2010.06 - Laos

Laos snapshots

I was in Laos 12 years ago in the north and John was here 10 years ago in the south. The change in a decade is immense. They have modernized to no end and continue to do so. All roads are now paved and bus services are fairly good. More and more like Thailand.........
We both preferred our previous visits.

Luang Nam Tha
This is in the north of Laos near the border to China. It was our first stop after crossing the border. We then went up a bit further to Muang Sing where we stayed in a log cabin overlooking rice paddy fields similar to the above. We had an evening visitor there who pinched the jar of Tiger Balm and my contact lense case??!! Rats, we think!

John was very busy being eaten alive by no end of insects in Laos. In comparison, China has no bugs......what did they do with them all??!!

Plain of Jars - Phonsovan

This place was great. Just loads of concrete jars scattered everywhere. No one really knows why they are there. Burial or storage for rice or who knows. Thwy have lips on the edges so it looks like they may have had lids.....but where are they?


Buddha Park in Vientiane
Lotsa freaky Buddha staues in this park. A bit nutty actually. This pic doesn't really due it justice. This Buddha is absolutely massive though. You used to be able to clambour all over it but they have fenced it off now.

Golden Stupa in Vientiane

Stunning in the late afternoon when the sun hits it.
Entrance to Kong Lor Cave, nr Ban Na Hin
This cave full of stalagmites and -tites was 7km long. It was pretty weird and dark and scary. John really liked it but I had reservations. It was very dark and my flashlight wasn't working very well and the boat seemed slightly dubious....well, the guy kept bailing the water out of it....leaking perhaps.

Inside Kong Lor Cave

2010.06 - Yunnan

Yunnan snapshots


Shangri-La Monastery
Shangri La wasn't really the 'paradise lost' I was expecting. It was a big modernish city. In the 'old town' (renovated into all new buildings for tourism purposes), there were no tourists. We presume that this was due to uprisings last year, the town was removed from flag waving tour groups. Just in case...............

Steal electricity? Ass kicked!

There seem to be loads of fairly violent warning signs to the general public!

Largest prayer wheel in China

Lijiang market

Tiger Leaping Gorge

Shaxi Street

Shaxi was very nice. It was like Lijiang must have been before all the Chinese tourist flocked to it. Just like how you would expect 'real China' to look.

Lijiang street


Yumi, the wonder dog, Shaxi. He adopted us and went everywhere we went that day. We called him Yumi because his coat was golden. Yumi in Mandarin means 'corn'.

Duck herding in Shaxi. Odd, very odd.

Jinghong Botanical Gardens
Giant lily pads. They were about 500mm in diameter!

2010.05 - Sichuan

Sichuan snapshots


Chengdu - He is always with that Mao character! I though he was a good capitalist! ;0)
Chengdu was our first stop in Sichuan. It was OK for a big, smoggy Asian city.

Emei Shan Golden Summit - We spent a day and a half walking up to the summit of this holy mountain. Apparently, there are some beautiful, giant, golden Sakyamuni statues here......although, I wouldn't know.

Wise words - Often, public toilets have no dividers between squatters. I guess this sign is helpful if you're feeling a bit shy. I didn't feel it was about being shy, I would just rather not be in direct view of other people's 'business'.....so to speak.


Monkeys in the mist
I felt about as happy as they look. This was at the mouldy monastery we stayed at on the way to the summit.

Tree, Emei

Emei Shan in nicer weather - Following our 1.5 day ascent, the weather cleared and we were greeted by sunshire and some stunning views (finally). I don't like to be soggy very much.

Leshan Giant Buddha - He was massive!



Jiuzhaigou 1 - It's difficult to take your own picture! This place was beautiful. All of the lakes were of a turquoise/ blue colour that I didn't really think could be produced naturally. Really stunning! This park, unfortunately, is very strict in that you can wander off the wooden path that has been built for you to walk on. An individualistic wander off can cause alot of commotion. It's a forest. You are SUPPOSED to wander around it. I guess the Chinese don't see it that way! :0/

Juizhaigou five coloured lake

Jiuzhaigou Long Lake

Tagong
What a wonderful place this was!! It was full of TIbetan people. Everyone was so friendly. It was surrounded by mountains. The altitude was 4000m causing me to have altitude sickness for a few days but John was pretty much OK. In the town square there was a temple with Tibetan prayer flags and prayer wheels surrounding it for a kora! Lovely.

Tibetan dude, Tagong

Chinese army says hello, Tagong

So, some of the slogans on these trucks say thinks like 'the Chinese army teaches the Tibetan people'. I never really thought that teaching inplements included 200 army trucks driving through town everyday, machine guns, and riot gear.....but then all cultures are different in their 'teaching' methods.

2010.05 - Beijing

OK OK. I know...I have finally gotten around to writing some info here after 6 months. First to say, some things are not in the right order for whatever reason (crap blog page but free...). So, I am trying to put dates beside titles (ish). I am writing most of the text and John has uploaded and shrunk most of the pics. We were unable to do anything on this in China but now should be able to update regularly.
Hope you enjoy our trip as much as we are! oh, and by the way, you're not allowed to laugh at my photos. Thanks!


Beijing snapshots (April 25 - May 10)

Entrance to the Forbidden Palace - John and Mao...opposites DO attract ;0)

We did tons in Beijing. Forbidden Palace being one of them...along with several million Chinese people. Lotsa screaming and flag waving going on as Chinese seem unable to be individualistic and travel sans group. My biggest wonder was:

'what if two groups turn up with the same colour of flag being waved by their leader?'

Presumably disaster would ensue................

Foridden Palace

Tiananmen Square


Beijing subway
On this morning we were on our way with our 20kg backpacks (I know...I am trying to get rid of some stuff but.....) to the other side of Beijing. We decided to wait until rush hour was over. This was the scene of people moving through the crowd control barriers for about an hour.There was no way we were getting on any train.

Hot Pot always sounded like great fun. As you can see, there are two parts to the pot. One is mild, the other spicy. Being lovers of spicy food, we went to the shelves, collected the foodstuffs and dumped them all into the spicy side of the pot. Then we found that some things are just too spicy. Inedibly so! We then proceeded to dump half the mild soup into the spicy soup. When that didn't work, we took all the food out of the spicy side and dumped it into the mild side. Finally, we could eat :0) . Once we finished, we found the chicken's head........as you do!

Mandarin Duck - I hope it wasn't the Beijing Duck we ate in Wangfujing!


Great Wall at Mutianyu
It's hard to belive in a place like China, we had our picture taken WITHOUT other people in it!! No, no...I didn't Photoshop them out!

Mike came to Beijing for a few days!! We were at the Drum and Bell Towers. Yep, I bet you guessed already :0). One has a drum and the other, a bell!

Great Wall at Shanhaiguan goes straight into the sea!! It's all very reproduced but nevermind.The real thing used to be there!

John and Robocop at Beidaihe - Strange place this was. Chinese beach resort. Hmmm...everything was written in Russian or Mandarin. My name was seemingly "Babushka". Guessing the Russians visit from time to time.