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You can lose everything, but nobody will take away what you saw and what you experienced...
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Feb 06, 2007 07:00 PM Dali - on the doorstep of Tibet...
Brrr... It is cold here... It is still Yunnan - China, but the west of Yunnan and on the level of 1970 m abve sea level. Believe or not - I am under snow-capped peaks of Cangshan -Jade Mts.
In the past Dali was the capital of independent Nanzhao Kingdom. The old town is well preserved - with imposing city gates and the city walls. There are cobbled streets and traditional wood-and-stone ornate houses... It is low season now, so fortunately there are not much tourist. I think that for the traveller it is one of most interesting places in China...
I took a chairlift to the Zhonghe temple over the town for the beaitiful view of the great lake Erhai Hu. They will charge you 30 y entry to the national park plus 60 y for the RT lift.
From the temple you will see Three Pagodas - very nice landmark, but when later I came to the entrance I recognized that it is private property now and they charge hefty 120 yuans for entry. Sorry, I just take the photos from outside and hitchhiked to the vilage of Xizhou - 18 kms north. Bai people live in this area (Burmo-Tibetan mix). They built interesting mutli-courtyard ornate houses and in Xizhou there is quite a lot of them. Some of them converted into museums (10 y entry). I was walking along narrow streets having my daily noodle soup in the main square eatery... Wonderful day! But the night will be cold again!
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Feb 05, 2007 07:00 PM Leaving Jinghong - Yunnan
Dear Friends, I woluld like to say thank you to those of you who sent me or write in my guestbook congratulations for the nomination of GS Member of the Month...
It is my last day in Jinghong - it is nice city with many palm trees along the main streets. It is warm during the day - even in February. Manting Park in the south of the city is worth to visit - they charge 30y entry fee, bus apart from the interesting budhist temple you can visit peacock garden and twice a day - at 10 am and 1.30 pm they have nice show - national dances and music.
Jinghong is not as crowded as many big cities in China. I stayed here in the Jijan Na Hotel. It is conveniently located just 200 m from the regional bus station (no.2). They charge 40 yuan for the twin room with bath so if you can afford eastern-style toilet (ski model) thas the place to stay.
From Jinghong there is experess bus to the capital of Yunnan - Kunming. There are three departures per day: 9am, 7 pm and 9 pm. The ticket cost 185 yuans. Oh, it is already time to go...
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Feb 04, 2007 07:00 PM Splashing Monday in Ganlanba...
Yunnan. Jinghong city where I stay could be a base for the day excursions to the little villages in the frontier region of Xishuangbanna. Regional minibuses depart from no.2 bus station. Nothing is written there in latin script except digist so make sure they understand where you want to go... Today I took another minibus (7,50 y one way) to Ganlanba... Do you know that they accept smoking on the bus? Sometimes it is horrible, but you can politely ask to change your seat to less smoked section. The road to Galnanba goes close to the Mekong River - there are nice views but the trees do no allow to take pictures.
Atfer 45 min ride in the smoke I landed at the bus station in Ganlanba - close to the market - very busy in the morning - for 2 yuan you can get there your noodle soup for breakfast. Eateries are not very clean but...
In Ganlanba there is a public ferry crossing Mekong - I paid 1 yuan fare and jump on the other side. After 1 km walk I reached nice Dai minority village with traditional architecture.
Back in Ganlanba I visited Dai Folklore Garden. It is a huge place - there are temples, traditional houses and plenty of tourist stalls with souvenirs. They charge hefty 70 yuans entry fee but I used a trick to get there for free. The main attraction of the site is daily performance of tradirional Water-Splashing Carnival at 4.30 pm.
Can you imagine more then a hundred beautiful girls in the national costumes splashing each other? There is a lot of fun - just protect your cameras!
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Feb 03, 2007 07:00 PM Sunday market in Manghun
They call this region Xishuanbanna. (chinese names are difficult for us). It lies in the deep south of Yunnan, close to the borders with Vietnam, Laos and Myanmar.
Many minorities live here. It is probably one of very few areas in China where you still can see people wearing national costumes... No, in the capital of t he region - Jinghong it is hard to see them. I recognized that the best opportunity for that will be Sunday market in a little township of Manghun - like 2 hours drive by bus from Jinghong. The minibus costs 15 yuans and there are 2-3 buses each hour.
Yes, on the matket I saw in the crowd people in interesting dressing, but it was only like 10 percent of them in the crowd. They are shy, so be discret taking their photos. The market - products is also interesting to see...
After return to Jinghong I started to look for the bread. Can you imagine? In the capital of the region with fancy hotels, nightclubs and international airport it is not possible to buy regular bread... They eat noodle soup or steamed dumplings for breakfast. Finally in the huge, luxury supermarket I found sweet bread with raisins - like a cake... It cost 4.50 y bed pound. Butter, margarine, cheese even there were not available...
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Feb 02, 2007 07:00 PM The only road to China...
There is only one land border crossing for the foreigners going from Laos to China: Boten - Bohan. The local bus from Udomxai to Boten departs at 8.30 am and costs 28000 kips. The road is windy and have many landslides and holes. Bump, bump!... It takes almost 4 hours to do this 100 km route. But just before the border it is getting better - probably the Chinese brothers improoved last 20 km or so...
No problems at all with Lao immigrations or customs - I even did not open my backpack... Then you must go 2 km through the border to reach Chineese border point. If you have some kips left you can take a moto-rickshaw for 4000 kip.
Welcome to China again! They check first your temperature (against bird-flu) and let you go to the immigrations...
Chinese little Bohan township after rural Laos looks like a downtown! Yes - there are money changers at the border - they offer 1 yuan for 1500 kip (bad rate!)
Then you have to go by minibus to the nearest town - Muengla or Mangla by bumpy and dusty road - they just build the highway to the border!. It is horrible: you will not find any directions in latin alphabet! Chinese script only! Keep the map with the Chinese sctipt names in you hand to explain where you want to go...
In Mangla bus station I bought a ticket to Jinghong - it cost 33 yuan. No the way I saw again the Mekong River. We reached Jinghong in the evening - all day on the road. But I am already in Yunnan!
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Feb 01, 2007 07:00 PM Udomxai-Laos: off the beaten track
It is time to say goodbye to the charming Luang Prabang and to go north - in the direction of the Chineese border... There is a bus departing Luang north station at 8.30 to Udomxai - do not go the day before to buy the ticket - they do not sell them in advance.
It was early morning and the sun was rising when I crossed Khan River walking through the "bikes-only" bridge. Then it was still about 2 km to walk to the bus station. A local guy on the motorbike offered me a ride... People in Laos are lovely!
The bus ticket to Udomaxai cost 45 000 kip. We departed on time and it took us 4 hours on narrow, mountain road to get to Udomxai - dusty town close to the Golden Triangle.
Xin-Xin Guest house is just opposite bus station - they charge only 3 USD for the clean room with shared facilities.
In the middle of Udomxai (what a name!) there is a hill with gold-painted stupa - it was just a day of the stupa festival - a lot of people were coming there for offerings and pray - nice occassion to take pictures - they are happy to be photographed do not ask money for photos... it is still off the beaten track...
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Jan 31, 2007 07:00 PM Slow boat to Pak Ou
Huge Mekong River gives many transport and excursion possibilities. You can even sail by this river from Vientiane to Luang Prabang avoiding mountain roads. But the boat voyage takes 2 days with overnight ashore.
I took a standard excursion from Luang Prabang to the Pak Ou caves - it is only 1,5 hour each way... Many hotels and travel agenciec offer this tour for just 4 USD plus 10000 kip entry fee. On the route the boat stops at the little village where the local people produce lao-lao - rice wine tasting like sake...
Sail to Pak Ou gives you opportunity to enjoy the river landscape. In the caves there is more then 2000 images of Lord Buddha...
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Jan 30, 2007 07:00 PM Luang Prabang - sleepy and charming...
The former capital of Lao Kingdom is today a little town on the Mekong river. Sleepy and charming... Not to be missed if you are coming to Indochina. Unfortunately more and more tourist are coming here - it is changing the atmosphere... Hurry up!
I was walking whole morning around the center - there is picturesque Royal Palace with high ornate religious pavilion and more then a dozen Buddhist temples - most of them are inhabited by friendly monks wearing orange clothes. Palm trees, flowers around, sun... Tourist paradise - they have more then twenty little restaurants and cafes, many guest houses hidden in the small lanes. If you do not want to visit all temples Wat Xieng Thong (Royal Family Temple) - is probably the most important and the most impressive. They charge there 10000 kips entry fee.
In the afternoon I took a minibus trip to the Kuang Si Waterfall. May agencies in the town offer this half-day excursion charging from 35000 kips. Be prepared to pay also 15000 entry fee on site. It is worth... The fall with few cascades is about 60 m high. You can swim in one of little pools at the bottom... or to climb the steep path to the top of the first drop... Exciting!
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Jan 28, 2007 07:00 PM Laos by bus...
In the capital city of Vientiane there are two long distance bus stations... They are now quite far from the center of the town. Tuk-tuk's drivers will ask from you minimum 20000 kip to the southern one and 15000 to the northern.
Any guest house in the city will be ready to arrange for you bus tickets but keep in mind that they will charge for that extra money: for the bus to Luang Prabang they charge 165000 kips. If you will go to the bus station to buy it by yourself you will pay only 90000. The faster VIP bus cost 115000 - it takes 9 hours to get to LP, regular bus will go 11 hours.
We started from Vientiane at 8 am... I did not expect that I will travel almost whole day through the mountains. Laos is hilly - we were climbing the passes and going down to the valleys. There are a lot of nice views on the route so if is worth to take a seat in front of the bus.
We reached Luang Prabang just before sunset. Touts were waiting at the bus station to take us to the town and to offer the rooms. I decided to stay at Chitlada Guest House in the silent street - they charge 10 USD for the airy single room with bath and hot shower. In the evening I took a walk along the main street of LP: At dusk it converts to the enchanting souvenir market with hundreds of lights... The vegetarian meal - full plate of noodles and veggies cost 50 US cents...
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Jan 27, 2007 07:00 PM A day in Vientiane...
It was evening when I reached Vientiane... The choice of the guesthouses is big here but late in the evening it wa not easy to find a room. Finally I landed in Santisouk Guest House near the National Museum. It is located in the old building - I share the facilities and they charge 7 USD for single room...
Since my last visit Vientiane changed a lot. Now you can see many new buildings, there are fancy hotels and they are just improving the surface on the streets. But a taste of the old Vientiane you will still find close to the Mekong...
I was walking all day around the town, visiting well known and new places - mostly charming buddhist temples. All but three of them have free entry. In those converted into museums they charge 5000 kips entry fee - like half a dollar. Basic mean of the city transpot is tuk-tuk - little motocycle rickshaw. For the short ride they charge 5000 kips, for longer - 10000. Bargaining is necessary... Tomorrow I am departing to Luang Prabang - the former capital of Laos...
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