Grand Dragon Hotel (Teng Long Kai Yue) Kaili

Not the perfect way to spend a birthday, but after a couple of hours on the coach we reached the train for our overnight ride The group made me a cake out of chocolate biscuits, with a lighter for a candle!! No booze on this train - only a beer, so it was the soberist birthday I have ever had!!! We arrived in Kaili, stored our bags and caught the bus for our homestay visit for 2 nights!!!

After half and hour drive and 20 min walk we reached the 'village ...

... the tourists are chinese, we were almost the only foreigners in the village. Sometimes we felt like a touristic attraction of our own.

we saw the Miao museum, The chief's house, some merchendise shops, and an authentic miao show - held for the visiting tourists. many people came to see.
The Miao people specialize in silver, tourism, and they also grow rice.

At night we ate dinner at a restaurant on a beautifull bridge, where we met a group of chinese ...

Everywhere we look at the Shidong market, there's something interesting. To my right, an old man stands smoking a pipe, guarding some blue plastic bags at his feet. Wait a minute, are the bags moving? Yes, small pigs are trying to walk around, even though the bags keep tripping them. To the left, a man selling sugar cane endlessly peels foot-long segments and sells them to customers young and old. The black cane is stacked as high as he is tall, in ...

... there were loads my face hurt from all the fake smiling. Basha itself was a lot poorer then Xijiang and alot more primitive, i got to see a local house which had nothing but basics. The hostel i had no water for almost 2 days wich isnt unheard of, so the toilets got a little smelly!!!!!!. The men all wear their hair in a certain way and carry daggers or even guns. We even got a local show where for free they played what i ...

... to a driveway that links some wooden dwellings with the dirt road to the highway. The houses are made of dark painted timbers with a low-hanging roof and knee-high door jambs. The double doors swing to like in a Western saloon and through the gaps we can see lofts have been built within to provide sleeping quarters and storage space. We are brought in to the living room, opening off the middle door of the first house. An old woman in traditional dress--white, peaked headdress ...

... in front of us. Wary of locals mock-fighting over prices, we stepped far to the side. Then, I saw a woman pull up in a taxi and join the group. A little girl dismounted a pink bike two sizes too big for her and stood behind the last woman. It wasn't a fight, it was a line. We walked closer, watching incredulously as more and more people joined this line, which was now snaking all the way across the broad sidewalk and curving to the left. A man at the front of ...

A sudden break in the clouds pours down sunshine on the field worker. She's hiking up the hill toward me. As she nears, I see a gloss of sweat on her brow. I step off the ochre dirt path to allow her to pass, but she stops at the turn a few feet away. The woman casually swings her carrying pole and its twin baskets of tools from her left to right side. She follows the direction of the swing and looks out over the terraces plummeting down to the river in the ...

... s and elaborate clothes, soon opened up to me as a colorful and culturally rich group that works hard, laughs often and fully, and holds strong to their traditions. The Hmong have been pushed around China and other parts of Asia since before recorded history. Five thousand years ago they were pushed west from the coast to the Yellow River Valley, and 2,000 years ago during the Han dynasty they were pushed southwest into the mountains, developing a gift for turning even the most ...

... jours formidable avec Mister Gong et Miss Mu en allant dans leur famille ils étaient ravis eux même car ils n'y vont pas souvent. Miss Mu n'avais pas vu ses grands parents depuis 5 ans, leur retrouvaille se sont faites sans démonstration comme s'ils s'étaient quitté la veille. Je ne vous dis rien du paysage magnifique, la campagne à l'état pur comme au moyen âge, pas d'eau courante à part celle des ruisseaux, les WC à coté des cochons, pas de moyen mécanique tout ...

... a tour preparer a mis son beau costume pour nous recevoir ! j'ai pu rencontrer ainsi des autochtones qui apprenent l'anglais nous faisons des echanges je leur donne ce aue je sais et ils me font decouvrir leur culture. C'est lavantage d'etre independant je suis les gens ou ils veulent bien m'emmener et je fais souvent des decouvertes superbes helas pour les photos il faudra encore attendre un peu.