Monday, July 31, 2006
Awash in Chinese Mountains
Well, I pulled into Kunming yesterday morning after a near fiasco at the airport (let's just say that the same Laotian ingenuity that has a cash-only departure tax but no ATM at the country's international airport sufficiently delayed my flight that i was able to get back to town and back, pay the tax, and still have to wait a bit to board), and though I've been slightly overwhelmed by going from sweet undeveloped Laos to Chinese cities and markets, I haven't been able to get my pictures online -- slightly ironic that travellers can access higher-speed internet in one of the world's poorest countries than in its preeminent "emerging economy". But, then again, I am comparing relative backwaters to Laos' main drag.
I am now in Dali, a city between a mountain range and an enormous lake, with over a thousand years of modern history (i.e. battles betweeen different groups trying to control this strategic stronghold). It's hard to tell who's won, whether the ethnic Bai people who are native to the region (and who continue to wear the vivid traditional dress, including, improbably, teenage girls, who sport foot-high pink & white headdresses) or the laowei (foreigners) who clog the streets, photographing locals with abandon, whose cuisines dominate the Old City's downtown, and who inexplicably buy tons of souveniers when they're trying to reduce the size of their backpacks to get in some serious hiking.
Oh, wait. That might just be me. Yes, for reasons unknown, after telling myself that I wasn't going to buy anything at the market that i couldn't eat in the next couple of days, I ended up dropping close to fity bucks on any number of things that Lord knows I (or whoever I end up gifting them to) don't need, and now i need to go to the post office to send a package. Well, at least I got a really cool set of magnifying lenses to use with my class this year, and I did save $1.50 by taking local buses to the market instead of taking a packaged minibus, which had the side benefit of sharing the bus with a big bagful of ducks and another of roosters. Also giant eggplants, which were a bit more sedate than the poultry.
Trying to figure out how I want to spend the next three weeks. I know it will involve some multi-night treks, most probably with guides who will arrange village homestays along the trail, but there's too many options. Return to Tiger Leaping Gorge, which awed me last summer and is said to be in danger of damming soon, and continue on another couple of nights to an alpine village and a series of limestone terraces? Onward to Deqin, amongst the glaciers just below of one of Tibet's holiest mountains, said to be incredibly beautiful? Should I get a horse in the Tagong grasslands, and ride out to a Buddhist nunnery in the steppes? Or perhaps trek down to the monastery below Gongga Shan, whose 26,000 foot peak looms large above the other Sichuan monsters? As they say, these are the troubles we should be lucky enough to have -- which amazing place to enjoy this summer?
I am now in Dali, a city between a mountain range and an enormous lake, with over a thousand years of modern history (i.e. battles betweeen different groups trying to control this strategic stronghold). It's hard to tell who's won, whether the ethnic Bai people who are native to the region (and who continue to wear the vivid traditional dress, including, improbably, teenage girls, who sport foot-high pink & white headdresses) or the laowei (foreigners) who clog the streets, photographing locals with abandon, whose cuisines dominate the Old City's downtown, and who inexplicably buy tons of souveniers when they're trying to reduce the size of their backpacks to get in some serious hiking.
Oh, wait. That might just be me. Yes, for reasons unknown, after telling myself that I wasn't going to buy anything at the market that i couldn't eat in the next couple of days, I ended up dropping close to fity bucks on any number of things that Lord knows I (or whoever I end up gifting them to) don't need, and now i need to go to the post office to send a package. Well, at least I got a really cool set of magnifying lenses to use with my class this year, and I did save $1.50 by taking local buses to the market instead of taking a packaged minibus, which had the side benefit of sharing the bus with a big bagful of ducks and another of roosters. Also giant eggplants, which were a bit more sedate than the poultry.
Trying to figure out how I want to spend the next three weeks. I know it will involve some multi-night treks, most probably with guides who will arrange village homestays along the trail, but there's too many options. Return to Tiger Leaping Gorge, which awed me last summer and is said to be in danger of damming soon, and continue on another couple of nights to an alpine village and a series of limestone terraces? Onward to Deqin, amongst the glaciers just below of one of Tibet's holiest mountains, said to be incredibly beautiful? Should I get a horse in the Tagong grasslands, and ride out to a Buddhist nunnery in the steppes? Or perhaps trek down to the monastery below Gongga Shan, whose 26,000 foot peak looms large above the other Sichuan monsters? As they say, these are the troubles we should be lucky enough to have -- which amazing place to enjoy this summer?
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i don't get it. what are you guys bidding on? is it just that when i'm trying to read this through chinese internet it makes your comments as unintelligible as the attempts at translation on awnings and menus?
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