Thursday, 14 April 2011
More Chinese signs...
Saw this in Yuanyang and it made me chuckle. I'm guessing they told the person who spoke English, that they wanted name of the hotel on their sign. And the person followed instructions literally!
Last taste of China
After spending a bit too much time relaxing in Dali, we headed down to the big city of Kunming. It's funny how most Chinese cities are unheard of outside of China yet can contain populations bigger than some European countries. Kunming has a population greater than Sydney and the scary thing is that they are expecting the population to almost double in the next year!!
Unlike most big cities however, Kunming (and in fact most developing Chinese cities) is having trouble coping. This meant massive traffic delays, so much so that the cities main bus stations have been relocated to the outskirts of the city. It has meant now that the airport is located closer to town than all the bus stations! Very frustrating when you are trying to get around via land transportation! To add to our misery, we found out we had only 4 days left on our Chinese visa before we had to high tail it out of there!
We decided to go see the rice terraces of Yuanyang as it was on the way to the Vietnam border. With some complications (aka a broken down bus) we managed to get there after a 9 hour bus ride. And I would say it was worth it!
Unlike most big cities however, Kunming (and in fact most developing Chinese cities) is having trouble coping. This meant massive traffic delays, so much so that the cities main bus stations have been relocated to the outskirts of the city. It has meant now that the airport is located closer to town than all the bus stations! Very frustrating when you are trying to get around via land transportation! To add to our misery, we found out we had only 4 days left on our Chinese visa before we had to high tail it out of there!
We decided to go see the rice terraces of Yuanyang as it was on the way to the Vietnam border. With some complications (aka a broken down bus) we managed to get there after a 9 hour bus ride. And I would say it was worth it!
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| Sunset over the rice terraces once we arrived |
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| Next morning - Gwen loves this photo. What seems like the sky is actually the sky reflected in the water of the terraces |
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| Chinese pigs are different to normal pigs - they look like pug dogs! |
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| Uggggggly! |
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| Terraces through the mist |
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| Terraces |
Wednesday, 13 April 2011
Dehli belly in Dali!?
So after 2 months on the road, I finally got food poisoning! Pretty good effort except the frustrating thing was I got sick from eating in an Indian restaurant!! Trust me to get Dehli belly in the one Indian restaurant in all of Yunnan!
It was actually worse than that - both Gwen and I were sick a couple of days earlier from eating at an "authentic" (in this case nasty) chinese restaurant in Dali. I happened to draw the short straw and was sick again 2 days later. So most of our time in Dali was spent watching pirated DVDs in our hostel where only half the discs worked while the other half had suspect subtitling - like the 'fantastic' Tom Cruise action film "Knight and Day" translated to "Dangerous Love Spy Game" for the hearing impaired :-)
Oh well - at least India won the world cup! That got me through! :-)
It was actually worse than that - both Gwen and I were sick a couple of days earlier from eating at an "authentic" (in this case nasty) chinese restaurant in Dali. I happened to draw the short straw and was sick again 2 days later. So most of our time in Dali was spent watching pirated DVDs in our hostel where only half the discs worked while the other half had suspect subtitling - like the 'fantastic' Tom Cruise action film "Knight and Day" translated to "Dangerous Love Spy Game" for the hearing impaired :-)
Oh well - at least India won the world cup! That got me through! :-)
Location:Dali, Yunnan Province, China
Tuesday, 5 April 2011
Search for the black necked crane
We were lucky enough to be in Shangri-La at the time of year when the rare black necked crane would be in the area. They are found in Napa Lake, which is about an hours bike ride from the town. The lake is special in that the basin fills with water during the summer, and then dries up the rest of the year.
It meant we could walk in the basin of the lake in some parts although it was very very boggy. Our shoes came out worse for wear although the lake itself was quite pretty.
It meant we could walk in the basin of the lake in some parts although it was very very boggy. Our shoes came out worse for wear although the lake itself was quite pretty.
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| Gwen back on the bike |
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| The mountains in the distance are of 5000m elevation! |
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| Dry part of Napa lake with horses grazing |
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| Black necked cranes |
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| I had to be careful cause when I got too close to them (like 50m)... |
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| they were up and outta here! |
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| The lake where there was still water |
Tibetan taster
Shangri-La! Well, actually Zhongdian, but the clever chinese decided that this town fits the bill for the mythical town in James Hilton's novel "Lost Horizon". So the name of the town was changed back in 2001 and now the tourists come flocking in (although probably not as much as they would hope).
Regardless, the place is beautiful and breathtaking - literally! Zhongdian is perched on a plataeu at an elevation of 3300 metres and at this elevation the air is noticably thinner.
Regardless, the place is beautiful and breathtaking - literally! Zhongdian is perched on a plataeu at an elevation of 3300 metres and at this elevation the air is noticably thinner.
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| One of many stupas we saw around the place |
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| Songzanlin monestary |
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| It was not warm as you can see |
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| Tibetan monk |
Sunday, 3 April 2011
Blog hacked
Looks like my blog got hacked into somehow. The perpetrator managed to post a blog with a redirection to some non-existent Japanese pharmaceutical companies website. I've deleted the blog and now everything is back up and running.
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