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Wow! It's been a while since the last update hasn't it? I can't say for sure as time has lost pretty much all meaning. What seems likes weeks to me is probably only a few days in reality. Actually Em informs that I do in fact have two weeks to update. Also, it seems that I under- estimated our readership as the requests have been flooding in for more updates.I should explain the reason for the recent gap in information…Myself and Emily have been taking turns updating this thing and guess what, it was my turn. Now, not wanting to bring everyone down I've had a bit of a rough time of it recently so I was waiting till things cheered up a bit. Yes it's been tough. In the last week I've hurt my backlifting my back-pack…not cool, my memory card failed and I lost 2 gigs worth of photos, some real choice ones too. There will be a shortage of those for a while…but lets face it, there were far too many of them anyway so it's probably a good thing. And finally after a few near misses my i-pod completely blew out and I lost my 20 gigs of music and some of by best photos…boo hooo…poor me. It's a hard life…but it's about to get easier as Em won't be hassling me to update the blog anymore…so I'll get on with it…
Since the last update we've come from Chengdu, stopped off for a day in Xichang, stayed for a few days at a lake in the mountains called Lugu-hu, climbed the tiger leaping gorge, got the bus to Shangri-La which is very close to the Tibetan boarder and now we're amongst the limestone karsts in a place called Yangshuo. So we've seen and done loads and I really should have written this sooner.
The following is an edit from my note book...which I kept updated as we went…so the tense may suddenly switch without warning…
Chengdu (not sure of the date)
Had a good day - finally - in Chengdu. No more missions for train tickets or cycling through busy streets in the pouring rain! The highlight has to be our visit to the Peoples' Park. It had a 60 year old dilapidated and seemingly abandoned amusement park called Kiddies Paradise. Loads of tea houses with gardens full of people playing cards and Chinese dominoes. We had some grape ice cream which I pronounced to be the best I've ever had…well, it was better than the pea ice cream and became the ice cream of choice for the rest of our time in china. Then it all started to get a little crazy, there must have been over a thousand old people at some kind of festival, there was about 10 sound systems playing traditional music, western music, hard house, pop music etc…each sound system had it's own group of people doing their thai chi style dancing or ball room dancing or aerobics or just random flailing! It was funny. One of these sound systems was hidden away from the others and was blaring out spaghetti western music - we had to clamber through some people to find it. There was a woman dressed in Indian bridal gowns with bells on her wrists and this massive grin on her face dancing around with this old Chinese bloke dressed up as a cowboy complete with aviators and a heavy metal tee-shirt. If this wasn't trippy enough there was a third old lady screaming traditional Chinese vocals along to the dueling banjos or whatever it was playing.Quality experience, another one of those moments that needed recording although I'm sure you had to be there to fully appreciate it the way we did, it's too hard for me put the weirdness into words. After that moment we started to see the Chinese in a different light and things started to get much more interesting. But, how come we don't get this kind of this in England? What do the old people get up to behind closed doors?
My beard was coming along nicely by this point.
I suppose, apart from the good Sichuan food and a few missions to get train tickets and sort out our next stop and finding out just how bad the Lonely Planet actually is - the next real thing that needs to go down is the pandas. We decided to stay in Chengdu an extra day to check out the pandas - neither of us were fussed when we first heard about them, but everyone just kept on going on about them…Yem and Soph were quite pivotal in the decision.We went with a Dutch couple and avoided the tour groups and saved a load of cash that we spent on massages (or food, I can't remember) so it was always going to work out well.The pandas themselves were pretty cute and looked happy in their environment. There was loads of them so it was much better than seeing them in the zoo…took more than a few snaps.They went up on the blog ages ago…I like the one where it's lying on it's back waving at us with a big grin. There were baby pandas about as big as furry footballs…so that was the pandas.(note to Lucy…from em..the seriously baby pandas…the ones that just came out, as it were, looked like mice. There were also some red pandas, not just the classic black and white ones).
Oh yes, Sichuan hot pot - it turned out to be a bit of a fiasco as it probably does for anyone who orders without knowing any mandarin - you get a bowl full of fish heads and a stinging a******* in the morning…he he…not really….we took a photo of the menu and it was pretty other worldly. Em wasn't feeling it,I had a bit of a cold so could handle the hotness and got down to some serious meat eating - I had loach, rabbits kidneys, loads of mushrooms, dumplings, lamb on sticks and a couple of other as yet unidentified meats…all cooked with so much chilli and ginger that your mouth tingled.
Xichang
We didn't expect to spend any time here - but we missed our connecting bus to lugu hu.It was funny - the place itself was more like real China…between the superficial Beijing and dirty Datong. Just normal - like Notts. More people started saying hello to us and I think there was even a man who asked me to touch his baby for luck…that has happened a couple of times since…they must have heard about my legendary status in the uk…what can I say?
I should mention this girl that helped out at the bus station! She was a legend! Even though we had it all sorted out within about 5 minutes and could have probably found another route straight to the lake without having to spend the night there - she helped us for two hours and even found us a hotel, negotiated a price, helped our bags up to the room and checked it for us…she was very friendly…she ask if I had any UK coins and I did so I gave her a 50p coin…thought she would be happy with this but she wanted the pound coin as well…
We walked around the station, exploring, as you do when that is basically all you have to do for a year…the options were limited. It was quite industrial and the already abandoned (at least very quiet) Olympic park didn't look very appealing so we carried on to this massive building featuring a huge cylinder which turned out to be a music school. It was hot, temperature wise, damn hot! Anyway, we arrived just as this bunch of kids were finishing of a dress rehearsal for some kind of dance show, they were all dressed up in traditional costumes.As soon as they saw us coming they couldn't concentrate on finishing their rehearsal…they were waving and saying hello and as soon as they were finished they made they way over to us where we sat on the edge of this massive square. Slowly at first, in pairs, but gradually more and more till we were surrounded by hordes of these girls, saying how pretty Em was and offering us sweets, asking us to write in English on their hands and writing messages etc.It was all very Paul Merton or maybe Michael Palin...except it was me and Em. I thought it was the westerners who were supposed to be handing out the gifts - they wrote down their names on a piece of paper for me and they gave Em this purple butterfly necklace thing and something made of sellotape which looked like a star.We managed to rustle up some travel sweets which redressed the present balance…em also got a marble…I got some good snaps with em and the whole crowd which unfortunately were on the memory card that has decided not to work…but em got some good snaps too…I think that's the thing about doing this thing as a couple. If I was on my own or with another bloke I don't think they and others would approach us in the same way…it's all about the female influence.
More delicious food - more tingling mouths and a nice drunk bloke who helped us order our food - we chose the restaurant based on cleanliness.
We managed to catch the bus the next morning - 7 hours and 100 photos of coal mines, rice terraces, rural settlements, rusting iron bridges, loads of landslides and half broken roads, an old lady walking her pigs on a leash., that kind of thing. But don't worry, I lost those photos too. We finally completed our journey up through the valleys to about 2000 meters and the lake…absolutely breath taking. We took the final leg with two Aussie ladies who had come down from Mongolia and had been in China during the SARS outbreak.We had a dinner with them a couple of days later and we heard some good stories and advice about Vietnam and South East Asia - they gave us some books to trade and tupperware box as I left ours in the last hotel. This is gold dust.
Our room at the lake was absolutely f*#king amazing…a panoramic view of the lake and comfortable double bed! Heaven.The lake was very chilled with not too many tourists on our bit - just us and the aussies made up the western contingent…It's nice not being able to understand other people's conversations…that way they don't get on your nerves. Had some good barbeque food…the coals were in the middle of the table and you just stuck on what ever you wanted to eat…potato slices, peppers, yak meat, stuffed aubergine, mushrooms…all good stuff…the people next to us had some water lily which we tried and was good - tasted like water chestnut.
We hired some bikes- cycled the 10k to the next town, regretted it, got ripped off in a coffee shop…should have stayed at our village and maybe got a boat out on the lake - was planning on ringing everyone but there was a power cut for about 14 hours...no more ice cream…
The next day the power came back on, it become overcast so we just spent the day in a bar chilling out (another thing we seem to do a lot of).
Just remembered, Em got pickpocketed at the train station in Xichang…they only got her used train ticket...cheeky b*****s - you've got to keep your eyes peeled out here.
By this point it had been six weeks since my last hair cut and 2 weeks since my last shave...the traveller look was coming along nicely. I'm such a cliché…
We were over 2000 metres high so everything in a sealed container nearly popped!
The weather has been scorching hot recently - but we saw on the news the other night that there are some storms in other regions of china. The weather can change quite rapidly and brutally…one minute you're in your hammock with a beer and the next you're taking shelter from a typhoon with torrential rain and you're stuck there because the roads are blocked by land slides….
Nearly there…
The lake boasted the last matriarchal system still in use in the world - or one of them…
We've finally completed our mortgage but we haven't heard from Freddie in a while…..maybe we will have to open an English school by the lake after all.
Shangri-La 25-9-08
It was good there - we went on a pony trek in the meadows over looked by the mountains - the guide book said that it is the last stop before Tibet and provides a flavour of Tibet for the those that can't be arsed with the hassle and expense of actually going to Tibet…I think that's what the guide book said…I'm getting tired now…this has been a marathon blog…
By the way, headsets cost a fiver from maplins and skype is free so get on the case people…I'm handing over to em to finish off.
Hi, Em here. I'm going to start with a few things I'd like to add to the previous…
The best room we've ever had (by the lake) was also the cheapest (less than 3 pounds). How does that work?
The matriarchal society, the Mosu (part of Naxi culture) - didn't look that different at first, but I did see a man knitting and washing clothes and women seem to be in charge. It's a matrilineal society and men are not responsible for supporting their children unless they are still in the relationship and want to. Uncles and relatives of the mother are more important. Women don't cohabit or marry as such, but people have 'walking marriages' - after the age of 13 women can leave the communal living area and have as few or many lovers as she wishes but I think you have higher status if you have more lovers. It seemed quite pleasant and the men were doing childcare etc, but you aren't supposed to ask who the father is basically because it doesn't matter.
And back to my previous comments about being a city girl, not when the country and society is as nice as this….
Anyway, we then got another scary, bumpy bus to Lijang and then paired up with two Chinese girls to get to Tiger Leaping Gorge asap - as we are running out of time. We arrived in darkness and had another scary journey along a cliff edge and through waterfalls (don't worry parents). Anyway the next day we trekked up and down Tiger Leaping Gorge - amazing scenery, roaring river, lots of hardcore walking and sweating and some up a very scary ladder made from bamboo up a cliff face. (anyway see the photos, the one of Lawrence about to fall into the whitest water I have ever seen is a classic).
After that another bloody bus to Shangri-la (Loz's back was completely done in by this point, and so I was also suffering) but we did meet some nice people on the bus. We went for a walk in the evening and came across a square with the locals dancing round in a circle. There was a massive loudspeaker playing different songs, and each one had a unique dance. They all knew the moves and were completely in time, some in traditional costume, some in 'normal' clothes. There was a really nice atmosphere. Then we had some (more) pot noodle and went to bed.
Next day was pony-trekking (he's mentioned this). We went with this Chinese guy called Alex who actually spoke more English than Chinese but he was a godsend as his language skills were obviously far superior to ours. After a kip (it was baking hot) we set off to the monastery, which had over 600 monks there and is massive. We were hoping for a spiritual experience of sorts (apart from the fact we're not religious) but I was a bit disappointed. I mean, it was impressive, but you had to pay 30 yuan to get in. And it all seemed a bit capitalist - the yak butter tea was marked up massively, and the monks seemed more bothered with selling soft drinks and chatting on their mobiles. Hmm. There was a good view though. It was interesting to talk to Alex about the Dalai Lama and the situation in Tibet, although it was a little uncomfortable seeing as were in a Buddhist temple surrounded by monks.
We spent a couple of days in Shangri-la then our biggest journey to date - an 11 hour bus journey (this is when the i-pod famously gave up for good), followed by a night in Kunming, then a train journey of 18 hours (hard-sleeper). But in Kunming we bought some sleeping pills (safe ones from a reputable pharmacy) and they were amazing - we took them at 8.30pm and were falling asleep within half an hour. Then we slept for about 12 hours. Wow. I didn't wake up wanting to kill anyone. But later that day we did want to kill each other. But that's another story.
So now we are in Yangshuo. We have been cycling though rice fields, surrounded by limestone karst peaks. The weather is beautiful and we went a bit crazy and bought a bottle of wine last night. It obviously went to our heads because then we decided to go to a bar (this town is quite touristy and its also a Chinese holiday) and spend far too much on a couple of tequilas and a beer. We had a dance before I walked off the floor in disgust when they started to play that song 'lets get it started in here' - is it by blue or black-eyed peas or someone crap like that? But we met some fun but slightly high people, some of whom offered us illicit substances which was a shock as we though they put you in prison for things like that. Even weirder was today when we were in the park, Lawrence lying in his hammock and me reading 'Red Dust' on a bench (its banned here). Someone came up to him and chatted for a bit before offering to sell him 'Wild Swans' (which is also banned). I'm sure it was genuine but Lawrence decided not to trade it for the Red Dust I was just about to finish, just in case.
So more cheap noodles for dinner and chilling by the river, then Lawrence asked a boy to a game of table tennis. After a few serves he got his mate to play- who was a demon at the game. Cue lots of spectators to see Lawrence getting whooped by a child. But to be fair 'his bat had more spin on it'. He he.
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