~ Oscar Wilde
Yunnan Province
6 July 2008
Jinghong, China
The China border was a little interesting. Both of our large bags were thoroughly searched. The little bags were left alone. Doug took some time talking to the immigration guys, explaining how we would be going to some of the Olympic events. They were very interested to hear we would be in Beijing for the Olympics and wanted to see our tickets. We had to explain to them we were picking our tickets up at will call in Beijing. But Doug showed them the itinerary printout for the tickets. After chatting for a bit we got stamped in China. They were by far the friendliest and also the most thorough guards we have meet yet.
There were some girls doing currency exchange Anna tried to bargain with them but soon declined their offer. Once we were in the minivan to leave go to the next city. Doug pulled out his calculator, and discovered they were offering a fair price. The minivan started leaving drove about a minute then for some reason turned around and went back to the border post. Doug ran out to the girls and got the money exchanged. Doug thought he had negotiated for an extra 5 Yuan, but we later found out they gave us a $.50 bill instead of a $5.00 bill (about $0.75USD). Not too big of a deal.
The minivan took us to a city called Mengla. There were a couple of Chinese women who had been riding the same transportation since Muang Sing. After we got out of the minivan in Mengla they motioned for us to follow them. We said we wanted to go to Jinghong and they motioned they were also going to Jinghong. They went to the street waiting for a local bus. We were not exactly sure what they were doing. This seemed to be a bus station, but apparently not the correct one.
Soon a bus with a “1” on the front pulled up and we all got in. The fair was only $1 Yuan, or about $.18. After being on the bus for about 10 minutes, it pulled up the other bus station. The women motioned for us to get something to eat with them. But there was a man telling us there was a bus to Jinghong leaving soon. We declined their offer to have food and purchased the bus tickets to Jinghong.
While waiting for the bus to leave Anna went to experience her first Chinese toilets. Well there were no toilets. There was a big trough with dividers. Not even a squat toilet, but a trough. Pictures will be posted showing this one soon.
The bus left promptly at 3:30. The scenery on the way to Jinghong was beautiful. The landscapes were very green with rubber tree orchards and rice paddies. We arrived in Jinghong 2 ½ hours later. This was great, arriving in the city before dark.
We loaded the bags onto our backs, and began walking. The only budget hotel the book listed was close by. The College Hotel looked like it was on a small college campus, but our guide book listed it as a budget accommodation. We checked it out. This wouldn’t be the nicest accommodation would be staying but also certainly not the worst. It was plain, and cheap. After checking in we headed out to find some food, an ATM, and possibly internet. It has been a few days since checking email.
Walking for a while we found a restaurant and decided to try it out. The English menu was much smaller than the Chinese one. We ordered a fried noodle dish to share. The food was decent enough. After our meal we thought we would try to find a restaurant the book recommended (Anna was still hungry).
We didn’t find the restaurant we were looking for but a different one the book recommended. It was a Thai restaurant, with supposedly incredibly good Pad Thai. Arriving at the restaurant we met a guy from Australia is living here. He reconfirmed this was one of the best places in town to eat at. He also had some good traveling tips for us, recommending a travel agent in Kunming. We soon sat down at the restaurant and ordered Pad Thai. Doug also ordered his first Chinese beer. The waitress didn’t understand he was asking her which one was the best, so he got the first one on the menu. And that would be the last time he would be drinking this specific beer (it was a bit on the sweet side). There were still a couple others he could try.
After the meal we walked around and found an ATM which would give us money. On the way back to the hotel we purchased a couple snacks and then headed to the room for the night.
7 July 2008
Jinghong, China
Today was an errand day. First we gathered up a pile of crafts that we bought for ourselves and friends and family, and then set off for the post office. We sent off 6 packages that cost around $100 of postage. On the way back to the hotel we tried to call our families through an internet café. We only stumbled across on café on the way. Doug asked if they had Skype, but the guy didn’t understand. At the computer Doug decided to try and install the software since the café had headsets with microphones hooked up to the computer. Somehow, despite the language being set to Mandarin, Doug managed to download Skype, in English, and get it up and running. However, the microphones on the head set did not work. Back at our hotel there was a place set up to handle international calls. Unfortunately the cost per minute was through the roof.
The hotel had a sign for self serve laundry. We gathered our things and headed down. When we inquired about getting the clothes washed the lady managed to relay that we had to pay per item. We ended up giving her about half of our clothes because it was going to cost too much.
For lunch we wandered down to the Mei Mei café that we were looking for the day prior. We met a guy from England and a girl from Houston who were traveling together. They ended up bringing laundry to the café. Turns out the café charged more per item than our hotel did. For meals, Doug had an excellent burger and Anna had an alright sweet and sour chicken dish.
After exploring the city for a while we went back to the room. On the way up the outside stairs Doug joked that some laundry that was hanging was ours. As we walked down the walkway we then saw our laundry. There is something wrong about seeing your underwear on the hand rail that everybody uses.
Later when we left the room our laundry had not moved except some of it had fallen off the handrail and threatened to fall off the rest of the edge off the walkway down to the sidewalk below. We decided it was time for us to do something and we found the lady and asked to pay so we could move the clothes to our room to finish drying. This wasn’t the most we had paid for laundry this trip, but somehow the whole thing seemed a bit sketchy.
Bus tickets were next on our agenda. We went to the bus station that we arrived at and bought tickets to Kunming for the next day. After exploring a bit more we decided to find some food. We looked at restaurants and then at street vendors. Nothing was really looking too good. Doug decided that he would eat at the local fast food chicken joint. He ordered a couple pieces of chicken with fries and drink while Anna waited. During the wait she saw a rice and chicken dish that looked good. Her food came out first and had a strange, spicy sauce all over it. Doug had to help eat the stuff covered with the sauce.
Before retiring for the evening we bought some authentic Chinese snacks. We got awful ice cream cones that neither of us could finish and some cream cookies that may have once had some cream between them, but no longer. Chinese make great hot food, but snacks…not so much.
8 July 2008
Jinghong/Kunming, China
Our bus didn’t leave until 10:30 so we could take our time getting ready. We arrived at the bus about an hour early. About 10:00 we were told to follow a gentleman who loaded us up in a mini-van and drove us about 4 blocks to another bus station. We loaded our bags on to the bus and waited for until it was time to go.
This bus was another sleeper bus where we lay down instead of sit. Our seats weren’t by each other but thankfully Anna had a seat all the way in the back on the top row. There was nobody else back there so Doug was able to move and we had the whole back to ourselves.
A few hours in we were stopped at a police check point. A cop asked to see Anna’s passport but declined wanting to see Doug’s. We jumped off the bus long enough to use the bathroom. While Doug waited for Anna a guard asked Doug to pull out our bags. Doug grabbed his and started to open it but the guard stopped him, he just wanted to know which ones were ours.
Our next stop was for lunch. There was a little restaurant where you grabbed a bowl of white rice and then got to pick from five or six bowls each containing some type of meat with vegetable. We didn’t see any chicken and the next best thing there was a beef with red bell peppers. The dish was quite good despite nearly every piece of beef had bones in it. In the end we pretty much just had peppers with rice.
The bus pulled into Kunming after dark. There was a hotel our guide book recommended not far from the bus station. On the way we were stopped by a guy with a Super 8 Motel brochure. He said rooms were only 100 Yuan (less than $15 USD). We decided to go with him. While checking in Doug read the brochure and discovered the rooms also came with free internet…not bad.
Once we paid the guy insisted on taking us up to the room. The room was about what you would expect from a Super 8, but they had the typical Asian shower (the shower head is located nearly over the toilet). Doug tried to tip the guy but he refused, which definitely caught us by surprise. “What’s the catch?”
For dinner we saw a nearby McDonald’s and couldn’t help ourselves. Anna loves “meatless” cheeseburgers and Doug always appreciates an additional patty on his burger. The food was up to normal McDonald’s standards and we left happy (and a bit fatter).
9 July 2008
Kunming, China
Once we gathered ourselves out of bed, we went downstairs. As soon as we got down to the lobby a man approached us asking if we would like to join a tour. This was of little interest to us, but to appease the man we followed him up to the 4th floor. The tour he was selling wasn’t too bad of an offer. It would be $1200 yuan each, or a little under $200US. This included two bus rides, the first to Dali, and the second to Lijiang. The tour also included all of our meals, and lodging. It would have been more appealing, but we could get all the way to a 3rd city with what would be the price for one of us on the tour, also including meals, and transportation. We told the man we would think about it, and tell him our answer later.
Today was “explore Kunming day,” and find a bookstore selling a Mandarin phrasebook. It didn’t take long before we realized it would be very beneficial for us to buy one, considering English was pretty scarce in this country. So we began walking, and walking. Soon we came across a bakery and bought a couple rolls for breakfast. Breakfast in China consists more of dumplings, noodle, and steam buns with meat.
It took about a couple hours before finding the bookstore. Doug saw a white guy, and asked him in English if he knew where the bookstore was. He was kind enough to take us right to us. The guy was from France studying Mandarin at the university. The bookstore luckily had the phrasebook, so we purchased it.
Now it was time for lunch. There was a Thai restaurant across the street, this sounded perfect. Doug ordered Pad Thai, and Anna ordered a Fried rice dish served inside a pineapple half. The food was decent enough, nothing compared to Thailand food.
After lunch we wandered around looking at the city, stopping at a couple of the pagodas to take some photos. We made it back to the room mid-afternoon. Once sitting in the room a few minutes there was a knock at the door. The tour guy who tried to sell us the tour earlier was asking if we had made up our minds to join the tour or not. We chickened out, and told him we still had not decided yet. The fact he visited our room was a little disturbing.
The train station was nearby. The next city we wanted to visit was Dali, heading northwest. The train tickets proved more difficult than expected to buy. After asking a couple people someone finally told us the correct line to go in. After getting to the front of the line, the attendant told us the train was booked for the next 2 days. The bus would be our only option to get to Dali within the next couple days.
Close to the train station was a bus station. We walked over to the area, asked someone which line to get into, and bought our tickets for the next morning. Arriving back at the room we relaxed a little before dinner. Anna decided to go down to the 4th floor and inform our friend we would not be joining the tour the next day. The man was not in the room, so she told another man shaking her head, trying to explain that we would not be joining.
For dinner we headed back to McDonalds. Anna ordered a couple cheeseburgers, then giving Doug her meat patty to add to his double cheeseburger. Then it was back to the room for the night. We were in the room about 20 minutes before there was another knock at the door. The man selling the tour guide was asking us again to join. He apparently never got the message from the man downstairs. Doug was kind, and let him down easy.
10 July 2008
Kunming/Dali, China
The alarm went off at 6:00am. We rolled out of bed, and gathered our things together. Conveniently the bus station was a couple blocks away. Arriving at the station we asked a man which bus to Dali he pointed to the second one on the right. The bus driver loaded our bags underneath the bus. Anna left Doug on the bus, and went to get some snacks for breakfast. The book said the bus ride was about 10 hours and snacks were a necessity.
The bus stopped about 2 hours into the ride for a toilet break and gas. Then the bus stopped at its destination 2 more hours later. This was a nice surprise. What we thought was a 10 hour bus ride ended up being a 4 hour bus ride.
Arriving in “new town” Dali we put on our bags, and walked out of the bus station. According to the book we could catch a bus to “old town” Dali around the block. Anna asked a woman how to get to Dali and the woman pointed across the street at a bus stop. This is where we went.
The first bus that showed up, we said “Dali”, and the bus driver nodded. The ride to old town was only about 20 minutes; it was 18KM away from “new town” Dali. Getting off the bus we were greeted by a woman with a sign asking us to stay at her guesthouse. This was the MCA guesthouse, one that we already planned on staying at. We followed her, and checked in. After checking in we asked about getting a tour to Tibet, she said maybe the Tibet café.
This is where we went for lunch, the Tibet café. After ordering lunch we asked the server about tours. She then told a lady of our interest, and she came over with some details. We chatted with her and someone on the phone from Shangri-La for about 20 minutes before deciding on a price and a timeframe to go to Tibet. For all foreign tourists, there is a specific process they have to follow to visit the territory. A specific permit has to be obtained from the Chinese government, as well as all the tourists have to be on a “tour” with a tour guide. We made an ATM run for half of the tour price, and received a receipt. We would pay the difference tomorrow, since we could only take out a certain amount of money per day.
Once business was complete we hung around town for a while checking out the city before heading back to the room to relax. Neither of us had slept very well the night before because there were some girls next to us laughing and screaming most of the night.
After a couple hours we headed out for dinner, walked around a bit more, then back to the room for the night.
11 July 2008
Dali, China
The morning began pretty slow. We got ourselves out of the room, checked email and headed to the ATM, and then to the Tibet Café to pay the remaining balance of our tour. The woman fixed our receipt saying the tour was paid in full. For breakfast we went back to the same place we had dinner at. The food wasn’t too bad, neither was the price.
After breakfast we went to rent bicycles. The people tried to tell us these were the best bicycles in town. We managed to talk them down 10 yuan. On the way out we came across a place advertising international phone calls for 1 yuan a minutes. This was awesome!!! Doug needed to give his mom a call. Anna then asked how much bus tickets were to Lijiang. The price was right, and the woman was nice. After phone calls, and buying bus tickets we headed out.
We first went down a major road running parallel to a nearby lake. Then Anna had this idea to head toward the lake into the villages. So we rode in and out of villages and rice paddies for a couple hours. There were a couple of sites on the map to see, but we couldn’t seem to find any of them. It was beautiful rides off the main road in and out of the cobblestone streets, saying hello to the villagers.
A couple more hours went by and we were getting tired so we decided to head back to town. About 10 minutes after we decided to head back the clouds rolled in and it started to rain. We were still a good 20 KM from town. The rain let up slightly, but then it began to come down. We were wet. After riding in the rain for a good hour we finally made it back to town. We turned in the bikes and slowly walked back to the guesthouse. Doug’s legs were tired, Anna’s hands were cold and numb, but we were both soaking wet.
Arriving at the guesthouse, we took steaming hot showers, and sat for a while. Then we went out to the guesthouse restaurant to order food, and do website stuff. The internet connection wasn’t the fastest. We attempted to upload for 4 hours or so, then gave up, and went back to the room for the night.
12 July 2008
Dali, China
The clothes we wore when we were biking yesterday were still wet. Unfortunately they got packed up that way. We checked out and headed to the tourist place where we bought our bus tickets.
The town was deserted because it was 7:00 in the morning, with the exception of city workers sweeping the street. We walked in the rain trying our best to keep dry. The tourist place was closed so we waited outside under the awning until they opened the doors. The mini-bus arrived a little later and we loaded up our stuff and we were off.
After a short nap we arrived at a rest stop/jade shop. A lady translated that we needed to be back in ten minutes. We walked to the rest rooms by rows and rows of jade bracelets and other jade jewelry.
Back at the mini-bus the same lady asked where we were from. When she found out we were from America she was very excited to practice her English. Furthermore she was traveling with a bunch of students who also knew a bit of English. To which she pointed to one of the older boys and said, “Speak English.” He was a bit embarrassed, but shortly later they were all involved in the conversation. They asked where we were going and our itineraries were very similar. They said we should join them because it would be less expensive for them and for us, plus they could practice their English. This also would be beneficial for us to have some Chinese guides.
We arrived in Lijiang “New Town” and found a bus to take us to “River Town” a short distance away. The bus dropped us off and we quickly found two “bus taxis” for the 11 of us to share. We were dropped off in a quaint town with large cobblestone streets and wooden store fronts. The group stopped at a restaurant and said we were going to have some lunch.
We sat down and looked at the menu, but all the ordering was done by the group. Most of the group disappeared short after ordering but we remained behind with 3 of them. Soon tea was served and our dishware and chopsticks came out. One of the ladies took her tea and poured it over her chopsticks and into another glass. Then she washed her soup spoon in the same manner, using the hot tea to clean everything. Then they took the tea they used for washing and they poured it out the window from our second story window. When in Rome…
Soon the dishes started to arrive. There was a noodle soup then came out some chicken with peppers and chilies, followed by some pork dishes and vegetables, kebobs with potatoes, tofu, sardines and a couple more. There was so much food that even after the others returned the rest of it didn’t get eaten.
We walked through the town along a very clear waterway and eventually found our hotel. They showed us into a room. It was two levels. On the first level was a bathroom and a living room with a couch and TV with DVD player. The upstairs was huge, with a queen size bed, a couple chairs and a table. They said the room was 80 Yuan (a little less than $15 USD). They asked if it was ok. Definitely!
We made plans to meet them for dinner at 6pm. We set off and looked around the town for a bit and then returned to our room and grabbed the computer and went to the common area to use the free internet.
At 6 pm we waited outside to meet up with our new friends but they weren’t there. We thought maybe there was a miscommunication and we decided to hang out in the room until 7pm. At 7pm there was still nobody there so we decided to head out on our own. We started to leave and the lady running the guest house stopped us and said that our new friends called her to get us, but she thought we were gone (which we weren’t). She made a phone call and told our friends what happened.
With that mystery solved we set out for dinner. We came across a restaurant with a lot of Chinese people eating in it (truth be told, we hadn’t even seen any westerners yet). We sat down, they handed us a menu, and the entire thing was in Chinese characters, no pictures, no English, not even pinyin (the translation of characters into western letters). Out came our phrasebook, we identified chicken and then started pointing at vegetables that were on display. Shortly after ordering, a different lady came to take our order. We tried to explain to her that we had already given our order, but we couldn’t seem to make her understand. After many attempts of trying to explain on our own as well as soliciting the help of some Chinese students who sat down at our table, the food arrived and she finally realized we had talked to somebody else already. Just after our chicken noodle dish arrived, another dish arrived of vegetables. Then some soup came out. Then out came some rice. Geez, how much food did we order? Before we left the students wanted to take a photo with us.
Back at the room we watched a movie before going to bed.
13 July 2008
Lijiang, China
While we were brushing our teeth and getting ready in the morning there was a knock at the door. Our Chinese friends invited us to eat breakfast with them and then ride bikes with them around town. We gladly accepted and headed out.
For breakfast we were served up some white doughy things. They were described as “steamed buns.” The outside was quite doughy, but the inside had a bit of cooked chicken (or what we thought was chicken) inside and it wasn’t too bad. Next came out some rice porridge. This was pretty bland, one of the girls through some salt in it, which helped a bit. Then we were served a chicken dumpling soup. It was very similar to chicken noodle except it had a pasta covered pieces of chicken (the dumpling) in it as well. This was also really good. Then they brought out some more noodles with a very red broth to it. These ones were much spicier. We were pretty full by the end of breakfast.
Our group rented bicycles from two different shops (neither one could provide 11 bikes by themselves). We rattled on our bikes through the cobblestone streets until we finally broke out on to sealed road. This took us to an older town. We parked the bikes and the kids took some time explaining some Chinese drawings on the side of wall for us. It was amazing to see that these kids (one was about 8 the other was 13) had such good English.
We locked up the bikes and headed into the old town. There were numerous shops with antiques and other crafts for sale. Our friends had a great time explaining different things to us and giving us a chance to learn a little Chinese as well.
In town we met a guy who wanted us to come to his house for lunch. It felt like we had just eaten, but soon enough we were at his place being shown the grounds and then we were ordering food.
We did our little tea washing ritual, and then they brought out around 6 or 7 dishes (of which Doug’s favorite was a potato pancake with green onions inside…awesome). While we were eating some western people walked by (read: white people), which we hadn’t seen any since we arrived. Our Chinese friends said, “Look there are your friends, what country are they from?” Anna tried to explain that they could be from just about anywhere. But that line became a running joke for us any time we saw white people from there on out, “look, there are your friends.”
After exploring old town some more we hopped back on the bikes and started uphill to another attraction. The hill became steeper and steeper and soon the 11 of us got pretty spread out. We were right behind the oldest boy and were the first to the top, only to discover whatever we were looking for wasn’t here. We turned around and headed back down the hill.
Back where we first got on the sealed road, we got directions back to Lijiang “proper.” We shot down a nice downhill and found ourselves in “new town” Lijiang. The group once again got spread out while we were riding into town. Some of the people were not as athletic as the others. We were all soon back together, then we headed into “old town” Lijiang (this was newer then the old town we were in earlier, but not as new as new town). After locking up the bikes we headed in.
This old town was a bit overwhelming. There were people everywhere. There were normal Chinese tourists, large groups of Chinese tourist following around somebody with a flag or sometimes a megaphone, and also plenty of westerners (our friends). Soon we stopped in one shop that we were told had a guy that “wrote with his mouth.” We didn’t quite know what that meant until we went inside the shop. The gentleman in the shop had no arms and wrote calligraphy by holding the pen/paintbrush in his mouth. Furthermore, he was also selected to be a torch bearer for the upcoming Olympics. They had photos of him hold the torch (with a fitted prosthetic arm), and he even got to keep his Olympic torch which was behind glass. Then we remembered seeing him on TV one night watching the news while in China. One of our group purchased a book he had written and they took a lot of photos of him signing the book and later we were included in a group shot with him in it.
Back into old town we started working our way up to get a view of the rooftops of Lijiang. There were some nice views once we started to get a bit higher (see Lijiang 42 in the pictures).
Back on the bikes we headed to a nearby market for dinner. We waited for a bit to have another friend join us. While we waited we were told that we would be eating at a place with really good pork, and then they pointed at their sides. We guessed, “Intestines?” They said yes, but they wanted us to spell it out (which they did with a lot of words so they could practice their English). Doug flipped open the phrase book and went through the “menu” section until he found “pork intestines.” When he pointed at it they said, “No” (thank goodness). They started pointing at their sides again and we realized they were motioning towards their ribs. Doug looked that one up and sure enough we were having pork ribs for dinner.
Once their friend arrived, we went to the restaurant and sat down on some tiny chairs around even smaller tables. In the middle of each of our two tables were two burners. Soon two pots of soup each containing pieces of pork ribs were put on the burners. We did our tea washing ceremony for our utensils and then started to eat. We were asked if we would like some beer, once we realized everyone else was drinking too, we gladly agreed. We took the paper cups that had hot tea in them, threw out the tea, and filled them back up with cold beer. “Ganbei!” (cheers!) Everybody including the kids had some beer (a bit surprising, but they were good, they had one little sip and that was it). Once the first bottle of beer was finished, Doug asked if he could have the bottle. Since we arrived in Singapore we have been collecting beer bottle labels. Doug started to peel it off, but this one was a bit temperamental. Doug jokingly held it over the steaming pot of soup (to steam it off) and one of the husbands thought Doug was asking for help. The guy grabbed it and ran off to soak it. Then Doug went to help him. Soon the label was off and they even put in a folded piece of dry paper to help preserve it (talk about service).
After dinner we rode our bikes back in the dark to our town about 30 – 45 minutes away. After we returned the bikes we made plans for the next day. We were going to head off to a lake called “Lugo Hu.” They said to just bring a small bag. We had originally thought we were going there for overnight, so we asked if we were going there and coming right back and they said yes. Great. We split off to go buy some snacks and water before going to bed.
14 July 2008
Lijiang, China
Doug was in the middle of a phone call with his dad when there was a knock at the door saying it was time to go and we could drop off our big bags in another room. This was a bit confusing, but we quickly packed up all our things and moved out of our room and put our bags in another hotel room.
We walked down to a mini-van and loaded up and went into town for breakfast. There we finally had “across the bridge noodles.” It is a Chinese specialty that we had never heard of until we read about it in our guide book. We picked the most basic pot (noodles, pork, chicken, quail egg and a bunch of vegetables). The more expensive ones included things like squid. After cleaning everything with our tea, we were served a big bowl of broth and then a plate of noodles and then a plate that had breaded chicken, chunks of chicken, slices of pork, vegetables and a cracked quail egg. We threw everything in the pot and stirred it up. The soup was quite good.
Soon we loaded up in the van and headed off for the lake. About an hour and half down the road we started asking about the trip to the lake only to discover what we thought was a day trip was now actually a three day trip. This posed a problem. First, we didn’t bring any other clothes with us. Second, that means we also didn’t bring any toiletries either. Third, we would now be arriving in Shangri La the day before we were scheduled to go to Tibet. If there were any issues with our booking we wouldn’t have much time to sort it out. Additionally, we were really looking forward to seeing Shangri La and now we would most likely miss it.
We kicked around what to do for awhile. A bunch of different plans came up. The most simple was just stay with the group and where the same stinky clothes the whole time. The most drastic was to get out and hitchhike back. We decided that we needed to go back. We put a lot of money on the line for the trip to Tibet and we didn’t want to screw that up. The van stopped to look at a vista and it gave us a chance to explain the situation. Once they understood what was going on the driver said he would drive us to the next bus stop and there we could buy a ticket. We headed back down the road and soon a bus came the other way. The driver stopped him and said it was going to Lijiang and that we could get to town for 20 Yuan each. We quickly unloaded but were only able to say goodbye to Lili and her husband (which was a shame because everybody in the group was so nice).
The ride back to Lijiang was pretty uneventful. The van dropped us off at the southern end of town. We had a map of the town but apparently all the street names have changed. Thankfully there were some landmarks identified to help us figure out where we were. We tried catching a bus to get us back to River Town, but none of them seemed to be going that way. We did find one bus that didn’t have anyone on it except the driver. The door was closed so Doug showed the driver the map and asked if he was going to it. The guy nodded…great! But the door didn’t open. We figured he must be finishing up his break. A couple minutes later he started up the engine and drove away (strange). Eventually we came across a cab and he took us the rest of the way for about $3 USD.
Back the hotel we checked back in. The lady had let our room out to somebody else so we got a different room. We moved our bags into the new place and then we worked on website stuff until dinner.
In town we found a small place next to a place we had breakfast at the day prior. Once again this restaurant only had a menu in Chinese characters. We asked if they had chicken and they said yes. Then we started pointing at vegetables they had and they signaled that they understood.
First came out a noodle dish with some sort of a meat. It seemed to have more bone than meat, but the noodles were excellent. Then they brought out red peppers sautéed with onions (also very good). Then they came out with sautéed cabbage…and it dawned on us…every vegetable we pointed at, they were making into a separate dish. They soon brought out some potatoes and we stopped them from bringing us anymore food. We had more than we could eat already. Thankfully the meal was delicious.
Back at the room we called Doug’s Dad back to make up for the interrupted phone call that morning, before going to sleep.
15 July 2008
Lijiang/Shangrila, China
The alarm went off at 6:00am. We gathered our stuff together, and went outside. There was no one awake except for us. Chatting with each other we tried to figure out which room the people who ran the hotel slept in. After yelling “Ni How” (hello in Chinese), as loudly as we could without waking anyone up, Doug went upstairs and knocked on a door. Someone looked out the window, and eventually came out of the room. We got our deposit back, said thank you, and went to find a taxi. The bus station was easy to get to, but it was nowhere near where we were staying. We negotiated with a taxi driver for the same amount as yesterday to take us to the Express bus station. Here we should be able to buy bus tickets to what China calls Shangri la. The real name is Zhongdian. The name was changed when a book called “The Lost Horizon” was written. This book boosted tourism in the area, and so the name was changed mostly for tourism purposes.
Arriving at the bus station we found the ticket booth. Anna said, “Zhongdian, two tickets please”. The woman printed the tickets, and we paid the $106 Yuan. The bus was to leave at 8:30. The time was now 7:30. Because we had not purchased tickets yet, we wanted to make sure we arrived early enough to get the first bus out of town. Looking at the seats she gave us, it looked as if the bus was completely full. Our seats were 30, and 31.
A woman over the intercom called our bus in Chinese, and English. Getting on the bus, we were in the back middle row. On the majority of the big buses at the very back is usually a full row of 5 seats. Doug had the middle seat for legroom, and Anna sat next to him on his left.
The bus ride was about 4 ½ hours. This was good, considering the book said the ride was about 5 hours. Arriving in Shangri la we gathered our bags, and began walking. According to the map we were only what we thought was about ½ mile from the hotel we wanted to check into. After walking about 30 minutes we realized we were only about ½ way there. The legend on the map was a little off.
Arriving at the Tibet Café we showed them our Tibet receipt. We wanted to check on a couple things first before checking into our room. The girl said, “Wait 20 minutes.” So we put down our bags, and sat down. There was a western gentleman on the internet. After chatting with him for a bit we found out he lives in Meridian, Idaho. This was very interesting. Anna very rarely meets anyone from Idaho in the States, let alone in China of all places. Additionally, he lives in the same city as her little brother Michael. He was very interesting. He sponsors a couple handfuls of children that attend school in Tibet. After chatting with him for about 30 minutes Anna went to check into the hotel. We needed to get rid of our bags. Then she went to ask if there was someone who was coming to talk to us. The girl made a phone call, once someone answered she gave the phone to Anna. The man on the phone said to wait another 30 minutes. This was a bit frustrating. Since we would be sitting for a while we decided to order food.
The food came about 10 minutes later. We ordered a chicken/noodle dish, and a potato pancake with onions. Both dishes were pretty good. Finally the gentlemen who organized our tour came and said we would talk tonight. During all of this the guy from Idaho left, and a girl who had been working in China teaching English came into the room to use the internet. It turned out she grew up in San Diego. What a small world. We were in a very small city in Western China, and we meet people from where we had once lived. We chatted with her for at least 45 minutes or so about different things before finally going to our room, and dropping off our bags.
We still had not really seen the town. This city also had an old town, so we decided to check it out. It was similar to the old towns of Lijiang, and Dali, but without as many tourists as the other cities. There were no vehicles allowed on the roads in this area, the streets were cobblestones, and the buildings were old with character. We walked around for a couple hours before going back to the room.
The way the girl explained the plan to us earlier, she would come and get us to discuss our tour into Lhasa. No one had tried to contact us so we went into the restaurant to talk to the gentleman ourselves. We really wanted an itemized price list of the total amount we had paid. Anna did a list earlier, and wasn’t sure were a lot of the money was going. After chatting with the guy for a bit he explained how he came up with the total figure. We were going to a beautiful lake outside of Lhasa, and we didn’t realize how much it really was costing us to go to the lake. After finding out this fee, we asked if we could just skip the lake. He told us when they applied for our permits, they told the Chinese government of our itinerary and if we didn’t go to the lake we couldn’t go at all. We weren’t sure how much of truth there was to this, but we couldn’t really complain. Tibet was just opened up to foreign tourists last Wednesday, only a week ago after being shut down for months. We were getting in, and this is what mattered most at this point.
After getting the tour arrangements sorted we went across the street to have some western food for dinner. The window advertised burritos. We hadn’t had a burrito in months. This was definitely a western restaurant. After entering the restaurant we saw lots of our friends…white people. After ordering a beer and burritos, we met a couple guys from New York. There were a couple other families in the restaurant as well. The burritos ended up being as good as they could be considering we were in China. The sour cream, didn’t taste like sour cream. We were not exactly sure what it was. Once finishing our meals we headed to the room for a hot shower, then to bed.
16 July 2008
Zhongdian, China
The alarm went off around 7:30. We met a Chinese couple from Missouri would had hired a driver for the day to take them around the surrounding area. They asked if we would like to join them, splitting the cost of the van. We met up with them at 8:30 as planned.
The driver first took us to a field where people can take photos. The fee to take photos was $60, Yuan per person. Since we were only going to take photos, not walking around or anything we all loaded back up into the van and left. The next stop was on the side of the road to take some scenery photos. The third stop was at a cable car. The cable car took people up another 4000 meters into the mountains to see the valley. Because the fee was $220 Yuan we decided not to do the cable car. But our friends really wanted to take it up to the top. So they told the driver to take us around until they would return, which would be about 3 hours. We said our goodbyes, and left.
The first place the driver took us was a place to ride horses. The only reason why we had agreed to share the van with the couple was to save money, and not spend anything additional. We told the driver no, and tried to ask him to take us to places that wouldn’t cost us any money. He didn’t understand. He asked one of the girls working there to translate for him. She asked us if we would like to ride the horses we said no. We asked her to tell him just to take us back to town. The morning would be a lot easier for all of us if he dropped us off back in town. The Chinese couple spoke Mandarin very well being from China, but apparently the driver didn’t understand them.
After the driver dropped us off in town we decided to go have breakfast. We got the laptop from the room, and found a cafe with free Wi-Fi. Doug ordered pancakes, and Anna ordered French toast with coffee. The food was actually really good. Once breakfast was over we went back to an outdoor shop to purchase some jackets. Yesterday we had gone into a couple outdoor stores trying on North Face jackets, as well as pricing them. These jackets, looked very real only came out to about $45US. This was a steal. After talking with a Canadian (who lives in Beijing) who was also traveling in the area, he said we could bargain down the price if buying more than one. This was a deal we could not pass up. Anna called her younger brother to see if the family needed winter jackets. We ended up buying five jackets. The woman gave us an additional 15% off the quoted price. This was a good price for us, and the store. After buying the jackets, we headed to the post office. We needed to then mail Anna’s brother his family’s jackets, as well as our old ones home.
Once the post office errand was done we decided to walk to a monastery the book suggested to visit. We walked about an hour and a half, up and around a big hill. There was no sign of a monastery, let alone, anything to see, and it started raining. We headed back down the hill, while it began to rain harder and harder. After about 20 minutes in the rain we came to a gas station, taking cover for a bit.
On the way back to the room we stopped at a local restaurant for some dumplings. The town we were in is famous for its dumplings. Anna pointed to two pictures on the outside of the restaurant. Hopefully only two dishes were coming, one dumpling dish, and one vegetable dish. And for once this is exactly what was served to us. The food was definitely different but very good. The dumplings were just like steamed pot stickers with yak meat. This was our first yak meat experience, and it was pretty good. Then it was back to the room for a while.
We headed out later on to walk around for a bit. Walking around in old town we ran into a couple we had met in Luang Prabang, Laos. Amanda and Chris were from Tennessee. Since Chris and Anna had the same birthday, we had drinks with them back in June. It is always nice to meet up with friendly faces. After chatting for a while, we decided to possibly meet up the following day to find the monasteries. Right after parting, dancing began in the square we were in. Music was blasting from a nearby shop. We stopped to watch. And our friends stopped to watch at the other side of the square. We went over to join them. They ended up going to their room after about 30 minutes. We stayed a while longer, and then retired to the room for the night.
17 July 2008
Zhongdian, China
For breakfast we decided to go back to the café from the day before. After ordering breakfast Doug opened the laptop to find the wireless internet not working. This was strange; it was working fine the day before. We then finished our breakfast and left.
The place we were staying at had free internet, just not wireless. We went there to try to plug in the laptop. Thankfully they had cables all over their restaurant to just plug in. If we would have known this earlier it would have saved us a lot of money. Doug plugged in the laptop, and began searching for ways to fix the wireless. In the end he ended up downloading all wireless software specific to the computer. This actually worked for a couple hours. But the wireless went dead a couple hours later. Doug looked up an HP forum regarding this problem. It seems a lot of others have had this problem. Their resolution was to send in the laptop, and have the motherboard replaced. Being that we are out of the country, and will be for the next 5 months, it would be difficult for us to mail in the laptop. The next big city we will be in is Chengdu, but there is an HP service center in Beijing. Hopefully we will not have to wait this long, but if we do we will be there in August.
After fiddling with the computer until after 12, we had still not heard from our friends, so we decided to head out. We wanted to visit the monastery that we didn’t see yesterday. It turns out that we missed a side street and had gone the wrong way. The books recommended taking the #3 bus to the monastery, or walk an hour outside of town. Stepping outside onto the street the #3 bus had just arrived. We ran across the street and got on. The bus went for about 10 minutes then stopped. The driver said, “Hey you,” and pointed to the ticket booth. We got off the bus, and then the driver took off. The book mentioned there would be a entrance fee, but it didn’t mention the fee had to be paid 2km before arriving at the monastery. We looked at the ticket price, and thought how we were less than thrilled by how we were just treated by the driver. We said, “No,” and began walking back to town.
On the way to the room we stopped by another restaurant. We ordered a plate of dumplings, and vegetables. These tasted slightly different than the ones from the previous day, but were still good. After lunch we wanted to walk off lunch so we decided to try to find the other monastery. The book didn’t mention any fee for this one. We walked around old town, and finally spotted the monastery up on the hill, but we were not sure how to find it. After walking around for another 10 minutes we finally found a trail going up the hill. Arriving at a gazebo type thing about 200 yards before the monastery we decided to stop to take photos. From the top of the hill we had an excellent view of the city, and it didn’t cost us anything. We took a good amount of photos, and then headed back down the hill and to the room for a while.
About 15 minutes went by when there was a knock at the door. The girl said our friends were downstairs. Anna asked if they were white (because everyone that is white in China is our friend), the lady nodded. Anna went downstairs, and was greeted by Amanda and Steve. They apologized for sleeping in, and had sent us an email around 12:30. We agreed to meet for dinner. They were going to go find the monasteries.
Around 6:00 we went to old town to wander around. We met up with Amanda and Chris around 7:30ish. It was raining; there was no dancing going on because of this. We decided to have skewers at a nearby restaurant. There was a table with a bunch of different uncooked skewers of different meats and vegetables. The woman hands you a tin, and you select the skewers you would like her to cook for you. Then you sit down, and wait for your meal. We each also ordered a large rice to go with the skewers. During and after dinner we chatted about our travels. After we had all finished our meals, we invited them back to our room. Doug wanted to give Chris some software he had to share. We all said our goodbyes 30 minutes later, and made plans to try to meet up in Chengdu a week and a half later.
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