From the ferry....

Just a quick note to say I'm back in the "free blogging world" again as I sit on the ferry looking at the sunshine and beautiful blue skies and ocean outside.  Everything went smoothly on the trip home. It's certainly novel to leave Kunming on Wednesday morning at 7:30 am and arrive in Vancouver on Wednesday morning at 9:30 am. However, my brain can tell that there have actually been many hours in between (3 hour flight to Shanghai, 3 hours in the Pundong Shanghai Airport and then 10+ hour flight to Van).  Fortunately the timing was great for the Pacific Coachline bus so I'll be in downtown Victoria by 1:30 pm and then home for a nice cup of tea, with real milk and honey! (which reminds me of the Apple Milk I grabbed for breakfast in the Kunming Airport - is it milk? is it apple juice?  Yes! - not recommended)

I'm experiencing brain fog and a little culture shock. The airport, streets and ferry seem so empty and orderly - and it took a while to realize I could ask a question and be understood right off the bat - Great!  Sadly wasn't able to bring the vacuum packed yak meat into the country: "no meat from China". 

Well time to call Ian and let him know I'm back and then track down a cup of coffee (with real cream!) and enjoy a peaceful voyage to Swartz Bay :)

Shiboa Shan Pictures

Jackie With Elephant Hide Rock




Temple And Flowers In Field




Temple Scribe




Jackie & Large Buddha




Large Buddhas Close Up




Octopus Beard Statue




Monkey Warning Sign




Monkeys




Rubber Tire Tools




Unprotected Carving On Cliff Side




White Dragon Pool




White Dragon Temple In Field

Shiboa Shan and more Shaxi photos

Shaxi Old Village Farming Valley



Shaxi Old Village Narrow Pathway




 Village Woman




Shaxi Ornate Archway




Shiboa Shan Friendly Budda




Shiboa Shan Jackie and Andy




White Dragon Pool  400yr Old Bridge

Sept.24

Saturday Sept 24

Wow, 5 days since my last post - I knew it had been a while.... During that time I've changed accommodations 3 times and cities twice. My original intention had been to stay in the Old Town of Lijiang for 3 days but I left after 2, which gives me an extra day here in Shangri La.  The Old Town of Lijiang has been around for 800 years, and is very pretty and quaint,with rivers and streams running through it, stone roads and bridges. So pretty that it attracts masses of tourists to it's baffling maze of narrow streets that have little English signage. After wandering lost for some time, I was surprised how much better I felt after finding an oasis above the crowds in a 2nd storey cafe that sold coffee and western food - N's Kitchen. I went back for supper and breakfast. Although I left Lijiang early I'm glad I was there to see the town, the Black Dragon Pool, and Mu's Residence - a massive walled complex where the Mu Clan of the Naxi people ruled for over 400 years. Although the complex was destroyed in a war it has been impressively rebuilt.

 

On a clear day a visit to the Black Dragon Pool includes a beautiful view of the Jade Dragon Snow Mountain - although there was some sun while I was in Lijiang it wasn't clear enough to see the mountain but I've included a stock photo. There was also pouring rain which I only got caught in once. The Pool is actually a park that is lovely to walk around and also offers Naxi music demonstrations.  And it was here that I found out that the colourful equipment I'd seen in this and other parks was not for kids to play on, but for people to take exercise breaks on - I took some photos of that too.

Another high point of Lijiang was Lucy, the English-speaking daughter of the owners of the Shanghai Family No. 68 Hostel where I stayed, who was very pleasant and helpful even after I let her know I was changing my booking., and didn't apply a penalty even though I offered to leave my deposit.

 

So on Thursday Sept 22 I was on the 4 hour bus ride to Shangri La. As my booked hotel didn't have a room available for the extra night I went on Trip Advisor and  booked a room at the Shangri La Lamtin Youth Hostel. After crossing a pass in the Three Parallel Rivers area the terrain, housing, and agriculture change drastically.  The surrounding hills are higher, although the peaks are still below the tree-line until Shangri La. Farm animals, including long-haired, long-horned yaks, roam the plains and tall drying racks for mostly hay dot the countryside. The houses are spacious and imposing 2 storey boxes with ornate doors, windows and pillars. I get a sense of wide-open spaces and I was excited to see more.

 

The hostel was nice, in the Old Town of Shangri La (every place I've gone to has an Old Town except Kunming). My only complaint is that the mattress felt like a board (I put the 2nd twin bed's quilt over it which helped). Before checking out the next day at the civilized time of noon I visited the world's largest prayer wheel (incredibly large and gold coloured), had a yak hot pot, and visited the Shangri La Women's Craft Centre. Thanks to a miraculous chance encounter with a shaggy-looking white guy speeding by on his little motorbike I was able to find the rendezvous place for the Songtsam Lodge driver.  This is how I described the lodge to Ian.....

 

"I think I'm in Paradise (it's funny how one's concept of what Paradise is after 2 weeks on the road).  To me it now has:
 

• computer wifi that works on my computer so I can e-mail, Skype and download movies for the 12 hour trip back to Kunming (legally through MoviesCapital.com)

• a beautiful hotel with a beautiful view
• a library of English books so I can trade mine when i'm done, which will be soon.
• people that speak English and are able to answer all my questions and booked me a sleeper bus seat to Kunming
• the ability to take a  Western credit card so I can use it for my meals, tours, and laundry 
• a kettle and a cup so I can have a cup of UVA tea (with some sort of milk)
• a restaurant with an English menu so i know what i'm ordering with the optionof a set supper so i don't have to think!
• an amazing, multi-level, gold-roofed monastery next door
• faceclothes
• 2 apples and a knife iin the room"

I haven't made it to the monastery yet because there's a lot of climbing involved and I'm feeling the effects of the altitude, but will attempt tomorrow.  Today's horseback ride was full of surprises - I was led by a woman from the village on a little horse for 1.5 hours in the area behind the village, through fields where cattle and yaks were grazing. Then she invited me into her traditional home for lunch - yak butter tea, yak cheese, yak yogurt and flat bread. The water was boiled over an open firepit that vented through a smoking rack up through the roof.  It was amazing - her young daughter and I helped each other with our languages - she pulled out her English workbook.  After lunch I went to the Tianshenqiao Hot Springs which are beside a river and a cliff overhang. The womens' sauna is actually a blocked off area of the overhang, laid out with a long wooden platform with a headrest for people to lie on and buckets of cold and warm water to cool and wash off with afterwards. Clothing optional! If I went back I'd be a little bolder now I have a better idea of how it all works.....

Shaxi Photos

View From Room




150 Year Old Bridge




River Vista From Bridge




Alley



Horse Pen 49 Room

Monday, Sept.19

A successful day visiting Shiboa Shan - a park reserve with 7th Century rock carvings, temples, monkeys and beautiful, forested hills.  Many steps were involved in reaching the mountainside temples and I'm not sure I'll be able to do that 5 years from now. 

 

 Andy and Jackie were great travelling companions, and our driver handled the hair-pin turns, oncoming traffic, and farmer and farm animals like a professional rally driver.  I have many more photos to edit now, although only one of the ancient rock carvings as most are in video-monitored areas where photography of these "national relics" is forbidden. However, we did see a lone carving on a cliff in a non-temple area.  Other highpoints of this terrific day were having tea with the staff at one of the temples, getting to know Jackie and Andy, and seeing a 400 year old arched bridge and a relatively unrestored nunnery high up one of the trails (where there were Chinese delphiniums).  Hiring the driver for the day (9:30 am - 6 pm) was only 200 CNY and there was admission to the park of 50 CNY.   

 

Right now I'm sitting at Meizi's again, using the internet, listening to the music in the square where adults and children are again dancing.  Tomorrow I'll be pulling up stakes again to go to Lijiang, but Shaxi holds a special place in my heart with it's peaceful, relaxing pace and beauty.  I can understand how Lily ended up staying here to write her 2nd book.....

Sunday, Sept.18

Today was my first full day in Shaxi which I spent puttering around and renting a bike (that had almost no brakes). I crossed the highway, rode along a road made of little stones to an even smaller village on a hillside, then through the village out to the farming area behind.  I finally broke down and asked a tiny elderly woman who was carrying a very heavy load of wood if I could take her picture - although I actually felt I should be offering to carry the basket for her. She didn't mind and I gave her a little money afterwards, but I wished that I had thought to show her the photo as well. When I thought of it later I rode back to find her but she was gone. Leaving the village I went back into Shaxi on a different route and then cycled on the roads beside the river which were gravelled and flat. There was time for reading before supper so I took my book down to the river. 3 young men showed up with tubs of noodles which were tossed into the river when they were done (I had to bite my tongue). As they were leaving one (who wore an earring) came over and sat very close beside me with his face up to mine, ostensibly to look at my book - several younger boys had also showed up and were directing comments at me too - it was the first time I'd felt at all fearful since I arrived - somewhat like I was being swarmed. But I showed him my book, resisted the urge to stand up, and they left shortly after.

 

A happier encounter at the river was with a young couple whom I'd met earlier in the day. I'd mentioned that I was hiring a car to see the stone carvings and asked if they wanted to join me and share the cost of 150 CNY - at the river they let me know that they've decided to come. So at 9:30 am we're off to visit various sites on a mountain where temples and statues have been carved into the mountain sides.  They're from the UK, have been in China for 2 months of the 10 they plan to stay for, and he's a photographer. I'd like to ask him how he manages photographing people, although he has a large zoom lense so perhaps his subjects don't even know they're being photographed.

 

At 7 pm the hostel had a "family dinner" cooked by the owner, Shirley. No other guests were there - it was Shirley, Sleeper (a young Chinese employee), and Lily Hyde who is an author (Dreamland) from the UK, and lightly employed at the hostel.  Lily's been in China for 10 months and is writing her 2nd book while she's at the hostel. The dinner was delicious and the conversation good as both as both Shirley and Sleeper speak English.  Shirley shared her plans to start a kindergarten with some friends in Dali that will focus more on play than academics - she talked about the common stereo-type of Chinese people being studious, academically accomplished and no fun.  Her friends have children who are about to go to kindergarten and who don't agreee with the current emphasis on academics for young children and believe in the need for play and creativity at this age. 

 

I'm looking forward to having company on my trip tomorrow and being able to speak more English