Chiang Mai: A very Jedi Christmas.

With four whole days off for Christmas I decided it was time to go somewhere. Jacki jumped on board and we brainstormed places to go. Our clear winner was Chiang Mai in Thailand! We found cheap flights and booked them. We flew Christmas Eve, a whole hour and a half later we landed into the amazing warmth of Thailand.

Jacki found us an amazing hostel/guest house called the Green Tulip. It's run by a woman called Stella who was described to us as "militantly hospitable" and "aggressively pleasant." Within about 2 minutes of us having arrived at the hostel we had been sat down, had our bags taken off us and had a beer put in front of us. Its an amazing hostel and Stella really is the most helpful person about.


xmas dinner

David and Lora had been in Chiang Mai for a few days before so they had already sussed out a decent drinking place. It turned out to be a handy place and became a starting point for every outing after that. Christmas eve was just dinner with a few drinks and a walk down a nearby bar street.

Bar over a market

Christmas day was pretty much panned; we met with David and Lora, exchanged gifts and went to find a cinema to watch the new Star Wars movie, after which we went to an English style pub for a full three course Christmas dinner complete with crackers, turkey and silly hats. Dinner was a traditional English affair, we started with prawns, followed with turkey and vegetables and finished off with Christmas pudding. Luckily several people didn't like their pudding so Jacki and I had several! It was a perfect meal except that Xmas dinner with Mai Tai's in thirty degree heat is a little weird but still enjoyable!



Its looks very silly when not behind the camera.

Next to the pub is a huge night market in which we bought loads of presents for people back in Kunming and still managed to treat ourselves. Lora is a bit of a ruthless machine when it comes to bargaining, so we got some really good deals. We finished up in a bar overlooking the market, had a few drinks and then went back to the hostel.

Boxing day; David and Lora had a flight that afternoon so we decided to just meet at the 3D museum. It is full of 3D paintings with spaces for people to pose in bizarre and ridiculous scenes. Its is selfie heaven! We spent hours here and took hundreds of pictures between us, it is by far the most fun I have had in a museum. We all just giggled for the whole time we were there.

David and Lora left us at the museum to go to the airport so Jacki and I went to Tesco. We could have been in a Tesco in England, we picked up loads of things that are so simple but that we just cant get in China. Getting things like moisturiser or deodorant is normally difficult in China so we stocked up and bought loads.

All that was left of our trip was some last minute shopping for friends and to try and cram all of our stuff into various bags. We had both planned on shopping so our bags were pleanty big enough. We will be back!

Hong Kong and a new VISA

Less than a week after getting back from YaDing, I jumped on a plane back to Hong Kong to get a new VISA before starting my new job.

Hong Kong was HOT! After the freezing cold of YaDing and the comfort of Kunming, Hong Kong was uncomfortable and humid. My trick was to walk about until I was too hot, find a McDonalds and sit with a drink in the aircon until I had cooled off.

The VISA process was time consuming but easy. The forms themselves took about an hour to fill in and then I had to sit with the attendant for another 40 minutes while she checked the form. She stamped it with the APPROVED stamp and sent me on my way. I could have kissed her!

After the VISA office I went and found a ferry so that I could float about the harbour for a few hours. I miss the sea so my compulsory trip to HK was fantastic! I took the starlight ferry about 4 times then wandered about Kowloon and The Avenue Of Stars. The Avenue is a 500 meter stretch of harbour wall with Stars on the floor and statues to pose with. The Avenue ends near the Science and Technology Museum so I dropped in and discovered that it is free on Wednesdays. I only spent a few hours there as I think every kid in HK was there that day. Fun but Chaos!

The next day I found a bus that was heading in the direction of a beach on the other side of the Island, jumped on it and spent hours on a beach or swimming in the stupidly warm clear water of Deep Water Bay and Repulse Bay. Like I say, I really miss the sea so I was perfectly happy. The rest of my week in HK was spent shopping in the crazy markets, sitting on a beach, reading my book in Victoria Park and watching the Symphony of lights which, according to the Guinness book of records people, is the longest running daily light show in the world.

A nice 5 day trip to the beach over, back to Kunming and back to work!

YaDing National Park

our hotel

The entrance to YaDing National Park is about a 2 hour drive from DaoCheng. The park has a main entrance where you buy tickets. From the other side of the ticket office there are no cars allowed, everything is run by shuttle buses which bounce between the scenic trail, YaDing town (about 6 hotels and a restaurant) and the main entrance. Karen had booked us a room in one of the hotels in the town so we checked in first and then went to start of the scenic trail. Our hotel was a traditionally built Tibetan style house, all big rooms, no windows and high ceilings. We had a private room but most people were in the main room in tents full of pillows and electric blankets. The people in the hotel were really friendly and kept feeding me homemade alcohol and yac meat stew or porridge.

(some googled background information) The Yading National Reserve at the south edge of Daocheng County has been considered as the most sacred place in western Sichuan Province by Tibetan pilgrims. Mountains and lakes in the reserve are believed holy. The three sacred mountains Jambeyang (or Yangmaiyong in Mandarin, 5958 meters high), Chanadorje (Xiaruoduoji, 5958 meters high), Shenrezig (Xiannairi 6032 meters high) has saw stream of pious Tibetan pilgrims circling them, in the hope of a better and happier life. It is said that those three mountains were blessed in the 8th century, when Buddha Padmasambhava shed his divine light on the range, and named the three elevations after three bodhisattvas.

From the town to the beginning of the scenic trail was about 20 minutes in a bus, there were thousands of buses flying past so we had no problem getting about the park. the park has 2 main routes, a longer one and a shorter one. On the first day we climbed the stairs on the shorter route to a lake.

near the top

Sadly the weather was cloudy but we had amazing views, my camera tried but the poor thing just couldn't cope. Just believe me when I say it is something else.

Bottom of the trail

The second day we tackled the longer tougher route. It was a muddy, slippery trail that at times was little more than trying not to fall over into the smelly mud. We climbed to the top past glaciers and rivers at which point I nearly passed out. It would seem I not only enjoy getting car sick and sea sick, but I can now add altitude sickness to that list. We had made friends with some guys from Beijing and had climbed up with them. One of them wanted to head back to the trail so I went with him, feeling better almost as soon as we got to the bottom. Weird and unpleasant feeling over!

The hotel from DaoCheng came and picked us up from the entrance to the park. Not at all keen to relive the bus I booked a 50 minute flight back to Kunming. It was the best 300元 I have ever spent, saved me 28 hours on a bus and nearly 2 days!

YaDing and DaoCheng

It has been 6 months since I actually went on this trip but I figure better late than never.

Ganden Sumtseling Monastery In Shangri-La

Back in August, Karen and I went on a mini adventure into the northern part of Yunnan and then over the mountains into the southern part of SiChuan. I started a few days before Karen by getting the overnight bus from Kunming to LiJiang,spent a few days there and then went up to ShangriLa. Last time I visitied ShangriLa I had fallen asleep on the bus and ended up there by accident. It was November and it snowed so I shivered for 3 whole days. This time the weather was beautiful and sunny with amazing blue skies.

I had an afternoon to myself before Karen turned up so I wandered about and chilled out. After Karen arrived we visited the monastry and walked around the old city before an early night. We had booked a bus from ShangriLa to DaoCheng which left at 7 am

view from th bus

bathroom break without a bathroom

about half way

the next morning.

The bus journey itself was the most uncomfortable and miserable 12 hours that I can remember. The bus was an old rickety thing that had no space to sit comfortably. We bounced and jumped over pot holes and gravel roads all the time swinging terrifingly close to a sheer drop. Despite the miserable bus journey, we drove through some beautiful scenery and stopped in some incredible places.   We arrived in DoaCheng stressed out, exhausted and beaten up.

ChengGe Temple

Daocheng is at the south of Gantse Tibetan Prefecture, at the southwestern border of Sichuan Province. DaoCheng town is a tiny place, its basically a glorified crossroads with a bus station that just happens to be near a mountain national park. We arrived, found our
hotel and crashed. We had planned on a whole day in DaoCheng with plenty of time to see everything DaoCheng has to offer. We went for a walk and had seen everything before lunch time. About a five minute walk out of town is the impressive ChengGe temple. It right on the edge of town so we had amazing, uninterupted views right out into the grasslands.

We booked a bus thought the hotel for the next day, its only 2 hours over the mountains to YaDing national park.