Recap of Adventures Throughout China, Vietnam, Thailand, and Hong Kong

It was difficult to decide what to do during our big 4.5 week holiday from Maple Leaf International Schools in Yongchuan, China.

We thought of bike touring, different countries, SUP surfing, hiking, climbing, mountain biking but it all seemed like too much too fast with not enough time to really reflect and research the different areas surrounding Yongchuan, China.

In the end we tried to mix and match as best we could a variety of things we loved to do. It all seemed simple and witty as we tried to use ground transportation as much as we could linking the different areas and activities we thought we might want to do.

Kunming
We wanted to explore China further but the cold temperatures deterred us from most regions. I read that Kunming was the city of eternal spring so we decided to check out that area of China, in Yunnan province. We booked the train from Yongchuan to Kunming. It was long(22 hours to be fairly exact) but surprisingly pleasant. We could only get the hard sleeper beds but they proved to be good enough for us. I had the lower bunk which allowed us to sit up and hang out while we weren't sleeping. We even had a nice chinese student come speak to us. We were the first foreigners he ever spoke to in english! He saw we were struggling with some noodles so he found the courage to come and show us how to make instant noodles, chinese style!
In Kunming, being a large city we were able to sort out our Vietnamese visas, and various bus tickets. We got to enjoy the city, with video game (think mario brothers) style runs. We were dodging obstacles, cars, scooters, people, electric bikes, children...anything else really random you can think of, we were probably dodging that too. While in Kunming, the Hump Hostel provided great service and a fun place to hang out and sleep.

Dali
The visas and bus tickets only took a day so the following morning we were off to Dali to enjoy the mountains and the big lake. A nice man at the Hump Hostel in Kunming told us that the Hump hostel in Dali was even better so taking his advice we stayed there while in Dali. Old town Dali is a quaint town full of hippies, street bustlers, pubs, restaurants, and shops. The neat thing is there is also outdoor adventures to be had right from town. We spent our first afternoon walking around town enjoying cafes and figuring out our plans for the next couple of days. We decided the best use of the weather and time was to try and hike as high as we could up Cangshan Mountain. The night before we left we booked a room at the Higherlands Inn Hostel on the mountain for a unique and different atmosphere. The next day we began our hike up Cangshan Mountain. You can hike right from old town Dali. We managed to get away without paying the park fee but it was lucky... As we took what we though was the short cut to by pass the guards we managed to get a little lost and ended up at the guard station itself anyways...luckily while we were checking out the map a nice older lady helped us find our way but mistook where we wanted to go and told the guards we weren't climbing up so they let us through. As we stopped to get our bearings and our helper kept hiking down we took the high road towards the peak. The road up had a million concrete stairs like all chinese built trails until the Cloud Tourist Road trail which is a trail that runs around the mountain from one gondola to the other, built for day tourists. From the cloud trail we hiked up a little waysmore and found the Higherland Inn. We stopped in for tea and to let them know who we were and then continued our journey up. We quickly ran into snow and lost the trail a couple of times but were told to follow the ridge and so we did until we happened onto the trail again. We left a little too late and the snow was getting deeper and deeper, the wind stronger and stronger, the clouds more and more grey, and the ridge narrower and narrower. We reached a knoll at about 3200m and decided to call it a day. We were in running shoes sans map in fairly deep snow. Having had experience in the snow through backcountry skiing we were able to sense when the time had come to enjoy what we accomplished safely and happily, knowing we still needed to get back down safely. After returning to the Higherland Inn we enjoyed, tea, snacks, and a delicious hot pot meal with the two people running the hostel. We were all huddled around the fire, enjoying the quiet and beauty of our surroundings.
  The following morning we hiked around some more until we felt we had seen what we wanted and headded back down to town. Once in town, we didn't waste much time and rented some bikes to go check out Ersai Lake. The lake is about 4km from old town and they have just built a new bicycle track around most of the lake. We rode around for a bout 30 or so km stopping to enjoy the surroundings before heading back into town.
 The next day we took the bus back to Kunming, took a taxi to the other bus station straight where we would catch the overnight bus to Hekou, the border town to Vietnam. We arrived into Hekou at 5:30am and somehow got talked into taking a very expensive cab ride to a corner store about 100m form the border. There we enjoyed vietnamese coffee and watching the stealthy business man rake in the cash...

Sappa Valley, Vietnam
We walked across the border into Lao Cai Vietnam around 8am. In Lao Cai we weren't sure how or where to catch the mini buses to Sappa so we kept walking until we walked over the bridge and a guy on a motor bike told us to wait at a corner and eventually a mini bus to Sappa came along. Unfortunately, as it goes in these parts we ended up waiting about 2 hours on the mini bus for people, when no people showed we ended up at various orange packers loading the van full of oranges until no more oranges could fit and the van was full. As a bonus for waiting 2 hours, we did get some free oranges in return. We managed to get to Sappa around 11:30am. The weather was gorgeous. In Sapa, we stayed at the Princeton Hotel/ Sappa Hostel where the very friendly owner and his wife treated us like family. Due to the Chinese New Year celebrations normal tourist activities were either put on hold completely or run on a very very light schedule. I had really wanted to climb to the summit of Fansipan (the highest peak in Indochina, at a not very high altitude of 3,143 metres) but when we first arrived we were told that no guides/tours were going up due to the holiday. We arrived on such a beautiful day and did not have much time to spare in Sapa. With a little pleading he managed to find a company with a guide willing to leave within 2 hours that day. So we hurriedly checked in, got our bag organized and went to explore the food options around Sappa. Unfortunately, I can't remember the company we ended up doing the hike with, they weren't particularly cheap but they weren't crazy expensive either. I suppose one has to be prepared to pay at least 90$ US per person for a two day trip. Unfortunately, they make it very difficult for one to hike the mountain without a guide. Our guide was a kid with an attitude. He clearly got told to be our guide without his consent. Although he didn't talk to us or even tell us his name, we kind of liked him. He was fast (great), he knew the way, and he cooked up some great meals. We left Sappa town at about 1:30pm. We had about a 30-40 minute scooter ride up the road to the entrance of the park and started walking at about 2:30pm. The trail began mostly in the forest with a couple view points here and there. We took a small break at the lower campsite after about 1 hour of hiking. After this campsite the views become more consistent and the brush turns into mainly bamboo. The trail goes up and down but mostly up for most of the way. Some parts are cut through the bamboo on a ridge which is kind of neat. We arrived into camp at about 5pm. Our guide made us a lovely dinner of mostly stir fried veggies, rice, and soup. The camp itself is a little bit of a wreck but has so much potential to be nice with a little bit of clean up. There is garbage hangin around and the cabin and surrounding areas need a little bit of maintenance. Although during the day it was warm, at night once the sun set  and the wind began howling it became very very cold at night. We met another couple on the hike but heading down the following day (we were still going up). The next morning we got woken up nice and early for breakfast. It took us about 1 hour to reach the summit. We enjoyed some boiled eggs and awesome views before we headed all the way back down into town. There was a little miscommunication with the guide and his company and caused for an awkward ending to the whole trip as noone was around to pick us up from the mountain top nor at the bottom to return the gear.... oh well....

The next couple of days the fog rolled in and we experienced a different kind of Sappa. We hiked into the valleys around Cat Cat Village and some other smaller minority villages... We didn't realize you were suppose to have a guide but we did a hike/run deal on our own and really enjoyed it and the authorities didn't seem to mind.

P.S. The market had the most amazing coffee...strong and sweet (condensed milk!)....we enjoyed all the french bakeries and food.... YUM!

Halong Bay
We booked the party tour through Hanoi Backpacker's Hostel. We went on the two day, 1 night cruise for 80$/person. We arrived into the train station in Hanoi at 5:30am and found our way through the maze of the a city by foot and gps arriving at the backpackers Hostel by 6am. We hung around until we could store our bags and went for a quick run around town before meeting the group at 7:30am to leave for Halong Bay. The group was a mix but most people were probably around 20 years old and were on the backpacker route through SE Asia. It was interesting to be in the type of surroundings where people drank from 9am until they passed out, puked or late into the next morning. Our crowd liked to drink! we were the odd ones out other than the group of south american ladies who also didn't drink more than a respectful "normal' amount! The food was great and they even made some special veggie food for me... Some fried taro, salads, fried rice, fried eggplant, and other good veggies. We also got to play in and on the water. We jumped in and swam to a little beach...it was nice to put some strokes in but I paid for it big time when I got out.... don't think I got warm again all evening despite wearing a hat, down jacket, furry outfit, etc etc..... it was worth it though... later we got to kayaking... the kayaks were in rough shape but noone sank thank goodness... we paddled through a cave and then got out and explored a bigger cave... pretty cool stuff in there.... too bad they didn't tell us to bring our headlamps:) We got off the boat, back on the bus and were back in Hanoi by 4pm.... I would recommend checking out Halong Bay if ever in the area....

Hanoi
Hanoi is a big bustling city. We went to visit Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum which was very cool and a little spooky at the same time. Everything was very orderly, the guards in white and keeping the crowds moving and in line. We walked around town a lot enjoying the old architecture, cafes, pho and spring rolls. We spent a day in a half in town and felt like that is just about the right time to enjoy it. We couldn't get into the water puppet show which is something I read about and I think would have been nice. We stayed at a hotel just across from the Backpackers Hostel.Close to everything, cheap and clean but the name escapes me at the moment. 

Bangkok and Pattaya, Thailand
  We arrived into Bangkok and missed the first bus to Pattaya... A little bit of a crazy Russian father and his superstar junior tennis pro daughter asked if we wanted to share a cab over.... we decided it was better than sitting in the airport for another 2 hours and getting in at 1am... so we agreed..... We arrived into Pattaya at about 10:30pm, just as walking street was getting crowded and exciting... Our hotel (Jasmine Hotel) was on a side street from the famous walking street of Pattaya.... This is NOT our scene but it sure was entertaining for one night. Tons of Russian tourists, specifically middle aged men with beer guts walking around with not so pretty, skinny thai prostitutes...hmm... we bought some drinks from 7 eleven and enjoyed the street entertainment for a couple of hours before calling it a night.
   The next morning we took a cab over to Amara Watersports where we met Craig and Amara who run the windsurf/SUP shop. We were getting some Starboard inflatable SUPs from them for future adventures. They happen to be getting ready to run a little SUP race at Jomtien Beach after a big windsurf competition to promote the sport. We ended up helping them out. If you are ever around Pattaya and want to go play in the water go check them out.
  We left Craig and Amara to head south so we could paddle around the Ko Samet, an island not far from Rayong. We arrived into Phe after a long tough to get cab ride there. We stayed at Christie's Pub/hotel... quaint and convenient. The next morning the rain came down and our motivation was a little low. We also started talking about an event Craig mentioned. A friend of his was paddling from Ko Lanta to Ko Phi Phi in a couple of days and wanted some more people to join him. I called him, and the next thing we knew we had booked flights from Bangkok for the following day. We were heading to Ko Lanta.... Change of plans!

Koh Lanta
Check out the SUP in Asia Page or the post below for all the fun SUP adventures we had over here. If you find yourself on this beautiful island check out Lanta Paddle Sports for water fun activities... Also if you need a place to stay, the  Noble House is a great resort! We also spent some nights at the Manun bungalows, cheap, clean, and basic...
I got paddle on the SUPs alot, taught some fitness classes on the SUP, learned to windsurf, we got to go caving, met some fantastic people, and Andrew got to drive a tuk tuk, jeep, and scooter! The food was awesome, the fruit smoothies and iced coffees delicious and basically we loved it there.

Guilin/Yangshuo, China
We arrived, we got ourselves to yangshuo, we cycled, we SUPed the Li River, we hiked, we cooked, we left.
We stayed at the Climbers Inn: lovely and helpful and I would recommend this hostel! We enjoyed Kaya's Bar with their great gin and tonics and friendly people, and the veggie claypot close to Climber's Inn a must for at least one dinner... we had 2 there! We learned to cook some awesome chinese food and woke up at 5am to beat the water police and get on the river with our SUPs. Unfortunately, the only bummer was that it was bloody freezing.... check out this cool town if you get a chance!










Hong Kong
We loved our time in Hong Kong! Thank you Russell Wong for connecting us with jeanette, a lovely and awesome ultra runner who then connected us to Olivier and Jerome from Team of Paris two hardcore athletes who showed us around the trails by mtn bike!
    We arrived by overnight train from Guilin into Shenzhen, China. Our train arrived about 11am. They made it fairly simple and straight forward to get off the train, through customs for Hong Kong and on the Hong Kong MTR which you can take to Kowloon and eventually Hong Kong Island. We were staying at the Lee Garden Guest House near Mirrador Mansions in Kowloon for the first three nights. The rooms were small but clean and comfortable.
   The next day we got picked up at 7am by Dani the driver and Olivier and Jerome (Team of Paris riders). They took us to Tai Mo Shan (the highest peak in Hong Kong) and we went DownHill Mountain biking. Olivier provided the bikes, the van, and was a fantastic teacher and guide. We managed to ride all the trails  that day. It was wonderful and I felt really good on the big bike!!!

  We had the next day to ourselves. We took the Star Ferry over to Hong Kong Island. We took the escalator up to the end and then ran/hiked up to Victoria Peak. Unfortunately it was a cloudy day and we couldn't see much of anything from the top. Regardless we ran around the trail and up to the peak. We returned to find some food and explore the hustle and bustle of central Hong Kong.
 The following day we met Jerome and Olivier again for a cross country moutnain bike/trail run adventure on Lantau Island. In Hong Kong you can only bring your bike on the slow ferry to Lantau. We got on the 10:30am ferry (Andrew and I borrowed bikes from Olivier: Thank you again!) and it took about 45 min to get across. Once we were across we had to head to Friendly Bike Shop to grab some helmets and then we were off. We rode on a paved path around the coast to get to the trails. It was beautiful so I didn't mind too much about the pavement. Once we arrived at the trail head we did two loops. We started off on a forbidden trail which was a nice fairly smooth single track up and then down. The second loop was the traditional cross country mtn bike ride and it had a bit of everything from rocks, stairs, smooth and fast, straight and windy, great views and in the forest... Really a fun trail! We said good bye to Olivier and the three of us dropped the bikes and headed out for an hour run on the trails. Jerome took us up to a peak (I was suffering a little on the steps... sooo many!) and then the trail had some flow of up and down. Again beautiful views and just so nice to be on trails again!

  We grabbed our bikes and had 30 minutes to ride back to catch the 3:30pm ferry back. We made it with 8 minutes to spare....phew. Once we were back on Hong Kong Island we enjoyed some refreshments with Olivier and had to move house to the east of the island at a hostel called the Y-Loft. The Y Loft is at the end of the metro line at Wai Chan. It is a great little hotel, modern, clean, big and part of a youth education square!
  The next morning we had a date with jeanette for a trail run along Dragon's Back and Shek-o trails. Again the weather did not really cooperate with us as we were supposed have some stunning views along this trail but instead enjoyed strong winds and dense fog! Despite the lack of views we really enjoyed running with Jeanette! The trail was varying and ended at Big Wave Bay Beach. After an hour or so of running we enjoyed some french toast and coffee and bid farewell to jeanette. We came back to Big Wave Bay later in the afternoon to enjoy a SUP surf session, our first on our Starboard Inflatable boards.

 We later met Jeanette in Central Hong Kong for some Mexican at iCaramba! Delicious....
  Friday it was time to leave but before we headed out Jeanetter told us about a fun little trail run from Causeway Bay to Stanley... It was about 1 hour minus the bus rides but gorgeous again. We went over the twin peaks and past some reservoirs! Stanley is a totally quaint town on the back side of Hong Kong!
 After our run we grabed our stuff and made our way back to Shenzhen via metro! About 2.5 hours from Wai Chan to Shenzhen Airport!

A lovely vacation of mountains, beach, cities, runs, bikes, paddles, and friendly folks!

live, love,laugh, DREAM!...

lina

SUP fun in the last month!

Koh Lanta to Koh Phi Phi 32km crossing, Thailand February 3rd, 2012

Ko Lanta to Phi Phi SUP crossing from Andrew Dye on Vimeo.

  In Pattaya, Thailand we helped Starboard Distributor and shop owners Craig and Amara from Amara Watersports put on a  team relay SUP race for the competitors of a windsurf competition that had just completed on Jomtien Beach. It was a great local event to get people familiar and excited about SUP. I was glad to be a part of this wonderful community event.

  A big thank you to Trident Sports for hooking us up with Amara Watersports and Craig in Pattaya so we could get a hold of inflatable starboard SUPs for adventures throughout Asia. While we were in Pattaya helping Craig and picking up two inflatable Starboard SUPs;  Craig got us in touch with Pete. Pete Compere, owner of Lanta Paddle Sports was preparing to be the first to paddle from Koh Lanta to Koh Phi Phi, a 32km crossing in the southern Thai islands. As Andrew and I didn't have much planned we couldn't say no to the opportunity in joining Pete on this awesome adventure. Within a couple of days we bought some plane tickets, stored our inflatables and most of our luggage in Bangkok and found ourselves at the Noble House Resort paddling with new friends at Lanta Paddle Sports.

We (Pete, Richard, Stefan, myself and Andrew) met at the Noble House Resort on  Klong Dao Beach. We enjoyed a buffet breakfast of scrambled eggs, toast, bacon, fruit, yogurt and coffee! After breakfast we loaded the Longtail boat that would follow us throughout the crossing with two boatmen and Andrew on board. We left the beach on Koh Lanta at 7:45am. We were all paddling on a Starboard Blend board (11'2" x 30"). These boards are not quick but they are stable and it meant we could all be on the same board for this inaugural event.
 As we left Koh Lanta there was a slight tail wind, the sun was shining and everyone was feeling great. On a clear day you can see Phi Phi island from Klong Dao Beach leaving you with your goal always in sight and on your mind. Leaving the beach you round the corner and follow the coast for a little ways before you have to turn towards the open ocean.
 As we reached the middle of the crossing the waves increased in size but all was still very manageable. Unfortunately, the waves were too many and too short to really get any kind of long downwind ride but some short little rides were plentiful throughout the paddle. As we neared Phi Phi island the increased boat traffic and slight changes in wind patterns due to the islands caused some funky cross waves to occur which caused some problems as people were getting tired and their legs were getting wobbly. Everyone did great and for most it was their longest paddle to date! I was very proud of the team as it is no small feat to paddle 32km in the open ocean! I felt strong and stable on the blend. I am so used to the race board I have been using the last year,  the Starboard New (12'6" x 23.5") that now any wider board feels ultra stable for me!

As we neared Phi Phi Island the shallow reefs and white sandy beaches proved to be a delightful sight and a great way to finish off the crossing! We completed the crossing in 4 hours 32minutes. We enjoyed a swim, a walk along the beach, some celebratory drinks and the 1.5 hour (perfect for a nap and reflection of the accomplishments and the paddle) long tail ride back to Koh Lanta. We received an applause, some medals and an unexpected welcoming party as we beached back on Koh Lanta in front of Lanta Paddle Sports Shop! This will be an exciting and beautiful open ocean race in the future.


Look out for this event in the near future. It promises to have it all! Check out the video below!



Above is a great video compiled by Pete Compere with photo and video credits from various friends and special thanks to Andrew Dye for video and photo during the crossing.

Phuket Gazette News
http://www.phuketgazette.net/archives/phuketsports/2012/article12361.html


Koh Lanta (Old town) to Koh Bubu and back February 6, 2012
Lanta Paddle Sports lent us 2 Starboard Blend (11'2 x 30") Boards and their jeep so we could head across the island to Lanta Old Town. We parked the jeep on the pier and headed off to Bubu island at about 11am. After an hour and fifteen minutes of paddling we landed on Bubu Island. Our paddle was flat with no wind. We paddled at a casual touring pace, stopping along the way for some pictures . The paddle from Lanta Old Town to Bubu island is about 6km. You pass by an island about 30 minutes into the paddle and paddle around the north point of this island, once you round the point you have a clear view of Bubu island. If you needed a break this island would be a great spot for a short stop over. It was about 45 minutes from this island to Bubu island.
Bubu island is a small quaint island with a sandy beach, some hammocks, a restaurant and some bungalows. We stopped in and had a great lunch of fried rice and thai curry for a reasonable price. It would totally be worth spending a night on the island as it has a great atmosphere of relaxation and peacefulness. However, we did not have time to spend the night so after some lunch we paddled around the island exploring the rocks, reef and fish below before making our way back to Koh Lanta. On the way home we had a very slight headwind but it did not cause us any delays.

A SUP paddle from Koh Lanta to Bubu island is a great way to spend a day or two in the area!

Li River SUP February 10, 2012


Li River Secret SUP from Andrew Dye on Vimeo.

I really wanted to paddle the Li River on our SUPs. This river is known for the extensive amount of bamboo raft and boat cruise tours. It is famous for the karsts surrounding the river.

To make a longish story short. We got on the Li river at 6:30am February 10th, 2012. We paddled for about an hour and then had to cut our paddle short and got off the river at about 7:30am. Water police, very cold weather, not very much time, and lack of good information were all factors in making this paddle very short without pictures. We have a small amount of video that we will post among other SUP adventures.

We used the Starboard Astro and Astro Whopper inflatable paddleboards. We thought these boards were good for this paddle as we could carry them to the river in the packs, pump them up at the edge and pack everything under the bungees at the front of the board. We brought one pump between the two of us. We used the attachable middle fin wich worked well and helped in mainataining alignment during our strokes. I look forward to paddling other rivers on these boards!

Hong Kong SUP Surf February 16, 2012


A small SUP adventure from Andrew Dye on Vimeo.

We took our Starboard inflatable Astro and Astro Whoppers on the metro, minibus and eventually to Big Wave Bay for a little SUP surfing session on Hong Kong island. The whopper proved to be easier to surf for my novice surfing abilities but the Astro with its longer bottom was much easier to paddle out through the break than the whopper but a little less stable on the waves(for me!). Overall though for portable, inflatable boards they have proved to be fun in the surf! I look forward to many more adventures in/on the waves with our starboard inflatable boards!

About to take the Starboard Inflatables on an adventure

Starboard

Lanta Paddle Sports

Tridents Sports

                                                           

   Amara Water Sports

Phuket Gazette: Koh Lanta to Koh Phi Phi SUP Crossing

Famous in Phuket!!! Hardly, but the crossing I was a part of on February 3rd 2012  (thank you to Lanta paddle Sports and owner Pete Compere) got some coverage and notice! Check it out!

http://www.phuketgazette.net/archives/phuketsports/2012/article12361.html


live, love, laugh,...DREAM!

VACATION VACATION VACATION!

Two more days and we are off for 4.5 weeks!
Andrew and I are planning to go hiking, mountainn biking, rock climbing, hopefully completing our SUP expedition CHINA and maybe a little rest here and there!We are going to see Yunnan and Guangxi provinces in China (maybe Hong Kong?!?), northern Vietnam and some of Thailand. We are trying to travel mostly by land but we had to sneak in a flight or two to make it all fit into 4.5 weeks.

I LOVE adventures!

live, love, laugh,...DREAM!
lina

Tiger Leaping Gorge: New Years

Tiger Leaping Gorge - New Year 2011/2012 from Andrew Dye on Vimeo.


New Years weekend was our first three day weekend in forever and we took advantage of it. We flew to Lijiang in Yunnan province (south west of Chongqing). We got the 9:30pm flight out of Chongqing which allowed us to take the bus from school and have some time for dinner in the city before heading to the airport. Elong is a great online travel agency for flights and hotels in China. The Olive Tree Inn which we booked through elong had a van waiting for us at the airport when we arrived. This was grand as it was close to midnight and Lijiang old town is a walking only very confusing place. The driver dropped us off right at the hotel all for a hassle free 80rmb. The hotel was quaint, our room simple but clean and free breakfast of Mantou, rice porridge, warm drink and fancy buns all for 90rmb. We decided not to wake up very early Saturday morning and rush to the bus to get to Quiatou early and begin the trek. We were tired from the week and didn't actually know where the bus station was and most importantly we wanted breakfast!

After breakfast we made our way to the "new bus station" south of old town and caught the 10am bus to Shangrila which let us get off at Quiatou! We arrived in Quiatou at about 12:30pm, had some lunch of expensive but tasty egg and noodles (tourist prices!) and then headed for the trail. We had to pay the 50rmb park entry fee and walked along the newly paved road until we saw the sign for the high way mountain hike! The turn off took us on a smaller paved road until you reach a guest house. We managed to miss the turn off the first time around but eventually Andrew figured it out and we got back on track. The trail is marked with red, green or yellow arrows found on rocks, tree trunks and buildings. The route is fairly obvious but at some intersections it is best to check twice to make sure you are still on the correct path. Luckily it was off season for hiking the Gorge and we happened to land the most beautiful weather without the masses of people! It felt like about 20C during the day in the sun and about 2 degrees at night. We manged to get to the Tea Horse Guest House at about 5pm and chose to call it a day there. The guest house had about 20 rooms. The more expensive rooms at about 120rmb had private washrooms and looked very nice. We opted for the cheaper rooms at 60rmb with public chinese (sans doors) washrooms. The washrooms were ghetto but the room was decent. The guest houses serve food as well. This guest house was run by the children and they cooked up a great meal for us of veggie curry and rice, naxi bread and tibetan tea. It was my first experience of Tibetan Tea... interesting taste..there is a lot of fat and oil and it fills you up quite quickly.... I finished my cup but won't be lining up for seconds too quickly.... We hit the sack nice and early as we were tired and wanted to wake before sunrise to start the trek under the stars in the morning!

Sunday morning we woke at 7am and were on the trails by 730am. We walked about 1 hour to the Halfway guest house and stopped in for breakfast. We had terribly made yunnan coffee and tasty fried noodles and rice. The Halfway guest house was quite cute but much bigger than the Tea Horse where we stayed. We continued down to Tina's Guest House by the low road, poked our heads in.. It is and International Hostel, nice but not quaint looking like the others. We paid our 10rmb fee and walked down the sky ladder to the Tiger Leaping Gorge Rock by the middle rapids. Took some pictures and then walked the Ray of Sunshine route out towards Walnut Grove. The Ray of Sunshine route also costs 10rmb. We managed to hit these sections before any other tourists and saw some folks heading down as we were heading out. We didn't see a soul until lunch at Woody's Guest House at the end of the trek. We took the lower less travelled route to get to Woody's and I have to admit we thought we were lost for a bit there as the track wasn't very worn in and we couldn't see where it was going to lead us. We managed to eventually climb back up and found ourselved in front of Woody's Guest House. Here we had to make the choice of taking the 4pm bus back to Lijiang or risking the unknown and head to Daju. We opted for the adventurous choice over lunch of interesting veggie pizzza, naxi sandwhich and some better but not great Yunnan coffee.

After lunch we walked along the road until we saw a flag for the ferry. It was a steep descent back down to the river. It was lucky timing as we saw folks walking down to the ferry from the other end! We hurried to what we thought was the ferry dock but as it turned out we were off by about 100m and had to find our own way down through the rocks. We managed to jump onto the ferry and enjoy the ride across the river. The gorge looked beautiful from the river view. I love having the opportunities to enjoy views from mountain peaks and the waters below. We got off the ferry (30rmb each: pricy but worth it) and had to climb back out of the gorge once again. Once we reached the top we were greeted by a long twisty paved road. The road was quiet and we just started walking. It was about 8km to Daju. Luckily for us about 2.5 km into the walk a nice local lady drove by, stopped and picked us up. She dropped us off at the Jinh Sha River hotel, run by an older chinese woman. The chinese woman was excited to have us and was kind and helpful. Our room was the cheapest yet at 50rmb but the shower and toilet situation was definitely rustic! We had a chilled out  evening taking pictures, eating freshly cooked chinese meals and enjoyed a walk around town. The wind was howling that evening and I was sure we would wake up without a roof over our heads. I was gladly proven wrong in the morning. We woke up nice and early to ensure we would catch the first bus (7am) back to Lijiang. The nice lady made us fresh mantos for breakfast and made sure we got on the bus (conveniently the bus stop was right in front of the hotel!).

The road out of town was twisty and high. We travelled over 3000m in altitude. Once at the top an unexpected surprise greeted us. We did not know we would be going through a national park and the guards wanted us to pay 185rmb each to drive through. Thankfully, we argued our way out of it and agreed not to get off the bus until we arrived in Lijiang. We drove through Yulong Mountain National Park.. pretty backdrop but very chinese in that they created a concrete resort with fake lakes and golf carts.... oh China!

Once in Lijiang we made our way through Old Town which is a maze of pedestrian only cobble streets, shops, restaurants, hotels etc.We hunted down an old lady carrying some tasty looking food and had an adventure trying to find door 88 The Restaurant from which the food came from. We managed to eventually find it, eat and then catch the airport shuttle back to the airport. Unfortunately, the adventure did not stop there, our plane landed two hours late which meant we missed the buses home from Chongqing. This mishap tested our bargaining skills as we had to agree on a price with a taxi cab to get us home... To finish this long tale, we made it home before midnight, relieved and beaming from the great weekend in the mountains!

more pictures here

live, love, laugh,...DREAM!
lina

Mud, bamboos, cliffs, bikes, crops....

I really felt like I needed and wanted to get out of Yongchuan this weekend. But as situation would have it, we stayed within running and biking distance of our home. At first I was terribly upset about not leaving the district but sitting here on Sunday evening,  I feel refreshed and pleased with a really great weekend.

Friday night I chose to take a day off of any real kind of working out. I had run short but hard throughout the week with some mini crossfit workouts thrown in and a lot of yoga. My legs were tired. We relaxed by cooking up dinner and chillin with friends  and listening to some Christmas tunes.

Saturday we slept in a little and got up just in time for morning yoga at the gym. The weather was pretty blah grey, wet, and cold (think vancouver winter after 6 days of rain and clouds....that was it). We got to yoga and noone else was there? Eventually two others showed up and we started class about 40 minutes late. We didn't mind, while we were waiting Andrew and I practiced some acro yoga, headstands, and some harder yoga holds. After yoga, we made some homemade breaky and fidled on the computer. Once we realized the weather wouldn't change,  we put on our running gear and got out on our dirt road trail up tea mountain. We got to the top and explored some random new dirt roads and trails on top and then headed back down in time for lunch.... we were out for about 3 hours! The dirt road tea mountain is one of my favorite long run routes we have found here. The dirt road was extremely muddy thanks to a week of non stop wet weather... The mud, the mist, the rain, the cool weather all made for a unique run up the mountain.

Sunday we enjoyed another lie in... We woke up to SUN! and so decided it would be a good day to get on the bikes. We went up the other ridge around town and headed for Cucumber mountain. Cucumber mountain is a part of the ridge where there are a lot of crops and vegetable farms. They are also building a hotel surrounding a typical man made smelly green looking small lake!?!? Oh CHINA... Once we explored the main area of the crops, we got off the bikes and went exploring around some of the trails. We found one trail that had a large amount of stone steps that took us down to a plateau, which then divided into several other trails. We picked one that took us deeper into this forested valley. Within the forest we took a less travelled path to try and find where the waterfall sounds were coming from. We managed to find a little creek with a cute little/mini waterfall... we enjoyed this little oasis among concrete everything, took some photos and eventually made our way back around and up to our bikes. Before heading home we stopped in the village and got some lunch and again we were the attraction of the hour for the locals... :)

After about 5 hours of adventures on bike and foot we found ourselves back home, showered and pleased about our finds and adventures

I now realize that we don't always have to leave Yongchuan to explore and find adventures. There is a ton to do just a run and bike ride away from home. We got to sleep in, cook our own food, sleep in our own bed, save money, and still have adventures that felt like we were miles away from the city. If we had gone somewhere on the bus or train this weekend we would have been there for a rainy Saturday and missed enjoying most of Sunday's beautiful weather due to travelling back to Yongchuan.... I have to learn to listen to Andrew more often:) To truly understand some life lessons, you have to learn for yourself through experience...


live, love, laugh,..DREAM!

lina

Cycling to the Dazu Rock Carvings

After discovering the ease of camping anywhere in China last weekend. Andrew and I made a plan to cycle to one of the main tourist attractions in the province of Chongqing. The Dazu rock carvings are found in several sites around the province but the most famous sections of carvings are found 15km northeast of the town of Dazu on Boading Mountain.

Saturday morning we enjoyed a little lie in. As we were getting ourselves prepared for our bike tour, our first adventure of the weekend was an unexpected power outage at 8:30am. Lucky for us our stove tops still worked for our regular eggs, potatoes, veggie scrambles and the elevators were still functioning. We live on the 23 floor and it would have been a long walk down with packed paniers and heavy bikes...

We departed our apartment in Yongchuan at about 9:30am. It is about a 25km cycle to a town called Youting. Nothing too exciting to report about the town other than it was where we needed to catch the road north to head to Dazu. The road from Yongchuan to Youting was the old highway basically paralleling the new toll expressway. It had some scenic farmland, rolling crop terrain, enough twists, turns, and hills to keep it interesting, and wasn't too full of black fumed trucks.

From Youting to Dazu the road is fairly flat and straight with lots of small shops and farm homes. There is no shoulder but the cars are used to people walking and slow scooters on the street; big vehicles honk and just go around you. It took us about 3 hours to get to Dazu. We found the center of town and had some hot noodles for lunch, the man serving us was very friendly and of course curious about us and our bikes. It is about another 12km to Boading mountain. The cycle from Dazu to Boading was pretty along a two lane road. The last 3.5km was the toughest climb of the day but still nothing too harsh. About 400m before the gates we had spotted a potential camp spot by the highway across from some buddhas.

Boading is a little village in itself created for tourists as it is full of tourists shops and restaurants. December 1st is the beginning of low season and the ticket prices are cheaper. It was 90RMB for visiting the rock carvings and another 10 to look at a temple.
 A problem with bike touring is that the paniers are not designed to be carried when not attached to a bike. Our paniers were full and heavy and we did not want to leave them on our bikes nor did we want to carry them with us. Dilemma! Our first attempt at asking to store our paniers we received a very firm NO...then eventually after numerous attempts of asking people a very nice woman working with decent english allowed us to stash our paniers by the ticket booth! Hooray!

The rock carvings are very cool. There are large and small carvings, some in caves, some in color, some with broken off faces and some in a newer state. We thought it was something different and worth seeing for us! After checking out the carvings and temples, we perused the tourist shops and had some noodles and dumplings for an early dinner. There was no bubble tea to be found so we settled for a tea house and some green tea.

About 5:30pm we were tired and dusk was setting in so we were back on our bikes and back to the spot we saw earlier. On our way Andrew spotted some typical chinese steps on top of the buddha cliff. We parked our bikes and went to check it out. We found a sweet little spot free of vegetable growth on top of the buddha cliff. We tried to sneak our bike and sacks up but we think we were spotted by an old lady across the street.

We set up camp, and enjoyed the scenery and serenity of the place until dark fell upon us. We went to sleep nice and early and quietly. Unfortunately, for us it rained pretty solidly throughout the night. We stayed dry but it is a good thing we were only camping for one night as our tent and sleeping mats got soaked! As we packed up and headed down the cliff at about 7:30am in the dark mist an old man across the street up for his early morning smoke came over and seemed confused. We tried to smile and act nice but really could not communicate. We escaped on our bikes and rode away in the mist and down the mountain towards Dazu for breakfast. We made it back to Yongchuan, wet, dirty and smiling in time for lunch!

Having two days of about 4 hours of riding has been nice. We have been keeping fit but haven't been doing long days of activity lately and it is nice to know we haven't lost too much of our ultra endurance fitness as it is my favorite kind!

MORE PICS HERE
live, love, laugh,...DREAM!
lina