Daocheng, China - Tongfu Hostel

The five Israelis and I had a eight bed dorm to ourselves in the Tongfu Hostel. Two of the group left at 7:00 a.m. for Yadang, a park about three hours by minibus away. I had originally intended to go there, but due to being delayed by the "no bus" situation in Zhongdian and not really having good information on how far the park is from Daocheng - 3 hrs., I've decided not to go there.

I spend most of the day with Rei, Noa and Lala as they were trying to plan their next nights stay. They want to stay with a Tibetan family nearby Daocheng and find out what there might be to do in the area surrounding the different Tibetan villages where they might stay. The guest house manager, "Big John", was great in helping out. It's a bit of an awakening for a westerner to find that all the good information about Daocheng and the surrounding area cannot be found in Lonely Planet or on English language web sites. All the good, detailed information is in Chinese on Chinese web sites. "Big John" located a Chinese web site and was very helpful and patient in answering their questions. He wrote some of the vital information in English and Chinese.

Noa and Lala bought food for breakfast. We used, what I think was, the guest house owners kitchen to eat. We borrowed bowls and they bought four spoons for us, they said they would need them later anyway. Noa, Lala and Rei prepared a kind of muesli with yogurt and potatoes(?) and had bread with yak butter, jam or tomatoes. It was quite good and very filling. We then checked out what information there was at the bus station (there were no buses there, it is VERY small!), did some shopping for food and bought a few things. We were starred at by several of the local Tibetians. Some of them would even come into a shop just to look at us. I've seen three other westerners here, so I think we are a rare commodity. In mid afternoon Lala, Rei, and Noah, with full pack gear, left to hitch hike to a Tibetan village.

Later in the afternoon I decided to rent a bike. We had found bikes to rent at a clothing store. It's no easy feet to find a decent bike to rent here. I tried the first bike and it had no front brakes. The second had brakes, but was way too small for me. We managed to adjust the seat a little so maybe it was good for a 2nd grader. The pedals would hit the ground when you tried to make any serious kind of turn. They spoke no English, but we finally worked out the price, about 2 dollars and that I would return it at 7:30 p.m. I brought it back to the hostel and the owner had a proper size wrench to adjust the angle of the seat, which had been flopping back and forth as I peddled.

I took a ride out to Rubu Chaka, which is a hot springs area. The road wasn't too bad, part paved and part not. A Chinese girl on a bike was paralleling me and talking in Chinese and making gestures around her shoulders. At first I thought she wanted to carry my backpack for money. When I got to the hot springs I realized she wanted to rent me a "hot springs hut" and was gesturing to indicate bathing in the hot water. Since I was biking I didn't want to have a nice relaxing soak and then just screw it up by breaking a sweat afterwards biking, so I opted to take some pictures of the area. It was quite nice. Some Chinese student artists were painting the scenery in the surrounding area. I took photos of a herd of yaks crossing a stream and then headed back to the hostel.

The hostel owner suggested I bike out to Sangdui where there are some great views of the mountains and I might run into my Israeli friends. It was a bit ambitious to start with, about 12-miles round trip and I started about 6 p.m., needing to return the bike at 7:30 p.m., but I started out in that direction anyway.

I came across a place that had awesome views of streams, mountains, Tibetan houses and dramatic cloud formtations and started taking photos. Vans were parked with people out taking photos of the scenery as well. I spend about 45-minutes taking photos of the striking landscape. It was one of those amazingly wonderful moments in my life.

It started getting colder and darker so I started back to Daocheng. I was fighting a strong headwind and made a couple miles progress when the left pedal on my bike fell off. I had no tools and I wasn't able to put it back on successfully. I ended up walking the bike about three miles back to town. I went to the hostel about 7:30 p.m., but they were unable to help me put it on correctly, but I was able to put it on partway. It was dark by now and walked it back to the shop. Fortunately they really didn't look at the bike, the pedal was on it but none too securely, and they returned my deposit. I was glad they didn't see anything wrong, as it wasn't my fault in the first place, but trying to explain it with them not speaking any English and me not speaking Chinese would be difficult.

By the time I got back to the hostel I was exhausted and frazzled. That's what I mean about my mood changing like the weather. At one moment I was in blissful scenery in a tranquil and spiritual mood, the next I'm struggling to make it back before dark with a broken bike and the prospect of a stressful negotiation about the incident between people that don't speak each others language.

I made a trip out to find dinner and discovered that the holiday Chinese tourists had started arriving and restuarants were quite packed. I ended up buying cookies and something like sugar smacks for dinner. I also bought a potato on a stick with chili pepper and salt at a roadside stand on my way back . I went to bed early, exhausted from the ups and downs of the day.

Daocheng, China - now this is remote!

I arrived in Daocheng from Zhongdian last evening about 8 p.m. after a 13-hour bus ride through one of the most beautiful and dangerous highways in the world. It seemed that didn't want to miss going up and down every tall mountain they could find when they build this road. It also passed alongside some beautiful gorges, valleys and small Tibetan villages. Fortunately our driver was excellent. He drove expeditiously but not recklessly, beeping his horn when traveling in the other lane around blind corners and slowing in the worst parts of the road. I'm not sure what the hightest pass on this leg was, but during one of them I'll be going over a pass over 15,000 high.

Daocheng is situated in rolling hills amidst Tibetan villages at an altitude above 11,000 feet. I'm feeling the effects, shortness of breath whenever I exert myself. My Isreali friends (now 5, 2 additional from the bus trip) and I found a local restaurant and managed to order meat dumplings and fried noodles and avoid the "explode squid with fire" and other incomprehensible dishes. Whoever translated the menu into English had no clue.

The Israelis negotiated us into a dorm saving 10-Yuan per person (a little over a dollar) after about 30-minutes of negotiating. I'm learning from them. I was able to save a couple of dollars on a double I'm renting tonight but am staying in by myself. It's a bit overpriced already because this is a peak Chinese traveling time.

Today I think I will be back on my own. I plan to head to Litang tomorrow. If I can find people to share expenses traveling to Ganzi, then I think I will go there, otherwise I may stay longer in Litang or head onto Kangding. Whichever would be best to avoid the hordes of Chinese travellers and the accompanying higher prices wherever they go.

My mood changes like the weather traveling in the remoter regions. It's definitely a lot more difficult. It's inspiring and frustrating and amazing and at times digusting. I'm glad I'm doing some of it. I don't know for how long, but because it's quite stressful.

I'm thankful to the many kind Chinese people who help me as well as the help from fellow foreign travellers.

Zhongdian, China - "No Bus!"

Yesterday afternoon I had tried to get a bus ticket to Daocheng. At the bus station the lady just said, "No bus!". I asked about a bus the following day, writing down the date, still the response, "No bus!".

Today I dropped by a guest house that will book a bus for you. The lady went to the bus station for me and found out that there are no buses traveling to Xiancheng or Daocheng because both roads to those towns are closed, one due to a landslide and the other due to flooding.

The good news is I'm feeling quite a bit better. I just have to figure out where to go from here. A major Chinese holiday begins on October 1st and you need to have things booked before then if you're going to be anywhere popular.

I met three Israelis today, Lala, Noa and Rei. They kindly invited me to join them on a trip to hot springs 1/2 hour from Zhongdian. It was a beautiful area and the hot springs had beautiful surroundings. I joined them for dinner at a small local Tibetan street cafe. They pointed to the vegetables they wanted and the cook cooked them up with garlic and hot peppers as appropriate. We had four dishes, onions and cabbage, mushrooms with garlic, corn with red peppers and brocolli along with servings of rice. They were all excellent! The bill came to less than a dollar a piece (7 Yuan).

When we returned to the guest house the manager, Becky, had checked back at the bus station and the afternoon bus from Daocheng had arrived. She was able to get tickets for the four of us for the trip to Daocheng tomorrow! I will have a couple days there before the Chinese holiday starts.

Lala suggested, since I was leaving Zhongdian the next day, that I make a trip to the largest monastery in Zhoongdian by local bus. I found the bus and took it, as directed, until the last stop. Unfortuately, the bus driver after leaving off the 2nd to last passenger, decided to just turn around and return instead of going to the monastery. He indiacted for me to leave and I ended up walking another two miles to the monastery. It may have turned out as well. I think I got some good shots that I never would have gotten if I took the bus and I got a lot of the local flavor as I was walking. I did get the bus coming back and it took me ALL the way back.

Tonight I go through the worst part of traveling, deciding what I need and packing up again. We need to be at the bus station at 6:45 a.m. It's a 12-hour trip to Daocheng.

Zhongdian, China

I was coughing a bit during the night and took some Cypro in case it's a sinus infection. I went to take a shower and found only cold water, asked at the desk and the girl checked it and after she left it was only scalding hot water. Oh well... I had an OK "American" breakfast at the Tibetan Cafe, vegetable omelette (not bad), toast (no butter) and hash browns (floating in grease), the banana milk shake was quite good!

I'm trying to find an Internet Cafe that has the electricity on. So far the two places I have gone to have had no power. I don't know what the deal is.

It's pretty chilly in the morning, but now (near noon), it's quite hot when you're in the sun. I'm thinking about going to a monastery that's walking distance from here. I'm still not feeling the best, but hope my health improves soon. I may stay here another day or two to help acclimatize to the altitude as well as to recover from whatever illness I have.

I met a guy from Belgium who came to Zhongdian by land from Belgium via Russia and Mongolia and plans to return to Belgium by land via (Lhasa, Tibet), Nepal, India, Pakistan, Iran and Turkey. I wish him luck! He's been working on getting a jeep "tour" from Zhongdian to Lhasa and is finally leaving tomorrow with 1 less than a full jeep. The first trip he had booked got cancelled because one of the participants got sick.

Zhongdian, China - Tiger Leaping Gorge walk

I took the bus to the start of the Tiger Leaping Gorge trail. When I got to the town at the start of the trail, I grabbed some lunch at Jane's Guest House with a couple from London that I met on the bus. I decided to leave my big pack at the guest house and hike in an hour or so to get some views before heading on to Zhongdian. This is a gorgeous trail! Within an hour I was able to get some great views and pictures of the mountains surrounding the gorge. I then headed out to catch the bus.

The bus ride from the trailhead town to Zhongdian was spectacular! It followed a wild river and then wound up a series of mountains to the city of Zhongdian situated at an elevation of about 10,000 feet (3300 meters). The road was in excellent condition, the ride was comfortable and the bus driver drove reasonably.

An Italian traveller helped me find the guest house area in the old town. I decided to stay at the Shangrila Old Town Youth Hostel. I think several cities and towns in this area claim the name of the fabled "Shangrila", Zhongdian being one of them. I'm not going to argue with them. All of these places are quite awesome!

In the evening I had dinner at a nearby restaurant and ended up talking with two guys on a mid-level China tour. They were from Brisbane, Australia and having a great time.

My throat has felt funny for the last two days and I started coughing this evening. I've come down with something. I may hang out in Zhongdian to and see how I feel before starting the trip to Chengdu that goes through mountain passes that are above 15,000 feet.

Lijiang, China - Jade Dragon Mountain

I met Mick, an Australian from Melbourne, at the Prague Cafe at breakfast and it turned out he and I were interested in visiting the same area today. We found a minivan and took a slightly hair raising trip to one of three areas that have cable cars. The cable car took us to an area at 3,750 meters or about 12,000 feet. There were pretty nice views of the much taller surrounding mountains, but the tops were in the clouds. The temperature was about 25-degrees colder than in Linjiang.

The locals raised yaks and also had them available for tourists. I think they were available so tourists could have their photo taken on them. We visited a Tibetian style monastery nearby with prayer wheels and prayer flags. We saw a couple of pigs roasting on spits and had some barbequed beef on a stick and BBQ'd mushrooms. They were both quite good and I still feel OK so far! On the way down our minivan overheated and Mick donated the contents of his water bottle to cool it down.

Lijiang, China - Westerner Day

After several days of speaking with only Chinese people in very broken English, I met Dan from the Netherlands and Julie from Germany at the Prague Cafe. Dan had traveled extensively in Tibet and had a lot of good information about it. He recommended not going to Lhasa, but going to a less visited region. He had just returned from that area making the trip by motorbike.

The three of us chatted for quite a while, enough so that I left to drop back by the hotel, forgot to pay the breakfast bill, returned later and Dan and Julie were still there! I proceeded to have lunch and pay for both meals at the end.

Julie and I had a nice tour of the Old Town area of Lijiang. Later on Dan, Julie and I met at the Sakura Cafe for dinner and drinks. It was a lot of fun!

Lijiang, China - Lhasa Jeep Fiasco

I spend the morning strolling around the beautiful old town section of Lijiang.

In the afternoon I started researching how to take a trip by jeep from Zhongdian (4-hours from Lijiang) to Lhasa, Tibet, about an 8-day journey. I did some investigation on the web and then asked Hieea, the woman manager at my resort, if she knew a travel agent that spoke English that I could discuss this trip with. I found she was interested in visiting Lhasa as well. She embarked on a mission to try to arrange a trip and find others who were going, as it is prohibitively expensive to travel there with just 1-2 people.

We visited several local travel agencies, all Chinese, and she had me post notes looking for others seeking to go to Lhasa by Jeep. She looked online for Chinese people looking to make the trip and found one group that had room for two people. Unfortunately I think this was a self-chartered trip and on investigation it would be illegal for me to join the trip. A foreigner has to have two permits to travel to Lhasa by Jeep and one of them can only be obtained if you are taking the Jeep trip as a "Tour" and can only be obtained by the tour agency. In addition, it can take a week to get the permit. By this time it was 10 pm in the evening.

The following day I talked to a westerner who had made the trip and knew a lot about it. He said it would cost about $100/day, after all was said and done, and he recommended a 8-day trip, if I chose to do it. He also recommended going to a much less visited region of Tibet that didn't require permits.

The following day I got one response. The person was supposed to meet with me and some friends I was meeting, but never showed up or called again. I think the estimated price tag scared him off. I'm thinking about the trip to the less visited region of Tibet.

Lijiang, China

Arrived here yesterday. It was 68 degrees F, what a change! That's the coldest it's been since Tasmania. Lijiang is in a beautiful city in set in the middle of the mountains. It's at an elevation above 7,000 feet. I can feel the thinner air when I'm biking around here.

I'm staying at a very friendly Chinese run place called the Old Town Garden Resort. On arriving at here I discovered my computer would no longer boot. Considering I have all the Laos photos plus hundreds of bits of information and trip planning stored on it, it was quite anxiety producing. It has become a source of security for me. I stayed at a small guest house and asked the woman that worked there if she knew of a place to fix it. She did and helped me rent a bicycle and go with her to the place. We spent most of the morning there. She's very nice but doesn't speak a lot of English and no one at the computer shop spoke any. The technician was very nice as well. The data was still good, but the Windows systems was hosed. We left the system for him to work on and returned to the Garden Resort.

I had lunch with the family that runs the Garden Resort. It was family style with everyone picking food from the communal serving plates and bowls. I was using chopsticks and they kept trying to hand me a fork, so I guess I wasn't doing that brilliantly. Oh well, I persisted until the end. It was very kind of them to include me and I enjoyed it very much.

It ended up taking all day to fix it, including purchasing an external 2nd drive to copy the data to, and I now use the Chinese version of Windows. I will get an English version of Windows in India. The amazing thing is they got it fixed, I didn't lose any data (just programs) and it only cost me a little over $100 USD.

In the evening I decided to go to the Naxi Classical Orchestra performance at the last minute. My host at the Garden Resort again came to my rescue, providing me an umbrella and guiding me down the maze of streets in the old town to the performance hall.

The performers were dressed in brilliantly colored traditional costumes. The conductor was very generous in describing the origin and meaning of the pieces. The music and instruments were fascinating. There was a great variety in the music including solo voice, jew's harpe and flute as well as the full orchestra. I thoroughly enjoyed it. Afterwards it was pouring rain and I appreciated my hosts foresight in providing an umbrella.

It has been amazing and wonderful and frightening that I have entrusted by life to people in the most different culture I have encountered since traveling. I have not encountered another westerner in the last day and a half until now. Communication has been challenging, but reflects the patience and kindness of the Chinese people I have met. I have made frequent use of a picture book as well as writing things on paper. Chinese people appear to be able to read and write English a lot better than they can speak it. I am humbled by the experience.

Yangshou, China

After 8-months of traveling John and I have decided to go our own separate ways.

I have been in China for three days and find this region very beautiful. I met a new friend, Dan, from W.D.C. and we have been traveling together. Yangshou is one of the places with the very steep limestone mountains and beautiful rivers flowing around them. We've been bicycling around the region and took a bamboo raft trip yesterday.

I'm heading for Guilin in a few minutes where I will then fly to Kunming and then on to Linjiang. In Linjiang I hope to do a trek along the Tiger Leaping Gorge.

Luang Prabang, Laos - rain

It rained most of the day. It was a good day to use the Internet and read. I bought a fiction book set in Alaska called "Wild Animus". I also visited with Derek, the owner of White Elephant Adventures. He always had some interesting tales of living in Luang Prabang, Laos.

Luang Prabang, Laos - Visit to village and Kuang Si Waterfall

John and I took purchased a one day trek from White Elephant Adventures to villages and a waterfall.

Apparently if it's just a simple village visit, the tour companies don't pay the village anything. One of the tour operators conjectured there's often not a lot going on in village life and a polite visit from a few foreigners provided some much needed entertainment. The village people often look at you like you're from another planet. I try to be as polite as possible, take a few pictures and smile a lot. On the trek, some of the villages require payment for passing on the trail through their village. In cases where tourist stay overnight at a village, the tour company pays the host family for the stay.

The thing that constantly amazes me about the villages is that they all have satellite TV. It appears the signals are decoded through a pirated device, so they just buy the equipment once and pay no monthly fee. I guess that how they're able to afford it. Every village also has motorbikes. They tend to be the work horse of poorer countries. They carry everything. For example, I've seen motorbikes carrying; a family of five, a queen size mattress, huge plates of glass, large earthen pots, bags of potatoes, small trees and just about anything else you can imagine. Some single drivers ride their motorbikes while holding an umbrella over there head to protect them from either sun or rain. I've seen one talking on their cell phone while riding a motorbike. They don't go at breakneck speeds, but it doesn't take much to cause an ugly accident.

We visited a school as well and there are some brave pupils that will laugh and smile, but many of them have severe scowls on their face. They're just not quite sure about these foreigners...

We started the trek and hiked through some very beautiful rice fields (not paddys, they were on a sloping hill. We came across women carrying huge sacks of peanuts on their back using a strap over their forehead to secure the load.

Further on a man was hunting birds with a flint lock rifle. They use shaved bamboo as the tinder for it. I guess it doesn't always work, as we heard him shoot and it was a misfire and sounded more like a twig breaking than a gunshot.

We came to steps leading down one side of the upper portion of the stream above the true waterfall. The curious thing was, the steps where partly covered by the waterfall. Your feet got soaked as you walked down water splattered steps.

The main waterfall itself was breathtaking! It was very high and complex. On the left side water oozed over rocks in such a way that it looked like snow. On the right there was a huge cascade of water creating it's own wind storm. A few of us ventured into the spray and it was a very refreshing, mist blasting experience.

Lower down was a swimming area with rocks and trees to jump into the water from. Some British friends practiced back flips and got quite good at it. I jumped off the tree, swam some, but decided against trying to break my neck with a back flip.

Afterwards we visited a area near the waterfall where they cared for abandoned animals, in this case a tiger and some Asian black bears.

We've made it to Louang Prabang, Laos after discovering our destination in Laos was much more difficult and time consuming to get to than expected. It was a 2-day trip on the Mekong River from Chiang Khong, Thailand via the "slow boat". The "fast boat" is a speed boat that is reported to be very dangerous. It takes 6-hours and participants (victims) are required to wear motorcycle type, full helmets for the journey. Fatalities are not reported in Laos, but from web sites and stories I have heard, they are not uncommon from speed boat accidents.

Bangkok, Thailand - An afternoon at the park...

I went down to a park on the river and heard some volunteer musicians playing traditional Thai music on archaic instruments. It was very cool! The've been doing this for five years, I think for free. They don't appear to have a donation box, hat, basket or whatever. I think the main guy really wants to keep the ancient music alive. The songs I heard told stories of Thailand a 1,000 years ago or more. He would sing in Thai and then translate into English. They started out with 5-people and then 3-more musicians of their group joined them. I guess they got there whenever they could after work. The tones are strange but they grow on you. Some of the instruments are very cool! I took some photos, hope they came out OK, it was later in the afternoon and less light.

I've had a couple of technology snafus. My camera will not longer stay in the electronic eyepiece viewfinder mode. I think it got moisture in it in Vietnam and hasn't recovered since. I can still use the large LCD on the back of the camera, but I loved using the eyepiece and it worked best for me without needing my glasses. Oh well, I may see if I can find someone to fix it here or someplace along the road.

I forgot and left my MP3 player in the seat pocket in front of me in a plane from Hue to Hanoi. I called "lost and found" for two days, but they didn't find anything. I've ordered a refurbished one from the USA. Tony is sending it to me. This stuff happens...

I do love the "street food" way of eating here. My favorite street foods are a 1-egg omelet on rice in the morning, 60-cents, fresh orange juice (kind of taste like tangerine juice, no sugar, no salt) for 25-cents. Lunch or dinner - Chicken drum stick barbequed with a sweet glaze for 75-cents, corn on the cob with the corn shaved off the cob and mixed with salt and butter for 40-cents, spicy chicken with basil on rice for 60-cents. If you avoid restaurants you can eat very cheaply here!

Daocheng to Lintang, China

I woke up early in the morning not able to sleep anymore just laying in bed thinking. This is probably the worst time for me. Here in China it's been so challenging that I'm often preoccupied with the difficulties and trying to figure a way to solve them. Now the Chinese holiday tourist have arrived and will be on holiday for a week, where will I find places to stay? Can I afford the inflated prices? If I go to even more remote areas will I be able to cope with it? Should I just bolt back to a big city like Chengdu (10-million)?

I decided to get up early, took a shower and jsut finished when Big John, the manager, said he had located a ride for me in a taxi/minibus to Litang and that they were leaving immediately, how long would it take me to get ready? I told him 15-minutes and started packing like a madman. I think I was ready in 15, but the taxi hadn't arrived yet. About fifteen minutes later, it arrived, I put my luggage in, sat in the seat for a few minutes and then was told that they wouldn't be leaving until two hours later. I took my luggage out and prepared to wait at the hostel.

Having extra time here turned out well. I had time to show Big John my web site and he shared photos of Yadang that friends have taken with me. Yadang looks very awesome! I regret that I will likely not be going there. It's been a little over two hours, the taxi still hasn't arrived. I guess we're on Tibetan time. Wish I knew that earlier!