China has blocked blogger.com, and numerous other sites, so we cannot view our blog or read any comments posted. We intend to catch up on comments when we have unfiltered internet again, (if there are any, of course!).
Ohh and Happy Halloween!
We have not been up to much recently. Before arriving in Chengdu we had a rough couple of days in transit and decided to bunker down at a nice place (Sims Cozy Guesthouse) in Chengdu. We spent about 4 days total in transit getting to Chengdu, most of which was not planned. We originally wanted to do some trekking outside of Deqin, close to Tibet, but Jackie wasn't feeling the best so we headed back to civilization which took a full day. Then we spent another two days getting to Chengdu through a combination of sleeper bus (I assure you no sleep was done) and a sleeper train (much, much better). The sleeper bus was up there on our list of bad transits. The beds were of course way to narrow and short to catch any sleep and many of the passengers were either smoking, spitting, coughing or vomiting from motion sickness. One of which was Jackies neighbor, about 2 feet away. But I digress.
We then took a very nice sleeper train to Chengdu and have been taking it really easy. We walked around the city a couple of times and visited the pandas the city is known for. Chengdu as a city, is rather depressing. Always gray skies, damp, dark and polluted. In four days I have yet to see the sun much less even a patch of blue. It's a drag.
But all is changing tomorrow! We are headed out of the perpetually polluted fog of Chengdu and back into wide open countryside with deep blue skies and fresh air! We are going to head north to Songpan, known for its beautiful countryside, where we will either rent horses for a couple of days or go trekking on foot. From there we are going to visit Huanglong National Park and also Jiuzhaigou National Park. A perfect antidote to the less than stellar atmosphere in Chengdu!
After getting our nature fill we're headed off to Xi'an, famous for the Terracotta Warriors before meeting up with Jackies Dad and Stepmom in Hong Kong! We are really excited to see a familiar face after being on the road for 5 months!
Kevin and Jackie
After a long but beautiful bus ride to Deqin and the to a smaller town, Xidang we were preparing for a couple of days of remote hiking. I unfortunately was feeling worse after not feeling great the past two days. We decided not to take the chance of going further with me not feeling well since we would be pretty remote. Today we returned to Shangri-la (Zongdian), splurged on a really nice place, and revised our travel plans once again. Tomorrow we will head to Sichuan on an overnight bus. We still plan to do some hiking and other activities in the countryside.
Once again we are off to a new place in search of a new adventure.
We ran into two Australian girls at our guesthouse who had come back from a 14 day hike in the area around Deqin, which we were planning to visit next. They had a ton of recommendations and advice. Dont worry we are only planning to do two day hikes; one to Yubeng from Deqin and one around Yubeng. The area is suppose to be spectacular (and cold!). We wont have internet for 3 days most likely so please do not worry if you do not here from us. We will be in touch as soon as we return to Deqin or Shangri-la (Zongdian).
From Shangri-la we plan to travel to Sichuan overland stopping in Yading for some more hiking as was recommended by multiple travelers we ran into along the way.
Jackie and kevin
We have just arrived to Shangri-la (Zhongdian) after a two day hike in the Tiger Leaping Gorge. The hike was quite spectacular with massive rock mountains and steep cliffs. We had blue skies both days with the occasional passing puffy cloud to contrast the deep blues, greys, greens and reds. The weather was as perfect as you could ask for. Warm in the day, and chilly at night.
We stopped half way at the Tea Horse Hostel for sunset and the night. We were greeted at night with spectacular views of the night sky including a pretty active meteor shower. We were told to wake up at 2 AM to catch them at their best but we only stayed up for 40 minutes before heading out of the cold and back into our warm beds.
The next day we completed the hike to the thunderous roar and echoing of rock avalanches across the gorge. The sound of the rocks was a pure adrenaline rush! We tried looking around but the echoes came from all directions, making it impossible to tell the actual locations. We got a closer look at some of the smaller avalanches on our drive back through the gorge.
Now we are safe in Shangri-la (Zhongdian) at 3200 meters! It gets below freezing here and the smell of wood fires fill the air. We are staying at the Harmony Inn which is a very old Tibetan lodge with a very cozy wood fire stove, fresh hot tea, a big furry dog and wifi. Perfect.
We're off to get dinner and take it easy to adjust to the altitude and the cold, but our heated blankets should help with the latter.
Jackie and Kevin
Its official. We finally sat down and forced ourselves to book a flight home. We've been talking about it for at least the past two weeks but we seemed to always put it off. We're coming home on December 7th, 3:00 PM to be exact. We are flying from Goa, India to Doha, Qatar, to JFK, New York. 21 hours.
Also! We have gotten around to uploading a TON of pictures. We just put Angkor Wat, Kunming, Dali, and Lijiang online. I would link to them but I can't because China blocks Picasa and Blogger so we can't read your comments until we get internet access via a proxy.
We've off to Tiger Leaping Gorge tomorrow morning where we are going to hike for two days through the deepest gorge in the world. From there we're headed to Shangri-La, at an elevation of 3200 meters to do some more mountain hiking. We will have Wifi there so we will be in touch.
We have been loving China so far!
Kevin and Jackie
Don't worry, the water was very deep where you land. There are about 5 or 6 'bars' along the river that encourage acrobatics. You're supposed to let go after two swings but I think Jackie got a little nervous!
We still have pictures from Angkor Wat (Cambodia) to upload as well.
Kevin and Jackie
Let's just say we left Laos on Tuesday evening, woke up on a bus in Bangkok early Wednesday morning and are now going to bed in Cambodia. It was a very tiring past few days.
The commotion of course does not stop here. Tomorrow we will be up for another sunrise, hopefully a beautiful one at Angkor Wat. It will be a full day of site seeing with many more temples pictures im sure. I hope you are not too bored of the ones from Myanmar, but I understand if you are.
After tomorrow we will be off again, back to Thailand. This time we decided to take two days to relax at the beach since we have been on the go for the past week.
I must apologize that we have not had much interesting content on our blog lately. It has just been hard since we have been on the go lately. We will hopefully have pictures and maybe a story or two up before we head to China on the 14th.
First off, our thoughts go out to all those who have been affected recently in Indonesia, Samoa, Philippines, and Vietnam. Thankfully, we are no where near any of the action.
We are safe and dry in northern Laos (Luang Prabang). We only had a few clouds for the past couple of days so the typhoon did not effect us at all. This was a good thing since we have been on the slow boat traveling down the Mekong River from Huay Xi to Luang Prabang for the past two days. After our journey, 7 hours the first day, 8 hours the second, our butts were sore from sitting on tiny wood benches no wider than a 2' x 4'. As a nice surprise, Luang Prabang is extremely charming and quaint with its French architecture, small bakeries, cute shops, and loads of restaurants. We are looking forward to spending the next couple of days here before moving onto Vang Vien and then Vientiane.
We will keep in touch and keep up with the news and weather.
Jackie and Kevin
Modified Autumn Leaves©
Back to TOP
