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Hellllloooooooo! i know its been a long time, but here is the end to my holiday stories (i'm sure u've all been waiting in huge anticipation!)
right, i'd got to that night in Zhongdian. The next morning we got up kinda late. I had an amazing shower lol. Then we sat talking to an english woman for a little while, some people went to get tickets for our bus trip back to lijiang (we'd intended to go up towards deqin, but everything was 6 hours away and we just didnt have time). Then we finally got ourselves organised enough to go out to this huge buddhist temple just outside the town. it was so stunning. i'd already instantly loved zhongdian, and this sort of topped it off. monks walking through the streets, tibetan people selling odd goods (check james' fur jacket on my photos- there was loads of fur around), and the most beautiful temple. The only strange thing was the amount of han tourists, and some really agressive han hawkers on stalls. Either way there were the cutest monks. it was so peaceful there, and just calm. The monks weren't (all) the story book calm monks- they had mobile phones and trainers.. But the older men were smiley and friendly, they all had their little jobs- the monks tending the fire, others washing up, others collecting rubbish. I wandered off on my own, gave myself some time to think and then suddenly a little chinese girl ran up to me in a matching red cowboy hat and top asking for my photo, and we posed, with her arm linked through mine (as usual) outside a temple.
We spent so long in the temple that we nearly missed the bus AGAIN, and me and geoff spent a cool afternoon sitting and talking and eating on the bus. That night we had more HUGE mama-related fun- you sleepy mama 2, you eaty mama one.. then our friends from dali came up, but no1 had been sure that they were coming [okay, im sorry, it's been 2 days since i started writing this- i was in the middle of doing it when some junior 1 students turned up and took us to the fair lol!] So there was lots of happy shouting at each other while we tried to arrange a lift for them- she wouldn't allow us to tell them to take a taxi! We'd spent that night playing 'get pissed' (a game made by me and geoff) with a huge group of people, but hadnt really got pissed at all, and when our friends arrived we spent the rest of the night wandering around in search of a KTV. with no luck, by 2am we decided to settle for beer and bbq on the street.
a few hours sleep later we woke up entirely unprepared for the 16km hike we were determined to do. This was tiger leaping gorge, one of the deepest gorges in the world and a natural wonder. again, there was much hassle trying to get mama to arrange transport for the 4 hour journey to the gorge- apparantly we were too late and the good buses had gone or something... ah mama. FINALLY we set off for the gorge and one hell of a bumpy journey later in a mini bus we got there at bout 1, and had a really decent meal at one of the guesthouses. we set off up the gorge at about 2 which was far too late- the sun sets at about 7.00 and we had reputedly 6 hours walking ahead and 3 very unfit people (me, romy and alex). the first hour was hell, and then i started to settle into it. we collected 4 or 5 men with horses who'd blatantly got us down as having no chance of making it up 28 bends (a section of about 1 n a half hours walking through u-bends on a tiny path, climbing 200 metres) BUT WE MADE IT!!!! there was one moment halfway up 28 bends where we found snickers bars and somewhere so desperately needed to sit when me n alex suddenly started seriously considering the horses. either way, it was worth it. the view from the top was like nothing i'd ever seen, nowhere else could be so naturally beautiful. there was a huge feeling of being entirely on top of the world. i sat on a rock looking off the edge of the mountain, across the valley, and suddenly i could have done the entire walk again.
there was a quick descent from here though, we had to hurry as we didnt want to get caught out in the dark. me and james walked down the hill having a long conversation about our cars. we decided that we had to stop at the first guest house we came to, and this was tea horse. it was perfect really- beds for 20yuan (1pound 30) lots of good food and dorms that we could all stay in, and to top it off being in the middle of the mountains. others may say the most incredible thing about this place was the huge amount of possibly wild marijuana plants! we ended up sitting in one room together, and there were too many to play cards, we played charades. Romy was seriously wierd, delirious or something lol, and just kept sitting there with her mouth open and a blank look on her face.. that night she suddenly just sat bolt upright in bed and said to me and geoff- 'im wearing a t-shirt.' a little later this was followed with '...as a skirt.' lol. as usual me n rom n geoff were sharing a room.. unfortunate on this particular night as in the morning geoff woke up with terrible sickness- he must have drunk some dodgy wild plant tea ;)
then, looking after a poorly geoff, we began to make our descent. this should have taken about 2 hours, but due to the beautiful scenery and geoff throwing up, it ended up taking much much longer. as we got closer to the end, it started to rain. and then really rain. and then rain some more. me, rom, geoff and jamie ended up further behind the others and nearly died. repeatedly. never try to make a mountain descent down a muddy path without proper equipment (however, thank god for the boys pirating sticks) with a steep drop below you in the pouring rain. with severly muddy bums, and tired legs, we got back to flat concreted land. an entire relief. the only problem then was that we then had to try to find the others and a lift back to lijiang. we walked another few kms and finally re-united with them at another little guest house, where they did proper chips with proper ketchup!! wonderful. if only i hadnt been so cold and wet! also, because this was moon cake/mid autumn day, there were very few buses, so we had to pay a ridiculous amount to get back to lijiang, where half of us went straight to the bus station to try to get tickets back to kunming that night. first of all we were told there were no buses. then we realised there were, but there were no tickets. then just as the 5 of us were giving up, some women came up to us and said they had 4 tickets on the bus that was leaving RIGHT NOW. there was huge panick! the priority was to get me n rom on the bus as we had the furthest to travel from kunming. but rom was in old town lijiang. there was shouting down the phone to romy tryin to get her and alex to the bus station, but they were confused and a little lost, and there was shouting at the people selling the tickets, and shouting at the bus driver trying to get him to hold the bus in the dark and the rain, at the door of the bus. finally we just decided that some of us should go, and that there was no way of gettin rom and alex there so me and james and jamie jumped on the bus and me and james spent half the night talking and feeling guilty about leaving the others with the 9 hour bus journey tomorrow. we felt a little less guilty though when we remembered that they would have had another night with mama, food, a shower, and a bed that actually fit them.
that saturday in kunming was largely spent searching (in vain) for shoes, eating western food, and feeling jealous of jamie and alexs accom- they have a PROPER shower!!!i cant decide if i really like kunming, its nice being able to meet and talk to various westerners, but at the same time its big and busy. we bumped into a friend of jamie and alex's in the street and ended up going to a type of english pub with him. he was pretty cool, but sort of lost, still bumming around south east asia and finding girls. either way we spent the evening with him eating and drinking. then everyone else (well geoff and romy- alex went straight home to his apt) turned up at our hostel, then jimmy met us too, and we went out. oh yeah, with a group of other random westerners, including, bizarrely, one of the aarons we'd met in lijiang who turned out to be staying at the same hostel as us. first we went to this pretty chilled out place and were just about to get drinks when the simon guy decided that we should go to this other place- speakeasy. it was cool. almost like a western club, but kind of a real mish mash. there were pool tables, a dance floor, booth seating, sofa seating, a big screen projector showing a wierd film... but they sold white russians!! i got a bit drunk, very angry with jimmy, and danced all night. we went home, and me and geoff sat up (again) putting the world to rights until far too late.
and thats about it. me and rom caught our bus home, and were actually early for it for once. it was the most high class bus we've been on- there was free food and everything! very dazed, we arrived back in simao, and settled in pretty quickly. i cant believe it was only 2 weeks ago. life moves so fast here.
i'm going to cook dinner now, i'm still experimenting with how best to cook tofu at home. i think i actually want some chillis in it!! so much has happened in the last few days that i really should tell about, but to be brief (im really hungry)-
1- I'M GOING TO BE ON TV, SPEAKING CHINESE, TEACHING LESSONS, AND LOOKING HUNGOVER!
2- I'M MODELLING WEDDING CLOTHES NEXT SATURDAY AND SUNDAY! AND GETTING PAID HALF A MONTHS WAGES FOR IT!
love you all lots :D xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
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