Chinese audacity

Being in China it's funny how you see counterfeit products everywhere, like a t-shirt I saw with Pamu emblazoned across the front instead of Puma. Or the more subtle 'For Nikon' camera strap ('for' being in font size 2).

But the killer of them all is this paper company providing some encouragement on how to use their photo paper:





Not sure if I should mention this to the bank of England?!!

Change of plans

With the Japanese crisis still unresolved, we decided it would be best to cancel the Japanese portion of the trip :-(

So our rough plan is to continue with our original plan of heading down into Vietnam and once we get to Ho Chi Minh City, we'll fly back into Southern China and work our way to Hong Kong.

Tiger Leaping Gorge

Last week, we did a two day trek through Tiger Leaping Gorge. The trek was amazing as you walk about 2000m above a rushing river with massive mountains (4000m) looming close on the opposite bank.

The place gets it's name from a legend that a tiger leaped across the gorge at one point.

The trek was quite difficult and Gwen came out worse for wear. Towards the end, she tripped and fell (thankfully on the path). The damage was a heavily sprained foot.

View from our guest house at our resting point

Gwen admiring the view

Me taking one of the hundred photos I took on the trail

View looking down

Half way point

Somewhere along the gorge

Lijiang photos

I've finally figured out how I can upload my SLR photos in China! I won't bore you with details but here are photos from Lijiang.

Lijiang old town is pedestrian only

Something I thought I would see in Japan rather than China!

Our guest house

Taking things to the extreme - this is a public toilet!

And I thought they smelt bad on the outside!

Hmm - I thought I was in Shangri-La but it seems I might have stumbled onto the planet Hoth!!

Cold

To give you an idea of how cold it is here in Shangri-La, here's a picture of our mini bar.



(i.e. drinks on a shelf!)

Brrrrrrrrrr

Chinese signs

We're currently in a touristy town called Lijiang. The town is located quite far north on the route to Tibet and is situated around 2400 metres above sea level.

Being touristy, most shops have English translations of their names and I'd like to share these with you.

"Famous name cigarette healthy" - convenience store

"Trendy very hot catch it" - hair dresser

"High recovery gifts" - gift shop I think

"Lijiang amorous feelings outlets" - saw this on a sign but couldn't find these outlets

"Moon restaurant drunk" - restaurant

"Intentional decorations" - homeware

"Wait for self's lover in the night" - restaurant

And my favourite

"Love me little love me long" - Inn (Love hotel?)

Unexpected Chinese Wall

Internet access in China proved a lot harder than we imagined - and that's before we found most sites were blocked.

We spent a good part of our first day in Jinghong wandering the streets searching for Internet cafes that would accept us - they all refused us with a long winded no in Chinese.

Eventually we found out, by a Internet patron who called his English speaking friend that access to the Internet required you to swipe your Chinese identity card - which of course we didn't have.

In the end we gave up the notion until we got back to our hotel and asked the receptionist if there was any Internet we could use (hoping she might let us use her computer that she used to communicate to us using a Google like translator).

Using the same tool she then told us we could just pay an additional 20 yuan for a room with a computer! Amazed the simple hotel had these facilities and kicking ourselves for not asking at the start of the day, we accepted.

No mistaking you're in China

You can really appreciate the vast difference in wealth between Laos and China by just going across their border.

When you leave Laos, you get your passport stamped in a basic building with no bells or whistles. The type of building you would expect at a land border crossing. You get your documents stamped through a hole in the side of the building.

Then on the China side, the border office looks like an international airport - it was only missing the planes! It even had duty free shops!

Unfortunately, I can't post photos as I don't have them on my phone :-(

Blogging again

Looks like my blog is blocked in china but the good news is my blogging app works! w00t!!

Blog blackout?

The Laos part of my trip has come to an end. Tomorrow, we are heading up to the Chinese border and will cross it the following day.

I've read on wikipedia that blogspot is actually filtered in China, so this might be my last blog for the next 10 or so days! I am hoping that I can still blog through my iPhone app (facebook app worked in Vietnam even though facebook website was blocked). Here's hoping!

Sore feet & sore legs!

In Phongsaly, we did a 2 day trek through the mountains and forests. It was nice to do the trek in this part of Laos as the weather was much much cooler than the other areas, however it seemed to be also much more hilly as a result.

Day 1 of the trek was the hardest with about 7 hours of walking up and down mountains and ending in an extremely remote village of the Aka Pixor tribe. The trek was mostly up as the Aka people tend to live high up in the mountains! We spent the night there trying to sleep but found that it was noisier than London! The place was littered with chickens, pigs, dogs, goats and buffalos with each making a ruckass starting at about 4am.

Are we there yet?

Finally made it to Phongsaly after an epic 9 hour bus journey through the mountains in the region. The ride is known as the "throw up" journey as the winding unpaved roads tend to take their toll on sensitive stomachs. Indeed, the bus is given a thorough wash after every journey!

Being the only real method of transportation to this remote town the bus tends to be used to transport goods, not only people. So getting in and out of your seat normally requires you to climb over sacks of rice, potatoes, clothing (in china man bags) and even live chickens!

Warning message for the locals at the bus station



Plastic bags being handed out by the bus conductor

 

Time for repairs halfway along the journey

 

We saw the bus again the next day in Phongsaly - it
was being given a thorough wash!

Mind you - the scenary was spectacular!

Driving with perks

Today, we left Nong Khiau with the plan to head up to Luang Nam Tha, a good base to do trekking in the local national park. However while we were waiting for the bus, a poster on the wall convinced us it was time to pack up the guide book and get off the tourist trail. Phongsaly is our new destination. It's a remote town (not mentioned in our book) in the very north of Laos that also has trekking opportunities (according to this poster).

Despite this change, we caught the same bus to the dull town of Oudomxay as connections to either Luang Nam Tha and Phongsaly were from there. I am here now and will spend the night in order to catch the 9am bus tomorrow morning (a 9 hour ride!).


Our bus today was a mini-van which managed to fit 14 passengers even though there were only 11 seats. Most of these were tourists heading to Luang Nam Tha although we found out later that a few people were heading for other destinations. We even had a local Lao trekking guide who was heading home to Oudomxay for a few days.

Along the way, our entreprenerial driver offered to transfer people to his "friends" mini-van which was going directly to Luang Nam Tha for 55,000 kip (this was about $1 more than the official price). Everyone that was heading there agreed, and so we stopped in the town where his "friend" was so that the mini-bus transfer could take place. I am pretty sure that this extra cost was pocketed by our driver, because he seemed pretty keen to spend his newly acquired money!

Once we were on the outskirts of the town, we stopped in front of a house. The driver yelled out something in Lao and someone inside replied. He left the van telling us he would be 2 minutes and went inside the house. We didn't know what was going on until the local Lao trekking guide said "girl".

Twenty minutes later, our driver came back, lit up a cigarette and we were on our way!

Sunset in Nong Khiau

Ning Khiau is a tiny little town in Laos. The place is quite remote with only a handful of restaurants. Our guest house has flakey electricity and a "manual" flushing toilet (aka bucket and a scoop) :-)

But the view is stunning.

Location:Nong Khiau

Push?

Transportation in Laos is always an adventure! Although the boat ride on the Nam Ou river from Luang Prabang to Nong Khiau is a long one (7 hours!) it's not without it's charm and quirks.

The boat was a thin long tail boat with an outboard motor attached. It only just manages to squeeze 10 passengers on board but funnily enough won't bother going unless the boat is full.

We set out north on the Mekong for a couple of hours before turning east onto the smaller and shallower Nam Ou river. This river is often used for kayaking adventures due to the soft rapids along it's course (flowing the other way) and so it was not long before our boat got to a point where the river was too shallow to run the motor.

At this point, a hoard of local children who were playing in the water waded over to our boat and began pushing the boat up the river. Our driver turned around and gestured for us to do the same. After we all asked the same question "push?", we got out of the boat and helped the kids. 100 metres later and a bit wet, we all got back in, gave some food to the kids and continued on.

Later on, we approached some stronger rapids which the boat couldn't take on with all the weight on board. Solution - everybody got out and walked a few hundred meters along the river banks while the driver powered through the rapids in an empty boat.

But the whole trip was worth it as we were rewarded with spectacular scenery all along the course along with seeing people fishing along the river (for fish or for gold)!

Our boat with one of the passengers having a smoke

Gwen pushing the boat - not everyone was amused though
as you can see the other girl deciding to have a bite to eat



The kids asking for food after pushing the boat



View approaching Nong Khiau

Elephant Village

This was really cool! In Luang Prabang we spent a day in an "Elephant Village" - a place set up for tourism to give out of work logging elephants a chance to earn their keep. Logging is effectively illegal in Laos and so these expensive elephants who can't survive in the wild themselves would simply die of starvation if this project wasn't run.

We got to have rides on their backs but the clincher is that we were taught how to ride them ourselves without a driver! We even took them down to the river for a dip.

The early waterfall

On our second day in Luang Prabang, we went on a small trek which ended at the Kuang Si waterfalls. However, our first rain storm ensured we were swimming in water long before we got to the falls!



Gwen completely soaked and reduced to walking bare foot for the entire trek



Walking along the top of the waterfall



A pool located close to the main falls. The falls here are a smaller set.

Utopia

Really - I'm in a bar called Utopia in Luang Prabang. This place is great - mats to lie down on and enjoy the view. Plus a beach volleyball court inside the bar! Wish I was here for longer but tomorrow I'm off to Nong Khiau - a town further north in Laos.

Location:Kingkitsarath Rd,Luang Prabang,Laos

The perfect piece of Asia

I'm in the town of Luang Prabang in Laos. This place is a little gem. It's a beautiful town and although it is full of tourists, the place is really laid back and a great place to just chill - and what better way then with a nice cold dark Beer Lao?