Jul 28 2009

And once more back again

Isn’t it always brilliant to arrive back home? Such a warm feeling.

So, Yunnan is incredible, but now the real work starts (not just the washing), we have to put together the right programme, with the right people, in the right places ready for 2010.

If you are interested, the blog will continue as plans become realities. Meantime thanks for reading. There’s loads more I could say, but it’s best saved for another time after some reflection – it’s a bit soon for a summary today. (on arriving back in the UK 28 July)And once more back again

Rough Edge, Adventure, Logistics,

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Jul 28 2009

From here to there and back again

From here to there and back again3

Busy Shanghai and it’s amazing energy. The city is racing to finish loads of roads, metro lines and buildings before the 2010 World Expo there next April. It is an incredible sight and it’s very noisy. This is the first time I have ever seen a live decibel counter in the street…
Then landing in Hong Kong there was surreal mist over the hills of Lantau island, it was 31 celsius, the city was busy rounding off its weekend, I was marking time before Monday night’s flight home. I’m glad I can sleep on flights 🙂 (Bits of the long journey back 25/26 July)

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Jul 28 2009

Schoolboy errors flashing lights and policemen

DON’T leave a gas canister in your rucsac when you check in for a flight. All the check in counters in the row let out a piercing alarm and red lights flashed on all the scanning machines as I tried to check in at Kunming airport to fly to Shanghai. Resolving the situation was very friendly and not difficult, except there was a lot of paperwork the clerk had to fill in, oh and the police had to come to put their stamp on it too, which took a while. Eventually though I was checked in and all clear.
However.
DO remember to take your penknife out of your hand luggage and put it in your check in luggage before you try and pass through security. Imagine the surprise on the face of the check in clerk when I returned 10 minutes later with the smallest bag I had with me containing just my penknife. “Knife?” She asked. “Hmm” I nodded. No alarms and no lights this time (thankfully). Just a smile and a shrug.

Schoolboy errors flashing lights and policemen

The best surprise however was on arrival in Shanghai. Having picked my humungous rucsac (sans gas) off the belt, I honestly thought the small bag may not have survived the competition, surrounded by daunting bigger bags and muscular suitcases… but minutes later there it was heading towards me on the belt, my penknife returned to me! (The picture of the policemen is not very revealing, but I didn’t want to cause any trouble and so took it with my phone, as they were walking away.  (Kunming to Shanghai 24 July)

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Jul 24 2009

Ba Bye will take over the world

There is no point learning how to say goodbye, zai jian, cheerio, adieu, see you anon, au revoir, auf wiedersehen or see ya. Just know how to adapt ba bye to whatever situation, it is sweeping the world. This is not ba bye, there are a few more posts to come before I get back. Tonight however I am reunited with my laptop after a month so I wanted to share this thought. Ba bye – see you tomorrow (just arrived in Shanghai 24 July)

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Jul 23 2009

Kunming kool

Kunming is a really chilled place, nobody seems to be in a hurry. There’s no traveling today, but tomorrow is when I leave Yunnan for the trip home, via Shanghai and ultimately HK again. Just everywhere there are great sights and sounds. Here are some pictures from the Green Lake area. This is a city to visit again and this is where I have received so much help from people, I am incredibly grateful. (Resting a day in Kunming 23 July)

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Jul 23 2009

This bit’s all buses

So, Lijiang is as I left it – packed with tourists. I find the Carnation Inn again and I’m met with smiles and a warm welcome from the family there. I repack my rucsac and I can'[t quite believe just how full it is again. Mr Carnation Inn organises me a ticket to get me to Kunming – I am to take a sleeper bus…
Finding my way to the bus station for a 7pm departure the sky clouds over and there is monumental thunder and lightning and it rains, like really rains! Once at the bus station however, confusion reigns as it turns out I have been taken to the wrong bus station. Great. But thanks in no small way to the incredibly efficient ticket office clerk, for somehow she manages to track down my bus, which by now (7.40) must have already left it’s departure point and she redirects it and it comes to pick me up – awesome. However, while I have been waiting I have been admiring the extremely smart Volvo and Daewoo buses at the bus station – feeling reassured by their gleaming paintwork and efficient looking drivers and staff. As my true bus pulls in two scruffy bus drivers approach and wave me towards a much less attractive looking bus and – alarmingly – thrust Y21 back at me saying I have overpaid. This is not the most reassuring start to an overnight journey in the rain back down through the mountains of Yunnan, but hey ho – let’s see.
There are no really good pictures of this bit, just some video I took in the dead of night to give an impression of what it is like crammed onto the top bunk of a sleeper bus on a “bed” that is about 8 inches wide and surrounded by 40 other people in similarly cramped bunks all of whom seem to be suffering from chest infections. This is one journey I don’t want to repeat. Here’s dawn over the lake in Kunming. I was extremely glad to arrive here and I really didn’t care how tired I was. (Lijiang to Kunming on a “sleeper” bus 21/22 July)

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Jul 21 2009

The bus off and on

Image Thumbnail Image Thumbnail
Image ThumbnailImage Thumbnail It is an awesome bus, very smooth and excellently driven. So once the tyre is fixed we make good speed and head high into the mountains – passing slower traffic easily and quickly. All of a sudden though we come to a roadblock and the bus slows to a stop again. There has been a landslide and workers are suspended in harnesses high above the road to hack away at the loose earth letting it crash to the road to be cleared away. Traffic is stopped in both directions while this operation unfolds. We all head up onto the grassy hill by the road and wait in the sun, we are there for about an hour until a siren sounds, the men haul their way back up their ropes to a makeshift platform they’ve carved out of the muddy hill and traffic is allowed slowly past this obstruction – we’re off again, Lijiang is only hours away. (On and off the bus again from Zhong Dian to Lijiang 21 July)

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Jul 21 2009

On and off the bus

Heading south from Shangri La about an hour into the journey there is a loud bang. The driver slows to a halt and his sidekick steps down from the bus to see what has happened. The bus has had a blowout on one of the rear wheels. Thinking about it now, I am quite glad it happened on the long straight flat road across the plain from Zhong Dian and not in the mountains through the pass down to the Haba range. Anyhow, there is much discussion, one incredibly small looking jack to hold the wheel aloft (people still in the bus and free to come and go both in and out of the bus throughout)… It takes about 20 minutes to fix and we are on the way again – heading south towards Lijiang and for me the place I am to be reunited with some of my travel baggage – left behind before Wenhai and the trek to Tiger Leaping Gorge… Onwards. (On the bus from Zhong Dian to Lijiang 21 July)

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Jul 20 2009

Driving safe

It takes about an hour for me to relax in the realisation that Dave is an awesomely good driver and knows the road extremely well. Indeed he doesn’t just know the road, he seems to know everyone on it too. His skill is appreciated as I take millions of pics and much video (to be edited & uploaded once home). The moving pictures, I am sure, will capture the drama of this magnificent journey best, but here is what a driver on this mountain road faces as he hurtles through settlements, villages, roadworks and farms:

Children, handcarts, grandmas, yaks, monks, donkeys, bikes, pigs, tractors, goats and laundry – all these can be on the road at any time. Hence Dave adopts the ‘hoot & go’ approach. You hoot and go. Simple. And it is hoot & go for overtaking too – although this takes a little longer as a passenger to feel comfortable about. In all we are in each other’s company for close on 5 hours and he is one of the most skilful drivers I have been driven by. He gets me back down to Shangri La safely, but fast, skilfully, but cautiously and I thank Dave for that.

This is one of those epic journeys that is impossible to bring to life here, but I have picked out some random best bits for now – there will be loads more to come, given bit of time. One breathtaking ride. (On the road from Deqin 20 July)

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Jul 20 2009

Driving sarf

With only four days to go before my flight leaves Kunming over 800km away and knowing that the first part of this mammoth journey south is back across the awesome pass, six hours to the main road at Shangri La, I decide that the best plan is to leave Deqin and devote the right amount of time to this place on another visit. This trip has all been about making connections and throughout I have been blessed with extraordinary help from so many people. None less than Lily in Shangri La. As far as bus tickets are concerned I have missed the bus, but one call to Lily and an hour later she has found a reliable driver to deliver me safely back to Shangri La on the first leg of the homeward trip. He will come and find me at the hotel and we will head off across the mountains directly.

When he arrives, Dave already strikes me as a very jolly and helpful person (sorry to call him Dave but in the few hours we know each other he only says his Chinese name once when I ask and I promptly forget it – and anyway I’d have little or no idea how to spell it). Dave seems to be a minor celebrity as we head out of town, stopping to pick up a couple of bottles of ice tea for the journey and for Dave to gobble down three dumplings and we’re off. We are in a relatively smart and seemingly well maintained Passat – all is good. I put on my seatbelt. We head out of town up the dust-under-random-construction road and the sun and the mountains and the sheer bigness of it all combine into the drive of a lifetime. (On leaving Deqin 20 July)

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