Tiger Leaping Gorgeous

 Lonely Planet said "The trek is not to be taken lightly, even for those in good physical shape, it's a workout. The path constrict and crumbles, it certainly can wreck the knees" I'm definitely not a big hiker, have weak knees and years of sitting behind office desk had corrupted both my stamina and guts to walk on Tiger Leaping Gorge (Hutiao Xia). Those line from LP make it even worse.

The gorgeous gorge has 2 trails, The Higher (walking path) and The Lower (vehicle path). Getting better form my acid reflux problem, I was really not sure to take the higher trail, and the fact that I arrived there alone by 2 PM was one of the reason I would just take the lower trail instead. So I decided to ask around for the bus heading to the middle rapids and just in time I bumped into a French couple, Amandine and Thomas. I changed my mind in seconds after they nodded when I asked if I could join them walk the higher trail. A decision I feel grateful the most.

So after had some late lunchie and put our luggage in Jane's guesthouse, we started our 12 hours walk (normally people will do it in 10, some fast feet can do it in half of our time). It's all way beautiful there, I don't understand why people rushing. If I have another chance to walk that trail again, I'll take even more time to enjoy and stay longer there. It took exactly 2 hours to get to our first stop, Naxi Family Guesthouse located in a valley surrounded by the snowcapped peaks of Haba Shan dan YuLong XueShan. What can be more tranquil and serene? It's not an easy start for me, I was out of breath most of the time catching with Amandine and Thomas, I blamed the afternoon heat!! On our way, we were stopped and 'forced' to buy some fruits. it's part of tourist trap where you have no other way and have to pay some little money to pass through, but I didn't mind to pay tho the fruits were not even succulent. How come one say NO to a hilarious old lady? Ohh...have I said how I love our guesthouse that night? It's not only has wonderful location, it also serves good foods :')

"The Shark" viewed from the hilarious old lady spot

Dinner, must try: Yak Buttered Tea!

Walking with a Caucasian couple and myself a Chinese, made most of people think that I'm their guide, and they tend to talk to me first rather than to Amandine and Thomas, which was a big mistake cause my Chinese is way worse than theirs, since they has been living in Shanghai for about 2 years, I know I'm such a joke #FailedChinese. And Jasmine was one of those people who got us wrong that day, she babbled in one breath toward me till she realized I didn't understand a word *stupid grin on ma face* She's kinda person who talk to everybody and anybody, literally!! And she makes a perfect travel buddy for the next couples of days.

We walked down the valley that afternoon tried to see the bottom of the gorge, but failed cos the gorge near that place is too narrow. It's a perfect getaway but I couldn't imagine living there, it must be pretty tough :| The local people living there survive by planting crops and renting donkeys to tourists. I was tempted to take donkey ride too, thanks to my coward guts and pessimistic personality, moreover after I heard bout how hard the 28 bends ahead. It's a part where we will ascend about 1 km in half an hour hike, I'm grateful once again not to ride the donkey, considering how steep the path. But the most reason I didn't take it cause I think 100 Yuan for that ride is not fair for them (yet I couldn't pay more due to my limited budget), and cos the old man we met that night said usually only Koreans take the donkey ride, Opssy!! I'm still an Indonesian with pride, pfftt...

Team after breakkie, ready for the 28 bends

We walked for almost 8 hours the second day and reached Tina's guesthouse that located right above the middle rapids. Compared to the other guesthouse we passed by, this concrete building seems out of place, but its location was irresistable. Well the other guesthouse might looked alike in traditional architecture, but still I love them all. We made lunch stop at Tea Horse Guesthouse with an open air dining table with snowy peaks as background. My personal favorite must be Half Way Guesthouse, it has a super nice balcony face the mountains, I could just sit there for hours if only we stayed overnight there, too bad we only made for the toilet stop :(

Lunch Time at Tea Horse Guesthouse

Half Way Guesthouse

The Walk between Tea Horse Guesthouse and Half Way Guesthouse was relatively easy, took us 2 hours with slow pace cos we made ton of photo stops all the way. Guess it's my favorite part of the trek :p

Upper Rapid seen from the High Trail

Nice straightforward walk with great view

Splashed through a waterfall

I do have the rights to be proud of myself, cos my knees didn't hurt at all after those pretty long trek. I usually drag my ass off when it started to be hurt, mostly after more than 3 hours walk especially with long descending trek. The path before reaching Tina's Guesthouse was a long hop down and extremely steep, descending slippery poor path that might twist your ankle. I regain my confidence that I thought about hiking on Sinabung Mountain when I get back, something I haven't done yet after 5 months being back at home :p

Can you hear the roaring water?

Middle Tiger Rapids

Climbing up the 30 meter 'Sky ladder'

Going down to the Middle Tiger Rapids is another challenge, but definitely worth it. After all, gotta agree that it's gorgeous almost every single step of the way :)

Lijiang Old Town - iCame, iSaw, iPuked

The road stretched from Lugu Lake to Lijiang is definitely one of my favorite, the view along the road was jaw dropping, from layered mountain range to the mighty Jinsha River, and it’s turquoise!! 

Turquoise Jinsha River

My Lijiang host, KaiYang picked me up at the bus station to have an appropriate dinner together, finally! I got messed up appetite during my times in Lugu Lake, sometimes I ate, but most of the time I couldn’t eat, I survived from crackers and hellish bread. It’s about time to take its toll on me. 

KaiYang is a typical proud Chinese, but an educated, mature and reasonable one, so it’s nice to see China nowadays through her eyes. Not like some youngsters I met that unsatisfied bout the government, but do nothing but complain and being pessimistic, she accepts any situation with big heart, optimist bout the future, and do something most important, provide better education for the children. Every country would have better future if have more people like her :)

Lijiang GuCheng (Old Town) is beautiful in every corners, but somehow it feels fake, Oppsy...Like a gorgeous actress with plastic surgery, it’s too perfectly commercialized with throngs of people visiting everyday. But you can always take sweet escape to more quite lanes, lots of alleys that will amaze and amuse you. I walked around for hours but still can always find alleys I’ve never passed before. There was pretty bad draught during my visit there, and Mike-my Lugu Lake dorm buddy, told me not to spend my dime on Black Dragon Pool, which admission 80Yuan and no water in the pool at that time, so we can’t see the reflection of Yulong Xue Shan (Dragon Jade Snow Mountain) that become one of the must picture spot of Lijiang.

Roofs of Lijiang

YuLong XueShan

Not long after had a scrumptious brunch set of toast, sunny side eggs, hashbrown and bacon, I started to feel my upset belly. Feeling about to throw up is absolutely annoying, being disoriented and I couldn’t even think of how to get my way out of the old town, so I just let myself being ‘tortured’ among a bunch of Naxi old ladies dancing at the square. I’d probably join them dancing in circle if I didn’t feel that sick. Finally I made up my mind to drag my feet out of the old town, but only in one two steps, I threw up…at the most crowded square of Lijiang! It was such a big relief and I could think again in seconds, but dang! I still had no idea which way to go out of there. But then I remember KaiYang told me that Yulong Xue Shan is at the north and her place is at the south, so I followed my own shadow heading to south till I got to the street and caught the bus back to my couch. I spent the next day resting and doing nothing. It’d be totally suck being sick and alone at guesthouse, so I was still grateful that I had a host, a very nice and care one indeed.

Postcard from Jasmine

Walking Marriage at Lugu Lake

The most common way to getting around Lugu Lake is by cycling, damn!! For unfortunate people like me that can’t ride a bike, that’s a disaster. All of my partners in crime decided to have biking trip, and then took the overpriced boat trip to the other side of the lake, the Yunnan side. The boat ride getting to Lige or LuoShui cost around 90 Yuan per person, and renting car will cost 150 Yuan, but nobody wanted to share that car with me, so I decided to try my luck on hitchhiking. I almost gave up when realized no cars on the road, just some tourists biking around, and the first motorbike that stopped, asked for money to take me to town. But luckily after walked a bit farther, an empty minivan stopped to give me a ride, with bonus-the driver was cute ;)

After arriving town, I need to find cars heading to LuoShui as well, my best chance was when the bus arrives at the afternoon, but it means I should wait for more than 5 hours in a small town with relatively no attractions and you can go from one end to the other in 10 minutes walk. So I tried to hitchhike again,and not so long after a minivan stopped, the driver asked for 30 Yuan to take me to LuoShui, it was a good deal for me, so I hopped in. Apparently the minivan was rented by some aunties from Shanghai for getting around the lake, and we made a lot of stops to take pictures. Along the way, we saw lots of people biking, getting red like crabs and sweating like a pig, one of the aunties said to the other “Look at them, luckily we took the car” Couldn’t agree more!! LoL

I can easily say LuoShui is one of my favorite place, nice weather, streets with cobbled stones, I could sit by the lake doing nothing, singing along while plugged into music, and romantic for sure. If only I had a lover there, I’d wish for time to stop, pfft… 

The walking marriage practiced by the local minority-the Mosuo, somehow spread more pheromones in the air. It’s a matriarchal society, a woman kingdom where the grandmother becomes the head of the family. It sounds like paradise for irresponsible men, they can get laid to as many girls as they want to, don’t have to officially marry the girl, don’t have to earn money for the family and don’t even have to raise the children. But in the other hand, it’s kinda sad for type of family guys, they don’t have the social power and have no rights for the woman they love, nor even their own children. If a woman and a man are interested in each other, the man can come to her house at the night, and BANG!! But he has to get back to his own house the next morning. If the woman get pregnant, the child will be raised by the woman’s family. Most of the children know exactly who their biological father is, but they won’t talk about it in public. At school, it’s considered offensive asking the children, ‘who is your father?’  And since they can’t raise their own children, the men in the family usually help to raise his sister’s children. That’s why, the women of Mosuo are typical hard worker and independent ones, they have to work their ass off to earn money for the family. I salute you Mosuo girls :D

I didn’t have any plan on where to go next, until my dorm buddy-Mike the Oz guy, convinced me to do Tiger Leaping Gorges. I should definitely thank him, it’s my personal piece of paradise on earth :)

Xiao Hei, I'm In Love

My biggest disappointment was not able to go to Western Sichuan, it was closed for foreigners due to an incident involving a monk that burned himself. When I was in Chengdu, Tibet was just re-opened and I was pretty optimistic that I could go to western Sichuan too, but unfortunately I couldn’t. Devastated in despair, I had to go through Lugu Lake to get to Yunnan, which is not a bad idea after all cos I did enjoyed my time there.

After arriving in Xichang by a night train from Chengdu, I went to a internet café next to the train station to get some information about Lugu Lake. I had no clue at all bout that place. But another silly rule from the Chinese government, foreigners can’t be online at internet café, WTF!! and Chinese themselves have to scan their ID to use internet. Later I heard that in Beijing, sometime they need to take picture first before online. Urghh…

A Chinese girl at the internet café felt pity for me and offered herself to travel with me, I speak a very little Chinese and she speaks no English, what a perfect travel buddy! Together with this girl-Wan Ping, another Western Sichuan victims-two Switzerland girls and a Hungarian TaiChi Master, we stayed the first night in Sichuan part of the lake. I cried inside when paid the admission fee, 80 fricking Yuan!!! I never have to pay for the magnificent Lake Toba that might be at least 5 times bigger than this lake. If you’re coming from Yunnan part, you have to pay 100Yuan for the same lake, so I can’t complain. I made promise to myself, if one day I’m back to China, I need a fake student card for 50% discount admission fee. Everything is cheap in China, everything but the admissions. 

Quite Lane of Wuzhiluo

The only recommended guesthouse there was Wind’s Guesthouse, it’s pretty much because that’s the only one with dorm beds, and the location-Wuzhiluo is a very laid back place, but for me it’s not that fun cos it’s not by the lake. We need to walk at least 15 minutes to get to LouWa to see the lake.  So on one breezy afternoon, me and Wan Ping walked to the lake and tried to find a place to spot sunset, we couldn’t have a real conversation, but somehow we could communicate well, most of the time when I used my magic word “ting bu dong” we'd just chuckled and laughed. We couldn’t reach the place for sunset cos it’s covered by a hill, but it was great to have a ‘guide’ to walk around the lake. A little black puppy ‘insist’ to lead our way and we named it Xiao Hei, the most common name for black dog that literally means Little Black. The first time we saw it coming out of the bush, it was eating a dead bird, but somehow it kept following us and when it walked quite far ahead of us, it’ll stop for a moment until we’re getting closer, then it would continue walking. It didn’t bark at all, but just turned its head staring at us and waited in silence, then continued walking again. It became our guide for more than one hour until it almost dark. That was so damn cute and touching, but it’s just another unavoidable sad goodbye. I was broken hearted.

Adorable Xiao Hei

One Night at China University Dorm

It never crossed my mind to be an illegal visitor and stayed overnight at any China university dormitory. The first 2 nights in Chengdu I stayed at Lynn’s aunt place and it’s quite far away from the Panda base. The only chance to get there at early morning is taking taxi, that will cost me a big fortune, taking bus will take 2 or 3 buses and more than one hour ride, plus the public bus will start around 7 AM. Meanwhile Lynn’s university was pretty close to the Panda Base, so Lynn decided to sneak me into her dorm, her lecturer’s room precisely. 

It happened that night the lecturer was not at her room and Lynn had the key :D It was a private room with attached bathroom and electricity 24/7, not like Lynn’s dorm at another level of the building that has no electricity after 11 PM. A loud alarm at 10.30 PM warned the students to get back to room before the light off and another loud one at 06.00 AM to wake them up, officially made me feeling like living in a concentration camp :p I stayed at the room by myself and had to make no sound at all and dimmed the light or Lynn will get into trouble if there’s someone knock on my door that night. I even took the picture of the bed, so the next morning I can arrange it back exactly the same. I was worried, but then zonked like a baby monkey the whole night. I left the room in the morning like nothing happened tho, like a boss!!

The Panda itself was adorable as always, I love the most baby pandas sleeping on the tree with their round fluffy ass, awwwww….The big ones were kinda dirty and not that cute anymore. The visit to Panda Base was officially the first place I went alone without Lynn, and finally was ‘forced’ to talk to new people. I’m kinda person that doesn’t talk too much and really can enjoy myself, and I would be so lazy to approach new people when I already have friend to be with. It’s already become my habit to eavesdrop a group tour  for free guidance, but then I had to choose between two groups going different directions, so I pick the small group that apparently from Mix Hostel. Though the guide couldn’t speak English and only lead the way, but I ended up spent a nice walk and nice talk along the zoo with a Hongky, a Korean and an American who speak Chinese better than me *sigh*

Red Panda

Round fluffy ass

China, Ting bu Dong...

Language barrier never really be my issue, I always believe that we all can smile in every languages on earth, so it won’t be a big deal eii :D And it’s kinda surprised me that actually my Chinese is not as bad as I thought all this time. Well it’s because mostly mainland Chinese’s English is way worse than my Chinese, I met lots of Chinese that really doesn’t know any words in English, even pretty common words like taxi and toilet. But it doesn’t stop them lending hands to some lost foreigners. A teen girl called her friend to ask for direction cos she didn’t know where’s the address I’m heading to, an auntie walked me and my friends cos she didn’t know how to explain the way getting to our destination, so did an uncle, a security guard and many more. No wonder they say Chengdu is the most laid back big city in China, you can tell by the people, they have more time to relax, to mingle with each other and to help others. And of course they still have time to smile back at you.

The first embarrassing experience was simply because I didn’t know what’s the Chinese characters for Man and Woman, I ended up ran into man’s toilet and saw a mid-age man pooping, blame the public toilet that never has door!

One thing I learnt from queuing at the train station was never queue in the same line with foreigners. It’s really hard to get a right train ticket if you don’t know any Chinese, and big chance you’ll get stuck behind those foreigners. I survived from knowing only several lines like: What time? How much? And of course my magic word ‘Ing zhuo’ means hard seater, which is the cheapest class of the train. There’s no hope the announcement board will help bout schedule and time-table, cos it’s all in Chinese characters, not even in pinyin!!

Timetable at train station

As a Chinese myself, everybody thought I’m a local, so my most overused word was Ting Bu Dong, means I don’t understand, I said that word everyday! But that’s an advantage for me, they were tend to be more friendly after found out that I’m a foreigner.  A friend that did the trip couple of years ago, also said the same thing, she needed to pretend didn’t know Chinese at all to get some attention, though she can speak perfectly and even read the characters. And Caucasians attract even more attention, every Caucasians that took hard seater in train, were offered to move into sleeper class by adding some little money to the guard :S

19 hours of hard seater from Kunming to Guilin

Spotting English words in public area has its own excitement, if not put smile on your face. it’s like they translate the words using Google translator. I remember at Guilin’s bus terminal they used ‘Export’ instead of ‘Exit’, and at Shangri-La bus terminal, there’s a line that said passengers without ticket should not pass that door, but the line they used was way too hilarious that took me minutes to get the meaning. This is what I meant I don’t mean to mock at all, it happens everywhere, including in Indonesia, and I even appreciate their effort to put some English words for me to understand. That’s what they called Chinglish anyway, I also learnt that ‘Long time no see’ is actually Chinglish popularized by Bruce Lee, translated literally from the Chinese ‘Hau Jiu Bu Jian’ And some other words like ‘No See, No go’ that means I’ll keep waiting, I won’t leave if you’re not coming, pfft…

Overall, I’ve been treated like a long lost sister, especially once they found out that my grandparents were originally came from Fujian province of China. And surprisingly all of them ever heard of Indonesia, maybe because we used to be big rival in Badminton :p

The Laid Back Chengdu

My first night was pretty eventful, from a nice lady in the airport bus that seems so worry and tried her best to make sure I got off the right bus stop, a sanlunche (pedicab) driver that kept talking as she didn’t notice my stupid face expression, a taxi driver that didn’t rip me off (the only taxi I took and thanks Mao he’s nice and honest), the gate watcher that didn’t let me got into the building where my couch was, a bunch of local girls that came into the rescue by making phone call to my host, and of course my super host that greeted me by her door when it’s almost midnight. The first days in Chengdu with my host-Lynn, were free of language barrier since I had my private translator :p to most of places I went to. I can easily say I met only nice people during my 4 days in Chengdu, not only friendly but some warm hearted ones. 

My first encounter with Sichuan cuisine was around Wenshu Temple, old streets with cobbled stone that full of restaurants and souvenir shops. Pretty much everything there has peppercorn or sesame, or both. As a truly Indonesian, I can’t survive without spicy foods, but Sichuan’s peppercorn gives another gauge of spiciness, IT NUMBS the whole mouth, for hours! Hahaha…I’m kinda exaggerate it, but it does give numbness for a long time, and I don’t really like it. But luckily it’s my first days and my stomach still friendly to any kind of new foods.

Welcome to the world of peppercorn and sesame

 

The lil monsters

 

The one to cool it all down 

On a breezy Sunday, I had a day trip out of Chengdu to Pingle Ancient Town with Lynn and another CS friend-Peter. After strolling around the ancient town, we headed to Jinji Valley, based on recommendation from a friend of Lynn’s friend that originally from Pingle. The problem is none of us wanted to pay 30 Yuan admission fee, so we had to sneak into the park. It’s bamboo forest at most part of the park, make it a very nice walk around till we need to pass a long suspension bridge. There’s another ticket check point at the bridge, and of course we couldn’t pass even though we tried to lie that we had thrown away our tickets cos we thought we wouldn’t need it again. Then a trash collector lady gave us the park brochures and told us to show the guard that we did purchased the tickets, that’s why we have the brochures that usually come along with the tickets, but it’s written ‘Please keep your ticket, another check point at the bridge’ Sh*t! At the end, all our lies didn’t work cos we took the wrong way after all. If we paid the tickets and followed the real track, we were supposed to cross the bridge from the other side of the valley, so everyone came from our side of valley must be illegal visitors, but guess what? We were not the only one that sneaked in, not long after came a group of people that made us burst in laugh cos we know they must have no tickets too. 

Lips smacking noodle soup for 5Yuan only #bestvaluemeal

 

Peter & Lynn 

On our way back to Pingle, we took a sanlunche that including a mini tour to the driver’s house. It was pretty big house with several rooms with its own door not connecting to each other, look more like hostel rooms and there’s a big Mao poster in the centre of one room. We were there for the toilet actually, but then the driver not only gave us an apple each, but also waved us goodbye after dropped us to the bus terminal. He didn’t talk much, but I can feel his sincere gesture, like a dad dropping his children that going out of town and I noticed he waited for quite a long time outside terminal’s main entrance to make sure we got our bus tickets. I smiled and nodded to thanks and let him know that we’re going to be just alright, he nodded and smiled back. I got teary eyes. Sometimes even the most simple kindness can warm your heart :’) 

Up Up Here We Go!

One month trip: mission accomplished!! In order to fulfill the craving of a long trip (for us Asians from developing countries, one month is considered a pretty long trip already :p), me and some friends bought one way ticket to India. Apparently Airasia closed their flight to Mumbai right before our flight there, so we got a chance to refund it (No Way Jose, we got it for only MYR 33), we can also change the airlines to go there OR change the destination. At the end, I changed mine to Chengdu, Fenny changed to Seoul, and the rest donated their money for the glory of Airasia, Hip Hip Hurray!!! 

Everything is indeed happened for a reason. In the despair of being new jobless, I tried to tempt Shanty to grab our backpacks and head to China for one month, like we always wanted to do, but after peeping at the ticket price by that time, we must put our bags back into the closet. But miracle has its own way to work its magic, not so long after, came the Airasia email that told us the big news. From the very beginning, I was pretty sure that I’ll change mine to China, tho not sure which city. I was jolted with excitement, not because I didn’t want to go to India, but you can never lie to your heart, I was more into China at that time. And a random browse in internet made me ended up dropping jaw with awe - seeing pictures of Western Sichuan. Claimed as one of the best road trip in this mother earth, starting from Chengdu to Shangri-La, passing some Tibetan villages with its rich culture, vast grassland, snowy peaks, long mountain range, a no-doubt paradise on earth. It was (supposed to be) the highlight of this trip.

The early plan was to be landed on Chengdu, then skip all the major tourist attractions in Sichuan like JiuZhaiGou, Leshan or Emei Shan (not that I don’t wanna visit it, simply cos I know that I’ll be back there again, JZG is one of my ultimate destinations after all), then travel south to Shangri-La in Yunnan province via KangDing, Tagong and Litang. The road passing western Sichuan will take around one week to 10 days in schedule. After arriving Shangri-La, then travel east to reach Kunming, then get out from China to Vietnam, therefore I bought my ticket back home from Hanoi. It was a good plan, apparently it was too good to be true, too bad. 

And it happened again!! Patrick be my only travel buddy after Trisna canceled to join the trip three days before leaving. Guess I wasn’t ready to hit the road by myself for one month, and the fact that Trisna is able to speak Chinese will help a lot, meanwhile I understand no words in Chinese. I also caught bad flu, cough and fever one week before D-day, I started to worry more about my health, even in a fit condition I’m not sure I can survive in places with altitude more than 4000 meters above sea level. I couldn’t even tell my parents that I’ll go there alone, or they wouldn’t let me go, so I had to lie. Well actually it wasn’t a lie, I just didn’t tell them the truth :p So it was pretty chaotic before leaving, but fortunately it all pays off at the end. Another life lesson to worry less and not to fear something that not even happen yet 

Thanks Annette for the LP:D