Monkeys, Castles and early starts

I began writing this at 5am as I waited for the first subway to run on my way to the world’s biggest fish market, where tuna is sold whole for astronomical figures (think 5k plus). The streets are all empty and the metro has only now started to fill up. 

This on which is my last full day, is hopefully my earliest start. I’ve seen 4am before on my trip, but not from this side of sleep. Not that I ‘slept’ particularly well. My dreams are playing havoc with my perception (keep dreaming I'm at home, which is not particularly pleasant.) I don’t even think I probably nodded off until 2am. Giving me 2 hours of sleep, even though I went to bed at 11.

However, as its best to do things chronologically... says who? Here we go - Reeeeeeeeeeeeewind.

Ito as foretold last time, led to Nagano-Ken. My base for this area would be Nagano itself, home of the winter Olympics 1998. A few monuments/signs still hint at this and is Naganos main claim to faim. On my first day, the weather was still lovely and I went walking around Nagano. The main attraction is a temple called Zenko-Ji. As I arrived just before closing time it was quite quiet, this gave a nice feel, a more temple esque feel actually. The other thing to note about temples in Japan is that they are all very spacious, and have lots of greenery surrounding in the gardens.

Sights of Nagano itself done for the day, I had dinner, I think this was either noodle soup or pre-made sashimi due to being in ultra-cheap mode. These quick/easy/cheap dinners are actually pretty tasty.

The second day of Nagano involved taking a bus up towards the hills for a walk to Yudanaka to visit the ‘snow monkeys’ (Please note there was no snow at the moment). Despite the lack of snow, there were plenty of monkeys. Unlike the monkeys in China, these ones were pretty docile and indifferent to the presence of the humans. This is probably in a large part to the banning of feeding them. Before venturing to visit the monkeys I had a bath in the local hut. After all this I had some local style ‘soba’ Noodles. I thought these were dull and bland (They are however gluten free for all you food allergy people).

Third day was Matsumoto castle day, the temperature rocked up to 30 degrees. Matsumoto is a city southwest of Nagano and home to an original wooden style castle. This was one of my favourite castles/sights, it overlooked mountains, of which snow could still be visible. You could go inside the castle and visit the top.
In the evening of this day we had a Sake party, all of which came from Fukushima, in a sort of solidarity movement. We also had various snacks, including but not only Grasshoppers, Sea Urchin and Jellyfish – not all tasty.

Day four it rained, so I did nothing. Day five I went to Kamakura. Not a lot happened in Kamukura, I walked about 16km, saw another big Buddha (this makes four at least) and some more temples as per the usual. The real highlight of kamukura was the guesthouse. Another traditional style with all the walls being removal doors. We had family cooked dinners of bbq fish and Takoyaki (a sort of octopus dumpling) both were excellent and the atmosphere perfect.

Time for Tokyo, I almost feel as if Tokyo should be its whole own post, so why not? Coming tomorrow I reckon, when you’ll hear about Ninja’s, spaghetti metros, maid & cat cafes and a whole host of other weirdness.

As always more pictures on the picasa, and even more tomorrow. Enjoy.

The sun may rise in the east....

I have now been in Japan for a few weeks. First impressions were, in contrast to China, Clean, modern, efficient and expensive. Exactly what I was expecting. Its harder to go 'native' than in China because western comforts far from being a rarity (as in China) are more common. Before I delve into what I have been doing, I shall point out some Japanese quirks...

1. Food, Although relatively normal they have some right proper odd foods, ie whole strawberries with cream in bread. This is just bizarre...

They also eat poisonous fish, raw horse etc. I will go into this in more detail at the relevant time.
They do have eating sorted, whether you are in a group or alone. Alone you sit at the bar/cooking area and watch them. This is great for loners like me, no longer do I feel a social outcast at meal times.

2. Fashion - (as expected) people here dress quite ridiculously from time to time. People my age often dress like 8 year olds, in princess costumes etc or just odd clothes. There are plenty of people who dress normally too, but when its weird its extreme.

3. Toilets - Almost the same except for all the fun gadgetry on the side. The seats are often heated, has a French style bidet squirter that can be adjusted for strength of water splash and temperature.

4. Automatic doors - More a pet peeve than a quirk. The automatic slidy doors open too slowly. They don't start opening until you are inches from the door. I've had some close instances where I almost walked in to the door.

5. Umberellas - Whether its raining or sunny you will see about a 1000 umberellas.

6. Shoes - Shoes come off almost everytime you enter a building, from the Temples to Restaurants and Hostels/Hotels.

7. Lastly, Onsen/Sento (baths) These are dotted around everywhere. Due to Japans volcanicity plenty of rich mineral water seaps out of the ground, where a bath house will spring up. Unlike a swimming pool in England, you enter naked and most baths are segregated, although some communal ones do exist.

(They also drive on the correct side of the road [left] and obey traffic laws, oh my days)
If I think of anymore I'll add them when I need to.
___

Onwards to travel times. After leaving Korea, I got my boat and slept on the floor overnight. Ariving in Shimonoseki I saw all it had to offer, it was nice but boring. I saw some clowns, the aquarium and climbed a hill to see it and Kyushu Island.

I also went to the fish market, which was fun seeing all the fresh food being made into Sashimi. Shimonoseki is also famous for its 'Fugu' Puffer fish to you and me. It is the poisonous kind that if prepared wrong, you die. You will most likely know of this fish from the Simpsons episode where Homer eats it and thinks he is going to die. I of course ate it too. It was nice... and I have lived to tell the tale.

Next stop on the tour was Hiroshima. I don't think I need to point out quite why Hiroshima is most famous. I visited peace park and the A-bomb history museum. I was impressed by the unbiased portrayal of the events leading up to the A-bomb, as a historian who has studied this I felt it was quite a balanced report and gave both sides. The Museum itself housed roof tiles, pieces of clothing and other artefacts from the aftermath of the blast, including pictures and written records. It was quite a harrowing experience seeing the damage and suffering caused. Hiroshima itself as can be expected for a city rebuilt is quite modern and clean. Despite the sadness of the museum I liked Hiroshima. I also ate the 'speciality'* food here which is called Okonomiyaki, a sort of sandwich dish made up of a pancake on one side and a omelette on the other with noodles/seafood inbetween.

* I say Speciality food here because many places also claim Okonomiyaki as a speciality. (There is a photo on picasa)

Continuing the whistle stop tour, I moved on to Osaka. Osaka has been my favourite place so far in Japan. Bigger than Hiroshima, it has a sense of excitement/fun that Hiroshima lacked. In fact I liked Osaka so much I went back after Kyoto. Its more bright than Hiroshima, with neon everywhere. The station is huge, comprises about 3 massive department stores and an underground maze of shops and restaurants. It is topped in ridiculousness only by Kyoto's architectually interesting station (more on this later)
In aspects of sites to see, I saw Umeda Sky Building, The Castle, museum of housing, Ebisu Bridge and Amerika Kure. I also went to the aquarium, this hosts a massive tank depicting the pacific, it houses a Whale Shark and a giant Manta.

Amerika Kure and Ebisu Bridge are two spots where the cool kids hang out. Amerika Kure so named because it replicates american culture; musically and fashion wise. Ebisu bridge is smack bang in the middle of Dotombori, the 'nightlife' area and a massively long arcaded shopping street. I just stood in these areas for a few hours watching people, silly fashions and restaurant staff trying to entice customers while I waited for the sun to go down and the neon lights to take full effect.

Kyoto is next. This the old imperial city for quite a long time. It is host to mostly Temples, Shrines and Palaces. It also rained heavily. I saw some temples on the first full day but gave up halfway through as I was soaked to the bone.

(this shows rain pouring off the top of a temple)

The next day I got wet, saw the Imperial Palace gardens, Saw a market which was dull compared to others I have seen. I gave up for lunch, had a hot Caramel Chocolate at starbucks and thankfully the rain stopped. This allowed me to complete the 5km walking trek of Temples/Shrines in the eastern part of Kyoto. (I skipped a few cause once you've seen one temple you've seen them all)

I have forgotten to add that on this second day, I also explored Kyoto's train station. This is another grand looking building surrounded by shops and restaurants. It is 11 stories high, has a skywalk running above the concourse and has steps leading all the way to the top floor.

After Kyoto as noted, I went back to Osaka. From Osaka I made a day trip to visit Nara, specifically to see the largest wooden building in the world. (2/3rds the size of the original!) Here I am in front of it...

There were lots of deer around, who were amazingly tame and friendly despite the warning signs depicting otherwise...

After Nara and a night out in Osaka it was time to venture to Kawaguchiko, at the foot of Mt. Fuji. Lucky with the weather (as with Everest) although cloudy it was clear to see my second iconic mountain of the trip.
On day two I cycled around the area, seeing Bat Cave, Lake Saiko and Lake Kawaguchi with views of Mt. Fuji.

Kawaguchiko's famed dish is raw horse, or 'Basashi', in my haste to try it, I forgot to take a picture. It was very tasty, not chewy in the slightest and distinct. The other famous dish is Hoto noodles, thick noodles like tagliatelle, but thicker and wider.

After Kawaguchi I headed to Ito, on the peninsula to relax for a few days. It is a spring town and my hostel itself is a traditional 100 year old building with a 'Onsen' in the basement. My room also smells of Salt 'n' Vinegar crisps oddly enough.

Thats all for now, Hope you enjoyed this mammoth post of Japan. Nagano, Kamakura and Tokyo still to do. Less than 2 weeks of asia left :(. More Photos on the Picassa/facebook pages.

Top Of The World

The title of my blog being Sauntering Vaguely Downwards, it hasn't made a lot of sense that most of my travel has been Northwards (up) and up mountains. But Now i've been to the top of the world (or as close as im ever going to get) everywhere is now officially 'downward'. Thus here we go, travels in Tibet.

To get to tibet one must first jump through some hurdles set by the goverment, this was made a bit difficult as I was not in Chengdu when I was fixing the permit. Scans and emails later all was achieved and I had acquired a permit (which we never showed to anyone at all) Actually the permit I have is only a photocopy, the real permit was never really shown to us. Anyway enough permit talk.

Much more exciting, Trains. The train ride takes 44 hours. We had beds in the standard sleeping area. There was also soft seats, now seats on chinese trains are often over crowded places, I can't imagine doing it for 44 hours. Unfortunately we had to cross these war zones to get to the restaurant car. This meant crossing and climbing over people sleeping on the floor in amongst the rubbish they had thrown there. The train was quite uneventful except for some out standing views of the Qinghai plateau at about 3000 metres looking out on to what appeared to be an endlessly flat desert. Watched the sunrise come up over a mountain here too.

On too Lhasa then. Lhasa is the capitail of Tibet resising at an altitude of about 3400 metres. It has a heavy military presence, have regular patrols and you are not allowed to photograph them. This was my first taste of proper oppression (other than the internet firewall). The Tibetans themselves were lovely and welcoming, always having time for us and a genuine smile. The shops sell similar sorta touristy knick knacks and prayer stuff for the pilgrims. Pilgrims, literally 1000s of these guys, Lhasa is the Buddhist version of Mecca, well for yellow hat sect buddhism anyway.

The pilgrims come to see Potala Palace and Johkang temple mainly, as with all holy sites in Tibet the pilgrims walk around these sites a number of times. 3-5 usually. Potala Palace is 5km around and so the trip takes over an hour. Potala Palace is the home of the exiled Dala Lama, the legitimate head of state, in my opinion it is grander than the palace of Versailles. The sky is amazingly blue in Tibet as this picture of the Palace highlights. The guy who built it had 3 wives! One Tibetan, 1 Chinese and one Nepalese (actually wikipedia says he had five)

We also got taken to some quieter temples off the beaten track by our guide, this was not scheduled and was different. It had a much more intimate feel as we viewing actual pilgrims rather than tourists. We wouldn't have known or have had the confidence if we'd been alone. Despite spying on them they still didn't mind us trundling around, infact I think they were pleased.
Lhasa over with (3 days or so, in which Clare I only went to one bar) it was time to hit the road. 8 hours and a temple later we arrived in Shigatse, Shigatse was like a usual chinese town in that it was massive and messy. The temple we saw here had monks debating, ones would stand up and ask questions while those who sat down answered. This was shown on Michael Palins himalayas so thats worth checking out if you can.

Shigatse began day number 2 of 8 hours travel. This time the end goal was EBC (Everest Base Camp) this involved 4 hours on a bumpy dirt track of road. We also passed through some high passes of over 5000metres. We were rewarded with some glimpses of Everest far away in the distance covered by cloud. Not good omens, however this fear was not to last as we got closer it cleared up and we could see it in the fading light. However the best views were still to come. I apologise now squeamish people but its relevant. I felt really ill this night, and around 3am I got up to go outside and inevitably lost the contents of my stomach. (Either altitude or stomach bug). This in itself allowed me to see Everest, lit by nothing except a full moon and the stars in a completely clear sky. This is probably the best view I had but no camera, which can be a blessing. Anyway the clear sky held and the next morning we could see it all clearly as we walked to Base Camp proper, where the real hikers hang out in tents. They were all asleep tho...

Time to leave Everest for the 8 hour return trip to Shigatse and then the extra 8 to Lhasa the following day. Next day flew back to Chengdu which was easy enough, bringing an end to almost 6 days of solid travelling. (I spent ten days in Tibet, 8 of which were travelling days) Chengdu was kinda dull, I like it and I like returning but I was knackered. I gave the hostel staff the Lhasa beer I'd promised and promptly slouched in the garden to recap on the world and relax. On the last day I watched a football match, they were diving and acting up all the time just like normal, Chengdu lost to a rather dubious penalty.

Qingdao was similar, I ate some lovely sea food, walked around on some military ships and went to the brewery. Much to my annoyance the Submarine wasn't open to the public at this time, so thats twice in Qingdao I have now failed to walk around the sub.a In Qingdao I had arrived at 1am, they hadn't a record of my booking, and it was full... sensing disaster they actually stuck me in a double ensuite room for the same price as before, Travelling just like monoply ' Hostel error in your favour, advance direcetly to go' Qingdao's hostel also had lovely big fluffy white dog, and a rooftop bar overlooking the whole city. It was a pretty cool hostel, based in an old observatory.
The boat to Korea was entertaining, I met the only other westerner on it and we played some cards, talked about England, China and common stuff like that.

In Korea on the first day I did some cultural things, Joyghese temple which had lovely lanterns everywhere, Chungyok tower, a palace  a bell tower. Since then I have been socialising with the English teachers out here who have been very accomodating. Clar, this is where I pub crawled again - Goose to Underground to Whos, Back to Underground and then back to whos! Ha. Today I went to a play put on by expats about Vegas.

This brings us to here, tomorrow I may leave for Busan/Japan or I may spend it planning Japan a bit. It depends how I feel.
I may have left some things out, or not but ask away and i'll reply.

oh and heres some Scorpions, bugs and worms I ate :)

One Last Hurrah for the Shoes/Four Legs are better than two

Well, If you may remember in Xiamen I had my shoes fixed by an old man for a pound, well that lasted a month and my shoes are no more. I took them on one last trip, Horse Trekking in Songpan, Many people laughed at my shoes when I showed them the damage, including our guides on the trek, and then they showed me their damaged shoes. Here is a picture of the extent...

Shows how the sole has completely come off, over the trip the right foots sole almost came completely off. They have served me well for over 8 years but have now been consigned to the bin.
Anyway, me and my horse! ...

They were smaller than English horses. Mine was called Hui Hui and was cheeky but friendly. Although I had reigns, the Horse was always in control doing whatever it wanted. On some of the steeper climbs it got a bit hairy but I had complete faith in my Steed, also what they say in Animal Farm 'Four legs are better than two'.


Day one we trekked to a campsite where they proper survival style cut down trees to make a large tent and a fire (the tea was the first thing that went on).

Next and this is just to prove how damn cold it was, it snowed heavily all night long. Here I am entering my tent at 10 in amongst the full on snow...

Next day we awoke up to a winter wonderland, and a local farmer herding a load of Yak through our campsite!

This was a day of ascending the mountain, before we left 4 of our party went back to Songpan ill. This was in itself a blessing, because now it meant we could stay in the Tibetan families house as there would now be space. we went up to Ice Mountain but could not see it due to the clouds. A short trip back to the Tibetan House for lunch/dinner/fire/cards and it was time for bed, when I wake up it would be my birthday, and as a special treat the sun shone and there wasn't a cloud in the sky. We could see Ice mountain and all the other surrounding mountains. I hadn't seen a proper blue sky in China for a very long time so this was quite unexpected.

That's my horse trekking trip in brief. It was totally worth it and the freezing night in the tent only makes you stronger, Tibet may be even colder so this should be a good warmup. Am back in Chengdu while Tibet is sorted out, its warm here, like england, t-shirt and shorts weather. Yesterday I ate Scorpion, Centipedes, beetles and worms. Then we went out to a club where westerners drank for free.


Next up as mentioned is Tibet, all is going fine just waiting for a permit before an 8 day tour of the famous land, including a trip to Everest base camp. Then a flight to Beijing and a train to Qingdao for a boat to Korea, I will be sad to leave as I love this country but it's time for something different.
_____
In responding to a message from David, I realised my response might be of note, more observations of China. He asked me about the Royal Wedding, China as an unfathomable place, changes and signs of dissent so here we go;


'I've got oddly patriotic about the queen actually. Guess its being away as usually im a staunch republican.

Its still as unfathomable, some things just don't make any sense; Traffic, shopping, customs, and drinking all seems to vary from place to place. Its hard to go in to but this country is crazy and awesome at the same time. I.E Westerners drinking Whiskey (Chivas Regal) in a club for free just because we are western and they want more westerners to drink in their club, no idea why, it was busy and full of young, hip and rich Chinese. But I won't complain when the drinks are free :)  


Sichuan is closed to foreigners in places due to it being too tense but we've seen no trouble here at all. So apparently there is some dissent. But otherwise theres none what so ever, things are going well for China so must rich people don't give two hoots, and well the poor are quite happy just to go about there business.

I went to Songpan which was affected by the Earthquake two years ago, there were signs that said things like "Freeway 217 earthquake Ruins" and then you'd see a huge rock lying in the middle of the old road or a bridge halfway over a river and the rest lying in the river, was quite epic, there was as usual massive construction going along almost the whole 5 hour trip to Songpan.

China is different than before, but its also very similar. Tourism is going to change the place over the next few years and not in a good way in my opinion. Imagine one nice tourist town in Britain, then Clone it and turn every other tourist destination into an exact replica. Thats what China are doing with the 'tourist' sites. Identical roads of shops selling the same knock off souvenirs. It doesn't make any sense and im kinda pissed off with it. One of the unfathomable things I guess. In Songpan, Emma who ran the restuarant and tour advice was annoyed too, as they'd had a lovely sign made by some French guys for her restaurant but the government is forcing her to remove it and have a sign exactly the same style as every other shop/restaurant in the whole street with the same facade on the front too.  


Then they go ahead and label the place an 'old town' which can't be any further from the truth. Its stifling originality and makes no sense, why visit a town that looks the same as the last town you visited and sells the same knick knacks?Like I've said previously, China will be a very different place in 5 years. I wonder if they will see the error of their ways, but I doubt it, homegrown tourism is booming and no one seems to care that these roads all look the same. But this is why I go and do different things, climbing mountains, horse trekking, biking etc.


Also ironically everytime I have one of these 'Chinese Tourism Rant's' I inevitably end up doing the chinese tourist thing. Going to Tibet on an organised 8 day trip with a guide (minder) and driver. But the exception here is Im not allowed to do Tibet any other way.  

Chengdu and Around

I've been in Sichuan for a week now, I've also been in Chengdu for almost a week with a three day gap, this is partly because I didn't know what to do and secondly because there is a public holiday on, five days long so going anywhere is a massive hassle, we shall see how busy it gets later on. This time though I should be able to wrangle a photo blog diary update! excited?

A step by step account of Chengdu, Le Shan and Mt Emei.
First up a trip to the Panda's, here we learnt about the breeding programs - Male Panda's are sedated and then massaged with 'electric stimulation'. Fun. Anyway there were many Panda's hanging out in the reserve, mostly eating, with a few younger ones sleeping in trees.

Second day in Chengdu and it was a cycle tour time, usually the best way to get to see a city. Despite the crazy traffic, we all survived and ended the day in a very Sichuanese style spending too long drinking green tea in the Bamboo park. Other sites we saw included a church(Chinese on the outside, normal on the inside) a statue of Mao and a market with alligator meat and snakes for sale.

In the tea garden place you could get your ears cleaned, the impliments the people who do this carry, you wouldn't want anywhere near your ears!

Next up time to leave the city for Le Shan, Home of the Big Buddha. Photos shows this best. Then a quick bus trip the bottom of Mt. Emei for a two day trekking excursion. I slept on the mountain and walked about 40km plus over two days. Sleeping in a temple for one night. I met many Chinese and very few westerners walking the route, I also met some unruly monkeys - I had been warned about these monkeys from a couple of Danish girls in the hostel (they ate rice with ketchup :s) one of the monkeys had bitten her and stolen her Oreo's so I bought a stick which I have named "dragon beats monkey". The mountain itself is forested and very foggy, at the top it was snowy and icy. The Chinese family who I had bunked with and walked some of the way bought me a red Buddhist bracelet, before I decided I had walked enough and didn't fancy another cold wet night on the mountain and got the cable car back down to the bus stop.

Those padlocks on the fence in the last photo are placed there by young couples as good luck emblems. I have some artsy photos of them with the ice hanging off them. But this isn't the time for that.

After I returned to Chengdu I went on the countryside walking trek organised by the hostel, to call it a trek is a laugh after what I'd just done. It was basically an easy two hour jaunt around a country park(imagine Ashton Court) - The real fun was visiting 'Ancient Street' a typical Chinese tourist road selling nothing but souvenirs and mock costumes to take photos of yourself in. This being holiday weekend, was absolutely rammed (as shown below), it also meant that quite a few Chinese not so accustomed to westerners were set to take photos of us. We milked this and happily posed with them jokily charging five kuai (50p) a picture, one girl actually gave me some money but I gave it back. It was very fun being the centre of attention, its easier to enjoy the photo taking if you embrace it, I also took photos of the Chinese taking photos of us.

Thats most of the stuff I have done in Sichuan, one last thing Hot Pot... A big bowl of Chilli's and oil in which you cook your own food. Quite fun and entertaining, tonight I am going to traditional Sichuanese Opera which involves mask changing and fire breathing apparently. After that I will have the other good food in Chengdu, BBQ - also very spicy.

Tomorrow at the bright early time of 730am I am off to Songpan for Horse Trekking, and I am also tentatively looking into going to Tibet... Interesting times now I have a little direction again...

Until next time :D

China 3: Meiyou

First off, Its snowing :D (I am at 3000 metres but yesterday i was
barely needing a jumper.
This has two complications, there was no buses to Deqin today cause of
snow there, and there sure as hell won't be any today/tomorrow so due
to time I think I have to return to Kunming,(Deqin is 6 hours the
other direction and Kunming is a 12 hour bus journey in itself) more
of this later in a series of events I shall a call 'an interesting
series of debarkles'

So as the snow is limiting most activities I shall spill my literal sense.

The title of this email is Meiyou, Pronounced like 'Mayo' - its a damn
useful word to learn, it means "don't have" or "there isn't any" -
this can relate to buses/food/maps almost everything and happens on a
regular basis.

I think we left off at Yangshuo, I sailed down the Li river in almost
permanent fog, it was still pretty good watching huge karsts appear
out of nowhere. Having spent an enjoyable week in Yangshuo it was time
for Kunming. A nice sleeper train ride later and Bam, it the spring
city. It was almost 25 degrees, absolutely lovely although I was
informed it had snowed a week before. Kunming is a nice ish middle
class city, it even has a skater community. Having done the obligatory
temple/pagoda visit it was time to mingle at the hostel. Found the
irish contingent and as it was St paddys day time to find a guinness -
mission successful £6 a pint of watery BUT draught guinness. Ive only
mentioned this as it was st paddys day, but it was good to share
stories with the crew that accompanied us(irish, french, dutch) a
proper european invasion.

The next day I found a music bar with Country music and german beer on
offer, with an absolutely amazing fluffy dog! Some other stuff may
have happened in Kunming, and in a different order but it was time to
move on to the old haunt of Dali. I do realise this has started to
take a drinking slant, but I have done the cultural stuff in Dali
previously (lake, mountains, temples) and it is home to one of my
favourite bars, ever. The main goal I had set was to find some people
to walk Tiger Leaping Gorge with, and the best way of doing this is to
socialise anyway.

Bad Monkey was almost exactly the same with 3 major differences. 1.
Moved location. 2. Brewed its own beer (Wheat Beer, Red Ale, and a
stout. 3. Roast and Apple crumble. The beer and roast was excellent,
due to those to factors and Dali's lovely location, I could live here
for a long time.

Socialising in Dali

Even ferrets drink at Bad Monkey

However, mission achieved of finding (one person at least)- 'Wonton'
John; It was time to head to Lijiang for the Gorge. Finding 3 more
Kiwi's at 'base 'camp' we assaulted the gorge. Day one includes an
ascent of about 800 metres up a a section known as 28 bends. This
brought are elevation to about 2800m. This effort is totally worth it
for the amazing views and scenery. Probably the best thing I have
done. The gorge itself is rather big, surrounded by snow capped
mountains on either side, snown as 'Jade dragon snow mountain'

One day of walking later( 6 hours) we hit a lovely gusethouse (despite
hearing otherwise) had an amazing meal, the best toliet view
ever(sorry jacob an dave it topped the Peninsula) Breakfast view was
also fantabulous.

Next day was an easy trek to the point where you go down to the river.
Heading down to the river involved a 30ft ladder climb of almost sheer
vertical drop. Once reaching the bottom you could look up at the whole
gorge and do some bouldering (there was a sign telling you not to) up
to a big rock right next to the river - despite the sign, there was a
rickety wooden bridge to cross with a lady who charged us a pound for
the privilege.

Walked back the long way by the river to eventually return for a late
lunch and await the minibus back to lijiang.

On the way

Standing on the edge

Sun and Mountains

The river

Walking back

Lijiang is quite similar to Dali, an old town town with lots of
tourist shops. I bought a bracelet (oh yeah Liane, I have decided to
collect Bracelets from every country I visit) for 50p to go with the
necklace i bought on the gorge ( i have become such a girl). More
interestintingly Lijiang is home to the Naxi (at least it was) a
Matriarchal society. This was most evident in the guest house, Mama
Naxi's run by a eccentric bossy lady, Mama Naxi. She was lovely and
absolutely crazy, things had to be done her way and she would have
arguments with her husband in front of everyone and he would always
back down. It felt more like a home than a hostel, she did make you
feel very welcome. As i left she gave me a mama naxi good luck charm
thing - which to this point hasn't brought me much luck as brings me
to an interesting series of debarkles.

The bad luck run started with the Kiwi's, they left me and John to
carry on walking down the road to the ferry port instead of going
right down to the gorge as they didn't have time. They found the ferry
port after an hour long descent to the river - however no ferries!
Another Hour hike back up and they caught a taxi back to where we had
left them arriving two minutes after we had returned.

I left lijiang for Shangri-La which itself is another old town, being
spammed by the government as the FICTIONAL Shangrila - its old town is
so new its still being built. ( I did already know this) but it was
still quite disappointing to see it, what was better was the
tradtional tibetan towns we passed on the way here.
Upon arrival I inquired about the bus to Deqin, the whole reason of
being here "Meiyou mingtian" - None tomorrow, maybe the next day (i've
just heard there are none tomorrow or the next day) so no picturesque
6000metre mountains views for me, will have to setttle for the 5900
from the gorge :P
A bit disappointed with the whole of Shangri-La i went for some Masala
Chai and a slice of carrot cake.
Next for proper dinner, here on thinking that soups were usually small
i ordered a soup and some tibetan noodles (my first choices of Yak
with potato and rice was "meiyou") it turns out that Tibetan noodles
is a soup noodle dish and the soup i ordered was huge - OOPS I
couldn't finish either.

Then i went for a drink, I got hapy when i saw "london pride" on the
menu but alas, yeh I think you've guessed it.
Any this led to an interesting conversation with the chinese in the
bar, who sat completely on my own i had bought drinks for and they
eventually took me for my first KTV experience. Karoake in a private
room(luckily), they enforced me to sing so i was singing such classics
as the Bad touch, Backstreet Boys ( I want it that way) and Bryan
Adams (Everything I Do). Actually if anyones heard me sing you know
its not singing but that doesn't really seem to matter. It was like
glorified Singstar. You only live once.
Having done the KTV they got after hours food. Now this really
consisted of a DIY bbq, they bought an assortment of food, NO i mean
gristle. Chicken feet, bony meat etc. This was improved upon by the
arrival of Oysters with Chilli sauce.

Square in Shangri La

This effectively brings me to now. The snow hampering all travel plans
and sight seeing today which had just been a tibetan style buddhist
temple. But as its still a bit snowy, i'll add some observations on
China.

Obviously China is undergoing drastic changes at a massive pace, this
is most evident in the construction going on almost everywhere you
look. This wasn't so different to last time around. What I have found
different is the influx of chinese tourists, everywhere. The weekends
are particuarly bad, evident in Yangshuo & Dali (Yangshuo was so quiet
after the weekend i thought it was a different town) They still like
to photograph us, while in Lijiang me and John were eating dinner and
a guy set up outside with his tripod and stood for about five minutes
focusing on us!(Im not really complaining I do exactly the same to
them, I just try an be a little discreet) The problem with the tourism
is that any real sites of interest are quickly becoming tourist traps
with commercialism rampant, or with Shangri-La; completely fake - sure
the scenery is pretty good but the towns and people aren't so much
(the rough guides estimates 90% of the origianl Naxi population in
Lijiang have left) The real towns and people, will be ignored by the
chinese tourism and so they won't get a real picture of their own
country. (which is actually a good thing as then they won't be
assimilated)

Tiger leaping gorge is still quite remote and the roads not so good
yet, but they are building the roads and about a million new guest
houses along the road at the Gorge, clearly expecting tourism to pick
up which can be considered both good and bad. But most of the
religious mountains now have cable cars and few chinese make the
proper treks up to them to really experience them. In Yangsuo and
Guilin the peaks that were easy to climb (and no cable cars) I saw
very few chinese make the walk to the top, yet the bottoms were
aplenty with them. I feel that they aren't experiencing the same China
I am (well obviously but in a sense that they would get a similar
view)
If they build a cable car at Tiger leaping it will be massively
depressing, would remove all sense of reward from a trek that isn't
too hard. But that isn't the chinese way of tourism, walking and nice
views; its more about ticking off the list of sites and getting the
photo to prove it. Its a shame that facebook is blocked cause they
would totally love tagging each other in all the sites they have
visited standing next to the westerners :p.

Im probably a complete hypocrite, and am just collecting photos and
ticking of places i've been but I at least feel i want to discover
parts of China for myself, not be spoonfed them. This was the whole
point of going out to Deqin for a view of a small untouched area smack
bang next to a big mountain (also its pretty damn close to tibet and
that'd be cool). Finding the remote untouched towns is pretty easy
otherwise, just hire a bike and go for a ride. I did this in Yangshuo,
turned off the main road on to a little path and got happily lost in
the rice paddies.

In true touristy fashion though, the next step is to Chengdu (the
buses to Szechuan are also not running and western szechuan was closed
due to a tibetan monk setting himself on fire, so that route is out of
the question) for Pandas, Emei Shan (buddhist mountain, where it was
recommended i take the cable car up and walk down) and the great big
Buddha at Le Shan. After having a rant about chinese tourism im off to
do exactly that.

I hope everyone is well, I think I saw that the weather was quite
nice. Infact I know so cause my mum told me West Kirby was good.
Bye for now and write me back.

Added for the blog. After staying up rather late in Kunming listening to Rammstein with Germans I missed my train and have added this to the blog posts.

China 2: Mini Blog

The internets is too damn slow, it has taken about ten minutes to load this page.
I love Yunnan and Guanxi. Stayed up all night in Bad Monkey ala five years ago. Some trekking 2moro, mountains and rivers. Phone got stolen, I am fine.

Probably have to wait for a full update until the internets improve.