Religious devotion of Tibetans

On arrival at the train station in Lhasa, the capital of Tibet, we were almost immediately whisked into the police station - with no words spoken and having had our passports and permits taken from us. However, the (first of many) checks passed quickly and without issue, and we soon found our tour guide, Sunam, waiting for us. Whilst we're not the type of people who usually go on tours, it's the only option for westerners in Tibet, and did mean we didn't need to worry about organising anything for the next week.
The next morning we met the rest of our group of 12 - an eclectic mix of nationalities (Thai, Mexican, Indian, Columbian, Dutch, Hungarian born American and a German/American) and a diverse range of ages (from c.25 to c.65). Despite the differences, the group gelled well and proved to be really fun - a big relief. Sunam also turned out to be an excellent guide - relaxed, hugely knowledgeable, excellent English and great fun.
Our first couple of days were spent exploring Lhasa (at 3650m we needed to acclimatise here before going higher) and in particular its monasteries, temples and palaces. Apparently these are totally different things - although to our uneducated eyes there were many similarities. That said, the four main attractions we visited each gave us a different insight into Tibetan Budhism.
The Drepung monastery was our first stop and enabled us to learn about some of the basics of Budhism and its history in Tibet. The afternoon took us to probably the most iconic sight - the Potala palace - the official residence of the Dalai Lama before he fled to India:

The next morning we visited Jokhang Temple in the centre of the old town - the highlight for us as it was an important day (Friday) during a big festival (moon horse), meaning the temple was jam-packed with locals coming with pay their respects to the Budha - with the sounds, smells and general hustle and bustle creating an amazing atmosphere.

And this was followed in the afternoon by a visit to Sera monastery, where we got to watch the monks debating philosophy very enthusiastically:

Whilst each of these were interesting in their own right, what was perhaps most fascinating was the religious devolution of the Tibetan people. As well as queuing for hours to get into the Jokhang temple, we saw thousands of them walking the koras (pilgrim circuits) around the temples (even in the heat of the midday sun), with the most devoted prostrating themselves all the way around:

On a slightly sourer note, the Chinese military were ever-present around the city - with lots of check points, a heavy general presence and plain clothed officers on the rooftops surrounding the main attractions.

However this didn't stop the city from buzzing - with the charm of the Tibetan people, the fresh air (a big contrast to most of our last 6 weeks in China) and tasty food (now more curry than Chinese) all contributing to a fun couple of days.

The Sky Train

There's something romantic about the thought of getting on a long distance train and after two days arriving at the roof of the world. So it wasn't the Orient express, nor the trans Siberian railway, but it was the Chengdu to Lhasa 44 hour snail pacer. But the ladies who take your ticket were still smart and wearing little white gloves, so we can pretend.
So having read about the journey we arrived with snacks galore and plenty of wet wipes and toilet roll and found our cabin.

We had treated ourselves to the soft sleeper (which would have failed even the most basic of trading standards test). There are four bunks per cabin and we had been keeping our fingers crossed for westerners, or friendly Chinese people, either way it would be great if they didn't snore, smell or make that hacking phlegm sound to clear their throats, so prolific in China, but so offensive to western ears. We had 44 hours in a very tight space, fingers were firmly crossed.

Within a few minutes we met our Chinese cabin mates, one a student whose English was pretty impressive and was keen to chat and a man, who spoke no English but seemed friendly.
The first night passed quickly as we only got on at 21.00 so after pleasentries were exchanged we spent time getting settled and then to bed.
The next morning was spent chatting about English culture, Chinese life and the common ground of pro cycling (yep, even the Chinese are crazy for team sky). The older Chinese chap left and we had to change trains (unscheduled, no idea why and we only knew about it as the young chap translated). The new train had two cabins of westerners down the far end, one of which has come to stay in our cabin due to lack of space, all making us feel far less conspicuous!
Around lunch time we stopped at a station and Sam was dispatched onto the platform to pick up some lunch from the hawkers having been unimpressed by the look of the lunch on the train [sidebar: a chap comes around the carriages pushing a trolley of lunch/dinner, but he actually sprints from one end to the other, so in order to catch him you have to be stood at the door of the cabin waiting (no obvious time pattern) and literally jump in the aisle in front of him, in the mode of a mugger or such like].
Sam returned with what she thought was a mystery meat sandwhich and some other fluffy bread products to make a picnic with the fruit we'd already brought and other snacks. It certainly was a mystery meat as half way through, Alistair having been eating the meat and Sam the plain bread around the sides, we noticed it was in fact a tofu sandwich, so the roles were reversed for the remainder :)
Some point that afternoon (the scenery still remarkably uninspiring at this point), we got invaded. First a young Chinese teenager asked if she could come and sit in our cabin, then her friend arrived, then a couple of Chinese chaps, then some babies and small children who seemed to belong to no one and everyone.

Clearly it wasn't because of our good chat, perhaps it was another one of those occasions where being in the close proximity of a westerner is somehow fun. Either way they brought sunflower seeds and yaks yoghurt gifts and we ate and smiled merrily away, a small amount of translation taking place, but just enjoying the social occasion of it.
The next night passed uneventfully, which is good as we passed 5000m overnight and oxygen apparently gets pumped in at that point, but neither of us noticed and we slept through to 07.30.
The views today have been much more spectacular, waking up to see snow on the ground (which then curiously vanished), to be replaced by wide plains, lakes and small mountains in the distance. You can tell we are high as we are a little breathless and woozy, but nothing like the headaches at Shangri-la.

We also thought it would be a good idea to read Agatha Christie's Murder on the Orient Express whilst on the train. Not sure it was a good idea, but here we are sat, drinking our lemon tea (fab dried lemons bought from Carrefour in Chengdu) trying to work out who dunnit!

Pandas

Chengdu, where we planned to get on to the train that would eventually take us into Tibet is also (fortuitously) home of the Chinese Panda Research Centre. Early one morning we got into a mini bus with others from our hostel and spent a few hours wondering around the centre. The first hour or so we were the only people there, then the world descended and we were crowded in true stereotypical style by loud Americans ignoring the signs to stay quiet and excitable Chinese who squealed and clapped when an animal did something, anything.
Not much to say so shall just post some of our favourite photos of these chaps, who true to form looked awfully cuddly. Starting with the young ones:

Pensive

Love is...

Woo hoo...over here....

It's like looking in a mirror
The red pandas (who aren't really bears) were pretty cool too:

But the big guys were the stars of this show:

Panda town meeting

Oopsy...

Goodnight x

Tiger leaping gorge

This gorge is described as the unmissable trek of Southern China. One of the deepest gorges in the world at 16km long and 3900m above the river it was set to be a good few days in the hills and we were hoping this would rekindle our affection for China.
We got the early morning (07.20) bus from Shangri-la to Qiaotou at the start of the gorge. After a quick breakfast stop and leaving our big bags at a local hostel we started up the path to the gorge. Not amazingly well signposted, but we managed to find the trail (unlike some European chaps we bumped into after 30 minutes or so coming down the hill who admitted to having gone the wrong way for 45 minutes before a local pointed them back on track).
The first 5 hours or so were good walking, with lots of ascent into the hills and some nice spiky mountains appearing out of the cloud on the other side of the gorge:

There were even mini waterfalls to cross:

Most people stop at half way or go on to a place called Tina's guesthouse, down by the road, but we planned to walk to almost the end staying on the high route and staying overnight at a place called Walnut Garden and come back again the next day. At 6.5 hrs the route splits and the main path goes down and we stayed high on a smaller, sheep track as per the instructions. Unfortunately for us there had been a landslide and what had perhaps once been a track turned into a scramble up a steep side of the gorge. Luckily for us the owners of one guesthouse had painted little green arrows on rocks to direct you as the original path was nowhere to be seen.
Having completed the additional hour or so of ascent to Walnut garden, we then lost the helpful arrows and failed to find a single guest house, instead finding a ghost town. We ended up back down at the road and walking back along the lower path to the place called Tina's we'd seen advertised everywhere. In total it was 8 hours decent pace underfoot for a good day out in the hills.

Rather than try and find somewhere else to eat, we stayed in the hostel, which turned out to be one of the worst decisions so far on the trip as Alistair got horrible food poisoning, and Sam got a much smaller dose, associated with being the vegetarian who only eats the veg around the meat dishes. Sadly this put an end to our plans to walk back the next day so we hopped on a bus, then a tuk tuk to the relative luxury (?!?!) of a hostel back in LiJiang. Such a shame as this was the best day in the hills since New Zealand and actually some quite impressive mountains!

Shangri-La: really?

Those of you who have read James Hilton's 1933 novel Lost Horizon (we're expecting that's no-one) will know all about Shangri-La. For those of you who haven't, Shangri-la has become synonymous with any earthly paradise, and particularly a mythical Himalayan utopia — a permanently happy land, isolated from the outside world.
Arriving in the Chinese town of Shangri-la (previously called Zhongdian, until the Chinese renamed it in 2001 claiming it was the place from the novel), we found the reality to be somewhat different. The once beautiful old town was tragically destroyed in a fire in January, leaving what felt not too far from a war zone.

Looking for somewhere for dinner, we found that many of the recommended restaurants had been destroyed in the fire, but found a nice homely-feeling restaurant just off the square. Whilst the food was good, our dinner was temporarily interrupted by an altercation (about 3 metres outside the window) which started as a bit of shouting and pushing between two 4x4 drivers and culminated in one of them pulling out a huge knife! Thankfully there were (just) enough other people around to restrain the man and stop the knife being used in anger.

And having returned to our hostel (and enjoyed a very nice ginger, lemon & honey tea), we suffered a sleepless night, as our bodies struggled to adjust to the altitude (3200m). Not a great introduction to paradise.

After a day of relaxation to let our bodies recover (and shelter from the persistent rain), we did manage to enjoy a day's (relatively gentle) cycling around the area...

...visiting the biggest and most important monastery in south west China:

...and meeting a somewhat scary looking man on a moped who flagged us down in the middle of nowhere - who turned out to be the most excited yet about seeing (and most importantly getting some photos with) some westerners (a pleasure we've regularly had over the last month):

 

So whilst we wouldn't necessarily recommend including a trip to 'paradise' in your travels in the near future, we are glad to have spent some of our pennies helping a community that must be in need of it.

Chinese public toilets

I'm not going to say much as no one wants to hear about toilets, but a visit to them is often so traumatic they need to be mentioned. They are almost all filthy, stagnant, stinky holes in the floor without proper drainage, and increasingly as we go west, without doors or anything to protect your modesty. And you have to pay for the privilege.
Come on China, you're supposed to be a superpower, a great republic, an economic giant for the future. Stop focussing on imperialism and sort out your loos...please.

Food courts

We've found that a cheap way to eat in China is to grab a few things from a food court. There is lots to choose from and the locals are using their very best English to get you interested 'Salllllllmon' one of them cried. 'Noodle noodle' from another.
We've eaten in a few on our trip, here's what they look like:

From the outside

A chef cooks our noodles to order, we noticed too late that she had the word Sichuan on her apron, as you might therefore realise, the food was pretty spicy!

Our picnic dinner to share, cheap and cheerful!

Lijiang

The old town of Lijiang is a maze of twisty tiny cobbled streets parts of which turn into ice rinks when it is wet (which is often).

There are hundreds of little shops and for every shop there are hundreds of Chinese tourists, this place gets rammed. Despite that it was bustling, alive and fun to be in. Here are a selection of shots from our stroll round town:

Man with a lot of dead chickens

Automated cake machine for walnut cakes, turned out, as we should probably have known that they have a tiny amount of walnut and a large amount of green tea and red bean....doh!

A spring fed pool where the locals wash their veggies

Some impressive paintings on the outside of buildings

And because there are so many shops a sign reminds you not to impulse buy.....

Lijiang, despite being crowded is one of the few places in China that has really made us smile.

One of those days #2

Today was one of THOSE days. You'll remember we had one way back in South America, so this is number 2. Here's what happened:

• Got woken up at 05.55 by the hostel people when we had booked a taxi for half six to take us to the airport and had already packed so were only going to get up at 6.10ish and hadn't even asked for an alarm.
• Despite being woken up early taxi driver did not turn up and irrespective of our queries the hostel man decided not doing anything was better than sorting it out. When it was half an hour late we asked again what was happening and the hostel man claimed he didn't have the phone number (our point was how was it booked if he didn't have the phone number). It culminated in us saying firmly ' we have paid you for this taxi, if it doesn't come soon we will miss the flight, please sort it out' he went to wake someone else up and then they miraculously found the number in no time. Strange that.
• Realising as we walked through security that we had forgotten to check in Alistair's very expensive multi tool which obviously got picked up in the scan.
• Having been allowed to go backwards and check in one of the hand luggage OMM bags with the knife in thereby saving the £80 replacement cost, finding when said OMM bag came out on the conveyor belt it was ripped to smithereens, holes, the bungy broken, the netting on the top torn in half, one handle ripped through.....
• Got offered £10 replacement fee or a crappy Chinese made bag as replacement for good quality OMM bag. Managed to push them up to £20 but still, it's an £80 bag they've destroyed...looks like the earlier victory has been nulled.
• Tried to check in for second flight of the day and got told we need to walk to the other terminal despite what it says on the sign. When we get to the other terminal told we need to go to ticket counter as passport number not on ticket (despite having successfully taken first half of the same ticket already that morning). When we get to ticket counter told we need to go back to other terminal as someone else owns the flight they are operating. When we get back to other terminal get ticket sorted but then have to walk back to the other terminal to check in again.
• Got picked up at airport by car arranged by hostel and dropped off at the wrong hostel. How?!
• Went out to recommended restaurant to find nothing in English- luckily very helpful lady. Half way through dinner and monsoon starts...why are my feet getting wet, thinks I, turn round and roof is leaking
• Wait until monsoon eases off cradling camera under jacket (which itself was a last minute pick up on the way out the door as it's been too warm to need one for months) then start to walk back to hostel to find the cobblestones have turned into an ice rink in the rain.

Seriously?! And you thought Friday 13th was a myth...

A flotilla holiday to Yanshuo

We decided to travel between Guilin and Yangshou by boat:

However, so had just about every other tourist in the region:

Actually it was a fine way to see the karst landscape and much better than going by bus!

When we got off the boat we glimpsed a fisherman with his cormorants:

They train them to catch fish for them in these parts. We were told a few days later by a Chinese English teacher that they tie something round their necks to stop them swallowing the catch!

We then had a few days in Yangshuo where we found our hostel was actually a class above most of the other places we had being staying, despite only costing a few pounds more.

On our first full day we hired some bikes and set off up the Yulong river (the small tributary of the bigger Li river on which we arrived the day before). We got lost a few times and cycled up roads, tracks and teeny tiny trails between the rice paddies next to the river until we reached the Dragon bridge:

We then set off back down the other side of the river where we saw the famous moon hill:

Next we headed out towards the local villages on the east side of town. By this point it was getting really rather hot and for the first time in a while the smog didn't seem to be blocking the suns rays. A very determined pedal back to town brought us back in just over 5 hours feeling a little sun kissed to say the least! Good news was our legs felt fine, despite the ever present competition between us meaning the cycle wasn't a slow one! Having showered we headed out for some food and ate a egg bread thing from a street vendor, then headed into one of Yangshuo's many mango cafés for a mango plate to share. It must have taken them 10 minutes to assemble with meticulous attention to detail:

It was a combination of fresh mango, coconut milk, sago and banana wrapped in some kind of sweat bread thing. Fabulous.

The next day having scheduled a run we decided to stay out of the sun and have a rest day. The next few days are a bit of a blur of fever for Sam and boredom for Alistair as they are confined to the (thankfully nice) hostel.

Day four and not wanting to miss all the local activities, we drugged Sam enough to attend a local cooking class. This started with a trip to the local market:

Whilst the photo shows nice vegetables they also had everything from frogs to dogs on sale. These folk really are nose to tail eaters.
A lovely lady called Amy taught us to cook pork egg dumplings, steamed chicken /tofu and mushrooms, fried aubergine, bok choi and garlic, and lotus root and veg.

All this was in a lovely country kitchen where our woks were repeatedly cleaned by some helpful ladies and we got to eat our creations at the end. Yum.

Later that evening we went to the famous Impressions of Sanjie Liu show held at night on the Li River and produced by the chap who did the Beijing Olympics opening ceremony. Despite not really being given much help on how to acquire tickets on arrival, we eventually made it in with some folk from the hostel and some Chinese people we'd picked up on the way.
Whilst it won't do it justice here are a few shots:

Despite being so hot and still it was a little like sitting in a steam room, it's quite impressive from the point of the number of people involved, all of whom are local and farmers, fisherman etc during the day. All in all a lovely way to end our stay in Yangshuo.

Seven (or eight) Dong villages of Chengyang

Like Longji this was another cluster of rural villages, this time half an hour from Sanjiang on the bus where rural life continues, one imagines, largely unchanged over the years and there is little in the way of modernisation or western tourists.
The big selling point of the area is the wind and rain bridges, the one below at Ma'an being the largest and most famous. There are no nails used in its construction, just wood and one presumes a good understanding of forces.

On a stroll on our first afternoon we noticed how they use the water from the lower level river to irrigate the higher level rice paddies:

These water wheels are spaced apart down the side of the fields, the strength of the river being enough to turn the wheel so each bamboo tube can carry its watery load. When it reaches the top of the wheel the angle is such that it pours the water into other bamboo guttering which flows over to the field. Brilliant.
On the next day we hired bikes and headed out along the road that links the villages. After realising we'd ridden right off the end (probably because we were being idiots and racing each other up the hills) we turned back and found a small turning up a hill. Described as a lung buster in the lonely planet and not far off in reality we rode for 40 minutes up the hill (good training for the last stage of our trip) until we reached Gaoyou village. We managed to pick up a warm can of sprite (on the way up we had discussed whether anyone would have hauled a fridge all the way up the hill, turns out they had, they just hadn't bothered turning it on), and sat in the village square until our lungs got back to normal before starting back down the hill. This turned into a race between us and a pursuing car (if we got stuck behind him on the twists and turns we would have had exhaust fumes all the way down so it was in our interest to stay ahead). Helped slightly by a herd of cows we managed to stay ahead and free wheeled back to the (not very) main road and started the cycle back to Ma'an.

[Sam looking a little rosy after the climb]

The next morning we went to a local cultural show in the next village. This photo was taken seconds before the lady on the left, with no warning, tipped the contents of the small white cup down Alistair's throat. It was some (presumably) rice based spirit and it was 10.30 in the morning! [its worth mentioning here that the headwear sported by these ladies bears, in colour and stickingoutness, a resemblance to some of the headwear seen previously on Robin Rose :) ]

The ladies then made it back on stage and we were treated to some singing, and funky wooden instrument playing.