China Romance
All About China => Your trip to China => Topic started by: daghoi on May 25, 2010, 05:36:51 pm
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I have enjoyed reading the travel reports at the site. So I decided to do a little write up from my recent travel, just back yesterday. I may warn you, it was not that eventful, and it might be more of a travel report than a love story.
This was my third visit to China so I felt relaxed about what to see and what to expect. My first visit was last winter when I travelled to Guangzhou to meet a woman that I had been writing to through Chnlove, for a period for 3-4 months. I covered it briefly at the Facebook pages. Short version is that it probably was the same woman that I thought that I wrote to, but she had no clue about who I was and what “we” had shared, even though I had received quite a few “real life” pictures. She was more nervous and out of place than me, so I just ended that quickly. Luckily I had looked into things to do if something like this happened. I travelled to Li River and Shanghai, had a great time, totally amazed on what I saw. When I left I knew I had to come back to see more of the country, no matter if I had a woman to meet or not. During the summer I wrote to a couple of women through a paying dating site. Since I had a few vacation days transferred from the year before and Finnair had a promotion on flights to Beijing. I left for Beijing in august (2009) for sightseeing and more..It was a nice vacation and I met a girl that was nice and we got along well, but nothing more. We continued to exchange emails and this winter I asked her if she would spend some time with me if I visited here again in the spring. Her answered was positive and we discussed some travel plans during the winter.
29th of april I left from Oslo to Beijing, when I arrived in Beijing on the morning on the 30th she waited for me at the arrival as she had promised. We recognized each other straight of way and after the usual polite greetings and hugs we took a taxi to the hotel. The hotel was convenient located close to the metro in the Sanlitun area. She helped me check inn and followed me to the rom and made sure that things was ok. After that she left for work and I showered and tried to get some sleep. When thing calmed down and I tried to sleep I realized that it had been smoked in the room. So down to the reception and ask for a non smoking room again, none available until next day. After the rest I took a walk in the area. It was quite nice area, several embassies’ in the area, included the Norwegian embassy. A very nice shopping area, 3:3 I think it was called, with a lot of brand name stores close by. The Bar Street was like 4 minutes away.
After she was finished at work we met up in the evening for a meal and more chatting to get to know each other more. Saturday we met at her place and made the final plans for the travel, we ended up with the following plans: Xishuangbanna, LiJiang Luku Lake and Shangri La. Ordered airline tickets for the first half of the trip. Very efficient as we all know, they were delivered at the door a couple of hours after she called and ordered them. The delivery guy called her while we were out for dinner and she told him that she could not make it back. None problem he could just wait and come later. Thinking of how things are back home if you have something delivered at the door. You better be at home whenever the delivery appears or you never know when they will find time to get to your house again. Rest of the weekend passed buy without any particular event. More eating and a few walks and some more get to know talk.
Already on Tuesday she had to leave for an out of town conference. Since we were leaving the following Sunday, she suggested that I could stay in her apartment when she was back from the conference, then it would be more efficient when we were leaving for the airport.
My employer had been flexible and allowed to work remotely from Beijing this week. So I spent the mornings out walking and sightseeing, one day I did a run through Forbidden City. I did visit the place last year, but then my camera was in my suitcase, which was delayed by the airline. So I wanted to do it again with my camera. Some pictures from that day are already on the web site.
Finally the Saturday arrived and I could move out of the hotel and take my bag on the metro and find my way to her place. Before that I had to check out of the hotel that turned out to be a test of patience. First I had a long discussion about some things that they I had deliver to my room, without me asking, so I thought that it was complimentary. It costed 20 Rmb so after a while I did not bother to argue more about it. While we had this discussion going they checked the room as the always do. Then I was asked to go to the room with two of the hotel staff. When we get there on of them point out some minor scratches on the wall above the pillow. They were almost impossible to see without the light from the right angel. Said that they had not been there the day before and I must have med them with a pencil! I almost had a heart attack and did not know what to say. I just said that this is ridiculous and this is nothing to discuss. Then I left the room and they followed me and asked if I did it, and I said no. Luckily this was the end of it, but I will definitely not recommend this place or stay here again. After the commotion it was good to walk out on the street and towards the metro. During the first week I had a very sore throat, probably due to AC, at this time it had changed to cold with a blocked nose.
When I arrived at her place it was introduced to her roommate. And shortly after it was out eating more, somebody see a pattern here ;) When we got back to her apartment we packed our backpacks for the trip and she made the sofa for me so I could sleep there.
Next morning we took a taxi for Beijing airport to get the morning plane to Xishuangbanna. This would be the first time this girl excelled. She travels regularly to the airport so she knows the fastest way to get there. This taxi driver did not take off the highway at the correct point and drove us into very slow traffic. Then the discussion started, in mandarin off course, words came in a speed and manner that I had not heard from her before. Then she asks me if we shall stop and change the taxi. I can only say that it is up to her, I do not know how bad it is and how much time we can except to use to the airport in this traffic. More hard words are exchanged in mandarin and the taxi takes off at the first exit, it still continues for a while, and shortly after the taxi comes to a stop and out we get. There is immediately a new taxi there and I waive it down, and from here it is a smooth ride to the airport. When we get there we check our bags and find our plane, first stop is Kunming where we have a 4 hours wait for our next plane, which will bring us to Xishuangbanna/Jinghong. After we have landed in we check with information what we can do for a few hours in Kunming. They give us two options, one is a flower marked the other one is a food street. Off course we choose the food street. We store our bags and get on the bus to this food street. It is only two stops from the airport, but without her speaking mandarin I would never made it there. When we get there it is very little going on, to early in the day it appear. We walk there and there is some traffic and other people walking there. To make sure we not lose each other we both find it convenient to hold hands, feels pretty good. We walk as long as the street are and stop for some food at the restaurant there. As so many times before she orders and picks out the food. We eat it with the ever present tea. After the meal we walk the same way back and now the street really start to come to live. Many food stalls have come up in the road and lot of different food are prepared and sold, together with products of dubious origin (copy products). We made our way back to the airport and get on the plane to Xishuangbanna/Jinghong. I still struggle with a strong cold, and by the time we arrive in Jinghong I have a light fever. Since we had booked the hotel there through Elong, the hotel offered a complementary pick up service which we had taken up on. We was picked up by a nice guy, very outgoing and chatty. Off course he offers his services to us for the next day, he offers to drives us to the sights we have planned to see. We get his card and take accept his offer. After we have checked in at the hotel. My girlfriend check out more about his offer and things we want to see. Make a phone call to a friend and we learn that we might want to do things in a different way. She calls the driver around 23:00 in the evening and call him off.
To be continued
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To be continued ??? What without a time/date ... when ? :'(
just have to read the first part all over again til part two is on it's way . :-\
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Patience grasshopper. Good things come to those who wait. Good story so far. Thanks for sharing.
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Very interesting daghoi, nice detailed account! Your description of the light fever is very much like what I got last two times in Guangzhou during cold spells. I always seem to get a light cold in China when it in a cold damp area. I guess its something to do with the lack of heating ??, yet i never ever get sick at home.
I'm really looking forward to reading about the rest of your trip!
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Great story Daghoi. Glad you were holding hands so you didn't "get lost" (wink wink)
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Great story. Can't wait for the next installment. But I see a pattern developing. Why does everyone who report about their trip leave everyone hanging for the next installment?
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Thanks for the feedback, here is how thing unfold the next days. I realize this is a good “exercise” to me; it will help me with remembering details about the trip. Bear over with me if I add some details that may not make sense for you. I was not able to add this to my first post, so i just continues with a new one.
We have a good night sleep in our twin bed’s. It’s Monday morning (may 10) I had heard her snore like she promised; she pretty much snored as a guy. During the night I had turned up the AC to keep the room a bit warmer, she was not that happy with that, just a brief mention of it. Jinghong is a tropical area, close to the Vietnamese boarder. I felt better from the cold, but still far from good. We went out in the hotel garden and had good fun of the warning signs on the coconut palms. To my surprise we laughed pretty good of that, like two old friends who have same kind of humor. “Stay away, nuts may fall in your head”, with a picture of a matchstick man getting a coconut in the head. Picture will come. Shortly after we are off to the lobby and she talks to the receptionist about how to find the local bus station. The plan for the day is to visit a small village called Menghan and se the Dai minority park. This turns out to be like a 1 hour bus drive from Jinghong. Receptionist call for a taxi for us, which takes us to the bus station always surprise how affordable it is to use taxis in China. Took like 10-15 minutes in traffic and I think I payed something like 5-7 rmb. ( approx 1 usd/ 1€). As we all know when you is on a western European salary it is a very small amount. After buying the bus ticket, did some people watching, like checking out the one legged taxi driver, and visiting almost every stall there for water and snack from the right brand. We entered the bus, which as often before it was more like a minibus or a van. We got a pretty good seat just behind the driver so we could see how the traffic unfolded in front off. Jinghong is not that big city and as we moved out of the center the traffic got soon lesser. To me it was much to see and I like to watch around me and see all the small everyday activities. Like that small health clinic gave IV drip on the pavement, about 2 meters from where the diesel fuelled buses and truck’s drove buy. There the moms sat with the small children which got their IV drip. Always fun to watch the “scooter” driving. Not much there surprise me anymore, but this time I had two look twice. They were only two on the scooter, but I can swear that the girlfriend had a nap on her boyfriend shoulder while he was driving. She was so relaxed leaning forward on his back, talk about trust. Later the bus came to a stop for no obvious reason, next to the bust stood a small engine, no one to see. The driver just sat there silent. A little further in front of us a guy sat with his meal and bear, gave a short signal to the driver, emptied the bear and started to walk over to the bus. Then the small guy lifted this engine inside the bus and placed it next to my seat. We soon left the city and drove over the Lancang river. (Lancang river is called Mekong when running into Vietnam). As mentioned before this tropical area, almost like Thailand. We drove through a very green and lush area, small farm houses close to the roads. Pigs and chickens were walking roadside, rubber tree, nice view to the big river, a bit exotic for us western people. After on hours we drove into the little city of Menghan, bus drives into the little bus terminal. Then private “enterprise” shows itself again. Driver turns to us and says something in mandarin, get an answer, everybody els get off. Eventual I have to ask if this is our stop. My girlfriend smiles and says to me that the bus driver will drive us to the Dai Minority Park in the bus, for the cost of 4 rmb we are taken directly to the village/park.
After we have left the bus there she starts looking at the price list for entering the village/park. A little on the pricey side according to her, (90 rmb) and all it is to walk around and look at houses and look at people. To be honest I like it when she thinks about the cost and if it gives us value for money. Then the cell phone appears again and she calls her friend which has travelled a lot and is a trained guide. A few minutes later I basically get the message that it is not worth the money, lets go for a walk in Menghan itself. So we start to walk back were we came from. A small sleepy village, almost none Han Chinese, mostly people of Thai, Burmese origin. After a while we find a small restaurant which she thinks is good. Menu is off course in mandarin only. So she orders something to eat for us, since the restaurant has no electricity for the moment not all the choices are available. Some fried rice and vegetable are orders + something that is on all tables, think it was mango with chili pepper. It tasted pretty good in the heat, but a few minutes later it really started to burn and I broke more sweat in the heat, to great amusement off course :)
After the meal we walked further in this village, looked at the thai houses and checked out a couple of small shops. In the end she finds a small shop where she buys us fresh coconut, which we drink with a straw. I get to sit in the only chair in front of the “counter” she makes her self comfortable on a small stool. We sit there for a while and she chats with the couple that run’s the small shop. I start to learn what a great people person she is. The couple tells about their life and I get it translated in English. This is something I get spoiled with during to weeks of travelling. She get the people to talk and she always have the patience to translate it to me and translate my questions again. The people running the shop is from Sichuan and had settled in Menghan due to the nice climate and that it was easier to make a living there. It is a small shop and for the time we sit there they only sell two more coconut to some local. So not much business, but as they tell us that they make it ok, they have what they need. They also tell us that they have sent away their only daughter to live with her aunt in Sichuan, since the school system is better there. So they only get to see her once or twice a year. Sitting there in very simple surroundings and with these happy smiling people make you think. We come from reach “west” and are never happy with all the things we have…..
After an “educational” hour or so we find our way back to the bus station and get on the bus back to Jinghong. The bus fills up and one of the last guys entering is a middle age guy with a suite, pc bag and a small bag. To my surprise the bag makes noises, it turns out that it contains chickens. It is placed under my seat and the guy light’s a smoke. Smoking and spitting are among the things I never get used to in China. This poor guys must have a serious problems, he pretty much smoke all the time back to Jinghong. Several people try to give him the evil eye, but he continues to smoke all the time. When he finally leaves the bus he manages to leave the burning cigarette inside bus. We get off the bus and start to walk around in Jinghong. There are a lot of fruit around and we start to talk about that. I like to sample different fruit and she really want to taste something called Jacks Fruit. She used to have this a lot when she lived in Singapore. Finally she finds a place selling this, after some negotiating they agree on the price and the fruit is opened and tasted. It turn out that it is not ripe, “discussion” starts and I can just stand there while these to woman have a go at each other (verbally). Aggressive mandarin is talked and I get some instructions in English, not to taste if offered etc. This goes on for some time. The fruit was not ripe and the seller refused to admit it. As we walk away I dare to say to my girlfriend. “Remember me that I shall never get you angry” to my surprise the answer is “..no, you better not..!.” Not the answer I expected, but I did not read much into it.
After some time we find our way to a nice little park and promenade along Lancang river. We sit there and chat and enjoy the warm evening sun and view to the river. After some discussion we agree that we shall try to change our flight ticket to LiJiang so that we already leave the next day. Several phone calls later it turns out that we have to pay a fee to change the ticket and that we have to do that in bank. We make our way back to the hotel shower and walk out for dinner. After asking around we find our way to a area with some restaurant. I love the way these girls are not afraid to ask for direction and information. We walked down the street where the restaurant’s was and there are 3 or 4 outdoor type of restaurant’s beside each other. There is only one that is almost full the other has pretty much none customer. So it is an easy choice, we find us a table at the one that is practically full. Go over to the table were the food is placed, are handed a plastic basket and together we pick our food, hand it over to be cooked. I ordered an excellent fresh squeezed lemon jucie, tasted really well that warm night. Also had a beer and some tea no “rules” here, just drink what you desire. Think we paid something like 80/90 rmb, we had the drinks mentioned and 3-4 different courses that we shared. It was a very nice night, people sang and it was warm and nice, relaxed atmosphere. After that we walked back to the hotel.
Tuesday morning it is off to the bank to pay the fee for the ticket change. That turned out very difficult, after she paid, it required a lot off phone calls and argument before the airline “found” our payment and made our new ticket available. This took us 3-4 hours and two visits to the bank; the bank was very helpful though. We have a afternoon flight and while waiting for the flight we took new walk around. We found new fruit marked where they had the infamous Jack Fruit this time it is a young guy selling. He has one opened and offer us a taste before buying. They fruit is ripe and are accepted. I think it tastes a bit sweet with a kind of rubber consistence, but still good. We stand there and chat with the seller, off course she does, I eat. Then we walk away a few minutes later we ask each other “did you pay the guy ?” both say no. On the way out of the marked we find the seller again and ask him if we paid, he says yes. I’m still pretty sure we never paid this guy.
Time for the plane is approaching so we go back to the hotel and get our bags out of storage there. We do have the complementary transport to the airport and we claimed that. This arrived on time, I recognize the car. The driver never leaves that front seat he sends the bell boy for us. Off course is the same guy that picked us up, not so happy and chatty this time. Basically pretty pissed. After some problem with the trunk he asks us to leave the bags in the front seat and we get in, he hit the pedal to the metal and drives like hell. Not a word is said, just a grim face, we look at each other and giggle discrete. We reach the airport in record time ! We check our bags and get something to eat. We had such a good talk that we almost were too late to the security. This is a very small airport and when we finally approached the security check I hear something yelled in mandarin, my girlfriend smiles and tells me that they just shouted that the two last one is coming so not close yet ! We enter the plane and are on our way to LiJiang.
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Great post!
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I am really enjoying your trip log!
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Ahh yes , two of the first things I learned in China . These People are mostly Happy , no matter how poor they are . They make the best of what they have and not cry what they don't . Also , they DON"T let themselves get cheated on anything to do with Money . That's a big plus with most of these Women .
Thanks for sharing this very detailed Story with us , good read and happy for you to experience part of everyday Life with your Lady . Enjoy the rest of your Stay .
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Here is some more from my travel in may. May 11th we arrive in LiJiang and from the airport we drove through some very nice scenery. It was starting to get dark when we arrived in the Lijiang (old city). We walked down from between the narrow streets among a lot of people. A lot of old fashioned traditional Chinese houses. Today most of the old houses are shops and restaurant catering for tourist. Few western tourists find the way here.
We find our way to the hostel she had picked out. At this time I started to be very tired and not feeling that well. I kind of just was there and tried to be polite and not too much of a grumpy travel companion. At the hostel we find our rooms, but she is not to happy with it. We have a window out towards one of the streets we hear very god when people are walking by. I just want to go sleep, but she head down to the reception again and soon I have to move all our bags down one floor into a new room. I was not that happy with the new room, it was one of those “basement” rooms. No window and a little damp, since I’m in need for rest I do not say anything; I can sleep there a night or two.
Next morning we walk around in the old city. It has it qualities, those traditional houses and cobblestone covered roads, all pedestrian off course, but there are a lot of tourists walking around. At the square there are traditional dances shown etc. I think two days is sufficient here, but I get to stay more it turn outs. After we have had a look at the city we head back to the hostel to wash some clothes discuss travel plans.
I still struggle with that cold and by now it has settled as a sinusitis. I have had this a few time during the years and I can easily recognize it. I explain to her about this, but to my surprise she has pretty much no clue about this. (Must add she speak excellent English, better than me). I use Google translate to translate this to mandarin, but she just briefly get it. I say that I probably need some medication to et read of this. After some time we head off to a pharmacy, try to explain the same there, but the guy seems not to understand very well and all the medication he suggested are with mandarin text only. So I’m not comfortable buying anything there and give up this attempt. I try to make the best of it, but spend the next hours sleeping and lying in my bed. Next morning I do get up and do some sightseeing with her, but feel really lousy. I have no appetite and in the evening when I try to eat I only manage to get down a few small pieces and the oily stuff at the table make me feel like vomit (sorry for poor chose of words). I have to excuse myself and go back to the hotel just a few minutes after the food come to the table. This turn out to be a kind of turning point for us. I’m lying in bed and doze off and thinking briefly that it took some time before she came back. Not sure after how long time, but suddenly it is like the door is thrown open and she almost run’s into the room. I’m kind if dizzy and really not understand what going on. Then she tells me with a big smile we have to get me on antibiotics. Since she come back to the hostel she has spent the time online and reading about my condition. She tells me all about the “effects” the sinusitis, headache, fever, aching in muscles and even that you can get “grumpy” she says with a smile, like that explained something for her…. She had spoke with the hostel and there was to hospitals in the city, one in the new city and one in the old city. She asks where I want to go and that we can go straight away. I tell her that we can get some rest and go tomorrow morning. She tuck me in and tell me that I need a lot of rest to recover, she is like totally changed, from almost no interest when I tried to explain to now, a lot of empathy and she do not what good she can do for me. We have a little moment here, she comfort me and we somehow start to share from her life. How this reminds her about when her grandmother took care of her. (She grew up with the grandmother for most of her time). We share some good and not so good experiences from our life’s. It get a bit emotional at a point. :D
Next morning around nine we are at the “hospital” in the old city. I do feel better, but are a bit concerned to be honest. Good thing we get very easy access to a doctor, not sure if a Chinese person in Norway would get as easy access to a doctor as I did here. Pretty much just walked in from the street and into the doctor’s office. A female doctor in mid 50 I would guess, speak none English so good I have translator. Explain what going on and she looks down the throat and after a few minutes she confirm what’s going on. My girlfriend translates and tells that I need the antibiotic, strong inflammation in the “airways” etc. She also tell’s me that the doctor want to give me the antibiotic through IV….This is all new for me and im kind of hesitate, ask if I can get the tablet cure which I are more used. After the translation I kind see that the doctor is kind if impatient. I get explained that all needles are disposal all clean etc and that it is so strong inflammation that a tablet cure may take more than 10 days. So I eventual give in and accept the IV treatment. Get the prescription, all mandarin, feel very out of place. The place look kind of worn down, but reasonable clean, staff working there are look all clean. We go to the counter and pick up the medicine, get the shot to test for allergy for antibiotics. Sometime later I sit there and with my IV drip and my nodding and smiling to the other people there. Girlfriend chatting and translate what kind of diseases they all have. When they are finished they all smile and say “bye bye” to me, like some old friends. All kind of bizarre. Soon my girlfriend runs out to pick up the other tablets the doctor prescribed leaving me there all alone. She gets back and some two hours after we started I can walk out in the street again. I’m due in again the next morning and are ordered to take tablest three times a day for the next week or so. We walk slowly back to the hostel and check out, I get to choose where to have lunch ! I chose a western style restaurant and lucky enough I get a pretty goo chicken garlic sandwich, just what I needed at the time. So off course we take it easy for the rest of the day, changes hotel room, get a good deal on a spacious room with view over the old city. The room price went from 450,- to 200,- with very little effort and I short time. Even my girlfriend laughed and said she did not believe how easy that went.
When we arrive for my next treatment morning after we are approached by one of the touts sell guided tours. To my surprise girlfriend is interested and start talking to him. After some time we have to go to inside the hospital and agree to talk with him later. Almost two hours later when we leave he is still hanging around outside!
After some negation we agree on a price for a half day trip, to visit Lashi Lake, the frescos of Baisha and the village called Qiaotou which is similar to Lijiang a bit less crowded. We walk out of the old city with him and are met by his wife on a small van. They both drive us to Lashi Lake where we are presented with option for horseback riding and other activities. The presented prices are very steep so we pretty much go back to the car straight of way. Off course this tout was afraid losing his kickback. So the price dropped in an impressing rate. At the end we did buy a short trip which was very good. We got an excellent guide, very friendly and talkative man. The scenery was nice green, on small patches it was cultivated different vegetables, nice view to the lake and the surrounding mountain framed it nicely in. When we got back from the horseback riding the tout was gone. The wife still there and she tell us that he had to leave to pick up somebody at the airport. We drove to the see the frescos at Baisha, not much to see tough. As soon as we are finished there we understand that the time is running short, we did use some extra time on the horseback so it was partial our fault. The driver suggests she shows us the “backdoor” into Qiaotou so we do not have to pay the entrance fee. Then she also says that she will refund us what a bus back to Lijiang will cost us. With that the negotiation starts again. Girlfriend tells the driver that we check the transport cost when we get inside the village. When we get there she stops a random person working there and start to ask her. After some time and a growing unhappy face on the driver, money exchange, hands and we are on our one. I think the driver almost lost half of the price we agreed on to start with! After some walking and dinner in Qiaotu we find a minivan and heading back to Lijiang. Since we shared it with other we did only pay like 4-5 rmb for the 30 minutes drive back. That was much less then we got refunded by the unlucky driver.
We arrived back at the hotel around 21:00 tired and happy after a nice day out. Then we start to talk about going to Lugu Lake. Which is a place my girlfriend wanted to visit from we started to talk about travelling. It is place where they still practice “walking marriage” and it is a matriarchal society. (I will live it to the reader to do a google search if you like to find out more about this). After some investigating it turn outs that the road there is closed most of the day due to road work. In the end we buy in on a bus that starts 05:30 next morning. So we pack our bags and go to sleep to try to make a early start next morning.
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Daghoi , very entertaining report like being right there with you .It must be aweful in a different Country and getting sick and rely on other People to make the choice for you what to give you . Most of the time it will help ... if they KNOW what the heck one has that is . haha
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Like Arnold wrote...its like being there with you. Great report!
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It is Sunday morning here and I have time to write about my next stage and visit to Lugu Lake. I have created a couple of albums from the trip, you are welcome to have a look in the medi section. Album Yunnan and Yunnan II.
It is early Saturday morning (15th of may) in LiJiang and the time is approaching 05:30. We are standing at the meeting point where we should meet our bus driver. No one there and when we call the number we have been given we are told that he is not the driver, but soon he will get the correct driver for us. After a little while we are picked up by a “guide” and we walk towards the bus which is parked a few hundred meters away. I think it is a little unorganized, but decided to not to start the day with complaining.
We get to the bust and of course it is one of those 19 seater small busses. We see the other people of the group and they are all Chinese off course and appear younger than I first excepted. I would guess most are in their twenties all couples. The next few days this turn out to be a friendly group. Since the bus is not full we are told to throw the bags at the back of the bus and we find our seat just behind the driver. A good thing for me then I can stretch my legs a bit more. While we sit there we realize we hardly have anything to eat. We are excpected to get to Lugu Lake around 14:00. So im a little concerned about this. I also notice that there are something going in front of the bus. Some kind go argument are finding place. Off course im used to Chinese people talking loud, but this has that extra aggressive tone it it. Three/four men are standing there and exchanging words. As this is happening a woman boards (the” guide”) the bus and start to collect the receipts. Suddenly the smallest (!) of the men arguing is leaving the group. With a very aggressive body language he jumps into the driving seat. Smoking and coursing, slam the door very hard. Start the engine and hit full speed into the quite city street. My girlfriend complains about the smoking and get a very rude answer “that this is his bus, and he does what he like” ! I know he does not understand, but tell him not to smoke in the bus. A few seconds later the “guide” give him a real lesson in mandarin and the cigarette goes out the window. If possible the driving get even more aggressive. At a gas station we pull over and top of the tank, after that we drive back the same way we come from, passes the pickup point and heads out on the main road. It is a nice morning it is getting down and the beautiful light we may see in the morning is appearing. Local people are driving to work in their scooter and among the morning mist. I can see the people start the work in the field. It is very nice if it was not for me holding on to my life! This guy takes the price. After some time the road get steep and the engine is not that powerful, so things calms down. As mentioned we are driving through some nice scenery. Wish I was capable to capture it on the photo, but they look so plain and flat. Suddenly we find ourselv on a top of a mountain pass. I look down the mountain side and im really impressed. What a view, far down there I can see the Yangtze and I can hardly even see the road down there. Not sure how far down it is, but it is a very impressive canyon. The driver start to descend and to my little fear he never change gear on the way down. Just the break, all the time. This might be the first time im concerned about our safety during my travel in China. The driver is also signing a little song, according to my girlfriend this is some kind of traditional Tibetan love song. During the same day we drove by 4-5 mountains passes and each time the driver start to sing this song as we start to go down. After we are at the bottom of the canyon and cross the river we start to ascend straight away. The we drive to the road that is under construction. For a long time we almost drive at walking speed. Bumps and holes, meeting construction vehicles etc etc. It does not matter that much to me because I just sit and are marveled by the mountain and the terrain. After we had been on the road for two hours or so we stop for a pee and snack break. 15 minutes later the bus driver herds us back into the bus. From then on he is everybody favorite bus driver, special the woman’s ! Some kind of magic happened the last hours or so. He is totally changed and turns out to be good entertainer and ladies man. From driver seat he tells jokes/stories and more singing. He must love to sing, because this goes on and on. The woman in the bus loves his singing and asks for encore all the time. He loves the attention and are happy to sing even more. At the end of the trip he tries to use the onboard speaker system. To me it appear that he has turned on some speaker that is outside the bus, because the sound has that distinct sound like when you hear it through a door/wall etc. I can only imagine how this look from outside. Some people roadside most have a good laugh to.
The drive continues and the landscape change. It is still canyon and mountain tops, but greener and trees. Around 1 pm we have our first stop at a restaurant at Lugu Lake. It is a very happy group that leaves the bus, the driver is still doing he one man shows. Big change from the morning when we all wanted to kick him out of the bus, to now when all want him to sit down at the table with us.
He take some interest in me, but he speak none English so it is hard to communicate. I’m invited to pick out the fish that we shall have for lunch. So I head down to a big tank were they keep the fish. Catch a couple of them with a net, and the cook grab them and have them opened and cleaned in seconds. We had a nice lunch; I love this kind of food. Fresh vegetable and fish easy to eat and the surrounding make it taste even better. The group is starting to get know each other and there is a lot of talking going on, exchange of travelling experiences. My girlfriend has to update them on me. Were I’m from and how long I have been in china. Since this is an area that does not see that many western tourist she has to answer this question’s a lot. She jokes that I shall start to wear a sign so she does not have to explain this. I do think she kind of like to answer these questions though.
As always my girlfriend is way ahead of me. We had only bought the bus trip to get to Lugu Lake. During the day she has figured out that this was a ok group to be a part, and the program for the rest of the day was something we should participate in. So she has bought us in on this, do not know when that happened. So she tells me with a smile that it will be some time before we can look for a hotel, because…. First it is this boat trip on the Lake and then we shall drive around it with stops at viewpoint. Later it is visit and food at the drivers farm and in the end we will see local dances.
After lunch we head down to the lake and gather around some long boats. We are all placed in one of them and the driver is accompanied by a local man. Which will do the rowing together with the driver? This local man in the middle of the boat and the driver at the back of the boat. When we just have started the woman start to request songs ! They start to complain that they can not row and sign at the same time. Off course the woman shows no mercy, and they start to sing. It is some wind so it is hard work for them. The driver soon leaves the roving and focus o sighing and this cute single girl that has found her place next to him. Eventual we land on a small island in the middle of the lake, with a small Buddhist temple off. After taking picture and looking at the temple head back. The wind is even stronger, but the women show no mercy and demand more singing. At this point wish they could sing another song …. The boat trip took myaby and hour 90 minutes or so. When we are back at the bus, someone has fired up a small barbeque and we buy some snack, like small fishes on stick. There is no rush to get into the bus again, we relax get something to eat and drink. No pressure to buy or rush anywhere, almost like when you have your own car. Slowly we finish and start on the sightseeing. Lugu Lake is very beautiful place. Mountain and forest surround the lake, but it is being developed for tourist, and there are quite a few hotel/buildings popping up around the shore. So this one is also soon to be like any other lake with building all along the shore side. We drive around it and get some nice pictures taken. Later in the drive up to the drivers farm and inside the grandmother room we are servered snack. Sticky pop corn, rice wine and stronger spirit, so called chicken wings, which is basically a hen chopped to pices and fried, boiled potato. As we enter the room the family is sitting and scnaking on the table next to us. The driver leaves us to drive some people back to their hotel. I think it must have been the sister takes over the entertainment, for a while. She walks over introduces herself. Start to sing even more, a couple of new songs. One thing that kind of impressed with the singing is that it came so natural for them I do not think it was kind of a gimmick for the tourist. They sang so much and with a smile so it appeared be a natural part of them. We are left for ourselves and it is been chatting and I have to tell my girlfriend that she do not have to translate everything they talk about. Let us just take a few minutes and relax, so she chats and I snack and look around. In the “living room”, cant help noticing the similarities from old farm houses in Norway. Off course the decoration are different, but it is the same building material and building techniques. Also how they “outline” the building is to similar, small “hall”, low doors, the dry food storage etc. This is at 2500 meter above sea level and the temperature is not that different from back home, so I conclude with it is the climate the help develop the same solutions. After the snack it is dinner and more food, this time it is more regular chine food. Now they driver is back and he is in still growing good mode. More alcohol is severed; lucky I’m still on antibiotics I’m excused. This tastes defiantly like some home brewed stuff. Next on the program is the traditional dance show. 5 minutes drives from his farm we are welcomed into a courtyard where it will take place. First two dances are like what you see in the square at LiJiang. This was better presented and organized. The women in their beautiful colorful dresses and the men had also dressed up. Their “costume” was more random put together. At least they had dressed up. After these two dances it started to be a bit unorganized to my tastes. One dance all was invited to join in and people just ran into each other trying to take picture with themselves holding the good looking girls. Thins come to an end and a song contest started. One of the local women sang a song and the tourist was challenged to sing. The tourist song just anything they could think of all cheering and the tourist is thrown to the air by the local. This went on for quite some time. Around 11 pm we finally made it back to village we should stay for the next two night. After checking out a few hotel room we settled for one and had a excellent night sleep. We had been on our feet since before 5 am and had travelled a lot and seen lot.
Next day we had one of those perfect days. It was nice weather little other tourist around. We had brunch and then a couple that was on the bus the day before walked bay. It was a german married to a woman from Beijing, now they lived close to Frankfurt, Germany. We chatted for a while and my girlfriend got along with the woman and exchanged contact information. After brunch we had a walk around and relaxed. We did not do much, but it is one of the days I remember the best. We was so relaxed and “connected” that day. In the evening we had dinner at one of the restaurant where you can barbeque your own food. Still have to smile of it, when the “waiter” was taking our order. Some of the food made a run for the freedom and lake. So he had to leave the notepad at tour table and chase down two frogs that had escaped the “cook”. The cook sat a few meter away from with her back towards us, and was handling something inside a net. They waiter did not say a thing or smile; it was just business as usual when we got back.
Again girlfriend did a great job ordering for me, we shared a beer and sat outside and watched the moon and the few people passing buy. We spent some time there chatting with each other. My girlfriend chatted with one of the girls working there and got the explanation on how the walking marriage is working today. It is still practiced, but it is uncommon to have children before you are serious and most marriages last a life time. So not so “ecotix” as the tourist brochure, but more like a regular marriage. As always we ordered to much food and my girlfriend exchanged dishes with a single girl travelling with the same bus as us.
Next day we had another early start to get back to LiJiang. The bus left at 6 am and it was more people on the return. A couple was sitting on the engine case (inside the bus) next to the driver. Guy facing traffic and woman facing back. On the bumpy and turning roads it ended as it must, the poor woman got car sick ant throw up in the bus. I was sitting at the very back seat next to a young couple that we had left with. I must share the observation I made. It was a modern young adults, well dressed. As always the woman better dressed than the man. With the big sunglasses which is in fashion, nice summer dress. My point is a modern “city” couple. After a while the guy started to fell asleep. You know when your head start to nod, and no place to rest it. This happened several times. What happened was that the woman first put his head back up, then she start to support it with her hands ! It was kind of touching, and surprising, to see this from this young and “modern” couple. In the afternoon we had back into LiJiang again and find our way directly to the bus terminal. We have loose plans to see Tiger Leaping Gorge, this is more my wish, and we buy tickets to that place. It is half way to Shangri La which is our final destination, so our plans are to make a stop there and get on the bus to Shangr La.
I will try to finish my write up tomorrow with the small events from Shangri La and hald a day in Kunming.
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Wonderful explanation about the trip. But what about the girl? We don't need to know everything. Yes we do. No, really we don't but how is the relationship developing? Have you kissed her? Are you holding hands? Is she warming up to you? You're holding out on us!!!!!!
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Wonderful explanation about the trip. But what about the girl? We don't need to know everything. Yes we do. No, really we don't but how is the relationship developing? Have you kissed her? Are you holding hands? Is she warming up to you? You're holding out on us!!!!!!
HAHAHA, inquiring minds want to know!
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great read enjoyed the details
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Some people have asked how it worked out between me and the girl. I probably have been to “frugal” about that part of the story. We are here for one reason, and that’s not travelling, I do understand that you ask and I’ll try to give you more details.
I met this woman the first time last august and did get along well, but nothing “special”. We kept contact during the winter and I wanted to know her better. Then I “invited” myself over for this travel, since she accepted that. I thought it must something there, at least a friend in the making. We started off like colleagues, but something happened during the days in LiJiang and we became a couple. Since I was sick we had to stay there and take things pretty easy. We could not travel and see stuff for a few days. So we got more time for each other and talked more about each other, and not about the travelling plans and things to see. How she cared for me while I was sick was also amazing and totally “won me”. She also made me open up and talk more about personal things, like none has done before.
After a bumpy ride back home from Lugu Lake we are now at the main bus terminal at LiJiang and sort out the tickets to Tiger Leaping Gorge. As usual im standing there with two back packs and she is doing the talking, buying tickets and find which bus is leaving. This bus is leaving every 30 minutes during day time so we have a good option to chose among. She get’s tickets for one that is leaving one hours time. We leave the bus terminal and cross the street and check out the options for food. She eye’s the restaurant and the people working there and finally settles with on that just pass the criteria “clean enough”. It struck me time after time how serious she is about the food and places she it. I’m grateful for that, I spent almost a month there this time, and for that period I did not even have a hint of trouble with the stomach. It was yet another place with only mandarin menu. She orders two bowl of nudle soup, one small for her and one large for me. After a short while a bowl is placed in front of me and I must have put up a good face. The waitress and girlfriend start to laugh, it is the biggest bowl of noodle soup I have ever seen. First I thought it was to share, but is all for me….After 1third of that gigantic bowl we ask for the check and the cost for that gigantic bowl was 7-8 Rmb. After shopping at the next door pharmacy we go to the bus terminal and enters the bus.
This was a “full sized” bus, clean and modern, very comfortable so I sat back I really enjoyed the trip. I do love to watch the scenery and the small glimpses of daily life I can see from the bus. The scenery this way is more fertile and character of being at a lower altitude. Driving through forest covered hill’s with view to higher mountains peak (Alpine like peaks). We drive down towards the Jiangze yet another time here it flows slowly through nice farm lands. In the hillside there are rice terraces and along the river there is patches with wheat, corn and even potato. After 1 hours we can see the mountains which is a part of Tiger Leaping Gorge. The mountain peaks are approaching 6000 meter and the river bed is at around 2500 meters. (This is not exact numbers). Anyway it is very impressive view’s. I’m a bit anxious because this is something id like to see close up. During my travel I have seen that there are construction going on there and that part of it are closed for tourist. We get of the bus stop, and as we try to get our bearings. There is a guy there willing to drive us to a hostel inside the gorge. We do not have much time to spend there and want to investigate more before we agree on this. So we start to walk across the little river that is a tributary to Jiangze. Just after that the road into the gorge start and we are met buy two people that made us read a big sign. It tell’s me in more detail what I already know. Construction going on and not allowed walking in the construction area, all on your own responsibility. They write down my nationality and let us pass, we are heading for a hostel a few hundred meters further down. It is a warm day and the air is full of road dust, we are passed several times by constructions vehicles. I still have not given up on this, because it is hiking possibilities in the hill side that I cross my finger’s for. We find our hostel and check out the room, very basic and a little dark. Still good enough for one night. We (she) talk with the host and a little later she relay the information to me. They do not recommend at all to walk at the lower part, pretty much warn us. Not surprised about that. The hiking in the hill side is available and safe, but it take more time than we have been told earlier. To be honest I am also afraid that it might be a little strenuous for my girlfriend. We both agree happy to walk back and wait for the next bus to Shangri La.
After shopping of ice cream and water we end up at different side if the roads. I take position where we got off the bus, she somehow ends up diagonally at the other side. As she is standing there she is approached by a guy with a car and chat with him for while. After some time I want her over to my side of the road so we not miss the bus. She does not respond to my waiving so I leave the bags and walk over to her. She tells me that this guy has offered to drive her to a view point at the other end of the gorge. It only cost like 100 for the whole day, the drive only took a couple of hours we could spend a few hours there and drive back and catch the bus again. Like this we could fit this in on our way back from Shangri La. Off course this price was only “valid” for single Chinese woman. After she talked to me the driver tell her that if we are two he have to double the price…..We never take him up on the offer.
While standing on the wrong side of the road the bus appear, we waive it down and run across the street and get onto the bus. As the bus start to drive I ask her is she got the water, she looks at my and I look back where we just stood. On a concrete pillar the water bottle stands like a piece of modern art.
We have a 2-3 hours bus drive before we get to Shangri La. Im sure you are tired of reading it, but the scenery is still breathtaking. We drive trough small canyons and there are a river flowing next to the road. In the hill side there are tree and scattered among them are other tree’s with white flowers. We are slowly ascending to higher altitude, we can see the landscape is changing. Still dramatic the flora is changing to more robust “species” adapted to the stronger climate. Eventually we reach the high plain where Shangri La is located. This is around 3200 meter above sea level. There are almost none tree and all the vegetation is very low. As we drive into Shangri La the sun is setting and it starts to get darker. Thanks to my wonderful and organized girlfriend we are all set up alredy. From the bus she has called a hostel and there is a driver waiting for us to take us to the hostel. As soon as we get off the bus we feel the change in climate. There is a freezing cold wind blowing as I load our back packs into the minivan. The hostel is located not far from the airport at Shangri La, it is a very quiet area. Only a few farm houses and grass plains around. So it is perfect for us that at now are more focused on one another than we are on the sightseeing. As we drive I notice a difference from what I have seen most other places. There are less people walking, less cars driving and they all drive more controlled and slower. Very little use of horn compared to other place. Make no mistake, way more that here in Norway.
As we walk into the reception my girlfriend breaks out in a big smile. She says to me “look it is the same girl behind the reception that worked in the hostel in LiJiang”. They started chatting like old friends and after that we were secured top notch service. It still amazes what a people person she is and how she get people to talk. I complimented her for that couple of times. She almost responded kind of “guilty “and she responded that she did not do or say anything to achieve that. I had to assure her that I thought it was a good quality with her and that it was something that she was born with and not something she “did”. I learned yet again that it is important that we fully understand what we say to each other and what the motive are. The next morning we woke up with the most wonderful sunshine into the room and we can hear soft cattle bells and rooster calling their harem. We stay in bed and after during the “pillow” talk I learn that I almost ruined everything early on in Lijiang. Still not sure if it was something I said or did, we talk a bit around it. She do not want to be specific about what it was, but she insist that we leave this and there is no need to talk more about it. I do not pressure her about more details. Off course I have thought about this, but the only thing I can think of is a bad joke I told. At one of the hostel we needed to wash some clothes. As always she had spoken to the people working there and they were happy to talk with her. We did not figure out the washing machine and did not find the soap to use in the machine. Off course she goes to the reception and het help. After that I made a joke about girl chatting up us men and get them to help us. I noticed she did not like it and I told her that it was a joke and talked a bit around it to make it more innocent and after that it “seemed” ok, again communication. She has never confirmed it was this, but it is the only thing I can think off. If it is something else then it has to be something really subtle.
After that awakening I walk out on the balcony and look at the beautiful morning. While she showers I prepare some noodle for brunch. We eat it on the balcony and watch the gorgeous day, the Yak cattle and black pigs in all sizes are roaming free, we have great fun of watching the piglets running around on their tiny legs.
This area is not far from Tibet and the most people living here are Tibetan and hence it is much Tibetan culture around. We decide to visit a Buddhist monastery which in the city. I will not bore you with details, but it was well worth a couple of hours. The monks were really relaxed; they chatted and posed on pictures with us. After the visit we took local bus back to the city center. We shared that with 6-8 monks and we all paid 1 rmb for the trip. No tickets were given when paid all money just left in a open plastic box. I just waited for the wind to blow it all out the window. At the end stop we walk into the “old” city. Kind of similar to what we experienced in LiJiang, less crowded off course. We walk around and find a small restaurant that my girlfriend approves to. The thing that kind of “sold it “ to her, was when she looked at the woman working there. She said the cook looked clean and the vegetables were on display on shelf in the restaurant. Covered by light fabric. I was the one noticing the place as we walked there I saw this woman rinsing a couple of apples outside the shop and hand it to the husband sitting and watching TV. I did comment on that, said something like that looks like the woman do most of the work. We ate at this place a couple of times and learned more about that.
This place was a combination of small shop / restaurant, only 3 tables I think. They cooked us a good basic meal. As usual girlfriend gets the host talking and we get information about the old city and were to go. After a “round” in the old city we call the hostel and they send the car of us. Since the hostel is located outside the city they offer very reasonable rates for pick up. I think we paid 3 rmb to be picked up. Next day the weather is still good so I suggest we head for the mountain behind the hostel. There is a cable cart bringing people up to over 4500 meters. I have never been to that altitude and want to try it and see the view from there, girlfriend agree. The driver tells us that since they have a kickback for bringing people there, they drive us there for free. Talk about honest driver, he could easily have charged us the few rmb’s and we had happily paid. As we approach I notice that she is getting a bit anxious, she and the driver talks about renting clothing and buying compressed air to bring up there, just in case. Im more reluctant, we have been at 2500 meters for the better part of a week, then we a few nights at 3300 meters. So I would believe that we are pretty good acclimatized for the height. Since I have no experience with this I kind of follow the flow. She is quite anxious and at one point I tell her that we do not have to do this and if she like we can go back to the hostel or city. She says it is ok and that we shall do this. We go to the entrance and after I tell them my nationality we get the information that the upper part may close so if we want to go there, we should change to the upper lift at the halfway point. And rather spend time there on the way down.
As the cable thing start I understand what she was scared of. It was the height, the poor woman is sitting facing me and looking down in the floor and squeezing my arm. I try to comfort her best I can. Half way we get off and I ask if we shall go all the way, obviously she knows I want and say yes. Same thing again, at one point the wagon stops and we hang still for a short time (1 minute or 2), it is some wing and the wagon moves from side to side. I also get a bit anxious. It is ok when we are moving, but just hanging there is kind of spooky for me to. I try to be calm and talk about the small restaurant we had dinner at the day before and try to distract her. We start moving again and we get to the top, there is one happy woman getting off there. We walk around there for almost one hour, I feel very little to the height problem, but she uses the compressed air we brought. On the way down it is the same thing, squeezing of my arms and this time I ask her to look in my eyes. At the half way it is nice pasture and even some shops, We relax there for a while and discovered that we have spent more time that expected here. We both are happy, and we enter down the last stretch. Down there the driver is already waiting for us. He tells us that when we left he waited there for 30 minutes to se if we would call him and com down straight away. Now he even has a can of compressed air on the car and offers that to my girlfriend.
Back at the hostel we have a walk around the area, look at the farm animal getting herded inside again. We have dinner at the hostel and take an early night.
Next morning we relax around the hostel and 1-2 pm we get the driver to take us the new city. We walk around and she looks for “Tibetan” things to bring back home. I’m just happy to walk around with her and look at people and different shops. A few hours later we find our way back to the old city, there is a few things that id like to pick up for my sister and nephew. When we get there im starting go get hungry. I tell her that I do not shop that well on a empty stomach so I suggest we get something to eat first. She asks if I can find the way to the place we ate the other day. It is just a few “blocks” away so it is easy. When we get there the couple smiles and greets us. As we check out the menu the woman there cut an apple in half and give the half to the man, he is still watching TV. I comment on the apple and I think the man understand that im talking about him, because he prompts put the apple on the shelf. My girlfriend starts talking to the woman and mentioned about the apple we saw last time, and that she was eating again. She tells her that she loves her apples, but her husband is not that happy about them. She tries to get him to eat more of that. What happens from here it is not easy to give a correct picture of in writing. It is one of those things that you need to be there to understand. The girlfriend and the woman working there are talking like long lost friends. After a long time we are able to order some food, but the chat is constant going. Very friendly and natural, my girlfriend translates all the time. The woman tells all about their family and their restaurant. My girlfriend tells, surprisingly much, about us. My first impression of the couple was that is was the lazy man and hard working woman. I turn out that is almost the opposite. She tells us that she is the luckiest woman in the city. The man very much runs that shop and the restaurant, after that he is helping his parent at the farm. The two sons of her is raised by the grandparents, so she need to do very little with that to. Like this it goes on for a long time. She tells us that we look so happy together and we look at each other all the time. She shouts to her husband that he should take her for a long vacation so that they could hold hands and look into one another eyes. He just smile and shakes his head, he take part in the conversation from time to time. Fill in some details and facts. She tells us that after working the shop for 5 years they do not speak anymore, just watch the TV together. Even that said they seemed happy together. Im not sure how long time we spent there, but it must have been three hours, it was getting dark. After some time we felt like we had said all that could be said, we ask for the check. Then I see my girlfriend get a strange expression in her face and she hesitates for a few seconds. She tells me in with a low voice. She don want us to leave, she want us to sit around for some more time and chat, she will not give us the bill yet. I almost start laughing, but I feel the magic is still there, we are on vacation and still have some time before we need to go back to the hostel, so if that makes her happy I can spend some more time there. I ask them about the shop etc, and the tourist industry there etc. After some time we are “allowed” to pay and leave. It was a strange few hours there, it felt like we all were all old close friends and that we could talk about anything. It turns out to be one of the small and surprising things that I remember best of the trips.
After the long restaurant visit we pick up a few tourist souvenirs for friends and family. The hostel car comes and bring us back to the hostel were we have to pack. Next day we start on the return to Beijing and eventual back to Norway for me.
If you have read so far I hope you understand that things between us are great and we are truly a couple, crazy for each other.
Thanks for reading so far. I did not manage to finish my story this time, so in a few days I hope to have the last chapter finished.
Uploaded a few pics to album Yunnan II
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Good read. Can't wait for the next installment.
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A terrific read so far , regards Robert .
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good read keep on posting
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Thank you for taking the time to write and share you adventure with us. China is a special place indeed and everything is looking good for you two. I just love happy stories!!!!!
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Great read, very detailed
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Hi !
It have been busy last week so i have not been able to write about the last few days until now.
Thanks for the feedback, i now it has been long post’s, but i hope you have gotten some enjoyment out of it. So this is how the last few days evolved. Afraid it is a long read once more, but it is the closing chapter :).
It is Friday the 21th of May as we leave the hostel in Shangri La and we are driven into the center of the small city to the bus terminal. It is a dusty and cold “corner” of the city, among concrete building from the 60/70 I would guess, not pretty, but functional. We by the bus ticket for the ride back to Lijiang, were we the next day have plane tickets back to Beijing via Kunming. Even though the bus drive to LiJiang is like 4-5 hours I still kind of look forward to it. It do like to see the landscape along the road, sitting next to this charming woman. I start to feel that bittersweet feeling of something great coming to an end. I try to suppress that and enjoy the moment. Not much goes on during the bus trip, we hold hand, look into each other eyes and she ”demand”s the occasional kiss. In the afternoon we get off at one of the bus terminals in LiJiang. We get an taxi to the old city and find our hostel. This is the same hostel we stayed at earlier so we have no problem finding it in the narrow and confusing roads of the old city. As we check in my suspicions are confirmed. As we called the day before and booked room, we were quoted a very good price for the room. I belived that it must be the small room next to where I lay sick for on earlier. This room has no window and has the smell of concrete dust and water damage. I we briefly check other opportunities, but all room are taken and since we are leaving early next morning I except it. We are due to leace around 6 am for the airport next morning. My girlfriend efficient organizes transport and makes plans without telling me everything. I ask her about our options on how to get to the airport tomorrow. She tells me that we shall take a taxi to a hotel were there is a shuttle bus to the airport. The taxi cost something like 30 rmb and the bus cost 5 or 10 pr head to the airport. I ask her about what the cost for a taxi direct to the airport is, she checks with the front desk. It is something like 30 km to the airport so I except it to cost a bit. When she comes back she tells me that the hostel has a driver we can call, it will cost 80 rmb for both of us. Then we can sleep for 30 minutes more, so we quickly agree to use this guy. Only catch is that we have to call the drive ourselves 10 minutes before we shall meet him! Kind of strange…. We are told to meet him at one of the entrances to the old city next morning. After a night of not so good sleep in the loosy room, we get up, the lady calls the driver. He answer straight away tells us to just wait at the hostel and he will meet us there. He shows up and turns out to be very house warm. First he uses the shared toilets facilities there, lot of noises, clearing trough, flushing etc. Then he fills the waterbottle before we walk to the car. As we drive out of the old city there are a couple of women cooking and selling food from a food cart. They are making those pancakes like things, with some spicy chili sauce. We have not had breakfast yet, so my girlfriends stop the driver and the driver say a few things to the woman cooking. There is s short queue of people there, but she decides to server us first. She has one almost reday for a guy waiting, she hands that one to us as she handles the payment she instructs the customer waiting to add chili sauce on the next one which is promptly handed over to us. As we eat our slightly spicy breakfast we drive towards the airport. As so many other times on this trip I can enjoy the sun rising and see the people start their work in the field. LiJiang is a small airport so check in and security is quickly done and we sit at the departure hall and wait. I notice more western people here than I have seen in one place for several weeks.
We got affordable plane tickets to Beijing, only thing was that they included a 9 hurs stop over in Kunming. So our first stop is Kunming.
Kunming is warmer than LiJiang, we are still at at good altitude around 2000 meter above sea level I believe. I do change to t-shirt and some lighter pant’s, then we check our bags and my girlfriend head, yet again, to the information desk. She is not afraid to ask. After discussing the different alternatives for how to spend the day, we decide to go to the area around Dianchi lake. Many of you know Kunming as you know it is known as spring city and are famous for its flowers. That is a well disturbed reputation it was a lot of beautiful flowers and greenery. After a 20 minutes taxi drive we leave the taxi at a nice walkway along a lake. We choose one direction and start to walk hand in hand the sun is shining the weather is nice and yet another of those perfect days. People are fishing along the lake, the most popular place is around a big sign, I get the text translated and off course it states: “No fishing”. I see they catch one fish, it think it was 10 cm. Across the lake there is a big hill/small mountain with walkways and pagodas. I think that it can be a nice walk up there only catch is that we have to take a cablecar to get there. My girlfriend did not like height, but she suggested that we should go up there. So we bought the tickets and tok a seat face to face. Looked in each other eyes and, yet again she squeezed my arm, can’t believe how strong that little woman is. My felt a little bad dragging her up there, but she kind of assured that is was ok and that she wanted to go. Up there we had a nice walk, enjoyed the view quietly together, I started to feel even more that my return to Norway was approaching and this dream was coming to an end. We spent a few hours up there before we tok the cablecar back down. Down there it was time to head to the city center to get something to eat. Since there are no taxis showing up there we find out that we have to take the bus. Again lucky me, girlfriend sort it all out for me, cant belive how this would have been without her. We need to change bus halfway and go off at a certain landmark, and then there will be a restaurant specialized in Yunnan dishes around the corner. Finally the bus get there and we cram us on, it is full of people, eventually we can go off, the next one appear instantly, jump on that one. It’s is a bigger bus, but still crowded, after some time more people go off and some seat become available. I offer her to sit, but she says I shall take the seat. I sit down, it has been a long day the heat is taking it toll. Sometime later I start to doze off, I fell the head is starting to nod, try as good as I can to balance it. At some point I feel that I get I good rest, later at a hard turn I wake up. I discover that my girlfriend is holding her arm around my head and supporting it to her side!
Eventually after quite some time at the bust, I think it must have been like an hour, we go off and find the restaurant. It turns out to be a crowded one and different customers that I have seen other places. All orders are placed at a boot at the entrance, we get a receipt. Since it was a unorganized queue I have no idea what was ordered. My girlfriend had to fight her way to the counter and placed some order without being able to discuss this with me. Im sent upstairs with a receipt and instructions to find a table. When she get up there it is with a big conspiring smile. She is carrying a couple of dishes and more will arrive from the second floor kitchen. She had ended up ordering some specialities. Snail’s, some sea weed I think, stinky tofu, yes that is the name. some sweet soup, and some more. Apparently the snail was popular noticed that many people was having that. They just tasted the spice it was cooked in, so no problem. The stinkin tofu was a different story. It was stinking like h.. I thought someone with bad hygiene had walked by us when it was placed at the table. The other stuff was more convential. After the meal we walked outside and looked at the city. Close by it was a big pedestrian street. We walked down there and I’m sad to say. In my three visits to China, I have never seen more beggars combined. Some was strongly handicapped, like just the torso and head, they had different “trolleys” to drive around in. Apparently this must be some kind of a problem there. Center of this pedestrian street was blocked by some statues with very narrow passages between, it was also a big sign about how you could get help ! It stated something like, if you lived there and there, you could go there, and so on, I even think it stated the authorities could help you contact relatives and by you tickets “back home” or where you wanted to go/could go.
On the other side of this “road-block” it was a big fountain. In the fountain it was lot of goldfish, it was packed. There it was possible to rent fishing rod to fish after them. We had great fun of watching the people there. I particular noticed this cute little girl. Probably 8’ish year old, lovely white summer dress and, she was a killer fisherman. She really got the hang of this, got one after one on the hook, not afraid to touch it either, grabbed it with both hands and placed them in her bucket. After walking in the warm evening sun and watching various street artist we headed back to the airport. Small troubles find the right bus, but in the end we arrived there with plenty of time to reach our plane.
After security check we ran into some tv celebrity, I noticed something was going on. People working in the shop walked outside and people stopped up looking at this woman. I was told the name, but off course I have forgot it. Off course this woman was well dressed and hair well done, but she was so skinny, unhealthy skinny. Probably suffered from anorexia, it was sad to see and also knowing that she probably was a role model for many woman. I discussed this briefly with my girlfriend and told her that no normal straight man find that attractive.
After boarding the plane and well seated, starting to relax after the small evening meal. It was time for me to be scared for the second time on the trip. It was a big plane were the coach is divided in two section by toilets etc. We sat in the front half and suddenly I heard these hard and shouting voices in mandarin. I have heard a few domestic fights during my travel, but this was so hard and hostile and I really woke up. All these hijacking and terror threats we read about these days did not help either. It took like 15 seconds the stewardess’ shouted to. Suddenly to good sized male stewardess came running down between the seats. Shortly after it all came to an end, but I got good scared there for a minute or two. Rest of the trip we held hands and dozed on one another shoulders, and luckily no more incidents happening. Around 2 am we arrived at her apartment and then we had been on our feet for almost 20 hours so we fell quickly asleep.
When we woke up it was midday Sunday and Monday morning I had plane tickets back to Norway. We spent the Sunday around her neighborhood, visited to local mall and had a coffee and something to eat for brunch. We had a good long chat there, usually im not a chatty person, but she makes me talk like no one in many years. She is an architect and her work is to design Shopping mall. So we decided we should go and see one of the malls she has been participated in designing and have dinner there. We head outside and get a taxi to an upscale area and enter into a very nice shopping mall. She tells me about why what shop is placed were it is and so on. At the end we go to the top floor for dinner. We have one of those “steamboats” dinners, were you cook your own dinner. It was a nice restaurant with white table cloth and dimmed lights, we flirted, touched each other hands and shared food. It was a very nice last dinner. We were due up around 6 again next morning for my flight se we slowly walked back towards her apartment and after some time we hailed a taxi and got back. I finished packing and prepared what I wanted to wear the next day. We sat down in her sofa for a few minutes and shared our thoughts about the last couple of weeks. According to her I had changed a lot, to start with I did not smile and did not talk. No I smiled more and talked a lot! I can say she had changed more, expect that she cared more for me!
She had offered to follow me to the airport the next day, since it was Monday I knew she should be at work. I knew that she is very busy at work and that she was expected to be there. So I felt I bit bad for her, because I did not know how that would work out for her. Apparently she was missed because it was a lot of phone calls going on in the taxi towards the airport . She did have time for it, because the same day I left, Monday the 21th of may. Hillary Clinton visited Beijing and the government had decided to close down several roads on central Beijing. The taxi driver was very annoyed and had to drive is to one of the out rings before he could turn towards the airport. I did reach the airport with good margin, checked my bags and we had time for a coffee and a snack before I had to go to my plance.
As I sat there I felt that it was kind of difficult to talk and I had that strange feeling in my throat and my eyes started to water…..It was no doubt this trip/adventure was over. We talked about how lucky we were to find each other and what our opportunities to be together were, when we could see each other next time. At the security gate I kissed her goodbye and as I walked down towards the train to the gate. I turned around several times and she was standing there looking at me. I tried to waive and as I walked down there I felt that I left a part of me there. It also felt so wrong to walk away from her. Needless to say, it was a long flight home and I was thinking a lot about her.
So how have things since I came back you might ask. I has gone tree week since I come back, I still miss her a lot and thin about her every day. We both work a quite a bit, so we communicate through e-mail and sms. I still wonder how we can spend more time together. At the moment I do not know how. I’m the guardian for my nephew he is 17 now and I still need to follow him for a few more years. My father is 85, still with good health, but I also help him with practical things from time to time, and I feel that I cannot leave him either. On the short horizon I hope to be able to go again in October to join her when she is attending close friends wedding.
It all ended great this time, the big question is how to keep the love alive when we not able to be together.
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Fantastic daghoi, truly a wonderful account of your trip. Thank you for sharing.
I wish you all the best.
As well as email and text you should try calling her as much as possible.
Vodafone here have a special 3c a minute rate to China, just hearing her voice makes all that is wrong with the world right again. I would heartedly recommend this to you if possible.
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Like Mike said, many of us have been in this exact place as you. Hang in there.
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Daghoi , what do Mods want to do .. when nothing is going on in the Forum on slow days ? Well , it is .. read Stories just like yours here . Wonderful ! Remember , this Journey goes this way . 1st. uncertaincies 2nd. hopefully happy and successful meeting 3rd. the waiting period . So be very glad the first two are over and your on your last 1/3 of this .. what could be so rewarding and gratifying at the end (which I myself know about and others at that point ) can tell you .. it's hard but you'll find a way to keep the Fire burning between the two of you .
Otherwise , we'll need to kick you a** .. got it ?