A Slow Bus to China
Trip Start
Jan 02, 2009
1
12
34
Trip End
Dec 07, 2009
Lijiang, Yunnan Province,
China
Monday, May 25, 2009
The bus itself was a rickety old bone shaker with approximately 45 sleeper berths. We were allocated two of the upper berths which were not quite wide enough or long enough for our Western frames. The bus was pretty much full and we had to contend with the smell of feet, a number of people smoking, the constant ringing of mobile phones, some fierce snoring and the sound of people hawking up phlegm onto the floor of the bus for the entire duration of the journey. What with the beds and the phlegm, we felt like we were in a mobile TB ward. Needless to say, we didn't get much sleep. The bus trundled along the bumpy roads, stopping for long periods of time for no apparent reason. At one point we stopped for a toilet break. The "toilet" was a row of slats cut into a concrete floor very close to each other and with no partitions between them so that you had to squat down alongside everyone else. The waste matter did not flush away and the smell was appalling. It was the worst toilet we had used since the beginning of our travels four and a half months ago which is quite some achievement. Unbelievably, we actually had to pay to use these facilities. It would have been a more pleasant experience, and we would have had more privacy, if we'd peed in the street.
When we arrived in Kunming at around 7:30am the next morning, we found that we were in a large city that was pleasant, clean and modern, although not the most attractive of places. It seems that most of the old city has disappeared, bulldozed to make way for wider streets and modern buildings. However, the traffic was very orderly and relatively quiet as most of the motorbikes are electric and hardly anyone uses their horns. There is not a great deal to see in Kunming itself, although we did visit the Yuantong Temple which is approximately 1,200 years old and the Green Lake Park where we watched old men fly their kites.
We realised that up until this point we have been very spoilt during our travels as most of the people that we have come into contact with have been able to speak a little English. However, the taxi drivers, waitresses, hotel receptionists and travel agents that we tried to speak to in Kunming could not speak any English at all. Although we found it quite refreshing to be in a city where there were hardly any other Westerners, we found it quite difficult to order food, book flights etc. Luckily, our friends Fergus and Pam had bought us a book called "Point It" as a leaving gift. Basically, it is a book of pictures of most of the things you need during your travels, which you can simply point to. Up until now it had remained in Dean's rucksack, but suddenly we were finding it invaluable.
After our experience on the sleeper bus, we decided to fly to our next destination, Lijiang, in the north west of Yunnan. Lijiang is a beautifully preserved old town with a maze of winding cobbled streets, rickety old wooden buildings of traditional Naxi architecture and lovely streams teeming with goldfish. At night, the place is lit up by hundreds of Chinese red lanterns. Unfortunately, the place is absolutely overrun with tourists and the entire place is similar to a theme park. Most of the shops sell tourist souvenirs and most of the restaurants cater for tour parties. We found it to be very similar to Hoi An in Vietnam in that respect. Thankfully, the majority of the tourists were Chinese, so at least we felt as if we were still in China. We got up very early one morning when there were no tourists around and watched the market traders setting up their stalls. The shops were all closed so had their old carved wooden doors pulled across the shop fronts. We saw quite a few old men and women pottering around town in their Mao suits and blue flat caps, so managed to get a glimpse of the old China before the hordes surfaced.
One day we hired a couple of rusty old mountain bikes and cycled to the Black Dragon Pool Park and then on to the village of Baisha, approximately an hour and a half away. We cycled through the new town of Lijiang with its rows and rows of characterless, identical new houses and shops that seemed to be eerily empty of residents. There wasn't much to see in Baisha itself, just some very old Naxi buildings and a few locals trying to sell a load of old tat to any tourist that happened to be wandering past, but it did have the snow-capped Jade Dragon Snow Mountain as a backdrop and the surrounding countryside was beautiful.
The main reason for our visit to Lijiang was to trek the Tiger Leaping Gorge. On the day of Tracey's 43rd birthday, we took a mini-bus to the village of Qiaotou at the beginning of the Gorge, approximately 3 hours away, fairly close to the border with Tibet. We met a Dutch girl on the bus, Janne, who was travelling alone and who had lost her trekking companion along the way, so we asked her if she wanted to do the trek with us. Tiger Leaping Gorge is the deepest gorge in the world and is approximately 16km long. The Yangtze River winds its way through the Gorge between two snow-capped mountain ranges. The first day's trek took us up the mountain, via a path that was so narrow that the three of us had to walk in single file for the entire way. The path is also steep, very rocky and with a sheer drop at the side it was a little scary in places. However, the scenery was absolutely breathtaking, so well worth the effort. Along the way, apart from numerous mountain goats, we passed only a few locals and a handful of other trekkers. After an arduous trek of around 6 hours, we reached the halfway point at the village of Bendiwan. We found a guesthouse, appropriately named the Halfway Lodge, which was not only at the halfway point but was also only halfway finished. Despite being in the middle of a building site, we immediately checked in as they had a double room available (although very basic) and we were pretty exhausted by this point. They also had a terrace with a spectacular view over the mountains and a very cute but naughty puppy running around. We had met two British guys in their twenties, Jack and Sam, along the trek who ended up checking into the same lodge. The five of us had dinner together that evening along with a few beers (well it was Tracey's birthday). Jack has been working in Shanghai as an English teacher for over a year and Sam had previously spent 2 years living and working in Japan, so they gave us some invaluable tips for Beijing and the Great Wall, and also for Tokyo.
The next day (which was a Sunday), we were rudely awoken at 7am by the sounds of banging, drilling and grinding as the building works commenced. The five of us hurriedly gathered up our stuff and left to find a more tranquil spot to have some breakfast before continuing the trek. After we had eaten, we all trekked together for around two hours to the middle of the Gorge, mostly downhill and through a couple of beautiful waterfalls. We arrived at a guesthouse in the middle of nowhere where we stopped for some lunch and purchased our tickets for the bus ride back to Lijiang. After lunch, Janne managed to get a ride back to Qiaotou while the rest of us clambered further down the mountain to the middle rapids and the Tiger Leaping Stone where legend has it that a tiger once leapt across the Yangtze to escape a hunter, thus giving the Gorge its name. It took us around an hour to climb back up the mountain and we then took the bus back.
We arrived back at our guesthouse in Lijiang at around 7:30pm and after a much needed hot shower, headed out to get some supper. We were both desperate for some healthy food as the food we had eaten during the previous few days had been very salty and swimming in oil. We had also snacked on Snickers bars during the trek (purely to keep our energy levels up!) so were in need of some fresh fruit and veggies. However, the family who owned the guesthouse ambushed us on our way out and insisted that we sit down to eat a home cooked meal that they had prepared for us. As they had laid a table for us and were extremely insistent, we felt that we couldn't really refuse. As none of the family spoke any English, Dean (with the aid of "Point It") tried to explain that his wife did not eat any meat, but the family seemed unable to grasp this concept and basically ignored him. They put a huge bowl of dumplings in front of us which were all deep fried and full of meat. Not wishing to appear ungracious, we both started to munch our way through them. They were actually very tasty but two or three of them would have been plenty. We were almost at the bottom of the bowl, when the lady of the house appeared and filled the bowl to the brim again. Somehow we managed to work our way through most of them, just leaving four dumplings at the bottom of the bowl. (We later found out that if we had eaten them all it would have meant that we were still hungry and they would probably have produced another bowl full!) We returned to our room feeling very full and slightly queasy from all the grease. Tracey, in particular, was feeling nauseous as this was the first time that she had eaten red meat (apart from the odd bacon sarnie!) in almost 15 years.
We were both finding the food in China a little difficult to cope with at times. Not only do things tend to be cooked in loads of salt and oil, and are often smothered in MSG, but the Chinese really do eat every single part of the animal. Often, if you order a chicken dish, there is no evidence of the breast meat, only neck, feet, bone and gristle. We are not sure what happens to the decent cuts of meat. Presumably, it is used for pet food. If the menus are also written in English (which is not always the case), dishes often get lost in translation. Some interesting dishes we have come across include "The Element Fries the Phoenix Tail", "The Palace Explodes the Bullfrog", "Sheet Iron Beef" and "The Fragrance Explodes the Bee Cocoon". Very often, after reading through a menu (which also includes rather graphic photographs of dishes such as "Boiled Gristle with Cabbage", "Sheep Intestines", "Deer Sinew", "Boiled Rabbit Heads", "Fried Pigs Trotters" and "Red Roast Cow Spinal Cord") for some reason, we completely lose our appetites.
Another thing we are finding rather difficult to put up with is the amount of hawking up of phlegm that goes on. After nearly 5 months in Asia, we should be used to it, but we are finding it particularly galling in China. It is not only the frequency with which Chinese men clear their throats, it is the decibel level and the sheer force used to cough up what is sometimes a very small amount of liquid. There seems to be nowhere which is safe from flying phlegm - carpeted lobbies in hotels, the floor of buses, etc. We had found a lovely little café in Lijiang where we breakfasted each morning. The café was situated next to a babbling stream and played very chilled out music. However, the ambience was completely ruined by the constant sound of the man in the calligraphy shop opposite hawking up every 10 seconds. Where does it all come from?!
On our sixth and final day in Lijiang, we took a cab out to the town of Shihu, near Baisha, where Jack and Sam were staying. Shihu is very similar to the old town of Lijiang, but on a much smaller scale and far less touristy. It was lovely there, with beautiful old buildings and some lovely cafes and shops. If we'd have known about this place beforehand, we would have stayed there rather than in Lijiang. We spent that afternoon with Jack and Sam sitting in a café, drinking coffee and swapping stories. Coincidentally, the guys will be in Hong Kong at the end of May for the Dragon Boat Festival, so we exchanged contact details and promised to try to meet up there.
Comments
It's good to point
Dear Dean & Tracey,
We always enjoy your updates and photos, and were pleased to read the 'Point to' book had come to the rescue. Keep on having great adventures. Lots of love Fergus, Pam, Neve & Calum