Lijiang Photos

It's a bit fuzzy, but the view from our guesthouse over the old Lijiang was just beautiful. It's UNESCO Heritage-Listed, so I think there is an obligation to look after the town and keep it from development.



These red lanterns seem to be the done thing in Lijiang - at dusk most restaurants fire them up for the tourists, and the effect is really nice. Lijiang has an amazing system of canals and wells that in the old days would supply the town with fresh water. Some of the old wells are even in use today, in fact there was one right next to our guesthouse.



Although it was a little bit touristy (like everything in Dali and Lijiang), you could purchase these little lanterns and float them down the canals. Lots of parents were buying them for their children for the photo opportunity. As you can see, I was sucked in too and it makes for a great photo.

I had to get up early to get these next two pics - since the crowds generally start picking up at about 8.30am. The cobbles, canals and red lanterns were so beautiful, especially the cobbles from a geologists' point of view. They were mostly a colourful silicified breccia with the odd bit of limestone thrown in.



And finally, some beautiful old buildings, some of them even a bit crooked for effect. Lovely really. Except imagine the image below with about three thousand tourists crammed in shoulder-to-shoulder........


That's it for now, I'm off for a nice lunch and maybe another of those delicious smoothies that they do so well here in Laos. xox

Pics from Kunming, Yuanyang and Dali

Hello, here's some pics as promised. The first one is of the view from our hostel in Kunming. It looks out over the (unfortunately named) "Golden Arches" in the city centre. The view was mesmerising, especially at sunset with a beer. It's a pity about the pollution, but after the rain it seemed to dissipate a bit.



Here's us at the Shi Lin, the Stone Forest near Kunming. It's a UNESCO Heritage site, so it was a pleasure to visit since it was clean and had toilets and everything. It was a bit of a strange experience to have to share a National Park with so many thousands of other tourists, but we found our own few minutes of peace and quiet by waiting in the one spot for for the gap between tour groups.



Below is a spectacular view of the rice terraces in Yuanyang, to the south-east of Kunming. They were difficult to reach, and there wasn't much else in the town but rice terraces, but it was certainly worth it. The drizzle was almost constant during our stay, but I think these terraces could be amazing and almost other-worldly during a good sunset


This is one of the towers along the old city walls in Dali. We (stupidly) paid Y$2 to go up there and found out that it wasn't much more than a tacky tea-house nowadays, but at least you could get an idea of the views they would have gazed at all those centuries ago. Note the hordes of Chinese tourists in the foreground.


And finally, a photo just for fun... I snapped these two reclining in the back of a truck while on a bus. How you could possibly relax as a passenger on Chinese roads is beyond me, but I suppose these guys were locals.



More pics to come - I have found a reasonably quick internet connection here in Luang Prabang, but it's on a mac so I'm struggling with a few things. xox

Laos!

In short: Laos is great, and but we miss China too.

We found out just before we left China that there had been a series of bomb blasts on the local buses in Kunming, so there was LOADS of extra security at the train and bus station. Ignorance is bliss however, so for the first few bus trips before seeing the news we were totally unaware.

We have just finished three days on a trekking tour out of Luang Nam Tha in Northern Laos. It's monsoon season here, so there was water, water everywhere, and the accompanying mosquitoes and mud. The first day was a four hour kayak down the Nam Tha river, which was mostly relaxing due to the volume of water in the river. Pete had great fun falling out in the rapids and cooling himself off. We then spent the next two days walking between villages and staying with the locals. The food was excellent, cooked by the villagers and our guides, although the accommodation was a little rustic. Pete and I have sent our boots home so we did the trek in a pair of sports sandals, complete with mud and leeches. I have a particularly appetising pic of our bloody, wrinkled wet feet on day three. It was certainly nice to have a hot shower at the end of it all. We were also looking forward to doing our washing - all 6kg of it, stinky and damp from so much time in the jungle.

We stayed in Nong Khiaw for two nights and yesterday we caught a boat down the river to Luang Prabang, where we are now. It's a great little city, tropical but full of creature comforts (and not to mention more tourists than we have seen in a long time). We have forked out the princely sum of US$15 for a brand new room with private bathroom.. and that really is expensive for Laos, no joke! This morning we went to the Scandinavian Bakery and enjoyed warm chocolate croissants, toast and coffee. Pete and I are both getting over a little cold so the plan for today is to take it easy and get stuck into the wats and museums tomorrow.

Chinese Food

Hello again, just an update to let you all know I'm still alive and OK. We're having a rest day in Kunming - although battling the crowds on the buses to get to the post office didn't seem like resting to me - before some long bus trips to get into Laos. We have just conveniently finished our respective books, and as luck would have it we have swapped them for another two good books for the trip ahead that neither of us have read.

I suspect the food in Laos will be pretty good but I'll miss the food from here, that's for sure. We have tried so many great dishes, most of them vegetarian since pork's not really my thing, and they've pretty much all been fantastic. A few of my favourites have been braised eggplant, chilli tofu and the noodles you get from the takeaway shops for about 60c. Yesterday on the bus from Lijiang to Dali our lunch was included, although we didn't know about that until the conductor dragged us into the lunchroom! The Chinese love to eat and slurp and make a mess - just the way food should be enjoyed I suppose. xox

A Few Quick Thoughts

If Dali was a disappointment, then Lijian and Tiger Leaping Gorge have made up for it in bucketloads! We are in Lijiang, after just completing the Tiger Leaping Gorge mini-trek yesterday. The views were spectacular, probably the most impressive I've ever seen in my life, and we met some friendly and interesting people along the way. I don't have much net time left atm, but I can't wait to post some pics of this spectacular area. Keep your eyes peeled, thanks for stopping in. xox

Hong Kong

Hello, here's a few new pics from the last few days. Hong Kong was a bit of a blur, but so much fun. It's like all the good bits from China, without most of the bad. We only had four days there and were a bit jetlagged for the first bit, so we didn't tick off every single tourist attraction. You have to save some for later, right? This first photo is of the upper levels escalator, the longest one in the world I think. Heaven knows what the locals did before that thing was installed - on a sticky day you would have arrived at the top in a sweating mess!


We also caught the Peak Tram up the adjacent hill to take in the view of the city. Despite the smog (probably haze from humidity as well) the city is beautiful from a distance. And a bit quieter, without the traffic and Indian tailors.

Here's me being a bit indulgent with photography. There are some really beautiful buildings in HK, and some downright ugly ones too. This is one of the better ones, and captured in a rare cloudless moment.

On our last day in HK we decided to have a lazy day and head to the beach. Catching buses is a bit difficult without any Cantonese skills, but we managed to follow the hordes and get off where we wanted to, at Stanley. I think Stanley is where the ex-pats hang out, since there's all sorts of different services there, from wine cellars to English Pubs. We first went to the beach for a swim, walking delicately through the sharp gravel sand to a shady spot. Afterwards we just happened to be walking past 'The Pickled Pelican', an ex-pat pub and caught some rugby.

That's it for now. Internet connections in China are almost always shockingly slow. More pics to follow next time. xox

Dali: A Disappointment?

Well, as per the title, we're in Dali right now. Amongst the gaudy tourist shops catering towards the local Chinese tourists, you can catch rare glimpses of the town's old charm, but sadly I think the days of Dali's magic were lost years ago. Tour bus after tour bus drops Chinese tourists off outside the old gates on the south side of town and there they are greeted by locals dressed in traditional costume that take them on their whirlwind tour of the town. It's certainly not my idea of travelling, but that's what the masses are demanding, at the expense of independent travellers.

There's lots of great shopping to be done though: the local Bai people's specialty is silver jewellery and dark-blue batik and it's cheap, too. Today we went to the Shaping markets and bought some batik bags for A$2! Awesome! I think tomorrow I'll buy some more fabric and send a big parcel home.

Tomorrow we plan to catch the cable-car up the nearby mountains, some of which I believe are over 4000m above sea level. I will be taking my jacket, that's for sure. I think there is some spectacular trekking to be done around Dali, but I think we're feeling a bit apathetic for that at the moment. The food in town is too good and too cheap!

Thanks for stopping by. xox

South America in a nutshell

There sure are a lot of photos to go through, but I'll try to put a few of the best ones from Peru, Ecuador and North America on here to cover the gap from the other blog. The first one here is us at Laguna 69 near Huaraz in Peru. The walk up there was pretty exhausting, as you would expect at 4000-5000m above sea level. But the view was worth it, as you can see.



The coast of Peru was awesome, although it was hard to believe it at the time since our room at Huanchaco was so dreadful (a 44 gallon drum in the shower? Electric shocks from the hot water system and unwashed bedsheets?). The photo below shows part of the restored pre-Incan ruins at Chan Chan. Before restoration you wouldn't even know there was an ancient city there since sand dunes had almost completely covered it.



Our stay in Vilcabamba, Ecuacor mostly involved food, food poisoning, wine and jungle-walking, so the only pic of note is this one, of a gorgeous transparent butterfly, but it's a spectacular photo, don't you think?



Ecuador is mountain-biking heaven, so we have loads of pics from three different trips. I didn't ride the last two, since I had a big accident on the first one and had a multicolour bruise on my bum and a worrying injury to my shoulder that took weeks to heal. The first was a ride down Chimborazo Volcano near the town of Riobamba. The weather was really cold (snow!) at the top but much more temperate near Riobamba.



The journey north to Quito was also great, and we stopped for a good few days in Banos for a rest. Banos is the Spanish word for 'bath' I think, no surprises since the town is renowned for its healing thermal springs. The downside is that the springs are heated by the very active Volcan Tungurahua. Laguna Quilotoa was also excellent, it's a young volcanic lake near Quito and in the early morning the colours were just spectacular. You'd need a really wide-angle lens to catch it all so you'll just have to extrapolate from my pics.



We finished off our stay in South America with a relaxing few weeks in Quito. Quito is a heritage-listed historic town with loads of restored colonial buildings, although the high crime rate takes the gloss off things somewhat. We spent a good few days sitting in cafes and enjoying the lovely views during the tropical thunderstorms.



There are loads of things to do in Quito but of course the itinerary included a couple of mtb trips - one to the thermal springs at Papallacta and another one down Cotopaxi Volcano. I've put two pics in here, the first is of the phenomenal view from the last refugio atop Cotopaxi (you might be able to spot Pete, the one in blue somewhere on that road).

The second pic is from the end of that day, over a thousand metres lower. Despite the mud and rain, I've never seen someone so happy as Pete after that ride!


Well, that's South America in a nutshell. When I get another chance I'll catch up with the photos from the US and Canada. Hope you like it.

Squat toilets and no language skills!

I think mainland China might be more bearable than I thought. We flew into Kunming and were instantly surprised at how unexpectedly ordered the driving was, and how new all the buildings and services were. There are certainly no 30 year old Bolivian buses here, at least that we have seen so far. The toilets are another story however, but I suppose it's OK because we didn't have our sights set too high on that front anyway.

We are staying at a great hostel right in the centre of the action, and it has an outside deck where we sat last night taking in the view. At 11pm there were still people everywhere, worshipping their preferred god, the one of shopping. The progress and scale of China has to be seen to be believed, I suppose. Kunming is a modest city of about 1.4m people (I think), but is only one of hundreds, if not thousands of others.

We have absolutely no idea about the Chinese language, and are being put to shame by all the other seasoned travellers here who can get around fine with their Mandarin skills. But the Chinese people themselves are quite accommodating, and are ready to have a laugh at a moment's notice, even if they can't understand us and we can't understand them. We both feel quite stupid because we can't even order anything at a restaurant, and we have had to resort to pointing at menus and maps like a total idiot. Being so blonde at the moment has its downside - All the little kids stare at me and the girls in the shops dare each other to say 'hello'! I certainly stand out in the crowd.

We are having a quiet day today and tomorrow we are going out to the stone forest which is quite touristy but apparently worth it. It's about 120km from town. For those interested, it's an area of karst limestone pillars.

I'll also try to put up some photos from America that weren't on the previous blog.

xox for now.

Hello World

Well, here's my first go at blogging for real, since the high cost of internet in the US killed my other rigidly-structured blog on travelblog.org. I loved writing about everything we had done, but struggled to create entries for each location.

We are both well, and enjoying our short stay in Hong Kong. We flew in from Amsterdam yesterday (the 3rd) and had to chase up our Chinese visa straight away, since the other one expired on the 2nd of July. The first travel agent wanted an onward ticket from China, so we had to shop around to find one that knew the ropes and was streamlined enough (although pricey). We picked it up this afternoon at 5.30pm, and our flight to Kunming leaves on Monday! Talk about cutting it fine......

Other than chasing up visas, we've been resting and checking out the mayhem on the streets. Oh, and dodging the Indian tailors and salesmen, they're everywhere. And they're also insistent, so you have to be a bit mean and ignore them. We're staying at the Chungking Mansions on Nathan Road so the building is filled with them.

That's it for now, will get some photos happening on the blog soon. Thanks for dropping by.