On the 21st May we crossed the border from Vietnam back into China, where we saw two Israeli girls having their China guidebook, in Hebrew, being confiscated. Luckily we managed to sneak our Lonely Planet through with no problems. The authorities don't like the fact that Taiwan is shown as a different country (even though it is)!
We had a very long day and arrived in Kunming around 9pm.The following evening we got a sleeper train to Lijiang and whilst we were waiting at the train station we spotted a group of teenagers with their teacher sketching Nic. The teacher showed us his sketch and Nic looked like a super-hero!
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| Making friends at Kunming train station |
Lijiang is a beautiful, but very touristy, ancient walled city with a great local
market and impressive views of Snow mountain. We spent a couple of days
here pottering about and I tried to get over some sort of flu-thing,
which I'd caught. This was the 3rd time I'd been ill whilst travelling
in China - we now refer to it as the China Sickness!
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| Ladies laughing in Lijang |
We then got a bus to a small dusty town near the Tiger Leaping Gorge and the following day we were supposed to set off on a 2 day hike of the gorge, described as "the unmissable trek of SE China", The gorge is one of the world's deepest and measures 16km long and 3900 metres above the river. Anyway, because I was ill we just spent the day hiding from the heat and the dust in our room. The following day I was no better, so Nic set off alone to see the gorge. He arrived back in the afternoon hot, sweaty and happy. On the way to the top of the gorge he met an English couple that we'd already met Lijang so he walked with them to the top of the gorge and then walked back on his own.
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| Nic at the top of Tiger Leaping Gorge |
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| Tiger Leaping Gorge |
I was feeling much better after my rest and we got the bus to Dali, another ancient walled city that's less touristy than Lijang. Whilst in Dali we did a wonderful walk around part of the nearby Erhai mountain. We went on a cable car to Cloud Pass, climbed some steep steps and then walked for hours. We saw more wildlife than people and it was a really pleasant and peaceful experience (unique in China!!!).
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| A very strange long-necked insect on Erhai mountain |
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| Erhai mountain |
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| An example of Chin-glish. Does anyone know the meaning? |
We left Dali by bus and then got an overnight train in Chengdu. At the hostel we met the lovely staff and the other guests and we all had a go at making dumplings, which we then got to eat for free. They had a gorgeous 2-month old puppy called 'Paris' there so I was very happy!
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| 'Paris' - too cute! |
Whilst in Chengdu we met up with Peter, the travel agent who we'd booked out Tibet trip with. A few days before in Lhasa, the capital of Tibet, two monks set themselves on fire as a protest and since then no foreigners have been issued with permits. We had booked to go to Tibet on 11th June and spend 8 days there travelling over land, via Everest base camp, to Nepal. Peter gave us the bad news and gave us our deposit back. We were obviously pretty gutted about not being able to go but we also felt sorry for Peter and the other people on our trip. We'd heard from people who'd just returned from Lhasa that there were soldiers and police everywhere. How do the Tibetans live under such repression? Hopefully, one day we'll be able to go and enjoy this beautiful country and meet its gentle, friendly people.
We did a day trip from Chengdu to Leshan to see the Grand Buddha, which is 1200-year-old and is carved into a cliff face. He's 71metres tall, his ears are 7metres tall and his big toes are 8.5 metres long. Wow! He was impressive but the crowds were insane.
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| Grand Buddha |
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