Dali

Travelling is about flexibility right- hence our abandonment of plans to go so called 'off the beaten track' in Jianchuan and Shaxi between Lijiang and Dali. Actually we did go to Jianchuan, checked into a hotel, checked out town for a few hours, checked out of hotel and got a late afternoon bus out of town!

It was a fairly nice town, had a modest sized old town, we got shown around a few old courtyards by a an we're fairly certain was mentally ill, and a bit raving mad!, but the weather was simply foul- low hanging mist, rain, and chill, showing no sign of lifting within at least a few days! And in China everyone was born in a tent!! It just seemed impossible to find anywhere warm, and the sights miserable in the rain, so we knew we'd be more comfortable in Dali- a place with a street rechristened "Yangren jie" (Foreigners street) full of cosy cafes who cleverly cater to western tastes with couches, closed doors (!!!!!!), and Yunnan coffee. (Yes it was pouring rain in Dali too- and we remembered why we brought books!)

So Dali has been nice but not exactly to plan- Mum is ready for warm weather and we're off to Jinghong tomorrow (where it is apparently a balmy 27 degrees)， I will be heading to Jinan after -which is well and truly winterish and don't expect warm weather for quite a while later！

There is lots of snow on the hills above town， unusual I think 。 Impressions of Dali？ Little old ladies sidling up to us whispering， "Hello， ganga？ smok-a？"， the same ones again and again- they even came up to the window where we sat inside miming！ You are forced to blow them off like flys！ There is one street here that has been rechristened "Yangren jie"- Foreigners street，which is mainly where this pestering happens！ Lovely buildings，a very criss cross square pattern of cobbled streets， one section that is completely touristified- the only shops are selling cloths， clothes， marble and jewellry etc， but mostly there is a lot more of the old town that is untouristified than Lijiang。
Mum is a bit 'over' the hippy style retro cafes which play 70's music- hasn't anything changed she says？， but personally I don't mind it。 If you， like us today are worn out (the poo-spew type of worn out, until today we've been lucky!)， or it's pouring rain， these places beat the conventional CHinese eatery for hanging out. (Sorry Jianchuan, Shaxi- know we didn't give you a fair go!)

We went to a market in Shaping- crazy suff! buy buy buy- you know ladies running after you saying 2 for 50, no, 2 for 40, 2 for 30, 3 for 30, ...., 4 for 20! (these were beaded necklaces that i didn't want!- the things you don't want are always cheaper!). It was great watching everyone, especially the ladies who had colourful Bai headdresses and scarves, but whenever we bought anything, I felt a bit like a fool with money :), wondering, did I want that thing (insert jewellry, embroidered fabric, batic wall hanging here), hang on, did I come up to that price...

We also went onto the lake (ended up looking round some famous rich chinese artists mansion...not quite what we thought we were paying for...but the lake ride was nice), and looked around Xizhou, another nice Bai historic town.

We sent some of our shopping back to Australia today- was a bit of a debacle。 there was so many people hustling to get served， and when we put the customs declaration on I had ticked two boxes "Surface" and "SAL"（Air was another option）， by accident- the girl asked which way we wanted it sent， and I said is Sal cheaper （in english since she asked me in english）， and she said yes， so I said that one。 Then when she printed out the bill it was 450 kuai， while we were expecting more like 186Y！ I asked to see the book again， and it turns out it was the wrong one (surface cheaper than SAL)。 But the girl said it can't be changed，it's in the computor now！ （Computor says no！）。 Then all these other people came up and she was dealling with like 3 groups at a time， so we just sat and waited， deterined not to pay over 400， then she said to us， about 15 minutes later， "Na zenme ban？"， and I said "Wo zhi you liang bai qian， wo bu xiang fu name duo！"， and she did some stuff in the computor， and what do you know， she could change it， but the bill was more than 200！（including box we brought， was 203）， and she was very suspicious then- If you only have 200， it's more that 200 （didn't tell us it was only 3Y more！） Are you sure you can pay？！！！， We made ammends before we left！

I shall go cosy up with my book (The Namesake- is a fantastic read) near the window and people watch the sly old grandmas dealing weed。 ：）Poor Mum had food poisoning from last nights dinner much worse than me (I just felt queasy and went off my food) and has gone to bed already.

Lijiang

Just a short post about Lijiang I think. A bustling large town, with a charming old town. A lot of people complain about tourism here, but really I think they are a bit whingy. We are all tourists!

We were a bit overwhelmed by it when we first got in, wandering round with our bags and being approached by people calling "come stay, guesthouse!!!", and noises and people all around. But a good nights sleep and shower later, we enjoyed the old town heaps. There are lots of crafty shops, which yes are aimed squarely at the (largely chinese) tourist market, but actaully have some really lovely things in them. To me it is sort of reminiscent of Byron Bay or the Rocks, with some hippy clothes shops, locally made arts and crafts- not all traditional, some more like a fusion of local flavour and comtemporary techniques. Also there are heaps of cafes and bars and restaurants. Which make it a lovely place to chill out and rest after adventures in more remote areas.
We did some shopping, eating and reading. Skipped the naxi disco the other night and went to Naxi orchestra instead (maybe we'll hit the disco tonight ;) ). The Naxi orchestra was ancient music being played on ancient instruments by ancient men! Half the musicians were over 70, 7 or 8 were over 80! Some of the music was probably an aquried taste (a bit like yak butter tea), but others were quite listenable.
I felt like it was a bit cruel making these really old men get up every night to play for tourists, but they were quite proud of their music. SOme of them had to bury their intruments during the cultural revolution to stop them getting destroyed. During the concert one guy was popping pills, and several of them seemed to be asleep when they weren't playing!

We went out to Tiger Leaping Gorge- that is another story... Now we're back in Lijiang, despite the tourists, I still like the canals or crystal clear water, cobbled streets and traditional wooden architechture. (It is better that the old stuff is preserved for tourists than knocked down like the hutongs in Beijing!) I also like places like the "Prague cafe" where it is nice and warm, and they make decent Yunnan coffee (they grow Arabica here- the good stuff). The cold snap that is all across Asia is hitting here too!

Off to the Naxi disco now... or something... :)

The Wedding

The last day of our "great Shangrila-Deqin-Mekong valley loop" took us through Weixi county where the highlight was without a doubt participating in a village Naxi wedding. We were passing through a small village on the banks of the jinsha jiang (back on the yangze again by now), when Yang our driver/guide said she thought there was a wedding in the village would we like to go.

Well what do you say but "yeah", but felt awfully intrusive and uncomfortable as we wandered down the path to the family home having the wedding. Within 15 minutes all those feelings vanished, and by the end we were invited to stay a week!

It was a rural wedding, and no one but the bride and groom were in special clothes (a red dress of course) - just their everyday stuff- the older people were in traditional Naxi dress, (but that's everyday for them), so we didn't feel underdressed! W first gave our wedding present to the bride and groom (Money of course, this is China!) . We had to line up and our contribution was recorded alongside everyone elses in a big book- it had place of origin (for everyone else this was their village, for is it was just Ao Da Li A), name and amount. We gave 100Y total, (about 15 dollars AU), which was reccomended by Yang, other guests gave anything from 10Y plus.

That's because it seemed like anyone and everyone in the area was invited to the wedding! Seriously there were 5 to 600 people- but coming and going, not all at the same time. No wonder a couple of foreigners passing through were welcomed! And we felt like celebrities! At first people were a little shy, but after a bunch of young girls (12-13yrs) broke the ice with some giggley looks and stares, we were pounced upon by the old grannies of the village. The girls had us lined up to sit at a table with them, but when we sat down we realised the young girls had been booted out and the older ladies had bagsed us for themselves, including the grandmother of the bride. COnverstaion was difficult as their 'putonghua' was limited, and I don't speak Naxi or the 'local chinese', but we did have a jolly time together! One lady told us she had only seen foreigners several times in her whole life- and she had lots of wrinkles. and heaps of different people commented that having foreigners at the wedding was very "Nan de"- "difficult to obtain" i.e Rare and precious.
The mother of the bride and the cousin of the bride (it was at the brides family house), really wanted us to stay the night for the evening dancing, but after a few hours we had enjoyed ourselves enough, and our driver had to get all the way back to Zhongdian that night after dropping us off.

The wedding was held in the home- a large Naxi courtyard complex- with 12-16 low tables set up in the middle. As we arrived the tables were all full of people and being served two courses of dishes. We sat on the outside and watched the crowds, and they watched us. There were plenty of other people arriving and waiting around the outside too. Then when the people sitting had finsihed eating, the tables were cleared and suddenly full again- as evryone around the side ruched to get a spot.
Naturally we just sat on the side and watched this, and then watched another setting get served their two courses. We reckon while we were there the tables got set and cleared at least 4 times, and as we saw people leaving as we arrived, probably in total more than that!

We were wary of the food, but there's not much you can do when old ladies slip food into your bowl when your not looking! Though I can safely say now- several days later, that no ill effects have been had from the food! There were maybe 12 savoury dishes on the table for the second course, and oddly for us, the first course was fruit, sweets, and a sort of wedding cake.

Later Mum got out a couple of photos she'd brought, and these did the rounds- almost round the whole courtyard! They thought Sarah looked like a movie star in her wedding dress, and coo cooed over the picture of the three of us. Funnily they couldn't tell which one was me, and kept asking if Sarah was me in the picture! (You know caucasians, they all look the same!!!). One of them even thought Sarah was Mum! They nodded approvingly at a picture of Alex and me- oooh a chinese 'husband' (they kept saying lao gong- I had to explain that actually my younger sister got married before I have- probably means I am an ugly old sister like in the fairy tales :) ).

All in all it was an amazing show of hospitality- not just inviting strangers, but feeding the whole village and possibly the neighbouring villages too! Makes us seem a bit stingy really! We left with promises to send photos, which we really should print out tonight and send on their way before we get too distracted, and hopefully they interpreted our gratitude- I think they did!

Cizhong and the Lancang river

Day two of our trip within a trip. After leaving the mountains behind- if you looked out the back window you could still see them a bit but after a while the scenery out the right and below us became much more enticing. We were in this narrow narrow valley along a road carved into the side of the steep hills one one side of the valley (well, the steep hills are on both sides of the valley, the road on only one). Below was the Lancang river, aka Mekong river- like all the rivers up here, a brilliant blue colour.

So yeah, that's basically the scenery for the whole day, and most of the next day too! Simple but beautiful. There were villages up both sides of the valley, When we started the villages were all Tibetan, then from the third day onwards they were Lisu and Naxi. Apparently the poorer ones up higher in the valley tended to be Lisu, and the lower ones which had more arable slightly less steep terracable land tended to be Naxi.

These villages all could have been the 'real' Shangri la in my opinion. Forget Zhongdian, too cold and big there! Down in the valley it was warm, and we had our coats and gloves off.

The village we stayed the night at was quite a marvel. It is called Cizhong, and is Tibetan. It's claim to fame, like alot of the Tibetan villages we passed on the second day is wine!! They have been growing grapes here for 150years since the French missionaries were here, and making them into red wine. In Feilaisi we tasted Shangri la Dry Cab Sav, which was a quaffable drop :)- Sorry Alex, didn't pay enough attention to describe the nose to you, too busy quaffing to make sure we slept well in that electricity-less village, but the wine they make is a lighter style- like the french style.
In Cizhong they don't bottle the wine, just make it and sell it in containers. So here's where the story gets stranger, we bought our wine there, poured into a grubby looking lemonade bottle, from the local (ethnically Tibetan) Catholic priest! Catholics have always been into their alcohol!
Cizhong's other curiousity is its church- built in tradional Catholic style in 1867, rebuilt in 1905 after a fire, and has been in continuos use the whole time. It was a lovely cute little building, in a village of maybe 500 or so people, and on SUndays they ring the bell and everyone from around comes apparently- must be quite a sight on Sundays to see Tibetan herders and farmers singing mass. It was quite surreal actually.
The whole village was a delight, with the warm afternoon sun, still the last peek at the white snow peaks in the far north horizon, green terraces, grape vines, lovely wooden Tibetan houses, a big gum tree!, a blue river running down below, and us drinking red wine on a roof terrace.
Tasting notes on Cizhong wine: probably needed a bit of age, a bit too sweet, but no offensive flavours!
The people we stayed with had converted part of their house into a guesthouse for people who come through town wanting to see the church, although I don't think that can be many really! They slaughtered a chicken for our dinner, and we had butter tea, tsampa made from corn and reheated chicken for breakfast...only ate a piece or two of chicken for breakfast to be polite!

The rest of the Mekong valley was more of the same really- idyllic villages, beautiful scenery... We saw how people on the non road side of the river get across to the road- by a rudimentary flying fox. Looked bloody scary, and certainly hadn't passed any safety regulations.

On the third day we visited a Lisu village, that is inaccesable by road- we had to walk up a really steep hill to get to it. While I found the whole region idyllic, some development is a good thing when you saw how poorly people were living. A family invited us in, with a little 3 year old girl- but she seemed so young, only about 1 yrs old or something, and was still an unsteady walker. Their nutrition could not have been very good. Their house was almost pitch black inside, with wooden floors, but when the baby needed to wee, they lifted her up and let her wee on the floor. (They did take her 3 meters away from the kitchen though, but still...). There was animal poo everywhere outside the houses, dirt paths and dirt everywhere in the house.
Mum got on well with the little baby, and Yang, our driver gave the old man head of household news of outside world- he had gone to biuld the road from Zhongdian to Deqin. She was telling him about the new road from Lijiang to Zhongdian which was 4 lanes wide, and about many other roads. He seemed to have a bit of a road interest. Roads in that region had damaged the ecology, as the sides of the valley were so steep they caused rock falls and bits of the valley to slide/ erode away, however they had also brought some opportunities for prosperity to the people. The lower villages seemed to be doing quite well.

So that is basically our trip along the Mekong valley- after that we went into Weixi county which ran along another valley. We slept (night 3) at Tacheng, where there was no room at the inns due to a large delegation of Kunming electricity officials in town (presumably something to do with hydro electricity), and we nearly had to sleep in this decrepit, unused truck stop hotel that was absolutely filthy...but didn't. phew!

Zhongdian to Feilaisi

This is the first post in a series of 4. Mum and I hired a 4wd for a four day journey from Zhongdian (I refuse to call it Shangri la now I think I've seen the 'real' Shangri la...see day two for that!) in a loop to Lijiang. This route is undoable by public transport, and goes through remote valleys.

So on the first day we drove north to Feilaisi, which is near Deqin. Our driver, a Naxi lady from near Zhongdian was great! We were glad to have a woman, who drove at a perfectly safe 30km per hour (not too slow on those roads!), and took all the bends very carefully! We were driving over a mountain pass, (Baima Xueshan), which was at 4000+ meters, but the altitude was fine as we came back down at the other side.

At first we were going along the 'Golden Sands river' Jinsha jiang, which is the beginning of the Yangze river. We saw a boat or two, strapped into the middle of the river (which is unnavigable up there as it flows too fast and has rapids) panning for gold. The water was this amazing bright blue green colour.

We stopped for lunch in Benzilan, a Tibetan town by the river and ate Yangze river fish, I had the unhappy pleasure of picking which fish would be our lunch! The one the guy wanted us to have was way too big for us to eat! In Benzilan they were growing grapes in the little arable land they had terraced- the French were up here in the 1800's and taught the locals to make wine and now they make it all over this Tibetan region.

The mountains we went through were amazing- snowy and beautiful, and high! We weren't really cold either, as the sun was shining brightly. Got a bit sunburnt on my face as the UV level was high up there. Passed lots of chortens along the way and prayer flags.

The most amazing mountains were the ones we didn't pass through, but could see just across the valley from the village we stayed in at night. ..Which incidently had a power-out the whole time we were there, so no electric blankets for us, (there wasn't any heating anyway). The village had an amazing panorama of the Tibetan holy mountain Kawa Karpo, which has never been climbed (19 people died on an attempt in 1994), the mountain of the female spirit Miaciamu (or Shen nu in Chinese), and dozens of other peaks going all the way across the horizon. The other side of the mountains is Tibet, and to circumnambulate the mountains you have to get Tibet permits. It takes 12 days, and would be an amazing walk.

The evening we arrived we just sat there staring at the mountains, till it got dark and cold and we went inside and slept in all our clothes under three blankets.

We had amazing luck with the weather, as the mountains are often shrouded in cloud, but we got amazing vistas. Sunrise onto the mountains was beautiful- the clouds played games with us, giving us glimpses of these snowy peaks behind. There were tibetans burning juniper bush to the mountains, a couple of Chinese photographers and us- definitly the low season, due to the cold- but winter skies tend to be clearer.

As it got warmer and the sun came up, the clouds cleared completely and we had complete views over the mountains. We went for a walk, and then drove to some other view spots, but eventually we had to leave the mountains behind. I felt quite sad to leave the mountains behind. But it was a bit cold to stay longer up there, especially as the electricity showed no sign on coming back on! (At least everyone had gas cookers!).

Zhongdian

The adventure has started!
I'm now in Zhongdian aka Shangri-la according to the local government, but I reckon the 'real' Shangri-la would be a few degrees warmer than this! We arrived here yesterday morning (early), and it's great up here! The first thing you notice is that you're a little breathless, as the altitude is 3200m, so we've been taking it slowly and acclimatising. The mountains in the distance have snow on them and that is where we are hopefully headed. Mum is worried about the altitude, and I'm worried about the cold, but I just spoke with some Australian blokes that live round here and they said the temperatures are about the same there.
As for the famed Shangri-la it is a mainly Tibetan town, with a huge monastery out of town that we visted today. The houses around the monastery for the monks seemed like a whole town! I'll see if I can post a picture of it some time as I don't know if I can really describe it that well, other than it was big, with lots of gold stuff on it :). And while we were there it snowed a tinsey bit.
We have been drinking lots of ginger tea to keep warm, in a 'cafe' which seems to patronised by card playing locals and beer drinking monks (sneaking out from the monastery probably). It has the best heating we've discovered in town.

Last night we went to the square where there were heaps of people doing what we thought looked a bit like Tibetan line dancing. They had poppy Tibetan music playing, and we doing dances in big circles. The older women in traditional dress were the best dancers, but there were heaps of younger people too. We wondered if it was put on for tourists (not that there seem to be any at this time of year, but when we asked someone she said it wasn't- just because it was so cold in the evenings they go and dance (the insides of the buildings are not very warm either as wood is expensive here). I reckon it is a bit of a pick-up place too, as afterwards they all go drink tea or stronger stuff in the cafes around the square.

Our guest house has electric blankets, and I was fairly toasty last night despite the cracks in the wooden wall! A down jacked donated to me by a lady in Kunming heading to Laos has been a godsend during the day- it has become my 'wardrobe' or should I say 'suitcase' staple.

So now we are faced with the descision whether to journey over some very high passes (I think 5000 m) to get to Deqin which is only 3500, or to go in the other direction which will take us lower and warmer- which we will be doing eventually. I think tomorrow will be another acclimatising day though.

OK, leaving soon. Just a quick idea of what I am actually doing, as I know I keep changing my plans. I am studying at Shandong University, China from the 24th Feb-2 July approximately. From today till then I will be travelling in Yunnan province of China with my recently-quit-job-wants-to-do-something-totally-outrageous Mum :). We're going to the mountainous area in the north west corner of the province near Tibet and Burma, and also down to Xishuangbanna which is near the border of Laos.
I have a one way ticket, and I have no idea what's happening to me after July, except that I'll probably be in Qinghai in late July for the Yushu Tibetan horse festival, and then maybe I'll go Tibet-Nepal-India overland, or maybe I'll go along the Silk road to Kashgar and somehow get out of there and end up in India, or Turkey or... yeah...
Home by christmas. Fingers crossed that blogspot is not blocked in China
Eve

First Post- 2 days

Providing I am able to access this site in China, I am making this blog so I can communicate with everyone. At the moment it is 2 sleeps to go until I leave and I'm at Uni waiting for my Vacation scholarhsip Stats program to run itself which is taking surprisingly long. I hope it's going OK!
Yeah, so yeah, excited, hectic, stressed emotional all at the same time.