Qionghai Hotel Xichang

... to find a way to get to Muli. There were no buses going there so we had to try and find a private ride and of course the people that are offering are trying to rip you off. Finally some guy says he can get us one for cheap. So we're hanging out in this bus lot for quite sometime. There were tiny tiny kittens hanging about Thibaut fed one some crackers. We finally got a ride for a decent price and headed out.

... on my camera. Cute, how some of them cared what they looked like on the photos.
And then the children. I even learned a catching-game from some girls, without understanding a word of what they said. And I never wore so many flowers in my hair before...

Experiencing the Chinese way of traveling on trains was some fun, too. But the bus was even more exciting. After a few minutes, I understood why everyone had gladly taken the travel-sickness-pills they distributed. And I had to ...

... to give me his phone number...blonde hair and white skin seems to be a big hit in China....he shows us this temple at the top of the hill which was lovely...and we met a gorgeous elderly Yi woman who had such a lovely gentle face and warm smile....I wanted to put her in my backpack and take her home...shame she couldn't understand a word of what we were saying tho.... Other general weirdness I've noticed:...similar to how we put on fake tan ...

... a small crowd would gather outside to watch the actions of these strange beings.......... we were taken round by the young lad that had bought us our meal .................young kids would hide and run away from us ..............older folk would peek out of their stalls to catch a glimse It was an amazing and intense day ................its defo hard work being a local celebrity !! I could babble on but im sure that the pictures will tell a better story then i could ...

... We knew which bus got us to the famous Qianghai lake (where Marco Polo is said to have visited) and watched 4 or 5 of that number bus go by full to the brim with Chinese families. When we finally got to the lake, it was crowded with families celebrating the new year. Many people came over to talk to us in English,asking us things like how we liked it in Xichang, or even just to say welcome to Xichang! We were definitely an attraction along with a carnival ...

... watched some of the normal chinese new year television programs, drank tea, and ate candy and apples. I also found out that his mother, a chinese culture teacher, is an avid sports fan. And who is her favorite basketball team? The Cavs! What a small world! Seeing as it is getting late here (almost midnight) and I have a 400 character essay to finish writing, I am going to end this here, which is the end of the first day of our trip. I'll post the rest sometime soon! Bye-bye!

... of Chuxiong, Bai Autonomous Prefecture of Dali, Lijiang and Zhaotong cities, all in Yunnan Province. Kunming, the Yunnan capital, was also hit. Most of the fatalities, however, were in Huili, followed by Chuxiong and Panzhihua. All three areas are on the southern end of the fault line of the May 12 quake that left 69,226 people dead, 17,923 missing and 374,643 others injured. Another 6.0-plus magnitude quake, however, was not expected in the area in ...

... an entire re-hashing of my boots. From Dahli I stopped in a few other towns including Shangri-la......That's right there actually is a Shangri-la and right now it's pretty cold. My bus dropped me off in the middle of the street and I made for the nearest hotel which was about 20 paces away. I knew I was in trouble when I could see my breath while walking down the hall! (This was a four star hotel...i think they're a little generous with their ...

... characters and Yi ideograms, which seemed almost mathematical in appearance. It isn't overly common to see such regard for local minorities, though there did seem to be a sizable Yi presence within the town. The Yi are in fact the fourth largest minority in China, mostly concentrated in Yunnan province (Xichang is far in the south of Sichuan, very close to the provincial border), and are most obvious throughout the area in their black or white, tasseled ...

... residential part of the old town. I didn't get electricity back on til after 9pm. The experience was a mix of frustration and tranquility. I wasn't able to cook any food or make any hot drinks, and had to go elsewhere to get my meals - baba bread from the temple restaurant and ginger tea from a friend's cafe. In my neighbourhood, it was pleasantly peaceful, as no one could use power tools on building sites, and no one could crank up crackly music blaring over loudspeakers ...