Tibet & China
Posted by Kirsty on July 30th 2007
Written on the 2007 London to Sydney expedition
Lhasa proved to be quite interesting – our visit consisted of admiring the majestic Potala Palace which takes centre stage in the city to hitting the nightclub scene where our own Stu took centre stage in a much anticipated DJ guest appearance. Everyone loved him (and his music). How many people can say they are an ‘international DJ’ - in Tibet?
We then embarked on what we were all expecting to be five long days of driving to make it through the rest of Tibet and into China proper. They were some of the best driving days on this trip so far – the scenery was absolutely stunning (bare, rocky mountains to lush green, pine covered mountains and waterfalls); the mountain passes high; the road following rivers all the way, precariously narrow and close to sheer drops (made Pakistan’s Karakoram Highway look like a walk in the park); and finally some action in terms of ‘digging’ due to recent landslides. With a massive rock blocking our path, the EOE team set to widening the road with shovels, breaking up a rock the size of a small car and towing it out of the way. Nothing was going to stop us. Bush camping beside rivers, washing hair and bathing in snow melt waters was the order of the day – brilliant.
We snaked along many rivers which finally led us to the mighty Yangzi River in Yunnan Province (southwestern China) and to Tiger Leaping Gorge. The gorge is one of the deepest canyons in the world at 3900 metres from river to surrounding snow capped mountain tops, namely Haba Mountain. It is fabled that the gorge became known has the ‘Tiger Leaping Gorge’ because a tiger in an attempt to escape the clutches of a pursuing hunter leapt from one side to the other – whilst quite narrow in some parts, no mean feat. After meeting ‘Margo’, a crazy Australian woman running a café at the gorge and getting the low down on which parts of the hiking trail were closed due to landslides, half the group set off on a two day hike into the gorge. Again in true EOE style, the weather went from rain the first day to an absolutely gorgeous sunny day the next.
Lijiang, in the ‘old town’ was our next stop. It is a quintessential Chinese town with cobbled streets, flowing canals with boulders and water wheels, beautiful old wooden buildings – all lit up at night with red Chinese lanterns. A wonderland.
It was decided earlier in the trip that we would have a fancy dress party with a ‘ridiculous’ theme. People have been anonymously accruing outfits for their designated ‘party-goer’ in Pakistan, India, Nepal and Tibet. The party was in the cool little hostel (with a fabulous view of the old town) we stayed in at Lijiang, then after a short walk of the streets (yes, still in our outfits) the party continued in an English Pub (where you could get Guiness). The outfits were great, most people put a lot of thought and effort into it. Needless to say, good time was had by all.
We are now in Dali, the last major town we stop at in China before entering Laos in a few days time. Another typical Chinese ‘old town’ with pagodas and temples by Lake Erhai Hu, Dali has been a chance to do souvenir shopping and soak up the Chinese culture and scrumptious food.
We celebrated the half way milestone in China in terms of number of trip days. It is hard believe that we have all the time we have had already all over again. Unreal!!!
South East Asia here we come…
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