Vietnam: Sapa National Day 2014 (moved from old blog)

 October Holidays; SAPA!

October rolled round again which is only important for one reason. National Day Holiday! A whole week of; no kids, no lesson planning, no alarms, no classes and no grown up behaviour of any kind. A week to look forward to!!!!

This year things were a little more last minute than I normally like, my passport was again in the VISA office and there were no guarantees that I would get it back before the holiday started so I couldn't book anything just in case. My plan was to go and visit Tom and Karina in Cambodia but by the time I did get my passport back prices for flights were stupidly high (I could almost get home for the same price) so plan B it was. Back to Vietnam but this time by bus.
From Kunming it only take 7 hours to get to HeKou (which is the China side town on the border) and from there you just walk across a bridge into Vietnam. Passport checks took forever on both sides so the whole process took close to an hour. 

Once in Lao Cai (Vietnam side of the border) I headed for Sapa. After a lot of walking about aimlessly I spotted a bus with Sapa written on the back. Fairly certain that was the bus I wanted I ran for it but missed it by only a few seconds. A little post van pulled up and said he was going to the same place and he could give me a ride. 10,000 dong later (about £1.50) and an hours terrifying roller coaster ride of a journey I was in Sapa. 
Sapa has become a popular place for tourists who want to experience rural Vietnam and see some very impressive rice paddy scenery. Most hotels offer guided treks and motor bike tours for rock bottom prices, huge competition has kept the prices low. Sadly the town itself is just one huge tourist trap; every restaurant sells western food and street sellers swarm all over the roads trying to get you to buy little "handmade" bags and wallets. I got out of the town as fast as I could and went down into the valley to recommended Cat Cat village. Its only a 3km walk but the roads and steep and hard going, half way down I stopped for breakfast and a photo break. 

The village itself is (as I soon found out) a purpose built "rural experience" at the beginning of a trail through the bottom of the valley. Its 40,000 dong entry (about £1.20) and takes close to two hours at a slow and chilled pace. The trail starts by going though a little shopping area and then calms down to a steep path heading for a river and waterfall area. I blasted past the shops not really interested in filling my bag so early in my trip and went straight to the waterfall. I have a real soft spot for rivers, lakes waterfalls anything with water really and so sat there perfectly content, with a beer naturally, for close to half an hour. I had been told the remainder of the trail was a little uneventful so I didn't really see much need to rush. 

Having finished my drink I carried on. The rest of the trail followed a small river and was a little uneventful. The bridges were impressive, especially given how old they were but other than that not loads to do or see so I made my way back up the now horribly steep valley side back to Sapa. The walk nearly killed my in the heat and I managed (despite wearing factor 50) to burn my shoulders. Nearly on my hands and knees I crawled back to the main square of Sapa, I must have looked as knackered as i felt because motorbike drivers from all over the square ran to offer me a lift. Annoyingly at the bottom of the hill these smug looking gits were nowhere to be seen! 
I hired one to drive me out to the silver waterfall I had been told about that was close to 12km away and off we set. 

Dali: Autumn 2014 (moved from old blog)

 

Mountain climbing(ish) in Dali. 

Having been to Dali many MANY times before, finding new and still enjoyable things so do had become a little bit challenging. One of the things I personally had wanted to try was to go up the mountains, I had come close a few times but was normally stopped by bad weather or a landslide so I just hadn't managed it......until now!

Nat, Jacki, Rose and I had decided on a girls weekend away, before Nat and Jacki left for England, which generally means a hop skip and jump on an overnight train to sunny and chilled out Dali. We do the journey so often that it is a really simple and well timed trip. Off the train at the other end, into a taxi to the hostel, a quick nap and breakfast in the Bad Monkey. Easy!

Monday was spent chilling outside the bar watching the world go by and just generally doing as little as four people can do without turning into statues. Shopping in Dali is great if you want something trinkety and lots of them, but for something a bit different its not so great. Nat and I did all of our Xmas shopping there so we know all of the good places to buy things for rock bottom prices. We blasted between a few select shops and then back to the bar for a well deserved beer. 

On the second day of our trip we had planned to go up the mountain. Information wise we had none; what we did have was a vague general direction (uphill) and a few hours to kill. We started up a road that looked promising, at one point we could see the track that the path and cable car take up the mountain and just used that as a compass point.
It was blisteringly hot and walk up to the start is fairly steep, about half an hour later we arrived hot and very sweaty to the beginning of the cable car up the mountain. We knew it was expensive (for China standards) but nearly £30 for a forty minute car seemed unreasonable. After getting to the top though we felt a little less ripped off as it was really quite impressive. 
The cable car is in two sections, the first took us to the top of the first ridge and the second car took us over a pretty hefty valley and up to the summit. 
At 3900 meters above sea level it was much cooler up there and a welcome break from the stiffing heat of Dali. We spent about half an hour at the top before having to head back down for closing. We jumped in a little tuctuc van thing and bounced back to the bottom of the road and naturally headed to the Bad Monkey and yak steak. 

Stone Forest: Summer 2014 (moved from old blog)

Stone Forest: Does what it says on the tin!

So after over 3 years of living in Kunming, I finally made it to the Stone Forest. 

Nat and I had a free weekend so we decided to head there for an afternoon of sight seeing. We met for breakfast in the morning and spent a good hour trying to work out if it was going to rain. We consulted about six different weather forecast sites and they all told us something different. After giving up with the Internet we gave in an just went. 

All we knew was that we could get a bus from the East bus station, so we went and managed to buy tickets with almost no problem. There were a bunch of buses heading to the forest so we got on one and just waited for it to fill up and move off. An hour later we were there!
The entrance is not very clearly marked so there was a fair amount of wandering about lost and confused. Eventually we found it but it was definitely more by luck and following people who looked like they knew where they were going. 
Apart from the entrance and a few other popular photo spots, we managed to avoid most of the crowds. As soon as we could we got off the main paths and just walked about in the areas where there didn't seem to be too many people. A good tactic was to listen for the nasty blasted music and walk in the opposite direction!
The whole park is just one big view point so there is only so much to actually do but loads to see. We had been advised to take something to drink so I had made some pre-mix and just chilled out. 

There is an area close the entrance which has the Stone Forest's name on the rocks. Most of the Chinese tourists were trying to get their pictures taken with the name in the background, so the whole place was rammed with people. We managed to get out of the area by blasting up a side road and getting back to the entrance. 
We spent close to three hours in the park before the scenery started to feel repetitive and we decided to start home. Again the buses just wait to fill up and then they drive off, there was a bit of a scramble to get on the bus but we are well practised in the art of bus shoving and got on no problem. 

All in all a good afternoon out, worth a visit but only once. I can finally say I have been though, Tick in the box.  

GuiZhou Summer 2014 (moved from old blog)

 A quick trip to GuiZhou

GuiZhou is a neighbouring province to Yunnan, whose borders are only about 5 hours away on the train. Several places had been recommended to me and so, when very bored in the office, I began researching and planning a mini trip.

It is not really near any other big tourist places so its relatively unknown, which means there is almost no information about places to go on the Internet. Most of our trip was guess work but it all worked out alright, I'll get to that later. 

We nearly missed our train, raced though the station, flew down the platform and threw ourselves onto a train. About 2 minutes later the train moved, we got to our seats a little stressed and more than a little tired.

Our first day was a rainy one but we were in the amazing MaLing Gorge, luckily, as we managed to stay out of most of the rain. Lots of the paths had overhangs so we stayed relatively dry. The humidity was crippling so coats were just not a good idea. The gorge is only about 15 minutes drive from the train station and we found it more by accident than anything else. To avoid the people yelling at us in the station for taxis we just got onto the nearest bus, which helpfully drove over the gorge and pulled over to let us off. A few minutes a walking and we were there. 

To make things even easier, the Chinese have built a glass lift down into the gorge so the whole thins can be done with very little walking. High heel friendly nature sights are becoming more popular. 

The gorge has a river running through it so we walked up one side of the river, crossed over a slightly scary and rickety looking suspension bridge and walked back up the other. The whole walk only took about an hour but we stopped for plenty of pictures. Slightly annoyingly the pictures really don't do the place justice as the rain stopped them from coming out as nice as it really was on the day. Every site I had found on the Internet with any information about the gorge referred to it as the Lost World of China and I think I would agree. A dinosaur would not have seem massively out of place here. 

As it was raining I think we were the only people in the gorge, which was fantastic. It did mean however that getting from the gorge to the hotel I had booked was looking like it was going to be almost impossible. We asked at the ticket booth about buses and taxis and she just kept saying impossible. Then she shouted over to the guy in the little shop next to the office and told him he had to take us to our hotel. 10RMB each. He had to make 2 journeys but he didn't seem all that bothered. 

Our hotel was so much better than expected. I had found it through another travel blog I had found, and googled a phone number. No idea what we were going to I was a little nervous but I don't think I am exaggerating when I say it was the best hotel I have stayed in. 128RMB for a double room I have paid more for rooms in hostels. We definitely fell on our feet with that one!

On the second day I had hired two drivers to take us to the scenic area. We still had slightly overcast weather but no rain, which was lucky as there was absolutely no cover in the park. We jumped on a golf cart looking thing and blasted round the park at break neck speed. We stopped about 5 times on the high road for photo stops but then sped through the lower parts. We were finished in the park after only a little over an hour. The drivers had given us their phone numbers and told us if we finished early we could call them and they would take us somewhere else. 

We called them and they drove us to a lake. The lake itself was not all that impressive but the drive there was through some very impressive dinosaur worthy scenery. We got to the lake but didn't stay very long as it was just a dock really. 

We went to find a place for some food and bumped into the drivers. One of them decided that the cook was too busy and was taking too long. So he went into the kitchen and just helped out. The food was fantastic and we stuffed ourselves silly with it. 
Then back in the car to the train station.

Tom's first visit: summer 2014 (moved from old blog)

 Duck, duck, duck and more duck.

Beijing has one or two things to offer in the sightseeing department. So we got to work and started working down the list. Naturally we saw Tian'amen square and the Forbidden City. In itself a mammoth task, taking most of the day. The city took us hours and luckily wasn't too busy, so we managed to get a few decent pictures with only about a thousand other tourists in them. 


After those two we were fairly shattered but still, we headed down to WangFuJing food street to see people eating bugs and other weird things on sticks. Unfortunately the amount of things on sticks have greatly diminished from only a few years ago and the street was just one long shopping alley full of novelty chopsticks and silly hats. Still some of the stalls had food but nothing like what it used to be like. 
Of course we did a day on the wall. Climbing the damn thing nearly killed me, steep steps in nasty humidity and heat does not make for a relaxed wander about the wall. The weather was hot and humid so the visibility was slightly poorer than it could have been but still a very impressive sight. Not to mention much easier than my first visit in the snow nearly 4 years ago! To get to the wall we took the cable car/ski lift up and the toboggan back down. There were loads of idiot Chinese guys in front who thought it was funny to stop and go really slowly. They got what was coming to them when a chain of people (including Tom) slammed into the back and one lost his flip flops. I nearly died laughing!
Otherwise Tom did lots of shopping, after a few bartering tips and team pressuring. Tom would stand and try to get a cheaper price and I would walk off saying "oh look they have some here." It was a well rehearsed and successful system!
Tom flew home on the Monday and I on the Tuesday, sadly to work on Wednesday. Holiday over!

Tom's first visit: Summer 2014 (moved from old blog)

 Barnes in Beijing (again)

 Monday morning rolled round and we had a 07:30 flight to Beijing. Amazingly we got a phone call at 4:40 from a very grumpy Chinese taxi driver telling us he was running late. Not a nice wake up call! Anyway we were at the airport with plenty of time so it wasn't a complete disaster. 
Only for the one night though, as we went straight to Qingdao for a mini trip to the coast and to visit Sam. I love the bullet train and was feeling a little guilty at not getting Tom a train journey somewhere, so we hopped on the bullet to the coast. 
Qingdao is one of the places I am considering to moving to after I finish in Kunming. I loved the place after my first visit so thought a repeat might be useful for finding out if I really like it there. 
I do!
We only had the on night and two half days in the city but we managed to visit Sam, wander the pier and beaches and get to the beer factory museum. A fairly hectic and fast paced visit but the highlights were all checked out. 
The hostel was on a little pedestrian street with a food alley way behind it. The seafood available here is among some of the best in China; or so I have heard. Other than the seafood, I am still convinced that the food in the Northern parts of China is much better than that in Yunnan. So naturally I gorged myself on street food and snacks every time we walked past some.

 We stayed in the Sanlitun hostel again and I had splashed out and booked us a twin room. Luxury for hostel living! 

We met Sam on the Monday evening, and it seems no matter how many times we see each other or talk, it is still strange seeing someone from home in China. We met him for a drink in an Irish bar and a  quick walk about the harbour. It was a beautiful night so sitting on the waters edge was just what the doctor ordered, a nice chilled evening after the recent chaos of Kunming and school. 
Tuesday brought an epic trip to Marks and Spencers, the map was a little misleading as it was about a 30 minute drive. Anyway, I left Tom with a drink in Burger King and treated myself to loads of new (and not glittery/pink) clothes. 
An afternoon train back to Beijing and we could begin our Beijing sightseeing adventure. 

Tom's first visit. Summer 2014 (moved from old blog)

 The day the brother arrived

Me and my biggest kids

After 4 years living in China; Tom finally made it out to visit. I think we were all beginning to wonder if it was ever going to happen.

I could only get a week off work so he spent a week wandering about Kunming whilst I was working. It was a pain but it meant I managed to get a week in Beijing. 



Me and Tom with the medium sized kids

 
Sunday has my favourite classes so Tom came into school with me and we messed about with the kids. Lessons weren't exactly the best I have ever taught but they were up with the most fun. 
My favourite part being pairing Tom up in a paired relay race with a boy half his size. they had to clamp a ball between their noses and race down the corridor. Entertaining for me at least, being the judge. 
Sunday night we went out to a  restaurant near my house and had an early night. Hideously early plane to catch in the morning so we attempted to get organised and hit the sack.
Next stop: BEIJING!



Me and Tom with the smallest kids doing kung fu.

LuoPing Spring 2014 (moved from old blog)

 

Mellow Yellow in LuoPing

 

LuoPing is a little place about a 4 hour drive from Kunming, which for a few months a year is swarming with tourists and travellers attracted by the blooming Rape Seed flowers. There are only two or three months a year in which these flowers bloom and suddenly the whole countryside is turned yellow as far as the eye can see.


Six of us packed up and made the journey in style, in our rented van complete with driver, for a mini weekend trip away. 

Day one was filled with views of flowers and plagued with bees. The weather was fantastic so we managed to get some beautiful photos. There seems to be one very famous scenic point which was rammed with people. 

If you google LuoPing it seems to be this one place that comes up first. We were dropped off for a few hours whilst our driver went for a snooze in the van. The area is a huge expanse of fields of flowers with little mound/hilly outcrops all over the place, which gives the area a bit of a weird look. There was also a much larger and higher viewing platform which involved a heck of a climb. 

About twenty minutes later and on our hands and knees we crawled onto the platform and posed for photos from all directions. The whole place smelled like a car full of little tree air fresheners with millions of bees swarming in all directions. we were told that if a bee landed on us we were told to just leave it be and not swat at it or that would piss it off, I could understand that people hitting me upsets me too. 

We spent the entire time we were at the flowers covered in bees and feeling a little nervous. Only David managed to get stung much to his disgust and our amusement and relief. Because of all the bees the area was literally dripping in honey, most of which we sampled, and I left with some fantastic honey for my breakfast toast. 

The view was incredible and unlike anything I have seen in China to date. Our pictures inspired a whole host of people from Kunming to make the journey and now almost everyone has visited the flowers in bloom.

One of my old TA's is from LuoPing town which was about half an hour from this flowers scenic area and she had found us a hotel to stay in for the night. The whole town was about four streets big and yet somehow it still took us ages to find the hotel.

The next morning we got up and the weather had changed from beautiful blue skies to cloudy and sometimes drizzly, so we headed off for the JiuLong waterfall (Nine Dragon waterfall). 

From the car park it was about a twenty minute walk along the river to the main waterfall. Luckily the weather stayed dry and we managed to get some nice pics and a pretty decent view. It had got a little colder so coats were broken out and we carried on in true tourist mode. 

The tallest of the waterfalls had a large pool at the bottom with little bamboo boats floating about for our photographic and seafaring needs. We jumped on the boat and the Chinese couple with us, who were scared of falling in, stayed on the shore and watched us giggling. 


We left the waterfall a little cold and damp and started our journey back to Kunming. 

We only had one more stop on the way, other than dinner of course, and that was at the terraces a little way out of the town. We drove up the side of a mountain and through many little windy and too narrow feeling roads and eventually came across a collection of other people and buses parked at the side of the road. the view was amazing and the pictures don't even do it a little justice. The terraces were all swirly little patterns and cool shapes making silly little face shapes in the yellow. Several hours later we were back in Kunming and still seeing yellow everywhere we looked. 

It only took three years but I finally made it to LuoPing and I am so glad we got out butts into gear and organised the trip. A shattering but good trip was had by all. 

Dali Spring 2014 (moved from old blog)

 DianChi does DaLi

Having been re bitten with the mini trip adventure bug, I was keen to get out of Kunming for the weekend again. So we got straight to work on the next one and decided on the old faithful DaLi. 
Pretty much the same group of us who stormed LuoPing, plus a few additions, made the epic journey on the overnight sleeper train to the neighbouring city. We jumped on the train with my own special brand of specialised coke/sprite/Pepsi (with a little something added to help with the stresses of the journey). 

After the recent attack at the station we were advised to get there a little early because of all the extra security checks. We only came across a few extra guys with big sticks and a little more of a touchy feely guy at the metal detectors. 

Anyway, no problems and we were on the train bickering about who has to clamber up onto the top bunks. We ended up in the part between the carriages as we were being too noisy and before going to bed we were told off a further three times by slightly grumpy and pissed off looking train security guard who was obviously not enjoying his job that night. 

Anyway we arrived and jumped into a little mini bus thingy and headed for the old town. getting close we realised that there was a festival in the process and the roads were closed off, so we had to walk the last part. 
Having been to and witnessed several Chinese festivals I know that I don't particularly like them. The majority of the stuff available is inflatable hammers, candy floss, silly hats and so on so I avoided like the plague. Apparently it is one of the longest running annual festivals in China but this may have been made up to make the thing seem more impressive or it may have been true, who knows!

As is always the case when we head away as a group, things tend to get childish. David for example taking an iron on a 24 hour trip and ironing his trousers on the bed earen his the name Press Man and an elaborate back story involving radioactive irons was invented. Also a mammouth crap joke and pun sesson was started, which thanks to Mam and Dad I was more than prepared for. 

We did all of the DaLi essentials, Bad Monkey breakfast and beer (not at the same time of course), shopping for silly earrings and jewellery, the bakery and a relatively new addition to the DaLi routine, an e-bike trip to the lake. I am not hugely confident on e-bikes so the first and last part of the trip are usually pretty hair raising. About the lake though is a very quiet and chilled out road so we can take it easy and chilled. Sadly on the way back we got lost and ended up in the middle of the festival i was telling you about earlier. The road was basically a car park with buses honking horns everywhere. As we squeezed through the tiny gaps between buses and truck, all I could think of was the scene in Star Wars where the walls begin to close in on them. It was not a pleasant experience and I took my bike back to the shop feeling a little frazzled and so thankful to be on feet again and not wheels. 

Being a mini-adventure, we were back on the train the following evening heading back for Kunming.

National day 2013: Beijing (moved from old blog)

Back to Beijing, Last stop on the National day tour.  

I left off travelling somewhere between Qingdao and Beijing. Its only a 4 hour train journey by bullet train so I figured all would be all hunkey dorey and relaxing good fun, however I did manage to overlook the fact that i would be travelling on October the First, National Day and day one of Golden week. 

One of the busiest day to travel in the Chinese calender. I stupidly figured that most people would have already travelled and I thought I would be OK. 

I was very wrong! Hundreds of people crammed into a train station waiting area all fighting for the non existent spare seats and one one toilet (not loads of imagination required to guess what that was like), most people were perched on bags slurping pot noodles and just getting in other peoples, also eating pot noodles, way. I had a seat on the train so I wasn't too concerned about the train part but getting there was something else. Take my advice, NEVER travel on the first of October!
4 slightly cramped and uncomfortable hours later I arrived back into Beijing and headed straight to SanLiTun Hostel. The hostel itself has barely changed in the three years I have been going there, and it has a homecoming feel every time I arrive. It helps though when the staff come running to meet you in a flying hug, thank you Candy!

Beijing was my last stop on my mini adventure before heading back to Kunming and back to work, so I was determined to do as little as humanly possible and just chill for a few days. I checked into a 4 person dorm room and was immediately adopted by a group of friends travelling about who decided I needed to be added to a group. To make the world seem even smaller I met a guy in the bar one morning who I had talking into moving to China three years before. We were both staying in the same hostel, me on  a break from Shenyang and he on a little fact finding tour holiday, we got chatting one evening and apparently I can be persuasive when I want to be. Slightly scary and coincidental but really nice to see a familiar face. 
My few days in Beijing were spent sat on the decking with a beer or sitting in various bars across the area with a beer. Chilled out was what I needed and chilled out 

was what I got. The guys were new to the area so I put on my tour guide hat and took them to all the old haunts, we also did more shopping than I have ever done with anyone else. Huge backpacks were filled after every trip to a market, it was incredible to watch.
But sadly my trip was coming to a close much faster than I would have liked and I had to get on a plane and return to the teaching lifestyle. Beijing in possibly my favourite city in China so I know I will be back.