...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
Wednesday, August 11, 2004
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.
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.
Monday, August 09, 2004
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
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
Saturday, August 07, 2004
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
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
Friday, August 06, 2004
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
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
Wednesday, August 04, 2004
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.
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.
Tuesday, August 03, 2004
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.
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.
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
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
Monday, August 02, 2004
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.
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.
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