Zhe Jiang Hotel Guiyang

... here, Guiyang at 6pm, for a taxi driver to then take us round the block (and about 2 doors away from the bus station we got off at!) to our hotel for 10yuan, nevermind.
The hotel is clean, with aircon and a soft bed (3 things that your lucky to get in a chinese hotel) the bathroom is completely covered in plastic. It is literally a porta-loo cabin complete with sink, bath and step in shower, just placed in the corner of the ...

Hi - 17/8 Arrival at Kaili
We are in China!
We had spent 30 hours of 3 flights - all good, specially Air Uzbekistan, then a bus to Guanyang - a big city, 1.2 million people: a modern place, 20-30 stories buildigs, wide road, full of new cars and well-dressed people. The streets look so clean, quite. Lotteries on streets!
We took the bus to Kaili - 2.5 hours, new road (you pay for passing it).
Kaili is a Miao city - looks ...

So, last night we had the fourth gig which was a chilled out place...but not as many people or not as much energy as the other gigs...which have been awesome!!! there's some photos up from the Chongqing gig on soundsmakers.com - check them out!!
It will be nice to not have a gig today I think! just chill out all day, go out for lunch with the owner of the club we were at last night and maybe some other people, and then catch the train (a sleeper ...

... really are enjoying delicious food. For example, for lunch today, we shared three dishes with steamed rice. A whole river fish, chilli ginger beans and garlic water spinach with steamed rice and washed down with green tea.

When we arrived in this rather large town of Guiyang I wish we had the movie camera directed on us. Helen was unsure of the way to the hotel so we stopped at some lights and she grabbed a taxi for us to follow. The traffic parted amid a deluge ...

... much manipulation and a positive outcome is not guaranteed". "It would do no harm to the image of the local government," he said, comparing her with former US vice-presidential candidate Sarah Palin, who he described as "beauty meeting politics". Professor Xia Xueluan, from the department of sociology and anthropology at Peking University, disagreed. He said that pictures of a civil servant circulated online in the name of beauty is "inappropriate". Xia suggested that tourists ...

... Not much more to see here, so we decide to go back to Guiyang for some lunch. After that, a visit to the Hongfu Temple, on top of a hill in Qianling Park. Another silly visit to a budist temple. They're all the same: sculptures, incense burners... Once you've seen one, it is nonsense to visit others. Go back to Guiyang center for last visit in the province, the Jiaxiu Pavilion. A small building in the middle of the river, with nothing ...

... with strange names and shapes, beautiful colour illumination to enhance the incredible effects of the stones and rocks. More than 2 and a half hours walking inside the cave, and only explored a 20% of it. Incredible. It was really worth! It's almost 3 o'clock, so we are hungry and our guide also, and have an splendid lunch. Then, another 4 hours of road torture towards Guiyang ...

... visited an elderly woman, once a Stone Gate Village resident, who now lives in Zhaotang and collects garbage and recyclables in order to survive. Mr. Zhou ...

... of China's more recent past has anything to the home of Zhou Enlai's father being in the village I can only speculate. It is viewed as a place to visit for a day or half-day, buy your souvenir food and alcohol and head back to the city. By 8pm it was deserted and the streets were almost pitch black except for the lights from shopkeepers working to develop their stores. Our hostel was outside the village walls and when we walked out of the large gate, one could ...

... feed the monkies! There's also a most enjoyable 'Death Ride' to have a go on and a monastery up in the mountains. The waterfall is not easy to find. Do not believe The Lonely Planet on this one. By the time we'd actually arrived we only had about 30mins to spend there and even then there were no buses and we had to flag down a passing police car. Luckily the police men were most obliging and we got back safe and sound! The waterfall is beautiful though, well worth the hassle.