Southwest China – Yunnan Provence
Where we left off . . . I think I said we were going to chill in Lijiang for a couple days before heading onto Zhongdian to hire a jeep and driver for the beautiful 1,200 km route from Yunnan Provence to Lhasa, Tibet. Well, we made good on the first half of it, not so good on the second half . . . more on that later. Lijiang was a nice little town . . . a bit touristy for our tastes (July/August is the peak season for Chinese tourists and they were amassed in Lijiang by the thousands). After arriving, we met the nicest guy in China . . . Rocky Wang. Rocky helped Megan and I to the old quarter of the town. We were turning circles as I’d unfortunately identified the wrong bus station on the map as our current location. Anyways, each day Megan and I did our own thing, and each evening, we met up with Rocky and his girlfriend, Alice, for dinner and drinks. We eventually gifted our DVD player to Rocky, who was relocating from southeast China to Lijiang to start a business.
I’d have to say our most memorable experience in Lijiang was our epic quest for the Puji Si Monastery. Megan and I decided to play my little Cambodian game (rules: pick destination, no map, ask everybody on the street where destination is, go whatever direction they point you in). I knew the monastery was supposed to be about 5 km out of town, so I figured it wouldn’t be more than a 7 km walk there, even with a few instances of misdirection from the locals. Our 7 km walk quickly, well actually not so quickly, turned into a 17 km hike . . . . fortunately it was very, very flat. Eventually, we made our way to the quiet monastery, perched on the side of a ridge overlooking the valley. We walked through the monastery entrance and were the only folks in site. After a few minutes of roaming around, we were greeted by a Tibetan monk. This was no ordinary Tibetan monk . . . . he was a dwarf Tibetan monk, the first we had ever seen (actually, the only one we’ve seen). He invited us into the main shrine for a blessing, which was pretty cool. I can only assume that a dwarf Tibetan monk blessing contains extra special good luck . . . we’ll see. Following the blessing and a short tour of the monastery, we walked the direct route back into town, about 8 km to finish off the day.
You want to rent a jeep and driver do you?
We took an afternoon bus from Lijiang to Zhongdian . . . piece of cake. We got in around 5:00, checked into a hotel in the old quarter, then met up with Bryan Crosby at the Tibet Cafe. Bryan had posted a message on the Lonely Planet message board (magical method of internet communication) looking for people to do the overland trip to Lhasa. Bryan is a cool, layed back Canadian guy (not the kind with nineteen maple leaf patches stitched between backpack, clothes, and body) and the three of us (Megan, Bryan, and I) were optimistic we could arrange a jeep for the following week (the delay would allow us to backtrack a couple of hours and do a several day hiking trip in Tiger Leaping Gorge). The following day, we hit the streets in search of a respectable travel agency that could arrange the overland trip. We found several agencies, non respectable. In fact, most roads led us directly to Mr. Wu. If the other agents were rattlesnakes, Mr. Wu was a cobra . . . I swear the guy hissed when we entered his office. After dealing with the several agencies who could arrange such a trip, we decided that we’d rather go hunting with Dick Cheney than give business to any of these jerks. We came to the conclusion that we’d forego the jeep trip to Lhasa, opting to fly instead. Besides, we were planning on doing the jeep trip from Lhasa to the Nepal border in a bit, and who really needs two 1,000+ km jeep trips in the span of a month? After the day of frustration, we all decided a few days of hiking in Tiger Leaping Gorge was exactly what we needed. And, we were right. We caught a morning bus from Zhongdian to Qiatiou, about 2 1/2 hours back towards Lijiang. We stopped for a quick bite at Jane’s guesthouse before starting the 30 km trek (split between 2 days). After eating, we met a couple of super cool gals from California, Tanya and Shannette. The five of us teamed up and headed off for the trail around 3:00 pm. About 2 hours into the hike, we encountered the legendary “28 bends” (28 switchbacks, climbing approximately 3,000 ft of elevation). A couple hours and a couple gallons of sweat later, we arrived at the fabled stone where locals had seen the tiger leap the gorge. The scene was breathtaking . . . unobstructed views in both the upstream and downstream direction of the gorge. Picture two 10,000 foot of elevation ranges, both almost vertical, crowned with jagged peaks, sandwiched together with a raging river running between them . . . nice place. We burned up the megabytes for about half an hour before heading on towards our destination for the evening, Tea Horse Guesthouse. We arrived at the guesthouse around 8:00 pm, tired but satisfied form the incredible hike. The five of us enjoyed a great meal and rehydrated (beer and water) before calling it quits a few minutes before midnight.
The next morning, we set off for the remainder of the hike, which ended at Walnut Garden. After another 17 km of unreal views and friendly encounters with local villagers, we arrived at Sean’s Guesthouse in Walnut Garden around 5:00 pm. We showered up, ate a horse, then rehydrated again . . . another terrific day in the books. Our initial plan was to awake the next morning and catch a mini-bus back to Qiatiou along the lower road, which runs along the river, far below the trail. One slight issue was that a massive landslide had occurred on the lower part of the ridge which wiped out the road around 20 km from Qiatiou . . . what this meant was we had to hike back to the mid-way point on the trail, almost back to our first day’s destination, where we could then descend down to the lower road and find transporation back to town. We took our medicine and arrived on the lower road around 1:00 pm, where we caught a ride with a local guy driving his mini-freight truck back to Qiatiou. After consuming obscene amounts of food at Jane’s, we said goodbye to Tanya and Shannette and walked out to the highway to catch a local bus. We lucked out and a minivan driver pulled over and gave us a lift back to Zhongdian in style (just us sprawled out on reclined captain chairs . . . . no shoulder to shoulder, dirty dude next to you chainsmoking, crappy movie playing local bus action). It was heaven . . . God, our standards have really plummeted.
Zhongdian Part II
We checked back into the same hotel in Zhongdian. We had 3 full days to relax and get ready for the trip to Tibet. Our first day was spent doing laundry, catching up on e-mail, and relaxing around town. The second day, we rented bikes and did the short ride up to Napa Sea (lake), about 10 km north of Zhongdian. The roads were empty and the scenery was great. After leaving the lake, we decided to take a shortcut (to avoid the pass we had to cross on our way to Napa Sea) around a ridge towards the big monastery northeast of town. We stopped after a bit for a picnic lunch, then continued onto the monastery. Everything was going well until the road turned into a bumpy, muddy mess, devestated by the various yak herds and occasional freight truck that travelled it. I faired pretty well on the sloppy track . . . . Megan faired pretty poorly. However, she successfully turned both herself and her bike into the 2 muddiest things in China (slight exageration, but only slight). The pictures are great. We got Megan cleaned up, had a good laugh, and eventually cruised by the monastery and made our way back into town. Our last day, we both plopped on a comfy couch next to the fire in the Raven (terrific little bar in Zhongdian, actually owned by a lady from Seattle) and burned through a couple of good books and pots of tea.
Off to Lhasa
The next morning, we caught a 10:35 flight to Lhasa . . . the spiritual center of Tibet. We arrived at the airport (about 100 km from Lhasa) around 12:30, grabbed our bags, and caught a bus to town. The bus pulled up next to the Potala Palace (the former center of the Tibetan government and residence of the Dalia Lama . . . one of the architectural wonders of the world) around 2:30. We found a comfortable place to stay and set off for a walk around the old part of town. Lhasa is an incredible place, situated at 12,000 feet of elevation in the foothills of the Himalayas . . . Bhuddist pilgrims from throughout Tibet and the rest of the world make the long journey here to walk the sacred streets around the many temples and monasteries around town. The people watching here is second to none. I can’t begin to describe all the interesting things/people we’ve seen here.
Up to this point, the most unique ritual we’ve seen is the debating of the monks at the Sera Monastery, a few miles out of town.. Everyday from 3 to 5 p.m., the hundreds of monks that reside within the monastery gather in the debating courtyard. Once there, they split up in pairs, with one seated and the other standing. Each pair had their own unique style of debate, but the general theme was the standing monk would ramble on and on in a very animated fashion, frequently winding up like a baseball picher and slapping his hands directly in front of the seated monk’s face . . . . the courtyard sounded like grease popping in a frying pan, magnified a hundred times, with all those hands continually clapping. It was cultural entertainment at its finest . . . to us at least.
What’s next?
We’ve got a few more days here in Lhasa before we head west. Tomorrow, we’re going to rent bikes and check out the countryside before heading into the Potala Palace (we waited in line this morning for tickets, always issued for the next day, and got 4:20 entry passes for tomorrow). After that, we’ll have a couple days to prepare for what ensures to be a huge highlight of the trip . . . the jeep trip from Lhasa to the Nepal border via Everest Base Camp. Yesterday, Bryan, Megan, Corina (Bryan’s friend) and I arranged an 8 day trip, including 4 full days at base camp, to the border . . . . we can’t wait. Once in Nepal, we’ll catch a bus or taxi to Kathmandu before heading on to Pocera where we’ll start the two week hike of the Annapurna Range Circuit. The next few weeks will be Himalayas, Himalayas, and more Himalayas. Awesome, Awesome, and more Awesome.
Saturday, August 25, 2007
Sunday, August 12, 2007
From Behind the Red Curtain . . .
Smog City
Welcome to China! We arrived into Beijing West Train Station around 3:00 in the afternoon on July 27th. First priority: ATM. After taking a pedestrian bridge over the 12 lane boulevard that parallels the train station, we paused to snap a quick photo. Upon reviewing the picture, it struck home that we could barely see the station behind Megan, only 100 meters away. It looked like a dense fog blanketed the city . . . unfortunately, it was smog. However, a little pollution wasn’t going to get us down . . . we were determined to overcome the lung-wrenching air and see the best of the city.
The next morning, we walked over to Tiananmen Square, which is apparently the world’s largest square . . . According to Mao Zedong, the size of the square is supposed to represent the massive nature and uniting force of his communist party. To me, it represented the center of the Chinese tourist world. Holy cow . . . half of China was in the square, taking family photos, flying kites, eating popsicles. Since then, we’ve realized that it was more like 0.00000003168% of the population. The remainder of the 1.3 billion people are spread evenly between train stations, McDonalds, bus stations, KFCs, and every hotel we try to reserve a room at (and every hotel at which we try to reserve a room . . . Thank you Megan).
Moving on, that afternoon we did a nice walk along a section of the old city wall, built over 600 years ago during the Ming Dynasty. The highlight of the walk was watching little kids swipe fruit and bolt from the local produce vendors . . . little devils.
Our second and third days in Beijing were spent searching for working internet, doing the last blog update, and applying for our India visas. The only notable event was on Monday when we thought we were well up number two creek without a paddle, finding ourselves short 100 yuan ($12) in line with our visa applications with about 2 minutes before the visa office closed (only open 2 1/2 hours a day, we waited in line for 2 hours outside to get in the application office). The consequence of not getting the forms in on Monday would have been to stay over the upcoming weekend, waiting for our approved visas to be issued the following Monday . . . not an option. 2 bonus days in Beijing were not high on our list. We’ve seen thousands of panhandlers this trip . . . at this point, it was my turn to beg. I took a 100 yuan note and aggressively pursued a loan from the other applicants in line. It was not looking good. After the first 7 or 8 people gave me the “I might as well be talking to a wall” look, a most generous man saved my bacon. He even refused to allow repayment of the loan, which I was in no way allowing. After getting the forms and money in, I acquired some cash and paid the Saint of Smog City back his 100 yuan.
On day 4, after a crap night of sleep, we awoke with plugged sinuses and sore throats. We got an early start, leaving the hotel around 7:00 am for the Dongzhimen bus station. We caught the 916 to Miyun, about 80 kilometers northeast of the city. From there, we hired a taxi to take us the remaining 65 kilometers to Jinshaling, the starting point of our 10 kilometer walk atop the Great Wall. This was a big day (we needed to rebound from the city air and frustrations of the last couple of days).
As children, the Great Wall was the first thing we learned about on this side of the world . . . expectations were sky high. Fortunately, the wall delivered. The hike was great, pretty amazing to think about the history underneath the hundreds of thousands of stones we passed over on our way to Simatai. The sunny skies and clear air provided unbelievable views of the surrounding area and the wall as it chased up and down the distant mountains.
The highlights of the remaining couple of days in Beijing include a visit to the Forbidden City, a self-guided bike trip of old Beijing which included a stop at Wal-Mart, and catching an acrobatics show.
The Forbidden City was okay, a little disappointing in fact. The bike trip was good. We pedaled through the ancient streets (hutongs) north of the Forbidden City, getting a glimpse of Peking life before the 20th century. I also integrated a stop-off at Wal-Mart into the bike trip, straying from the Lonely Planet tour route. The Wal-Mart visit was great. In fact, if I had to choose between visiting the Forbidden City and Wal-Mart, it would be a no-brainer. Does the Forbidden City have Every Day Low Prices? I don’t think so. Megan was also a big fan of Wal-Mart (she discovered that Magnum ice cream bars were on sale for 4 yuan, <$0.50, best price in Asia). Our last evening, we went to the Tianqiao Acrobatics Theater, which was superb . . . Megan informed me that the Chinese gymnastics teams are pretty tough in the Olympics, which made complete sense watching the show. I’m recommending that all my single male friends move to Beijing and marry female Chinese acrobats.
After a week in Beijing, we shared the following conclusions . . . the Beijing air sucks (picture Olympic athletes with oxygen masks), the Great Wall is an incredible thing to see, and McDonalds and Wal-Mart are universally adored.
Westward Ho!
Alright, we picked up our passports from the Indian Embassy on a Friday around 4:00 pm, caught a taxi to the train station, and boarded an overnight train for Pingyao. We shared a sleeper cabin with a friendly Chinese family, who spoke at appropriate volumes and didn’t abuse the word “doi” (which I found out means okay, uh-huh, yeah, etc.). One of the little girls spoke pretty good English. When I complimented her, she told me she preferred to speak French, which she was also studying school. It surprised her (and me) when I was able to recall a bit of French from my high school days . . . or maybe she just humored me.
We got into Pingyao around 6:00 am, and headed towards Yamen Hostel, where we had reserved a double with bath from Beijing. After checking in, we crashed for a couple of hours. That afternoon, we walked about the old town, which was the banking center of China for a good chunk of its early history (yet had no ATMs). The picturesque place reminded us of Hoi An, Vietnam (minus the tailors) . . . very quaint, touristy, welcoming. We strolled around, tried local foods, and played tourist. That evening, we ran into our friend JingJing (a local from Xi’An, works for an American preparing a new hostel for grand opening), who we met on our way to the hostel that morning, and enjoyed a couple of drinks before calling it an early night. The next day, we caught the 9:00 mass at the local Catholic Church, did a walk around the city wall, then headed back to the hostel for some R&R. Back at the hostel, we met a couple friendly guys, Mark (Australian) and Zac (Hawaiin) who recommended we check out the Sheun Ling Temple a short ways outside town. We took the suggestion, borrowed their bikes, and did the 30 minute ride out to the temple. The temple was so-so. Afterwards, we got an ice cream, then did the ride back into town. That evening, we went out with a big group from the hostel. A couple of the locals took us to eat at one of their favorite street vendors . . . digestive Russian roulette (fortunately, no problems occurred). Afterwards, the whole gang headed to a bar for a fun evening, which included a female British stripper running around the table in her underwear among other things. We also learned how to play a drinking game call “Birdwatching Game”, unrelated to the British stripper.
The next day we caught a bus to Xi”An (home of the Terra-Cota Warriors).
Quick Stop in Xi’An
We got into Xi’An around 6:30 pm, headed to the train station to buy tickets to Kunming (next destination), found out all sleeper tickets had been booked 10 days out, grabbed a quick bite, then made our way to the Xiang Zi Men hostel. The next day, Megan, Mark (Aussie from Pingyao), and I caught a bus out to the site of the Terra-Cota Warriors. Around 2000 years ago, a true badass (Emperor Qin) united all the various kingdoms spread out over modern day China, which was kind of a big accomplishment, so they say. He was a bit paranoid. So he ordered up a couple things: 1) construction of the Great Wall and 2) construction of a massive tomb with thousands of warriors to protect him in death. The tomb is actually 3 gigantic chambers, with the largest holding over 6,000 terra-cota warriors for the emperor’s post-mortem protection. You’ll have to check out the pictures.
Megan just reminded me . . . a cool fact about the terra-cota warriors is that they weren’t discovered until 1974 when a peasant, digging a well, broke through to one of the open tomb chambers. Today, the site is still in the process of excavation with approximately 30% still undercover. In spite of my encyclopedic knowledge of this UNESCO World Heritage Site, I will admit that I still don’t know what terra-cota means.
That evening, we met up again with JingJing, who had arrived back in Xi’An that morning, along with several other travelers we met in Pingyao. JingJing took us all out to her favorite restaurant for a delicious Chinese meal.
Time for a Break
The next afternoon, we caught a flight to Kunming. We arrived in the city around 9:00, checked out a couple of places before settling on the Camellia Hotel. While Megan was getting things settled in the room, I went down to check us in. When it came time to pay, they demanded a higher price than earlier agreed upon. I wasn’t having it. I headed back up to the room. We grabbed our things and left. This turned out to be a really bad decision on my part for a couple of reasons. Reason 1: Megan informed me that she didn’t think the lady had agreed to my understood rate. There is still debate over this point. Reason 2: The far more damning issue with our walkout was the fact that everything else seemed to be booked up. There is no debate over this point. After hiking all over the city, we finally found a hostel around 11:30 with a couple of dorm beds available . . . not the most desirable situation. On top of it all, Megan jacked her shin up on a steel tube protruding from the sidewalk. The tears were flowing . . . tough evening with zero chance of recovery for the Robmeister. Eventually, we both made our way to bed (in separate dorms), agreeing to meet up in the restaurant the next morning.
I didn’t sleep too well. I rolled out of bed the next morning around 6:30, grabbed some Mickey D’s coffee, and began my search for a really comfortable hotel room where we could rest, relax, and decongest (we had finally traveled far enough west to get out of the bad pollution). I found us an apartment hotel room in the city center and headed back to the hostel. It was around 7:30 at this time and Megan was nowhere to be seen, still sleeping away. I grabbed our dirty laundry and headed for the hostel laundry room, where I completed the first of two loads before Megan awoke. I told her of my valiant husbandly deeds, which successfully extracted me from the dog house. We sat down for a bit of breakfast while the second load finished up, then headed to the hotel to check in. We spent the next 48 hours doing nothing. We watched DVDs nonstop (on the DVD player that I happened to buy in Beijing at you know where); ate PB&Js for lunch, takeout for dinner, and chocolate ice cream and coke floats for dessert; and took obscenely long hot showers. It was great. We checked out of the hotel yesterday feeling like champions . . . heads clear and sinuses open.
Himalayas . . . Here we come!
Last night, we caught a night bus to Lijiang. We both slept well and arrived in Lijiang shortly after 7:00. We’re going to tool around here a couple of days before heading to Zhongdian to meet up with a couple of people and investigate hiring a jeep for the 1,200 kilometer journey to Lhasa, Tibet.
I’m guessing that our next blog update will take place in Lhasa, Tibet . . . “The Rooftop of the World” . . . or maybe India at current publishing frequency.
Alright, all done for now.
Welcome to China! We arrived into Beijing West Train Station around 3:00 in the afternoon on July 27th. First priority: ATM. After taking a pedestrian bridge over the 12 lane boulevard that parallels the train station, we paused to snap a quick photo. Upon reviewing the picture, it struck home that we could barely see the station behind Megan, only 100 meters away. It looked like a dense fog blanketed the city . . . unfortunately, it was smog. However, a little pollution wasn’t going to get us down . . . we were determined to overcome the lung-wrenching air and see the best of the city.
The next morning, we walked over to Tiananmen Square, which is apparently the world’s largest square . . . According to Mao Zedong, the size of the square is supposed to represent the massive nature and uniting force of his communist party. To me, it represented the center of the Chinese tourist world. Holy cow . . . half of China was in the square, taking family photos, flying kites, eating popsicles. Since then, we’ve realized that it was more like 0.00000003168% of the population. The remainder of the 1.3 billion people are spread evenly between train stations, McDonalds, bus stations, KFCs, and every hotel we try to reserve a room at (and every hotel at which we try to reserve a room . . . Thank you Megan).
Moving on, that afternoon we did a nice walk along a section of the old city wall, built over 600 years ago during the Ming Dynasty. The highlight of the walk was watching little kids swipe fruit and bolt from the local produce vendors . . . little devils.
Our second and third days in Beijing were spent searching for working internet, doing the last blog update, and applying for our India visas. The only notable event was on Monday when we thought we were well up number two creek without a paddle, finding ourselves short 100 yuan ($12) in line with our visa applications with about 2 minutes before the visa office closed (only open 2 1/2 hours a day, we waited in line for 2 hours outside to get in the application office). The consequence of not getting the forms in on Monday would have been to stay over the upcoming weekend, waiting for our approved visas to be issued the following Monday . . . not an option. 2 bonus days in Beijing were not high on our list. We’ve seen thousands of panhandlers this trip . . . at this point, it was my turn to beg. I took a 100 yuan note and aggressively pursued a loan from the other applicants in line. It was not looking good. After the first 7 or 8 people gave me the “I might as well be talking to a wall” look, a most generous man saved my bacon. He even refused to allow repayment of the loan, which I was in no way allowing. After getting the forms and money in, I acquired some cash and paid the Saint of Smog City back his 100 yuan.
On day 4, after a crap night of sleep, we awoke with plugged sinuses and sore throats. We got an early start, leaving the hotel around 7:00 am for the Dongzhimen bus station. We caught the 916 to Miyun, about 80 kilometers northeast of the city. From there, we hired a taxi to take us the remaining 65 kilometers to Jinshaling, the starting point of our 10 kilometer walk atop the Great Wall. This was a big day (we needed to rebound from the city air and frustrations of the last couple of days).
As children, the Great Wall was the first thing we learned about on this side of the world . . . expectations were sky high. Fortunately, the wall delivered. The hike was great, pretty amazing to think about the history underneath the hundreds of thousands of stones we passed over on our way to Simatai. The sunny skies and clear air provided unbelievable views of the surrounding area and the wall as it chased up and down the distant mountains.
The highlights of the remaining couple of days in Beijing include a visit to the Forbidden City, a self-guided bike trip of old Beijing which included a stop at Wal-Mart, and catching an acrobatics show.
The Forbidden City was okay, a little disappointing in fact. The bike trip was good. We pedaled through the ancient streets (hutongs) north of the Forbidden City, getting a glimpse of Peking life before the 20th century. I also integrated a stop-off at Wal-Mart into the bike trip, straying from the Lonely Planet tour route. The Wal-Mart visit was great. In fact, if I had to choose between visiting the Forbidden City and Wal-Mart, it would be a no-brainer. Does the Forbidden City have Every Day Low Prices? I don’t think so. Megan was also a big fan of Wal-Mart (she discovered that Magnum ice cream bars were on sale for 4 yuan, <$0.50, best price in Asia). Our last evening, we went to the Tianqiao Acrobatics Theater, which was superb . . . Megan informed me that the Chinese gymnastics teams are pretty tough in the Olympics, which made complete sense watching the show. I’m recommending that all my single male friends move to Beijing and marry female Chinese acrobats.
After a week in Beijing, we shared the following conclusions . . . the Beijing air sucks (picture Olympic athletes with oxygen masks), the Great Wall is an incredible thing to see, and McDonalds and Wal-Mart are universally adored.
Westward Ho!
Alright, we picked up our passports from the Indian Embassy on a Friday around 4:00 pm, caught a taxi to the train station, and boarded an overnight train for Pingyao. We shared a sleeper cabin with a friendly Chinese family, who spoke at appropriate volumes and didn’t abuse the word “doi” (which I found out means okay, uh-huh, yeah, etc.). One of the little girls spoke pretty good English. When I complimented her, she told me she preferred to speak French, which she was also studying school. It surprised her (and me) when I was able to recall a bit of French from my high school days . . . or maybe she just humored me.
We got into Pingyao around 6:00 am, and headed towards Yamen Hostel, where we had reserved a double with bath from Beijing. After checking in, we crashed for a couple of hours. That afternoon, we walked about the old town, which was the banking center of China for a good chunk of its early history (yet had no ATMs). The picturesque place reminded us of Hoi An, Vietnam (minus the tailors) . . . very quaint, touristy, welcoming. We strolled around, tried local foods, and played tourist. That evening, we ran into our friend JingJing (a local from Xi’An, works for an American preparing a new hostel for grand opening), who we met on our way to the hostel that morning, and enjoyed a couple of drinks before calling it an early night. The next day, we caught the 9:00 mass at the local Catholic Church, did a walk around the city wall, then headed back to the hostel for some R&R. Back at the hostel, we met a couple friendly guys, Mark (Australian) and Zac (Hawaiin) who recommended we check out the Sheun Ling Temple a short ways outside town. We took the suggestion, borrowed their bikes, and did the 30 minute ride out to the temple. The temple was so-so. Afterwards, we got an ice cream, then did the ride back into town. That evening, we went out with a big group from the hostel. A couple of the locals took us to eat at one of their favorite street vendors . . . digestive Russian roulette (fortunately, no problems occurred). Afterwards, the whole gang headed to a bar for a fun evening, which included a female British stripper running around the table in her underwear among other things. We also learned how to play a drinking game call “Birdwatching Game”, unrelated to the British stripper.
The next day we caught a bus to Xi”An (home of the Terra-Cota Warriors).
Quick Stop in Xi’An
We got into Xi’An around 6:30 pm, headed to the train station to buy tickets to Kunming (next destination), found out all sleeper tickets had been booked 10 days out, grabbed a quick bite, then made our way to the Xiang Zi Men hostel. The next day, Megan, Mark (Aussie from Pingyao), and I caught a bus out to the site of the Terra-Cota Warriors. Around 2000 years ago, a true badass (Emperor Qin) united all the various kingdoms spread out over modern day China, which was kind of a big accomplishment, so they say. He was a bit paranoid. So he ordered up a couple things: 1) construction of the Great Wall and 2) construction of a massive tomb with thousands of warriors to protect him in death. The tomb is actually 3 gigantic chambers, with the largest holding over 6,000 terra-cota warriors for the emperor’s post-mortem protection. You’ll have to check out the pictures.
Megan just reminded me . . . a cool fact about the terra-cota warriors is that they weren’t discovered until 1974 when a peasant, digging a well, broke through to one of the open tomb chambers. Today, the site is still in the process of excavation with approximately 30% still undercover. In spite of my encyclopedic knowledge of this UNESCO World Heritage Site, I will admit that I still don’t know what terra-cota means.
That evening, we met up again with JingJing, who had arrived back in Xi’An that morning, along with several other travelers we met in Pingyao. JingJing took us all out to her favorite restaurant for a delicious Chinese meal.
Time for a Break
The next afternoon, we caught a flight to Kunming. We arrived in the city around 9:00, checked out a couple of places before settling on the Camellia Hotel. While Megan was getting things settled in the room, I went down to check us in. When it came time to pay, they demanded a higher price than earlier agreed upon. I wasn’t having it. I headed back up to the room. We grabbed our things and left. This turned out to be a really bad decision on my part for a couple of reasons. Reason 1: Megan informed me that she didn’t think the lady had agreed to my understood rate. There is still debate over this point. Reason 2: The far more damning issue with our walkout was the fact that everything else seemed to be booked up. There is no debate over this point. After hiking all over the city, we finally found a hostel around 11:30 with a couple of dorm beds available . . . not the most desirable situation. On top of it all, Megan jacked her shin up on a steel tube protruding from the sidewalk. The tears were flowing . . . tough evening with zero chance of recovery for the Robmeister. Eventually, we both made our way to bed (in separate dorms), agreeing to meet up in the restaurant the next morning.
I didn’t sleep too well. I rolled out of bed the next morning around 6:30, grabbed some Mickey D’s coffee, and began my search for a really comfortable hotel room where we could rest, relax, and decongest (we had finally traveled far enough west to get out of the bad pollution). I found us an apartment hotel room in the city center and headed back to the hostel. It was around 7:30 at this time and Megan was nowhere to be seen, still sleeping away. I grabbed our dirty laundry and headed for the hostel laundry room, where I completed the first of two loads before Megan awoke. I told her of my valiant husbandly deeds, which successfully extracted me from the dog house. We sat down for a bit of breakfast while the second load finished up, then headed to the hotel to check in. We spent the next 48 hours doing nothing. We watched DVDs nonstop (on the DVD player that I happened to buy in Beijing at you know where); ate PB&Js for lunch, takeout for dinner, and chocolate ice cream and coke floats for dessert; and took obscenely long hot showers. It was great. We checked out of the hotel yesterday feeling like champions . . . heads clear and sinuses open.
Himalayas . . . Here we come!
Last night, we caught a night bus to Lijiang. We both slept well and arrived in Lijiang shortly after 7:00. We’re going to tool around here a couple of days before heading to Zhongdian to meet up with a couple of people and investigate hiring a jeep for the 1,200 kilometer journey to Lhasa, Tibet.
I’m guessing that our next blog update will take place in Lhasa, Tibet . . . “The Rooftop of the World” . . . or maybe India at current publishing frequency.
Alright, all done for now.
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