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Hello from Dali, China!! We are continuing our China trip further west, closer to Tibet and a tad bit cooler. Good thing we bought jeans and jackets... and mitts and touques! We arrived in Dali after 36 hours of travel... bus ride to Guilin, 18 hour train to Kunming, 45 minute bus ride on the local bus (which holds 30 ppl but they squish in 50!), 5 hour bus ride to another town then an hour to Dali with a driver who could not find our guest house!!! All this with NO ENGLISH and not having a good meal besides cup-of-noodles. I was VERY happy when we found our place, realized the room was FANTASTIC (duvet and good pillows!!) with hot water and had a great meal. Steve and I slept well and are just finishing up a 3 hour marathon on the internet. Going to finish this up and then head out exploring and get lunch.
So, China. What else can I write about? We loved Yangshuo, felt like Canmore with mountains everywhere, good weather and chilled atmosphere. Stayed for a week.
But how do I describe China, truly? It has more people than I could ever imagine. It is just crazy how many people are in the countryside (to think of Beijing!!) and everyone is moving and working. Not much English here unless you are in a tourist area or in a guesthouse with English. And what is funny is if you ask someone, they talk and talk as if I should understand. When you shrug your shoulders as if to say "I have no idea..." they just say the same thing only LOUDER! It gets quite comical as they think that you will understand if they yell at you. And point. After you think you have some sort of direction, you have to face someone else because you had it wrong and the cycle continues. You definately have to have patience and just laugh more often than not.
Also, I am sure that every Chinese person has never seen a white person before. It is so crazy how you go out walking, cycling, whatever and they just stare! Not a typical stare, smile, then look away. No, a stare where there is no smile and no looking away until you have passed on. At first, a little intimidating but now used to it. I went running a couple times and felt like I had 20 pairs of eyes on me at all times, which i did, and I am sure they were all thinking "what a crazy lady"!!!
China is definately shocking. I will never not cringe when people spit, EVERYWHERE! Especially when they clear their throat first, that horrible sound (I know you know what I am talking about!!). Bathrooms that are often just so, so disgusting that you start to make your body not have to go until you can finally face one. The crazy thing is that the Chinese are so scared about H1N1 that they take your temperature before you enter the country and watch out if you, as a foreigner especially, gets sick, yet they have NO precautions to stopping germs! Maybe covering your mouth when you sneeze would help instead (as Steve loves to demonstrate) of projecting your sneeze to cover a 10 foot radius. We just cant help but laugh whenever this happens. Seriously!!! Well, I guess it is making us better travellers. That is what i will tell myself when I cant take it anymore!
But, all that aside, China is breathtaking. The scenery is unbelievable, mountains, trees, hundreds of years old villages, it is just a land of amazing contrasts. You see farmers plowing plots for vegetables with water buffalo and then BMW's zooming down the road. You can eat very Chinese-type food (they do not waste any part of an animal!) or have a great pizza. It just has an energy all its own, the Chinese have had such a hard go, only a while ago millions were starving. Now that the economy is doing better, the Chinese can travel (they make up more touring then Western tourists) and they are embracing their place in the world at 110%. There are many inequalities, very evident everyday, but there is such a national pride and amazingly tough work ethic that you know that they will always work to improve their life.
We are here for a while longer. We leave Dali in a couple days to go north to Lijang then to a 3 day 2 night hike called Tiger Leaping Gorge. Supposed to be incredible. We are so close to the Tibetan border. Afterwards, we will meander our way south and then into Vietnam, maybe be there in 10 days?? The great thing with no plan or time limits at the moment is we can do whatever!!
Anyway, that was quite long. Thanks for reading!! Wish us luck for our hike (7 hours uphill the first day!!) and we will update soon.
Love, Steve and Mo
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