27/6 - Meili Trek

Hi all,

Meili Snow Mountain, also known as Prince Snow Mountain, is located 10 kilometers northeast of Deqin Town. The mountain sits on the border of Yunnan Province and Tibet, where the three famous rivers merge.

We treated to spectacular view from all vantage points. The continuous mountain ridges feature snowy peaks and the sun throws golden lights on the low-floating clouds which form various extraordinary shapes, affording yet another splendid view! But mostly, the mountain presents itself as mystery when dense fog and clouds made it a gleaming sight to see.

It was a 4 days trek for us, the first day we arrived to the remote secluded village of Yubeng, there you can not see any motorised transportation since it is not connected to any sealed road in China, instead we could notice pigs, horses, yaks and chickens wondering around the Tibetan village.
It was a total 7 hours walk, while climbing to the altitude of 3800 meters (starting at 2200 meters), the climb was under a pine Forest, only at top we could have seen the stunning snow capped mountains.



The second day we spent hiking in the Sanpu waterfall, great falls which drop down from the glaciers all around, you can easily see it is a Tibetan holy place with all it's prayer flags.
From afar these glaciers look like a huge white snake wriggling its way among the verdant mountains. it was an easy day walk for 6 hours return.



The third day was our highlight in the trek, although it was rainy all day long, we arrived to the Ice lake which from there we could see the peculiar low-altitude glaciers formed in modern times. Strong updrafts collide with cloud airflow from the inner continents in this area producing frequent dense fog and heavy snow. The resulting topographic extremes include hanging glaciers, icefalls and snow slides. That was in the altitude of 3900 meters.



We started at 9:00 and came back to Yubeng village at 20:00, during the hike we had to watch ourselves not to slip while walking on the wet mud.



The fourth day was the day we returned to the starting point of the trek, the sun was shining suddenly unlike the day before the the sky were "perfect blue sky" as we call it, there was no shred of sign of the wet weather that took place the previous day.
We decided to turn back the same way we came, since the other one considered to be very dangerous, a few days earlier there was an Israeli guy who slipped down to the river and is still missing we believe.

We were a group of 7 people, Baptist from France which we met in Tiger Leaping Gorge Trek, Tim and Lottie from England, Tim from Holland and another Yoni from Israel.
As usual we all shared some nice talks and experiences.



No doubt we will miss traveling here, sleeping in such a remote village nestled in a beautiful valley surrounded by 6700 meters high mountains, waking up every morning seeing this scenery is something you learn how to treasure.



Have fun,
Efrat and Yoni.

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22/6 - Zhongdian

Hi All,

Zhongdian is known today as the mystic name of - Shangri La, it has been associated with the mystique of a place which could not possibly exist here on Earth (yehh... right, they will do anything to attract the tourists). Located at point where Tibet, Sichuan and Yunnan province all meet.



Zhongdian (Shangri-La), at an average altitude of more than 3,000 meters, is inhabited by many different ethnic groups, with the Tibetans comprising the majority of the population. Here we had the experience Tibetan life and we learned about their lifestyle, religion and cuisine. The unique scenery, highlighted by plateaus, together with the fascinating ethnic culture makes Zhongdian very attractive and charming to visit.



At this region, we rented a mini-van to tour around the area, we shared wonderful time (and costs) with our trekking partners - The Conklin family and Baptist which are really fun partners and kind people.
As usual we got the chance to explore the village lifestyle, and visit a 300 years old monastery.





At our last day here, after saying goodbye to the American familly, we took a nice stroll around the old town of Zhongdian with other tourists we met.



Have fun,
Efrat and Yoni.

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20/6 - Tiger Leaping Gorge

Hi all,

About 100 kilometers northwest of Lijiang Old Town lying between Snow Mountains is Tiger Leaping Gorge, which is believed to be the deepest gorge in the world. From the top of the gorge you can look down the steeply angled (70-90 degrees) mountain sides to the rushing Yangtze River with its 18 frothing rapids more than 200 meters below.
An ancient legend says that a tiger used this rock as its stepping stone so it could leap across from one side of the gorge to the other, which is how the gorge got its name.



You can trek the gorge in 2-3 days, during these days you get to walk along the slopes looking at the great steep mountains and the flushing river.

We started our first day in a mini-van going for 2.5 hours from Lijiang to the beginning of the trek in a small village, after leaving our big bags for storage in one of the guest houses and paying 7 USD for the trek permit, we were able to start walking.

In the first day we walked for 6 hours, during that time we climbed from 1900 meters to 2670 meters high to a lookout and descended back to 2200 meter where we slept in a guest house along the way.

At the second day we walked flat most of the time while descending once in a while, we past a very impressive waterfall and go on to the end of the trail.



we met some wonderful people during our long walks and at the breaks, it is worth to mention Yuha and Milla from Finland, Baptist from France and of course - the Conklin family from USA.



Have fun,
Efrat and Yoni.

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18/6 - Lijiang

Hi All,

It is said there is a fairyland beneath the colorful clouds of southern China. A place blessed with fresh air, clear streams, breathtaking snow-capped mountains, and an undisturbed landscape inhabited by a friendly group of people. Life in this fairyland is so peaceful, a fairyland called Lijiang, located at the hub of Tibet, Yunnan and Sichuan provinces.
Lijiang has the best preserved ancient town in China - the Old Town which has been listed in the World Cultural Heritages by UNESCO in 1997.
The Old Town of Lijiang, a well-preserved old city of ethnic minorities with brilliant culture, is a central town of the Lijiang Autonomous County of the Naxi Ethnic Minority in Yunnan Province.



when walking on the streets of the Old Town, one can feel the new and old mixture.
We felt like traveling in China old days, with the Classic Chinese traditional architecture, even the Naxi people are still wearing their traditional dress, its so different and special, we couldn't stop of enjoying this kind of authentic.



The modernization come to life with the prosperity and flourish of the town from the shops with fancy collections of handicrafts, western restaurants, guest houses in every corner, and new technological devices.

One of the reasons we will remember Lijiang for a long time is because this place can deal with the tourism by continuing it's traditional lifestyle, although it is a touristic place it is (still) not commercial one, the people here are friendly, smiling and kind.



We liked the views and the village - Baisha (also a Naxi village) which is 10 km north to Lijiang, Bicycle were our transportation, that was our first time to cycle in this trip, our ass surely did not like it.





Over there we found a nice family who welcomed us by having lunch and smiles.



Have fun,
Efrat and Yoni.

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16/6 - Back to Kunming

Hi All,

After getting our strength back from the bus long rides of Vietnam, Efrat finally got the chance to experience what she had missed the last time we were here since she got sick.
We visited the dog market and the park, Efrat danced with the locals and made many locals looked at her, Reminder: every weekend Kunming people going out from their homes to dance and sing in this park. This weekend was rainy but even though it didn't prevent them from going out to the park, young teenagers and old people as one.



We spent a wonderful time with Ofri, nice Israeli girl whom we met in our hotel.



Have fun,
Efrat and Yoni.

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14/6 - Hanoi to China

Hi All,


Many things went wrong from Hanoi city to Lao Cai - the border city and the gateway to China, actually it was one long nightmare. It's only 300 km journey but it took us 3 days to do it.
It all began while going to the wrong Bus station (there are more than 4 different bus stations) in Hanoi, due to a misleading information by our hotel manager, that took us lots of time and money. After getting rid of the many of the touts at the bus station, we arrived to the right one at 9:30 (2 hours late), here we had to deal with other 1 millions touts and other kind of leeches. Eventually we found the bus to Lao Cai or at least as it has been told to us, after making sure (asking the driver several of times) this is the right bus.
Of course they over charged us by asking 6 times more the price for a bus ticket. The price dropped when we insist, but not as the local price, we paid as they demand since we had no choice, they were about to throw us with the bags from the bus in the middle of god only knows if not paying them, we were hopeless.

In the middle of the way we have been transferred to a different bus, saying this new bus goes to Lao Cai, but the truth is this bus went to a different town called:"Yen Bai".
We realized all was one big show to trick us and get our money.

We found ourselves all of a sudden in a town which was not even shown in our "Lonely Planet" travel guide book, we were hopeless in a middle of nowhere, while nobody speak English.
In Yen Bai we found accommodation and the day after, we arrived again to the bus station at 12:45 to catch the bus to Lao Cai as we have been told, well, we got the tickets and thought all of this behind us but a few minutes later we realized the bus has been cancelled.
We had no choice to head to the train station and buy tickets for 3 AM at night.

The train was much worse than expected, it turned out that our tickets were for hard seats, and it was really hard, we couldn't sleep all night long.



Eventually we decided to cancel our last destination in Vietnam and go back to China sooner than we planned. We had enough of Vietnam.

In Lao Cai we went straight to the border, after changing our last Vietnamese dongs to Chinese Yuans, we found ourselves at the Chinese border town - Hekou in no time.



Immediately we caught a bus back to Kunming, 11.5 hours.
After 24 hours of nothing but sitting, our ass killed us.

Have fun,
Efrat and Yoni.

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11/6 - Ninh Binh

Hi All,

Ninh Binhe has a pace of a large country town, it was a welcome respite for us to escape the bustle of Hanoi. Apart from the scrum of guest house owners greeting the bus, and the charming chorus of "Hello" from the local children, we had our peace and quiet in the streets and the area.

The surrounding countryside is Georges confirming all the postcards fantasies of what Vietnam has to offer, water Buffalos, golden green rice paddies, majestic limestone formations and more.



As usual, whenever there is a chance we rent a motorbike and start to explore the countryside like we did here. The scenery was very impressive, the communication with the local was satisfying, and it was an experience we will not forget for a long long time.



In Ninh Binh area it was our first time to see the process of rice making, from the fields to the product itself how we know it.

We have some problems to upload photos since it turn out that Vietnam Internet Cafes have no DVD Roms, so meanwhile we are uploading movies to our library since in China we couldn't do so ("youtube" site is being consistently blocked over there).

We ran at the same problem here like in China, No DVD burners all over, and rarely CD burners we could find. It is worth to mention the guy who did have a DVD burner, we found him by coincident after a several hours of searching, we were so happy since we ran out of space in our memory cards, it really surprised us this guy didn't charge us for the use of burning at all (it is very rare here in this part of the world).



Have fun,
Efrat and Yoni.

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9/6 - Hanoi

Hi All,

After a long bus ride from Cao Bang (9 hours), we arrived to the hustle and bustle city of Hanoi.
A mass of motorbikes swarms through the tangled web of streets in the old quarter, where the cheap guest houses nestled between narrow alleys with many people.

We spent about 1.5 days in the capital of Vietnam, that was more than enough for us to run away without turning back, in other words - we did not like this place at all !
The people were the main reason for our decision not to come back here if it is possible, Some of them were very aggressive, some of them were noisy. At our first hour in Hanoi we were cursed by a teenager boy who didn't accept the fact we are not interested sleeping in his hotel, we were humiliated by an old woman who refused to take our money when we paid the correct amount for a bottle of water and more ...
The Vietnamese people are people with swelled ego. If you insult their ego (and it doesn't take much to do so), they will turn to be very unpleasant.
It won't help you bargaining in street markets because they will not back down from their price and ego, even though we know the price they are asking from us is double the local price.



We had a bad experience in Hanoi, experience we didn't feel even in rough India.
But not everything there is so bad, we did meet some of the locals which were nice.

Have fun,
Efrat and Yoni.

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7/6 - Cao Bang

Hi All,

People say that Cao Bang Province is one of the most beautiful places in all of Vietnam, nestled around 300 km north of Hanoi city (the capital) that was our first place to visit. There are nine ethnic minorities living in this province. The town itself has not something special to be proud of, it is an interesting spot to follow the Vietnamese primitive country lifestyle, but more than that it is a useful base to explore the surrounding countryside.

Ban Gioc Waterfall:
One of Vietnam's best known waterfalls, its image adorns the lobby of many a cheap guest houses throughout Vietnam. it's a very scenic spot, marking the border with China, it surprised us we were the only foreign visitors here, unlike the Chinese side.



The waterfall is the largest in the country, the vertical drop is 53 meters and it has an impressive 300 meters span, one end of the falls is in China, the other is in Vietnam.
The falls has 3 levels, creating a sort of giant staircase.



Ngoum Ngao Cave:
Nguom Ngao is one of the largest cave located inside a mountain among the range of limestone mountain in the area. The cave was formed due to weathered process of limestone mountains over a long time. Stepping in the cavern, we seem to see a miraculous world.
From high stone cliffs, hanging wonderful sparkling seven-colored stalactites.
Electricity has been installed in the main cave and the lightening is quite beautiful.



Thang Hen Lake:
It was suppose to be one of the most beautiful attractions in the area, but it turned out to be a disappointing place, the lake itself looks like a big green pond and nothing more.

The real attraction for us was to see an extinct vanishing world:

The Villages:
At the same day we rented a motorbike and cruise around Cao Bang area, by that we experienced what we have seen behind the glass of the bus at the previous day (the bus to Ban Gioc waterfalls).
We stopped at minority villages, the communication with the locals was challenging with a great joy since the people are very friendly and we became an attraction for them as they for us. While observing the countryside traditional lifestyle we felt very fortunate as we know it is a vanishing world which will extinct in the future.





Generally - Cao Bang is not touristic yet and the integration with the locals was very authentic, real, mutual and interesting (and not commercialized).
That kind of atmosphere we didn't experience for a long time.
No doubt, in the western world you can't see this kind of lifestyle.



working in the rice fields:


Have fun,
Efrat and Yoni.

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3/6 - Border Crossing

Hi All,

After a 4 hours ride by bus from Nanning we arrived to Pingxian - The border town, from there we took a Motorbike taxi to the border - Friendship Gate it called.
There is 500 meters walk between the Chinese and the Vietnam's frontiers.
Before having our passports stamped at the Chinese side, we were asked to follow the officers to a side room and have our bags checked, they were interested in anti Communist sensitive materials such as Books, CD's, notebooks etc.

the border gate:


At the Vietnamese side we had to fill up some costum forms and get a health check, well, you can be as sick as you want when you get to Vietnam as long as you pay the voucher that says you are alright (1 Sheqel), we guess this is how the system works here ...

We had to bargain a lot at the border to get a ride to the closest town from the Vietnamese side - Lang son, it was very strange to get used to a new currency all of a sadden. From Lang son, we took a local bus (4.5 hours) to Cao Bang and spent there the night, the road was a breath taking, we crossed many rice fields and authentic villages.
We left our hotel at 7:00 A.M in China and checked in in our new Vietnamese hotel at 19:00 P.M, except the border crossing which was on foot, we spend all our day in public transportation.

We didn't feel like we moved into a new country except the differences with the language, currency and signs on the roads ...

Have fun,
Efrat and Yoni.

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1/6 - Yangshou

Hi All,

In the 1980's, many foreign backpackers were drawn here by the introduction of the county in the 'Lonely Planet' (travel guide) which described this place as a haven were you can run to from the hustle and bustle of city life.
These days Yangshou became too touristic, it's very busy and is well-known for its westernization with a plethora of restaurants serving western food and showing night clubs at night and a great number of Internet cafes. There is a huge concentration of foreigners within the few streets which lit by neon signs and Gran canaria style bars, but once outside of these few streets, you can also notice the impressive natural landscapes.



The famous Li River traverses the county and brings it the most beautiful scenery. Along the extremely pure river, thousands of hills stand in different poses and with different expressions.



In couple of times we rented a motorcycle and cruise around the area along the river, we visited many small villages but got disappointed to notice these places got commercialized already, we guess 1 million tourists have visited here before we did, and 1 million will continue to do so after we leave ...



Unlike the modern busy life here, Streets in Yangshuo are well kept in the original style, presenting the simple and primitive atmosphere of the ancient town.



Have fun,
Efrat and Yoni.

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