Six Weeks, Four countries, and a couple photos
Six Weeks, 4 countries, 3 trains, 7 planes, 29 buses, countless taxis, jeepneys and tuktuks later and I’m finally back in good ol’ Shihezi. After about 2 hours in the cold, smoggy (understatement) weather here I think I’m ready to go back to the beach (Meg, can I come back?!!). I’m not going to use this post to scare you about the pollution though (but I encourage you to check it out…yikes). This one’s about my 6-week Chinese New Year/Winter/Intercession break.
[Warning: This post is about China. It’s a long one, so you don’t have to read it all, but look at the pictures!]
I just found this super cool website that let’s you design your own maps with personalized routes and markers (check out Scribble Maps) so get ready for a lot of visual aids. If you know me, then you know how much I love maps. In summary, I might have just found my new procrastination tool for this semester.
That’s the overall route of the trip! If you follow the lines counterclockwise (or the arrows) then you kind of get a sense of the route. If you want to see it broken down by mode of transportation (plane, train, bus), check it out:
Is that a beautiful map or what? According to my calculations I spent approximately 174 hours on buses, trains, and planes. That doesn’t even include taxis to and from bus/train/plane stations or the waiting time at these places 🙈.
Here’s a rough itinerary of the trip. Then maybe you can skip ahead to the parts (or pictures) that interest you:
Jan. 15 -17 Train to Chengdu (see Previous Blog Post 45 Hours on a Train)
Jan. 17–21 Chengdu, Sichuan, China
Jan. 22 Leshan, Sichuan, China
Jan. 23–24 Emei Shan, Sichuan, China
Jan. 25–26 Lijiang, Yunnan, China
Jan. 27 Shaxi, Yunnan, China
Jan. 28–30 Dali, Yunnan, China
Ricky leaves to join his family
Jan. 31-Feb. 1 Yuanyang Rice Terraces, Yunnan, China
Feb. 2 Luang Namtha, Laos
Feb. 3–4 Luang Prabang, Laos
Feb. 5 Vang Vieng, Laos
Feb. 6–8 Vientiane, Laos
Feb. 9–10 Siem Reap, Cambodia (hi again Richard!)
Feb. 11–13 Phnom Penh, Cambodia
Tony stays in Phnom Penh, Rob comes!
Feb. 14 Bangkok, Thailand
Feb. 15–16 Chiang Rai, Thailand
Feb. 17 Mae Salong, Thailand
Feb. 18–20 Chiang Mai, Thailand
Feb. 21–25 Bangsak, Thailand
As you can see we covered a LOT of ground, so this blog post might have to come in installments. I figured I would break it up by country. This one’s about China.
Last you heard from me, I had just (barely) survived a 45 hour train ride from Urumqi to Chengdu. I should’ve included this map last time, but here’s what the route looked like. Five provinces. That’s a lot of territory.
Our first stop was Chengdu, the capital of Sichuan province. This place is known for spicy food (understatement) and pandas. After coming from Shihezi, Chengdu seemed like we were going back to the West. There were cafes, McDonalds, and even Starbucks (look, you can come visit now Mom!). It was also an awesome city in itself.
During our four days in Chengdu we slept a lot (to make up for that dreadful train ride), ate a lot of spicy food (well at least Tony and Richard did), and did some significant exploring:
- Wenshu Monastery — major Buddhist center in Sichuan, originally built during the Southern Dynasty (5th cent. CE)
- Wide/Narrow Streets — old streets maintained/remodeled in their original state
- People’s Park
- Chunxi Road
- Luodai — a 1,800 year old village of the Hakka minority group
- Pandas
~ Adults, adolescents, children and babies!!
- Also, Red Pandas…
~ These ones were adorable, but fiesty little things. They had used their claws to cut holes through their enclosures so some of them were walking alongside the humans on the boardwalk!
Tony and I also went to the Tibetan quarter of Chengdu. It was like entering a totally different city or province. All of a sudden everyone was clad in monks robes, there were beggars (both adults and children) every few feet (including in our restaurant — so sad), there was minimal Mandarin, and every other shop was selling traditional prayer flags and Buddha images. If you want a more easily accessible slice of Tibet, try Chengdu (and I hear the western part of Sichuan).
After reluctantly departing from Chengdu (the civilization!) we headed to Leshan to see the giant Buddha. Carved out of the side of a cliff, Leshan Buddha was created during the Tang Dynasty. It overlooks Leshan city and the convergence of three major rivers. Due to events in the Middle East, it is now the largest Buddha in the world standing at 71m. He is pretty darn big.
I was SUPER excited for our next destination: Mount Emei — one of the four sacred mountains of China and the place where Buddhism first entered China. Not going to lie, my interest in the mountain wasn’t 100% because of the cultural significance, it’s also known to be a wild monkey mountain (!!!!). My main goal (maybe even more important than making it up the mountain) was to find some monkeys.
Spoiler: We made it up the mountain (barely). But no monkeys 😥
Not going to lie, our Emei adventure was a pretty miserable experience. And it wasn’t just because of the lack of monkeys or the thousands (not kidding) of tourists who were visiting as well. The walk was beautiful but treacherous — all of the steps were flooded with snow and ice so it was like climbing up an icy slide — for over 2 hours. Maybe we should’ve reconsidered when the original bus ride that was slotted to take 2 hrs took over 4 hrs due to weather. But we still decided to make the “spiritual” (no-cable car) hike up to the Golden Summit. The snow was pretty and there was hardly anyone else on the walk (I wonder why — see hiking conditions on the left), but my ankles hated me. The view, though, was awesome:
Going up had been hard, going down was even worse. We didn’t make it to the summit until about 5:15pm and the last bus down the mountain was supposed to leave the bus depot (~2 hr hike) at 6:30pm. As a result we had to take the cable car (with the hordes of Chinese tourists) down to a point about a 20min walk from the bus depot. During that short walk I can’t tell you how many times I wiped out. Frozen fingers, weak ankles, snowy butt, and still no monkeys.
We got to the bus depot at 6pm (30 min early! unreal for a Gelb) and found the longest line I’ve ever seen. Normally I’d be thrilled that people were waiting in line (so rare!), but this time in the cold, snow and ice I just wanted to leave. We waited for over an hour and a half before finally being loaded onto a bus back to town. During that wait a woman had a panic attack and people started yelling and standing on the line dividers to watch her (it was horrible). There was also an obscene amount of pushing, shoving, and cutting (and I’m normally used to a lot of that). We finally got on a bus, but because of the weather we didn’t make it down the mountain until past midnight. Ouch.
Besides Tony and Richard, these were the only monkeys I found 😥 (but stay tuned for Cambodia!!):
After Emei we were ready to head to warmer weather. So we headed south to Yunnan, the province that borders Vietnam, Laos and Myanmar. Not only is Yunnan incredibly geographically diverse, it is also the most ethnically diverse. Our first destination was the Old Town of Lijiang. To get there we took an 11 hour overnight train to Panzhihua on the border between Sichuan and Yunnan. Again, we got stuck with standing tickets, but after 45 hours, 11 seems like nothing. Also, the staff let us sit in the dining cart overnight. At Panzhihua we switched to a bus to Lijiang. 8 hrs later we arrived.
Lijiang is a Naxi town that’s over 1,000 years old. It was a major stop along the Old Tea Horse Caravan Road (beginning in the Tang Dynasty around the 7th century CE)— the southwestern trade route through Sichuan, Yunnan, and Tibet that reached as far as India. Kind of like the Luodai Hakka Village or the Wide/Narrow Alleys in Chengdu, the Old Town has been restored to look like it did hundreds of years ago. That means it’s quite quaint, but also very touristy.
The main attraction is just wandering through the twisting alleyways. Here are some of my favorite shots:
Our next stop was another trading post on the Old Tea and Horse Caravan Road, a tiny town about halfway between Lijiang and Dali — Shaxi. This was a quick trip: 1.5 hours to Jianchuan and then another (mountainous/nauseating) hour to Shaxi.
I imagine Shaxi is now what Lijiang (and Dali) were maybe 20/30 years ago. Yes, there are a decent number of guesthouses and restaurants, but it still feels like life goes on as normal here. The city doesn’t exist solely for tourists.
Besides the main square and maybe 2 or 3 streets with a couple restaurants that span a few blocks, the city is predominantly residential. It is located in a valley surrounded on all sides by beautiful mountains and farmland.
There is a river at the southern edge of town with an iconic bridge where you can still see hoof marks imprinted in the path — apparently from the time of the Tea and Horse trade.
The day we visited, CCTV (China’s main broadcasting network) was filming a documentary about the ethnic minorities (mainly Bai and Yi) in Shaxi. This meant there was a huge dancing demonstration in the main square (right outside our hostel door). Seeing all the men and women dressed in their traditional outfits being forced to dance, play instruments, sing, etc. I couldn’t help but feel sad for the sense of spectacle. The massive video cameras and speakers proved there was nothing natural about it. The only silver lining is that the participants seemed to be having a good time — laughing and chatting with friends.
Up next: Dali, about 3 hours south of Shaxi. This is another old (Ming Dynasty) city from the ancient trade route. With the mountains in the west, the lake to the east and an old city wall, it makes for beautiful scenery.
According to Lonely Planet this was once THE place for Western backpackers to go. I think it still is (and now for domestic travellers as well 😁). Although it’s not quite as touristy as Lijiang!
For us Shihezi fellows, Dali was extra special. We got to meet Chris, one of the PIA fellows posted in Shihezi last year. He’s currently got a sweet gig working at a boutique hotel in Yunnan. We also got Western food for the first time in 5 months (well besides DQ) — cheeseburger and french fries never tasted so good.
We climbed some mountains, wandered the streets, played (and by play I mean won) some poker, saw some live folk music…
The lesson from this city was: Don’t challenge/dare/doubt a Gelb when it comes to ice cream.
Richard thought I was joking when I said that I found place in Dali that made homemade ice cream and that I wanted to go even if it meant getting ice cream for breakfast (what’s wrong with that? Right, Dad?). So that’s what we did. Welcome to traveling, Gelb style.
Dear Dad, I hope I make you proud.
Our last day in Dali we headed out to Xizhou, a small town on the lake about 20km north of Dali where Chris (former PIA Shihezi) is currently working at the Linden Centre. The place is awesome. So wish we had more time. We rode out alongside the lake. Tony, Richard, and I agree that this ride was one of the top experiences of our whole 6 weeks of traveling. It was beautiful. Unfortunately, this is probably the ONE thing I don’t have many pictures of!! But these are some pretty ones of Xizhou.
We caught a 7 hour overnight train to Kunming, the capital of Yunnan. And GUESS WHAT. We had seats on this train! Luxury. That’s the only way to describe it. Yes people were yelling and chatting all night, but we had seats so life was all ok!
[Exit Richard]
While Richard headed off to Cambodia to meet up with his friend from home Tony and I continued on to the Yuanyang rice terraces in the southern part of Yunnan. Google these terraces and you’ll see why we decided to make the trek (9.5 hours) there. They’re remarkable in the winter because all the excess water reflects the light. Before we went I thought nothing could top the terraces of the Philippines, but I agree these are awesome too.
Not going to lie, it took some dedication to get to the terraces. First we had to find the right bus station in Kunming (there are like 3) and then we had to take 4 separate buses all of which were pretty much packed like the picture on the right. That made it really fun when the lady behind me got car sick and started booting. gross. There were some pretty views (and pretty gross bathrooms) on the ride though:
We finally made it to Duoyishu — a little village right on the terraces. It’s known for awesome sunrises. Unfortunately it was a little too cloudy when we were there, but it still made for a very scenic spot to stop for the night. Of course there are a lot of pictures. These are my favorites:
The next morning we explored an even smaller village about 45min walk from Duoyishu. It was super misty and foggy, but that might have made it even more interesting.
Out of everything we’ve experienced on this trip so far, this feels the most traditional. There were no hotels, no restaurants, no signs for tourists. I didn’t see any satellite dishes, electricity or telephone wires. There were, however, a plethora of water buffalo (pictured above), pigs, chicken, and dogs.
This might be my favorite picture of the day — the only running water in the village (plus rooster):
As usual I wish we had more time, but we had to keep moving in order to make it to Cambodia in time to meet up with Richard and his family (!!) in Siem Reap. So we had another long day of travel (10.5 hours) in order to get to Xishuangbanna — our jumping off point for Laos.
China Experience Alert:
On our way out of the terraces, our first leg was done in the minivan. Tony and I had been sitting in the back seat for about 10 minutes when all of a sudden we heard a cluck and felt something flutter across the back of our necks. There was a LIVE, UNTIED, UNCAGED, CLUCKING CHICKEN and DUCK in the trunk right behind us!! That’s farm fresh I guess…
We made it to Jinghong around midnight and had the worst time trying to find a hotel. Our plan was to take a bus across the border to Laos the following morning. The hotel we found however couldn’t tell us where the bus station was, what time it opened or the phone number so we could see if there actually was a bus to Laos and if so, what time. “We aren’t a travel agency. We’re a hotel,” they told us. Well a bad one I’d say. Shoot.
Luckily there was a bus to Laos. Only 70RMB (~$11) for a 7 hour trip. Here are our last views of China for 4 weeks:
You can tell we were getting closer to Laos. The architecture changed:
I think I’ll end it here, right on the border with Laos:
This marks the end of our China adventures. Congratulations if you’ve made it this far. Apologies for the length, but I hope you’ve enjoyed the photos. Stay tuned for the next installment (Laos)!
xx
