Wild Wild West

This is the place where two dozens of ethnical minorities, each with its own culture, history and language live together. This is the place where the Yangzi river passes through the gorge so narrow, that a tiger can jump from one edge to another (or so the legend says). This is the place where you have to wait for the huge yak to move out of the path - or try to move him yourself and where a bed in a room with a view onto a 5000m mountains cost 1,5 euro (toilets share the view). This is the place where a waterfall crossing the only road turns it into a pile of debris and no one seems to care. This is the place where the term "luxury bus" means "you'll be able to open the window so it's not so hot inside and we will stop every half an hour to cool the breaks with a waterhose".

This is the place, where some of the world's finest tea comes from. Welcome to Yunnan.

It's hot and humid here, even 2500m a.s.l. The Buddhist temples here are Tibetan style and very impressive. So is the landscape. The people here are as diverse as possible and the mountains rise 3000m straight up.

Summary? I don't care that I've left my towel somewhere and thus have to use a blanket borrowed from Aeroflot for drying. It does good enough job.

Xishuanbanna

One day in Kunming, capital of the Yunnan province was just enough. As usual, the big cities are not very interesting (apart from the temples). We got there in the morning, left in the evening... by us. We had to give up on my favourite paid way of transportation, as the railways end in Kunming, and the only way to get to really interesting places in Yunnan is a bus. They're quite expensive, but hey, i came here to see a lot of things and expenses are justified.', 'Xinshuanbanna is a region bordering Laos and Vietnam. The climate here is ridiculous, in September in the temperatures at night are around 25-30C. We took the bikes again and went to see some ethnical minorities villages around Jinhong (region capital).

The best thing about this place is food. It's definitely among the best in China so far - and belive me, that means a lot. You can eat really well, really tasty, and quite cheaply here. The "all you can eat" restaurant is 1,5 euros. Yum!

Change of plans

Haikou didn't respond to our emails and faxes, so we decided not to go there. We spent a day in Beihai instead. They also have some nice, white, fine-sand beaches, which means we're not going to get rid of this sand for the next week.

Anyway, I bought a Hawaiian shirt* (in China. Duh.) and a hammock*. 2 euros total. I love this country.

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* hope it lasts longer than 2 days :|

Some random notes - take 3

Okay, that's the last time I'm typing this. Some assorted notes from last two weeks.

Around 09-09-2006

The main problem with China is not their weird language nor their 'letters'. It's their lack of Campingaz bottles. This might seriously lower the amount of hot tea I'm going to drink in remote areas of Chinese wilderness.

Anyway. We met with the rest of the group and the 10 of us took the train to Huangshan. Chinese trains (cheapest type, cheapest class) are a bit uncomfortable (but allow to make friends with a LOT of people) - but once mastered, are perfectly okay. You just have to spread your camping mat under the seats, then put up with your nose being 5cm away from the underside of the seat, The Sweep smearing all the dirt evenly across the whole floor rather than removing it and Chinese spitting on the floor. Hopefully around you.

Huangshan (or The Yellow Mountains) are one of the most spectacular in the whole World. If you've seen Polish Szczeliniec or Czech Ardspach - you can multiply them by ten to get the general idea. Chinese say, that one who walks the Huangshan will never want to climb any other mountains. They might be right.

We dumped half of our stuff in a hotel and with lighter backpacks - left for a hike. Unfortunately, the weather was cloudy and misty so we didn't get to see a fraction of what Huangshan has to offer - but they were magnificent anyway. There's a picture in a post below. After going up, we spent a night in tents between the highest peaks, in front of a hotel (they 'suggested' us that the nearby meadow is not a good idea. Snakes). In the morning it turned out that half of the Chinese population is going to the "See the sunrise in the Huangshan" trip. Around 300 of them were around our tents, pointing with their fingers and taking pictures. We got used to it by now.

After an exhausting day - only 13km on flat surface, but ludicrous amounts of climbing - we went back to the hotel. The late-evening visit from 2 girls offering a "massage" was little a bit of a surprise. They didn't get discouraged by us sending them off, and kept calling on the telephone - until Batman choked on the watermelon and kept coughing into the receiver for 30 seconds.

Around 12-09-2006

Another "The best of the world" experience. And not the last. Karst landscape of Guilin (biggest city around) and Yangshuo region is absolutely breathtaking. Again - there's a picture in previous post. We took a boat down the Li river one day, and hired bikes for another. Both trips changed a bit our opinion on how beautiful mountains should look like. I'll post more pictures when I'm back home.

Around 16-09-2006

The terrace rice fields are something unthinkable in Poland. Rice is grown on perfectly flat surface, as it has to be planted in shallow water. And yet, the Chinese managed to successfully grow rice in the mountains. The steps they carved look like isolines projected directly onto the terrain. Somehow, I didn't post a picture last time - and can't do that now, so just go here.

We managed to sneak in through a narrow, severely damaged by water streams path. Therefore, we didn't wind up in the main, tourist-focused village, but rather in a sleepy, completely forsaken one. It seemed like the time stopped 500 years ago there. The village stood almost unmodified since our Dark Ages. The group got spread (Bozena, Krzysiek and I hitch-hiked up the road, the rest stayed behind), so it was a bit more quiet and a bit less hasty. We enjoyed the atmosphere of Longji for some time, spent a night at Zhong minority hut (0,5 euro :)), and met with the rest in Guilin.

Dammit...

I had written some things with my blog in mind on the train from Huangshan to Guilin, then left the notebook in the hostel. These stories have to wait for better times on the bottom of my backpack.

It's just a quick note saying that I'm alive for now - although surviving the 22hr train ride without a place to sit on this train was potentially lethal.

Shanghaied

This'll be short, it's already late and we are getting up early tomorrow. We made it to Shanghai without problems. I guess the views from the airplane deserve their own desription, but I'll see them again so I can post it from home.

Getting around Shanghai is easy. Hadly anyone speaks English here, but with a map and metro stations names in this international language one can easily manage. We contacted with a friend from HC and thus have a place to stay for three days while waiting for the rest.

The city itself is obviously huge, with lots of short people, high skyscrapers and 430km/h train.

The soya 13% beer costs 0,2 euro (and is undrinkable) and the 'Confucius' vodka is around 1,4 euro/liter. Chinese soups are even more Chinese than ever.

China - the beginning

It's hofficial: in two days I'll be off to Shanghai.

I still don't appreciate seriousness of the situation fully, but that's usual (I also never learn). To prove that I gave the whole trip at least a small bit of thought - here's a map. Sketch in Google Earth took me 3 mins. Exhausting.

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