool though. Will stay there for a few days, cycling and chilling. From there we might head on to Longsheng for the rice terraces, should be beautiful this time of year.