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amanda & garth's travel tales
In search of chilled China. After a dizzying month of moving on from place to place and traversing half of China in one month we decided to slow the pace a little; exchange city and town for village and countryside, and swap train, plane and ferry for bike, foot and dug out canoe!
We started our journey of south west and south China in Lijiang , Yunnan province and used this pretty little mountain town as our base for the next couple of weeks. Lijiang itself is a beautiful old town with cobbled streets, winding alleyways, Tibetan style houses and lots of little rivers running through romantic stone arched bridges. Perhaps most impressive is the backdrop of Snow Dragon Jade Mountain - good name hey! - which on a clear day is spectacular. Sadly the town is a little over touristy with chinese minority groups dancing in the square to a majority Han Chinese tune but nevertheless the place has real character and perhaps for the first time we saw the chinese really let their hair down in the lively night bars. The food on offer was also out of this world.
After a couple of days in Lijiang and a trip up Snow Dragon Jade Mountain - most fun for the karoke session in the queue for the chair lift...hmmm...we headed up to a town called Qiatou to start our trek of tiger leaping gorge. This was something we had heard lots about but the real deal surpassed all expectations. Immediately off the bus we met an american, a russian and a frenchman all starting the trek at the same time. We quickly made friends and headed up track with our international crew in hot sunshine and with the beautiful Snow Dragon Jade Mountain towering above us - just in case your wondering it has snow at the peak, looks a bit like a dragon's back and in a certain light has a jade like tinge - do you see what they did there! I jest, it really was one of the most beautiful sights we have ever seen.
After hiking the testing '28 bends' and Amanda nearly suffering lung collapse (she hasn’t smoked since!) we stopped for a well earned rest and dinner at a beautiful guest house with the most amazing views and, as the sun went down, the shiniest stars. Having barely seen the sky in many Chinese cities because of the cloud/pollution it really was quite something to see the stars in all their glory. Thinking the second half of the trek couldn't get much better the day started with the sun breaking over the mountains high above us, flooding the valley with warm light and then continue to change the colour of the gorge rock face with almost every passing moment. We continued to walk high above the river through beautiful waterfalls and with dramatic drops to the rushing water below. A slow descent through a bamboo forest led us to lunch and eventually down to the stone from which the tiger is said to have leapt across the gorge - are you getting the hang of this name thing?! Who said chinese was tricky?! The final part of the walk was through fantastic farmland on the steep sides of the gorge with the final test a gauntlet past two over protective geese and a snappy dog! The reward the best tasting beer we've ever had at another stunning guest house facing the almighty gorge. Here we stayed for two days in a state of total bliss before making our way down river to a battered old boat and the bus back to Lijiang. Apart from our international trek buddies we barely met another soul on the trip – well apart from a nutty Russian/Israeli guy who by his own introduction had apparently become one with the locals and been given the Chinese name Chav!!! Nuff said! Weirdest of all though was just when we thought we couldn’t feel any further from home we jumped on the bus to take us back to Lijiang to find that the only other passengers aboard were a couple from Torquay! The guy was the same age as us, went to all the same places we did growing up, including clubs and pubs and may have snogged Amanda on a night out at Claires in Torquay! Crazy!
After a days rest in Lijiang we were hungry for more Chinese wilderness. We chose Lugu Hu lake on the Yunnan/Sichuan border. Another absolutely stunning place, far from the madding crowds and with a fascinating history. The people here are the only practicing matriarchal society left in the world - the women don't marry, can have many partners and carry the family name on from generation to generation. The lake and the people here were just so incredible that there were times looking out from our wooden balcony that we never wanted to leave. The reflection of the moon at night on the lake was just awesome. The mode of transport was dug out canoe rowed by fearsome looking women who sang haunting songs that carried for miles and there was yet another uncanny dragon looking mountain which lay lazily across the lake. Ironically I nearly didn’t leave this paradise! On our second to last night I seemed to eat something which caused me to have a bizarre reaction and hives came up all over my legs. After walking to the next village to catch our bus home we decided I had to take something to sort out the spreading hives. We were reluctant to try any Chinese medication but when a friendly Chinese lady offered us an over the counter anti histamine drug we knew from the UK we thought our luck was in. Unfortunately I had an even weirder reaction to this drug where I found it suddenly difficult to breath and my heart started beating very irregularly. There were moments here when I really thought I was a gonner but luckily after about 20 minutes everything seemed to calm down and by evening I was ok. Anyway next day we made for Lijiang through, would you believe it, a snow storm where our bus got stuck in the mountains for an hour or so. Still time for snow men and snowball fights with the Chinese! 8 hours later! we booked ourselves into the swankiest hotel in Lijiang we could afford and wrapped ourselves up in warm duvets! I still had the hives for a couple more days but thank god the worst was over. Quite an adventure!
After one more day in Lijiang and some of our favourite tibetan dumplings we headed south to Dali - a famed backpacker hangout with surrounding hills and big lake. After Lugu Hu and tiger leaping gorge it really had a hard act to follow but it was a pleasant few days where we got on our bikes and headed out to some beautiful villages and went cormorant fishing with the locals. Very smart birds, very smart people. From Dali we got our skates on to Guilin and Yangshuo in south China . We had planned to see much more of southwest china and south china but we figured all for another time now as we had a plane to catch in Hong Kong .
Guilin and Yangshuo are two more tourist hot spots in China with magical, mystical karsts that jut out of the ground and look absolutely breathtaking at sunset. We liked both places but both unfortunately have been a little ruined by tourism. In Yangshuo, the beautiful scenery and winding river is virtually hidden by the thousands of market stalls selling tourist tat, at night the town turns into a bad kind of Ibiza and 90 per cent of the restaurants have exclusively English menus selling pizzas, full English breakfasts and steaks. Don’t get me wrong its fab to have home comforts sometimes but we did also come to see China! An interesting part of what is changing here though. There were glimpses of China outside the old town, however, and the night market was pretty fantastic. Some of the best street food we had. Ironically we also had one of our favourite days here where we cycled three hours up river through breathtaking landscape and villages and caught a bamboo raft home with our bikes attached to the front. A really special day with scenery to match, making that trip to Yangshuo all worthwhile. A better fusion of east and west which just somehow works was our last stop in China - Hong Kong . The bright lights, skyscrapers, colourful street markets, fancy arse restaurants and beautiful junks in the harbour all make for a fascinating cocktail where the living and traveling is easy if a little expensive. We heard someone describe Hong Kong in three words as eat, shop, work and that does kind of sum it up. We felt it had a touch of the New York about it and in many ways it is worlds apart from the rest of China for obvious reasons. Even the border crossing gives you the impression that you are entering a different country. Favourite days included the cable car trip up to the enormous seated Buddha on Lantau Island , a beach which reminded us of Torquay – it even rained for us! – and a ride to Victoria Peak with stunning night views across the city. Fun place to finish our China story and yet more evidence that China has got to be one of the most extraordinarily diverse places on the planet. Our plane out of Hong Kong flew through the most horrific storm where pretty much everyone on the flight at some point must have feared for their lives but after the most turbulent ride we've ever experienced we soon reached calmer skies and looked ahead to a new and exciting chapter in our journey. China's destiny??! Who knows?!
We started our journey of south west and south China in Lijiang , Yunnan province and used this pretty little mountain town as our base for the next couple of weeks. Lijiang itself is a beautiful old town with cobbled streets, winding alleyways, Tibetan style houses and lots of little rivers running through romantic stone arched bridges. Perhaps most impressive is the backdrop of Snow Dragon Jade Mountain - good name hey! - which on a clear day is spectacular. Sadly the town is a little over touristy with chinese minority groups dancing in the square to a majority Han Chinese tune but nevertheless the place has real character and perhaps for the first time we saw the chinese really let their hair down in the lively night bars. The food on offer was also out of this world.
After a couple of days in Lijiang and a trip up Snow Dragon Jade Mountain - most fun for the karoke session in the queue for the chair lift...hmmm...we headed up to a town called Qiatou to start our trek of tiger leaping gorge. This was something we had heard lots about but the real deal surpassed all expectations. Immediately off the bus we met an american, a russian and a frenchman all starting the trek at the same time. We quickly made friends and headed up track with our international crew in hot sunshine and with the beautiful Snow Dragon Jade Mountain towering above us - just in case your wondering it has snow at the peak, looks a bit like a dragon's back and in a certain light has a jade like tinge - do you see what they did there! I jest, it really was one of the most beautiful sights we have ever seen.
After hiking the testing '28 bends' and Amanda nearly suffering lung collapse (she hasn’t smoked since!) we stopped for a well earned rest and dinner at a beautiful guest house with the most amazing views and, as the sun went down, the shiniest stars. Having barely seen the sky in many Chinese cities because of the cloud/pollution it really was quite something to see the stars in all their glory. Thinking the second half of the trek couldn't get much better the day started with the sun breaking over the mountains high above us, flooding the valley with warm light and then continue to change the colour of the gorge rock face with almost every passing moment. We continued to walk high above the river through beautiful waterfalls and with dramatic drops to the rushing water below. A slow descent through a bamboo forest led us to lunch and eventually down to the stone from which the tiger is said to have leapt across the gorge - are you getting the hang of this name thing?! Who said chinese was tricky?! The final part of the walk was through fantastic farmland on the steep sides of the gorge with the final test a gauntlet past two over protective geese and a snappy dog! The reward the best tasting beer we've ever had at another stunning guest house facing the almighty gorge. Here we stayed for two days in a state of total bliss before making our way down river to a battered old boat and the bus back to Lijiang. Apart from our international trek buddies we barely met another soul on the trip – well apart from a nutty Russian/Israeli guy who by his own introduction had apparently become one with the locals and been given the Chinese name Chav!!! Nuff said! Weirdest of all though was just when we thought we couldn’t feel any further from home we jumped on the bus to take us back to Lijiang to find that the only other passengers aboard were a couple from Torquay! The guy was the same age as us, went to all the same places we did growing up, including clubs and pubs and may have snogged Amanda on a night out at Claires in Torquay! Crazy!
After a days rest in Lijiang we were hungry for more Chinese wilderness. We chose Lugu Hu lake on the Yunnan/Sichuan border. Another absolutely stunning place, far from the madding crowds and with a fascinating history. The people here are the only practicing matriarchal society left in the world - the women don't marry, can have many partners and carry the family name on from generation to generation. The lake and the people here were just so incredible that there were times looking out from our wooden balcony that we never wanted to leave. The reflection of the moon at night on the lake was just awesome. The mode of transport was dug out canoe rowed by fearsome looking women who sang haunting songs that carried for miles and there was yet another uncanny dragon looking mountain which lay lazily across the lake. Ironically I nearly didn’t leave this paradise! On our second to last night I seemed to eat something which caused me to have a bizarre reaction and hives came up all over my legs. After walking to the next village to catch our bus home we decided I had to take something to sort out the spreading hives. We were reluctant to try any Chinese medication but when a friendly Chinese lady offered us an over the counter anti histamine drug we knew from the UK we thought our luck was in. Unfortunately I had an even weirder reaction to this drug where I found it suddenly difficult to breath and my heart started beating very irregularly. There were moments here when I really thought I was a gonner but luckily after about 20 minutes everything seemed to calm down and by evening I was ok. Anyway next day we made for Lijiang through, would you believe it, a snow storm where our bus got stuck in the mountains for an hour or so. Still time for snow men and snowball fights with the Chinese! 8 hours later! we booked ourselves into the swankiest hotel in Lijiang we could afford and wrapped ourselves up in warm duvets! I still had the hives for a couple more days but thank god the worst was over. Quite an adventure!
After one more day in Lijiang and some of our favourite tibetan dumplings we headed south to Dali - a famed backpacker hangout with surrounding hills and big lake. After Lugu Hu and tiger leaping gorge it really had a hard act to follow but it was a pleasant few days where we got on our bikes and headed out to some beautiful villages and went cormorant fishing with the locals. Very smart birds, very smart people. From Dali we got our skates on to Guilin and Yangshuo in south China . We had planned to see much more of southwest china and south china but we figured all for another time now as we had a plane to catch in Hong Kong .
Guilin and Yangshuo are two more tourist hot spots in China with magical, mystical karsts that jut out of the ground and look absolutely breathtaking at sunset. We liked both places but both unfortunately have been a little ruined by tourism. In Yangshuo, the beautiful scenery and winding river is virtually hidden by the thousands of market stalls selling tourist tat, at night the town turns into a bad kind of Ibiza and 90 per cent of the restaurants have exclusively English menus selling pizzas, full English breakfasts and steaks. Don’t get me wrong its fab to have home comforts sometimes but we did also come to see China! An interesting part of what is changing here though. There were glimpses of China outside the old town, however, and the night market was pretty fantastic. Some of the best street food we had. Ironically we also had one of our favourite days here where we cycled three hours up river through breathtaking landscape and villages and caught a bamboo raft home with our bikes attached to the front. A really special day with scenery to match, making that trip to Yangshuo all worthwhile. A better fusion of east and west which just somehow works was our last stop in China - Hong Kong . The bright lights, skyscrapers, colourful street markets, fancy arse restaurants and beautiful junks in the harbour all make for a fascinating cocktail where the living and traveling is easy if a little expensive. We heard someone describe Hong Kong in three words as eat, shop, work and that does kind of sum it up. We felt it had a touch of the New York about it and in many ways it is worlds apart from the rest of China for obvious reasons. Even the border crossing gives you the impression that you are entering a different country. Favourite days included the cable car trip up to the enormous seated Buddha on Lantau Island , a beach which reminded us of Torquay – it even rained for us! – and a ride to Victoria Peak with stunning night views across the city. Fun place to finish our China story and yet more evidence that China has got to be one of the most extraordinarily diverse places on the planet. Our plane out of Hong Kong flew through the most horrific storm where pretty much everyone on the flight at some point must have feared for their lives but after the most turbulent ride we've ever experienced we soon reached calmer skies and looked ahead to a new and exciting chapter in our journey. China's destiny??! Who knows?!
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