Vietnam

Sunset Mui Ne

Mui Ne Beach

White sand dunes near Mui Ne

Cool biker

Leona and friends, Red sand dunes

Hoi An oldest house and oldest man (maybe

cooking course, aubergine claypot

Hoi An Sunset

Hoi An waterfront

Biking Hoi An

Beach near Cat Ba Island, Halong Bay

'Our' hut and 'our' Dog

view from hut

cave kayaking, Halong Bay

Halong Bay

Junk, Halong Bay

Temple of Literature, Hanoi

Ho Chi Minhs masoleum, avenue side

not every dog has his day..no I didnt eat it Penny

seamstress, Sapa (you shouldve seen her tooth)

traditional Naxi women, Sapa

Hello..

Almost at the end of our Vietnam stage, so I thought I'd do loooooooooooooooooong another update, just in case you needed it...

At the end of the slightly arduous bus ride from the terraces we arrived in Lao Cai, the Vietnamese border town. Arriving in a new land, with of course a totally new currency has it's complications of course. Thinking we were pretty aware of Chinese con-men and the such, we werent really prepared for the Vietnamese, a totally new ball game.

It wasn't really a problem that we paid 3 times to much, (we found out later) it was rather the 2 hour free city tour, while the mini van driver drove from friend to friend, casually answering his phone, all the while giggling away at us, as if we were missing out on some big joke.

As it was, the city is rather un-amazing, and he was bideing time for the arrival of a train, and of course, the chance to stuff his van, full to the brim. After coming through Chinese customs onto the Vietnamese side, the air temperature was considerably warmer, and this 'must' have dabbled with my calculating abilities. Our guide told us the distance and the price one has to pay (normally) for the 40 km journey to Sapa, was 1.5 US dollars, but this just seemed to be too cheap to be true. So I went along with his higher, (still reasonable for China), price, and trusted my intuition. I should've listened to Leona! She knew the book doesnt lie!
Well we arrived safe and sound in Sapa, a little late of course, but the drive through the valley to this old French hill Station was really beautiful. More Rice Terraces, but this time Vietnam-style. A little smaller, a little quainter, a little more run-down, but also very eye-catching.

The town of Sapa lies close to Vietnam's highest mountain, Fansipan, the town being I think about 1500 metres above sea level, so the air was clean and crisp, a welcome change to the muggy onslaught from the border town. For those interested in history, it also is close to Dien Bien Phu (I think this is right), the town where for the Vietnamese a very important battle was fought against the French, leading to the country's independence.

The first day involved a hike along a mountain road, nothing steep or overly strenuous, just a road winding through a valley, giving us spectacular views of the mountain range containing Fansipan, and in the general direction of the 'Silver Falls'. The route took us past numerous farms and small roadside huts, villages and townships. The guide said it was only 8km away, but ended up being more like 12, so I now had a little justification for not trusting everything the book says! Needless to say we hitched a ride back into town, after some friendly and creative bartering with the driver about the price. It seemed that tourism is really here to stay in Vietnam, and whereas in China everything and everyone had a pretty much one-price-fits-all mentality, here everything to do with money is worth discussing.

Also in Sapa I had my first Vietnamese coffee, a heavenly drip-coffee variation, generally the beans are roasted in chocolate and vanilla, which drips down into about a centimetre of condensed milk. It may seem too much, to sweet, to decadent, but the creamy, thick flavour is hard to beat (in my opinion). And, when ice is added, its really addictive!

The food also took a turn for the better it seemed. Having almost gotten used to the fatty, oily and at times stodgy Chinese food, Vietnamese cooking is alot fresher, crisper and (mostly) healthier. It also has it's 'very weird' stuff, and the sparrow I ate, although a little odd looking on my skewer was really quite nice. Poor little thing..

The next day we were walking again, this time down quite a steep winding hill, to a small village called Cat Cat village. We had to almost fight off the offers from motorbike guys offering lifts, licking their lips seeing two westerners, (stupidly), going it alone and walking 'all' the way down. It turned out being not too steep, a little sweat-inducing of course, but nothing like what they were trying to lead us to believe. All part of the fun and games of course, which after only a couple of days in Vietnam we were quickly getting used too, after being left largely to our own devices in China.

That evening we headed back to Lao Cai (paying the right fare this time), for our night train to Hanoi. We arrived there at 7 in the morning, at not such a central stop, just off the rail bridge, on the other side of the town, during rush-hour. Wow, that was a sight. From sleepy, relaxing Sapa, we got off the train, bleary eyed, to be greeted by the drone of thousands of motorbikes, a little like a busy hornets nest. It was an amazing sight, a foggy morning, and unlike in most of China, where the motorbikes are electric and therefore silent, this was a honking swarm of people, a little unnerving when crossing the street, weighed down by luggage.

We finally found a cheap Hotel and after 2 breakfasts, (the first didnt seem adequate so why not!?) we organised a boat trip to Halong Bay, then spent the rest of the day dodging traffic in the cluttered old town streets, the inner city lakes, shoeshops, markets, and the normal mish-mash of amazing 'stuff', which 'is' a largish Asian town, which was loads of fun.

The heat as well, was something new- very humid and somehow pressing at your face, letting you know its constantly there. The next day we also spent in Hanoi, first walking around the Temple of Literature, the first University opened about 1000 years ago in Vietnam, a beautiful serene park, quiet amidst the noise and honking of Hanoi.

Huge, ancient bonsai's and colourful orchids lined the cobbled pathways, and the old temple like rooms and study quarters must have been an amazing sight back in the time it was built. We then walked to the park housing Ho Chi Minhs final resting place (against his wishes), and of course in true Communistic style, his masoleum. Strangely looking like a carbon-copy of Stalin's masoleum in Moscow, this was also in a great setting, a large park with massive bamboo tree clusters, and a whole range of trees helped humanise (or botanise) the masoleum.

Unfortanately, as Uncle Ho was in Moscow, getting his beard re-enabalmed, we missed out on seeing him as well as Stalin, so instead we sat on the sponge-like grass, peeled some fruit, and watched the soldiers from the near-by academy do their excercises and laps around the park. As the sun set, swarms of dragonflys zipped about, and old people gathered for their evening shake-up, a truely quiet and relaxing come down. Of course there was still dinner to be had, and we'd heard there was a large lake nearby which had a good reputation for seafood. Being deprived of anything of the sort for months it seemed, (seafood and fish was available in China, but never looked edible, just disgusting), we set off in the direction of the Lake.

The route took us past a massive, truely grandiose Palace built evidently during the French colonial time, probably for whoever needed somewhere at the time to house the 'missus', but also used by Uncle Ho as a headquarters and home, after he'd thrown the French out. (Facts maybe misleading and incorrect, im a creative historian!)

The restaurant we chose was right on the lake, a great view of the lovely paddle-boat swans, decked out in their gaudy sky blue, pink and mauve colours, perfect it seemed for romantic newly weds, and the restaurant seemed to be popular with the locals. Luckily it was dark, and the menu we were given was in Vietnamese, so we ordered 'what theyre eating', pointing at an adjoining table, a hot pot feast of some sort of fish. Luckily it was dark, as the fish (I think it was Carp, it had a slightly muddy flavour), came with scales, guts, brains and all, so we quite literally had to 'fish' around, finding the good bits. To our suprise, when you found a good bit, it was delicious, the sauce, spices and flavours were great, but when you encountered a slightly glibbery, wobbly part, it was better left alone.

We set off the next day, stomachs still intact, to Halong bay, where I had been mezmerised by the 'relax-option' of the brochure, including 2 nights on a deserted beach island hut semi-resort. After constant go go go, we thought it would be nice just to sit down, get sun-burnt, and well, of course eat more!

The Halong bay islands of course had to be navigated, and were amazing. A bit more karst landscape, this time flooded with water, so as they say here in Vietnam 'Same Same but different!' About half way through, we stopped for some sea kayaking, in a secluded bay, where we crammed ourselves into a double kayak (those extra breakfasts, dammit), and set off, through caves, under rocky jutting bits, and into a lake in the middle of an island (sounds weird, hard to describe but was nice..).

Then, back on board, we headed out onto the open water (which was rolling quite nicely, had a couple of people gripping the seats), towards 'our' island. The next day was a general lay down and read day, plunge into the sea, and enjoy. Forget where we were, where we are going, what we doing, who you are, it was a welcome change, to sit down and relax- the food which seemed to never end wasnt bad either!
The next day was filled with slowly cruising back through the thousands of islands dotted throughout the humongous bay, into town, and catching the bus back to Hanoi, where we had to catch another night train to Hue.

A smallish and ancient city, Hue was the former capital and leading academic centre in times gone by, and was just a shortish stopover for us. We bought a ticket for the afternoon bus to Hoi An, and whilst waiting for the bus, walked around the slightly derelict and crumbling old city, and Purple Forbidden City. Unfortunately Hue was one of the places the Americans really didnt hold back on. Almost totally destroyed during the war, its amazing the people, and of course Vietnam as a whole are so welcoming, friendly and good natured about the throngs of westerners and others that visit the country. After such a terrible war, where the country was pretty much abandoned, torn in two, destroyed and left to her own fate by the Americans (and followers), its amazing the people are still so open and warm.

Hoi An was the next stop, the weather had improved from cloudy and stormy in Hue, to blue skys and scorching heat. The countryside also improved, lush and green, farmland rich and tropical. Dragonfruit, Banana and Sugarcane plantations were everywhere, as well as lime green and golden yellow fields of rice, the un-harvested heads of rice flickering in the wind, while along the roadside, the small modest houses were humming with activity.

The next day we hired push-bikes and drove around Hoi An, a small coastal village, still with its old French Colonial heritage intact, so the architecture, and the streets were beautiful, old, rustic and perfect to wander around in, while all the time seamstresses, tailors and other shopkeepers called out to you to try something on or taste something. It was relaxing, small and with the bikes we had no trouble getting around, no worries about getting run over, and headed to the local beach for a swim.

The next day we took part in a really nice cooking course, which involved a short boat trip down one of the river estuaries, to a secluded spot, where we learnt how to make rice paper summer rolls, vietnamese pancakes, aubergine claypot, and to finish it off some bbq fish. The food was amazing, and since food for us is a big thing, we loved it. Since we were indulging ourselves, we thought a nice white wine to go with the fish at the end would end a perfect few hours, but the sunset as we trundled home on the boat topped it all.

We got on the bus the next evening onwards towards Mui Ne, another smallish coastal town further south, about 3 hours away from Ho Chi Minh City, or Saigon as the locals still call it. The trip to Mui Ne involved unfortunately a sleeper bus, and true to form, didnt dissapoint.

The roads here are, well, at best a minefield. Especially the main coastal roads, where everyman and his dog share the thin 2 lane highway. I mean everyone, from trucks, to buses, to kids coming home from school, to water buffallos.

It was no suprise to me when, at 4 in the morning on the way we had to stop for 2 hours, to (wait) for a blazing inferno of a truck to 'cool down'. The fire brigade didnt arrive for about and hour and a half, and as far as I could tell (id escaped outside, the air in the bus was getting a little thin), no one was hurt. The truck had half rolled and hit the rock embankment and burst into flame, so no-one could pass, until the fire had been put out.

Thankfully it seemed the driver had gotten out in time it seemed, as we passed the gutted wreck. It was not the only accident we came across on this 'little' road. Another bus, like ours, had come off the road, moments before we passed by it. Flipped and mangled, it lay in a ditch on the other-side. As we slowly passed by, as if this sort of thing occurs often, I could only hope the people being tended to by others on the side of the road werent seriously injured or even dead, I couldnt tell. Then 2 hrs later, in the middle of the road a bus had collided with a bicycle, the bike rider I couldnt see, but the bike, bent in two had been dragged and had left scrape marks along the road for 20 metres. All rather harrowing, and senseless, but hardly suprising, on these chaotic roads. Its a good thing that every motorbike driver here wears a helmet, so things could be worse.

Anyway, after negotiating the road without further ado, we arrived in Mui Ne, another smallish coastal town, although a little more 'resorty', than Hoi An. Because it didnt lie on 'the main drag', we hired a motor-scooter (with helmets of course!), and spent the day driving to the red and white sand dunes, and a nearby fishing village, before finding a secluded beach to swim and watch the (again), amazing sunset. It was the sort of beach life one thinks 'I could get used to this', nestled amongst coconut trees, the water gently lapping the shore, and the warm air and water just engulfing you.

We spent altogether two days there, enjoying more fresh fish, and huge shrimps, and took an uneventful bus ride (thank god), to Saigon.

Thats where we are now, another city of bikes, where tomorrow were heading off, through the Mekong Delta towards Cambodia..

Thank God Ive finished that, I took a few beers I tell you! Sorry about the verbosity, hopefully youre getting as carried away as I am! haha

Love to all

Joe and Leona

China Part 3

tiger leaping gorge slip, view from my car window, down down down..

black dragon pool spring, lijiang

this little piggy went to market, chinese style pig on spit

moon rock, jangshou

lijiang old town

sunrice (haha), over the rice terraces

dodgy ladder, tiger leaping gorge



crystal clear mountain stream/pool, on mountain, near dali

leona with a new friend, lijiang

hello!
got a couple of hours to spare, thought id write again, im going to finish off the last week of China..maybe only 6000 words this time..
Well the wait in Kunming to go up to Lijiang was rather uneventful, Kunming not really having much to offer, apart from a couple of things, the 'great' restaurant we went to and the trip itself, both were decidedly interesting. Having had a bit of a meat 'overload' we thought itd be a good idea to get something vegetarian, something fresh and tasty at a place recommended in the guide book. The restaurant made 'vegetarian' food, but vegetarian dressed up as meat dishes, literally. Im not sure what the actual food was made of, but it seemed to consist of either dried bread and tofu or something, then shaped, moulded and designed to look like a duck, or turtle, or whatever 'meat' thing you had ordered, and then artificially flavoured to resemble the fitting taste.Very strange, I guess vegetarian food is still in it's first tentative steps in china..The bus trip was another 'highlight'. It was a sleeper bus, and although id been preparing myself for it, it was much worse. Maybe in my old age im getting more precious about personal space and comfort and all that, but the lovely foot aroma, human closeness and the bumpy ride, didnt make for an exactly restful ride. In sure the driver didnt try to find evey pothole on the road, but it seemed every 100 metres, everyone at the back (where we were) would fly literally in to the air and crash back down with a groan. I guess one guy decided he'd had enough, as he then turned on his laptop at 4 in the morning and start to watch a kung-fu movie at full bore. The 'swap' and 'swish' and 'chiing' from the sword fights were especially relaxing. I think we were both of the same opinion the next morning at 6 when we arrived, that night buses were not to be messed with, and further-more, we have no valium.
Lijiang and the surrounding area is amazing. I believe it lies something like 1500- 2000 metres above sea level, in what I would call the foothills of the Himalaya's. From here for instance is the place you can (try) and get up to Tibet by road, and also to Shangri-La, also in China, perhaps 3500 metres high. Although of course the more major mountains are too far away to be seen from here, but there are a couple of big ones, most notably 'Snow Dragon Mountain', which provides an amazing backdrop to the old-town of Lijiang, another major stopping point along the ancient silk and spice route through to India. Lijiang, mostly rebuilt and repared for tourists and funded by the government, in the old style of times gone by, and has cobbled streets, old bridges and waterchannels running through the entire city, so you can always hear the rushing and gushing of water, which makes of course the town incredibly photogenic, which in turn makes the town rather popular! I read somewhere, that 4 million tourists come per year to the city( with a population of 50,000 perhaps), and although it wasnt high season while were we there, if you timed when you walked around wrong, it was very busy. (That was OK, id just pop into the nearest dried Yak-meat store and hang out for a bit- really good and spicy!). The first day we spent just meandering around, and the blue sky, clean air and warm day more than made up for our sleepless night. We visited a really beautiful park, a 'mirror' lake, where an ancient marble bridge and a coulple of temples/pagodas are reflected in the crystal clear spring water, all with the backdrop of this impressive craggy mountain. This is of course a 'must-do' photo for all tourists, especially the Chinese ones, and later, the hordes made for colourful scenes, and amusing photo opportunities. We were there relatively early (another benefit of our early arrival, I guess night buses aren't so bad..) so were able to take photos in relative peace, before climbing the nearby 'Elephant Hill' to get a better view of the city.
The next day we organised a day-trip to Tiger-Leaping Gorge, an amazing trekking gorge on route towards Tibet, so another gorge where one side plunged 3000 or so metres into the 'Golden River' below, before sky-rocketing out on the other. The trip to get there was pretty eventful, driving over some very dodgy, narrow and bending road to get to our starting point, and just before crossing a part of the road partially repaired from a massive slip, the car in front abruptly stopped, as loads of rather large rocks came hurtling down in front of us, and away into the river, about 600 metres below. I was on the edge of my seat, and had the vertical drop 1 foot away from me. No problem, it seems that it happens often enough here, and we just waited, until someone gave our driver the thumbs up, and we continued on. The gorge was unbelivable, and again a sweltering day made going down ok, but going back up was a little sweaty. We didnt start at the top of the mountain, although you can (we did see quite a few exhausted and red faced tourists that had), but started about, 500 metres above the river, and made our way slowly down into the gorge, and along the river, through and under the cliff walls, carved out by the people living in the area. All very exciting of course, especially with the thought, shit, we have to go back up..In the end it wasn't such a drama going up, just sweaty, but it did involve a couple of practically vertical, and especially rickety, home-made stairs, which were also a lot of fun, if you didn't look down into the violently churning river below.
The next day we took a 5hr bus ride (no sleeping thank god) to a little township called Dali. Lijiang and Dali are both (relatively) know as sort of the Chinese equivalent of India's Goa, or Nepal, or another kind of Tibet and the feeling there is laid back, chilled out and pretty much still has the kind of hanging about Hippie vibe. Quite a few older westerners seemed to be living there, having moved into the area in the late 70's, early 80's and there are a quite a few western run bakeries (of which we found a sensational German bakery for breakfast,they also had cheese!) cafes and guesthouses.
Dali's surroundings are also great, squidged between a lake (the 7th largest freshwater lake in China, now so polluted that eating fish from there is not recommended, how they managed that I don't know), and another 3000 metre mountain range. The first day of being there, the weather wasnt so great so we hired some bikes and trundled through the surrounding farmland, past 3 large pagodas, one 70 metres high, and over 600 years old, stopping to have lunch in a rice-paddy, much to the amusement of the locals, us pushing and hopping around the ridges of the fields with our bikes, disturbing frogs, it was probably was quite amusing. As the weather was so dull, we decided to treat ourselves to a cheese plate, and wow, the taste was sensational, gouda never tasted so good! The cheese melted in our mouths, accompained by some average white wine (the red wasnt recommended, and was anyway ice cold), and also with toasted homemade walnut and potato bread, it was all rather indulgent..heavenly..that evening, feeling terribly guilty for such extravagance, we punished ourselves and our western tendancies by eating some weird insects, which turned out to be nice and crunchy and quite accetable! a bit like crisps really, maybe its an import idea!
The next day, it was fine again, sunny with a few speckles of clouds, and around 20 degrees, perfect again for a small hike up the nearby mountain. There were cable cars going up to around 2000 metres, and then a really relaxing 12km walk along an incredibly well maintained cobble path, leading along the mountain edge, from one mountain temple to another Austrian, fancy gondola to take us back down..The path led us around amazing rock faces, beautiful water eroded rock streams and waterfalls, with ice cold clear and clean water, babbling down the rock faces. No-one was really around, and the cool air and leisurely stroll was a perfect way to spend half a day in relative peace away from the hustle and bustle of the small township underneath. There were also great views of the lake and its islands, although a little hazy, and gave us a good view of how, a country with such a large population, most of the land is either used for something, or lived on, a land bursting at the seams. I think the only unihabited places in this country are where its bascially to steep and hard to carve a niche out of, and even then, as we were to find out isnt always a problem.
The reason being, we were travelling on from Dali, via Kunming again, to the Yuanyang Rice Terraces, another area of slope defying argriculture, but on a massive scale. We stayed at an impossibly cheap hotel, 4 euros a night, at the 'Photographers Hotel', the name coming from the fact that the hyperactive owner was a photographer. As we had a 24 hour journey behind us, the evening was just for relaxing, a cold beer, overlooking a partial view of some of the terraces from his hotel. As the owner, who spoke very good English was a photographer, he knew all the 'spots', for sunrise, day and sunset viewing, so we arranged for him to take us and a couple of others, to his 'secret' spots. Although the 5 in the morning rise didnt seem at the time worth it, he certainly didnt let us down. The photo-guy, hopping from one foot to the other, was unable to contain his excitement, at the imminent sunrise that was about to unveil itself- it seemed he was awaiting something special. It was.
It all happened within about 10 mins, first yellow, to a golden to speckled red, to blazing full on red colours, all the while the dynamic colours reflecting in the rice terraces, which were at this time of the year filled to the brim with water, their mirrorred, glistening surfaces reflecting the sky, all the while our guy running back in forth, rubbing his hands with glee, emitting small squeaks of excitement. He explained, this sort of scenery and sunrise, one doesnt see so often, maybe 4-5 times a year, and because we were only staying there one full day, we were very,very, very lucky. I took his word for it, as i guessed he'd seen a few days up in the hills.
It was spellbounding, the clouds started to roll in from the valley, hugging the small townships and villages perched on the slopes, the day beginning to start, water-buffalos and their owners trudging down to work on ploughing the fields for the new crop, pigs foraging for scraps, local kids on the way to school, local women in traditional attire about, starting their daily chores. Even they all paused, watching the unfolding drama, and admired the valley view. It was a perfect setting, and worth the chilly morning wake-up. From there the day consisted of exploring the area's vast array of terraces, 12000 square kms of them, all with their differences, their angles, steps and colour configurations, until at the end of the day we were practically terraced out. It was such a dramatic difference to the other terraces near Guilin, where the rice was gone, and there was no water about. Here all the terraces were flooded, for the new crop, and people were busily repairing the edges of the ponds, ducks and other birds floating about, and the men with their buffalos, ploughing away for the coming planting. This, combined with the clean fresh air, and laid back people, made the end of our China trip so rewarding. Only in coming back to our 4euro room, and our friends on the mouldy, damp walls and the rock hard bed, did we think, time to move on to warmer pastures..
This involved however, another 5 hr bus ride, to the chinese border town of Hekou and the vietnamese border town of Lao Cai. Normally i'm all for the 'scenic' route, but this invloved some fun on some bumpy parts, hours on end of swerving, braking honking and general rally driving, swinging around blind corners, albeit through amazing river-side, tropical scenery, banana and some sort of tree-sap plantations. The trip was all the more tiring and nervy as the border crossing was going to be closing a 5, and as the trip seemed to go on and on, taking much longer than we thought, we started to sweat, a little more from stress, rather than just heat. As it was our last day on our visas, and overstaying leads to who-knows-what pleasantries with chinese officialdom, not to mention a hefty fine, we thought it would be better if we got there soon, so when the driver, didnt take the fabulous new, straight and very flash looking motorway, we were a little despirited. Of course, we ploughed onwards, underneath the mightly motorway supports, dodging in and out of the massive concrete pillars, all the while I looked longingly at the motorway, praying that he'd get on maybe at the next bit. He didnt. But we arrived in time, all was well, and later we realised, that weirdly, vietnam time is an hour behind china. So stress for nothing, just a rather nervy bag search by the chinese immigration for 'blasphemous' or 'anti-china' literature (which id luckily hidden deep in my bag, so all was well..)
We were now in Vietnam..
China, was on the whole amazing, the people really friendly, open and helpful, and the whole experience suprised us both. How easy it was to travel around, although without chinese language skills, and the people often willing to try and understand, wanting to help get us what we wanted or were we wanted to go. And of course alot spoke enough broken english to get by. Tourists as well seem to be treated with a kind of wary respect, we were never hassled, never felt in danger, our naiviety of the countries systems or costs etc never seemed to be abused, which can sometimes be the case. The whole infrastructure from city to city for a huge and bulging land was on the whole amazing, generally clean and comfortable (if on train of course), just sometimes a little stinky, (if you happened to be near the toilets), and amazingly cheap. The amount of people is flabergasting, overpowering, and queing non-existant of course, always everyman for himself attitude, the streets teeming with action, the boulevards in most cities 4 or so lanes wide (on both sides), cars obeying only rules know to themselves. I think the (to an extent) opening politically, and commerically of the country in the past 15-20 years, combined with the Olympics and general modernisation and overall well-being has had a lasting effect on the people themsleves, and perhaps their attitude to travelers like ourselves and the outside world.
Ok thats enough for now, got a headache, hope everyone else doesnt..
more from and about vietnam in a later edition!!
love to all
joe and leona

sunrise video, rice terraces

China Part 2

rice terraces, yuanyang, southern china

chinese 'hani' baby (indigenous southern chinese)


ploughing paddy for new seasons rice

in front of military centre (sign says no photos..)

tiger leaping gorge

tiger leaping gorge track

lijiang waterways

blackdragon pool, with jade dragon mountain behind

5 arch bridge in black dragon pool

water buffalo, jangshou

farmers bike, jangshou

lijing river (i think), jangshou

elephant rock, guilin

farmers house/guesthouse dragonbone rice terraces, near guilin

me and my ecstatic new wife..

pagodas in guilin

revolutionary couple in fancy dress, fengyuang

chinese opera, fengyuang

5 star living, yichang

riverside houses, fengyuang

flattened pigs head, pheasant

chinese delicacies, a (small) whole bbq chicken

some new boat friends

'little' 3 gorges

woman bursting into some chinese folk singing, evidently impressed by nature

first bend into gorge, on chinese 20 yuan bill

hello everyone,

well im preparing for another long email, so get a cup of tea!
as usual sorry for gramatical errors and punctuation misshaps!
I think I left off in Datong, waiting for the train to Xi'an, if I didnt, well too bad..We arrived early in the morning, really sunny and considerably warmer than the north, where it seemed to be a little more like it was heading quickly into winter, and after 3 weeks of coldish weather, we were glad to be able to just wear t-shirts. We ended up just exploring the old town here, which has a really interesting muslim quarter, a maze of old street-vendors and restaurants, and had an amazing spicy noodle soup for lunch, which was of course dirt cheap, but tasted unbelievable! Because of the silk road back in the days, Xi'an was one of the first 'million cities', so there was plenty of old stuff to see, ancient pagoda's and mosques etc and although it's very developed and now a massive city of 4.5 million people, it seemed to hold on to the old -town charm never-the-less. The next day we took a local bus out to see the terracotta warriors. (one of my 'to-do' things, and leona bravely tagged along!) I guess if youre not into archealogical things, its not for you, but it was amazing. There were 3 large rooms/hangars, all part of a burial chamber for one of the first (very evil) chinese emperors, who wanted a massive army of warriors, archers, crossbowmen, horses and chariots to carry him into the afterlife, to protect him. There is also another site 2km away, where he has his actual burial place which is also a few square kms filled with more day to day life articles, household 'appliances' etc. he even buried live horses, and the people who helped design and make the pits, to keep the site a secret from vandals and robbers. pretty harsh. but the pits themsleves were pretty huge, i think the main one is about 6000 square metres, filled with ceramic soldiers, many destroyed, but still hundreds in tact. each soldier has different facial features, so that not one single warrior is alike. all are equipped with the matching headware, clothes and even the tread on the shoes are different according to rank and file. evidently the emperor had planned the grave sites since he was 7 years old, and took almost 30 years to make, and was discovered in the 70's by some farmers drilling a well. pretty lucky find id say..anyway i was blown away, and even leona whos not normally impressed by ruins etc, seemed to be suitably wide-eyed.
The same evening we took the bus back to town, as we were catching another train down to chongqing, the starting point of river cruises up the yangtze. We arrived at the station and took a cab into the city. I tell you ive never seen so many housing estate, high rises- unbelivable. The area has about 35 million people living here, so space seems to be limited, so theyve just built and built, higher and higher. somehow it was impressive, even more so because the weather was shit, drisling and grey as concrete, as far as the eye could see everything was surrounded by low lying pollution/fog/rain. Its also quite hilly there, so some roads and the high rises on them dissapeared into the fog. I think its quite often grey and cloudy here, and also quite humid.
Chongqing is also famous for its fiery 'hot-pots', a sort of incredibly spicy bowl, a mix of boiling water, oil and spices, were you dunk all sorts of veggies and meats into this inferno, pausing only to cool it all off with beer. unfortunately the place we found didnt seem to excell at hot-pots, and we had already tried one in datong which was considerably better. but the experience was great anyway, and as everything was in chinese, i got out the phrase book to choose stufff, and in the end i went back into the kitchen and pointed out what i wanted to have. maybe not such a good thing to have done, as the kitchen had of course seen better days, and i reckon in china its best only to see you food after its cooked, not before! anyway, we didnt have a problem with our stomachs afterwards, so all was well.we were to take a boat up the yantze to the 3 gorges, and also the 'mini' 3 gorges. originally we wanted only a 2 night trip because we thought the weather wouldnt allow us to see that much anyway. unfortunately the guy who organized it put us by 'accident' on the 3 night trip, which meant we spent a full day ploughing up stream in some decidedly unromantic and down right boring landscape, in the doom and gloom, passing under several massive bridges, and very large factories(until we got to some temple in the evening where we had some great food). that was pretty much the highlight of the first day. it seems the 3 gorges area and river, and the development of it is a engineers dream, and an ecologists nightmare. the amount of buliding (infrastructure, dams, factories) on this rocky, steep terrain is staggering, and it must be very challenging to build there, especially on the scale that theyre building. as we had left chongqing harbour the previous evening in the gloom, there was nothing to do but have a few beers on board, and admire the lights and humongous new theatre on the way out of the harbour, amid 100's of very excited chinese tourists rushing around like mad. i thought to myself, this could be a long trip..thank god but the 2nd day, the day we went through the first gorge, the weather had cleared up enough for us to be able to see relatively clearly. we could tell something was going to happen, as after slinging down breakfast all the other tourists clammered to the front deck of the boat and set up shop in anticipation. well, as we now couldnt see anything, we joined the hordes, and after half an hour or so, the massive bluff came into sight. that bluff was worth the trip alone, it was a massive gorge rising maybe 500 metres on one side (that maybe a wrong estimate, i cant remember), the river was maye 70 metres wide, and the other side another bluff of about the same height. as we passed through we felt rather small. it was quite funny, as on the chinese 10 yuan note, there's a drawing of this gorge. so pretty much all the chinese were holding up their 10 yuan bills beside their faces and smiling away while husbands dilligently took photos, with of course the gorge behind them. the scenery was much better through here, very mountainous, all plunging into the water, small villages or lonely houses dotted around the shoreline. Having past through there, we were then sheparded hectically off the boat (hectic seems the only word to use when amonst a chinese tour group), to smaller boats to take us up the 'mini' 3 gorges. Although not so high as the first gorge, the river here was much narrower, and we both thought more beautiful, as one mountain range was lost into another. The villages were cuter and we could get closer views of them, until we reached another point, where we were bussled once more off the middle sized boat, onto smaller boats, to go further up the river. It was really nice, with ancient rock formations, huge bamboo forests, and we also saw a few monkeys hopping around. The scenery here was amazing, the only problem being, (which made it overall a little dissapointing), was the number of other tourists. In such a place of natural beauty, you really want to be alone with your thoughts, as it was, we had from start to finish a running commentary at about 3000 decibels, describing this and that. of course in chinese, so i dont know what was so exciting to be talking the whole time, at the end of the day its just rocks!
The last day was rather forced upon us to go to the dam, and visit 'the magnificent and spendorous 3 gorges dam' (as it was described at the entrance). well, it was big. very big. a 5 story boat lock, to transport the boats up and down from one part to the other, and something like 2.5 km long. grey, concrete and rocks, with shit loads of water behind it, something like over a billion cubic tonnes of water (exageration maybe..)..if youre into engineering, quite an accomplishment, which took over 10 years to make, and still not quite finished. we were shoved from one bus to another, one security check to another, (with constant commentary), so it was quite exhausting. only until the memorial park opposite, (where old equipment and 'stuff' like cranes and other 'fascinating' features used during the dams making are on display), did we have some respite from the chaotic tour.from there we took another bus to yichang, a rather ugly town where we had a day to wander around in before catching a night train, so we checked into a cheap hotel first to relax a bit. yichang, famous only for its 5000 or more brothels, is also right in the firing line of the dam, should it burst or collapse, the whole town of over a million would be wiped out within half an hour. so it was quite nice to get out of there, quickly!
the next stop was fenghuang, a small river town in hunan province, if you look at a map right in the middle of the south of the country. It was really cute here, red hanging lanterns on old houses (old-looking, most of them were probably renovated), all stuffed along the shoreline, an old town wall with 3 towers, small wooden bridges to cross the river by foot, and cute higgledy-piggeldy backstreets, bussling with food and local treats. a little touristy as always, but by now we were used to the throngs of people, and the trinkets on offer, but the atmosphere here was much more relaxed and chilled. we stayed right on the river, a cheap local place with a balcony over-looking the river, where we sat and watched nightfall close in. Night-time here was exactly the paradox of calm and chilled. every little corner throbbed with really bad, loud techno and kareoke (chinese are massive fans), and the music blasted out from the whole river front, a little like mallorca, chinese style! but it started early and finished early so it wasnt too bad. The other interesting thing about this town was the food. well, nothing for animal lovers and vegetarians here. pretty gross, and inhumane for the many different types of fish, crabs, (all swiming live around in dirty buckets) chickens, roosters, hornet nests, snakes, turtles, geese, frogs, grubs, squashed, dried and hammered flat pigs faces (they looked very weird), a disgusting beaver-like bamboo rat, with massive front teeth, which whenever you came close it'd hiss and jump around in its tiny cage. well, it was a literal zoo of disgusting animals, all to eat and all looking miserable and neglected. we ate pizza that night.
we left fenguang and took another shorter train to sanjiang, which was just a pass-through town for us. Unfortunatley, the train arrived in the pitch black and rainy north train-station at 2 in the morning, at a station, (little did we know) about 10kms away from anything. so after having to get off the train, in the middle of the train tracks (the platform being 20 metres long, our train 200), we had to think what to do. there was nothing there, the rain was getting heavier, and our torch didnt lead us to anywhere of great hope. no street lights, no station hotels or anything. The idea was to catch a short bus through to Guilin, (another, larger and more intersting city 4 hours away), but the buses didnt start to leave until 7 in the morning, from the bus station, where-ever that was. so the only option would be wait in the tiny waiting room until day light, and see if we could get someone to take us to the bus station. Luckily, some other chinese tourists had had the same idea as us, and had also got off the train here, and wanted to head into town and get a little sleep before heading on their way. with a little sign language that we wanted to do the same, they started knocking on doors, and managed to arrange a mini bus into town, to a hotel, where we finally got some sleep. They were really nice and couldnt speak a word of english, but just took us under their wing, and led us to a comfortable, dirt cheap room (with shower! we needed it!), right next to the bus station. of course from all the excitement, it took a while to get to sleep! We arrived in Guilin, a largish town, famous for its karst limestone geological structures, mountains of rock that bascially thrust themsleves out of nothing 150 metres in the air, and look basically like large anthills.
But the whole of this province is covered in these 'stuctures', and they ghost into the distance for miles and miles, getting lost in clouds of haze and pollution. These mounds are dotted all around the city, and all have small temples and look-out points on them, so before the sun went down, we climbed up one to get a view of the landscape. it was pretty nice but the gloom hindered the distance you could see, but with the hills reaching far back into the distant gloom, it was still nice to look at. Guilin is also the base point for many other sights in the region, where we were going to go, and the next day we headed to the dragonbone rice terraces, about 2.5 hours away from the city. The fields, about 800 years old, perched on top of a mountain range, are an argricultural masterpiece, with only a road in 2002 being made through the steep hills to access the villages, so since then tourism has been booming.
The local indigenous people of the region, famous for the women and their long hair, benefit of course to some degree, but we were lured into a cheesy hair dance/singing ceremony in the village. A little like all 'cultural' performances, we couldve passed on that one, but the 'highlight' was of course when 4 male tourists were invited on stage to 'marry' a local girl. well, of course i couldnt resist! haha not really, it was highly embarassing, but was harrangued up there by a loud group of women sitting next to us, much to leona's amusement. the ritual included choosing the bride-to-be, dancing with her, singing a love song to her (which was a disaster), and various other fun and games..after that avoidable ordeal, it was up to the rice terraces. The fields had just been harvested, so the terraces were not as amazing as in the postcards (it never is), but breath-taking anyway. The air was clearer and the sun was finally out, and it involved a sticky 1.5 hour climb for the best views, looking down onto the snaking steps and levels, which seemed to stretch forever. Judging by the postcards id seen, the start of october is the best time to visit, when the terraces glow in a golden yellow colour. When we were there, it was more a 'golden' brown, with yellow and green bits..Amazing view anyway.We then left our bags in guilin, and took our backpack to the town of yangshou, about an hours bus ride from Guilin.
We stayed near the town, in the countryside, in an amazingly renovated farmhouse, run by some dutch people. they had only twenty rooms, and was situated in the middle of farmland, where rice, sugarcane, orangetrees, aubergines and where countless other produce was growing. situated right next to the yulong river, it was the perfect retreat away from the hustle and bustle of the previous towns and cities. the first afternoon we just wandered through the rice paddies and farmlands, over small bridges, where the limestone landscape jutted out everywhere, again like anthills, in the background. Here, the rice had not yet been harvested, so the views and surroundings were just amazing. Butterflies as well, all shapes and sizes, one different from the next were everywhere. It was amazingly calming and beautiful, and every once in awhile we came across farmers tending their waterbuffallos, and their crops and fields. The next day we hired bikes and just roamed the countryside, and soaked in the sun which appeared through the haze for some hours between 12 and 4, before sinking back into it. The last day we rafted idly down the river back to town on a bamboo raft, the perfect end to the few days there. The area was really romantic and stunning, and i think for both of us, combined with the place we were staying, a real highlight, we couldve spent a week there!We are now in Kunming, in transit to lijiang, which lies somewhere in the foothills of the himalayas, and just waiting around for our night bus to take us up there. The weather should be a little colder here, as its higher, but at the moment its mid 20's sunny and really nice. Weve looked at the forecast, and its more of the same where we're headed, so fingers crossed.Hopefully we can send some other photos soon, there was a little problem trying to send them from here, but we update the photos when we get out of china..until then youll have to do with my 'elequent prose' and your imagination! haha
so again, congratulations for getting this far (probably after a few days)!, leona will start working on the german translation, that comes out in 2015..
were still well, not a problem with the food and bugs and swine flu etc, so hope it stays that way..
lots of love to everyone, hope all are well
love joe and leona