Nujiang Adventure – October 2009.

 

During the “Golden Week” holiday, me and five friends decided to embark on an adventure of epic proportions and headed north to Yunnan’s remote Nujiang Valley. 

Day 1

On day one we set off from Kunming (昆明） to Liuku （六库）on a sleeper bus costing us ￥176 for an 11 1/2 hour journey.  We departed at 7:30 pm from the west station near the railway track market and arrived to a dark parking lot in Liuku the next morning at 6:30 am.  I tossed and turned in the top bunk, #4, for the entirety of the trip, beside me lay a man who, unlike me, had no troubles sleeping..and snoring for the entire 11 1/2 hours.

About an hour and a half into the trip we stopped for a bathroom break, I decided the women’s line up was too long, and snuck into the men’s “WC” before they got off the  bus, a choice that I heard was a good one, as the women’s facility were unusually disgusting. After we all loaded back on the bus we were blessed to see an amazing fireworks display for China’s 60th anniversary. 

Hours later at 5:45 am we were stopped at a checkpoint where all six of us were asked to give our passports to police standing outside.  We waited for some time, Merrill took the delay on her being American and thought we might have some trouble on our hands, but half an hour-ish later, we were back on our way.  The roads from Kunming to Liuku were ridiculously bumpy, thank goodness it was dark and I couldn’t actually see the ‘roads’ lest fearing for my life the entire trip.  In addition, I forgot my motion sickness drugs…since I forgot the extent to which I get sick in buses…never again.

After arrival Merrill and I decided we needed to find a washroom, we asked and asked and finally found them…locked.  So we popped a squat behind a bus in the parking lot, and were thankful that we always carry toilet paper in our bags.  We all met in the bus lobby and decided where to go next.

Day 2 

The decision was quickly made to immediately head out of Liu ku for the mountaintop  border  town (with Myanmar) of Pian ma 片马）, a place where locals found the remains of an American “flying tigers’ plane after the Japanese invasion.   It was still dark when we left, but the air was warm, outside we found a man in a bread van (面包车) who agreed to take us for ￥30 (4 hour trip) a head after a little bargaining.  After a quick stop for some breakfast baozi and dumplings ( 包子 and 饺子）and we were off.  I dibs the front, death, seat to mitigate the chance of future motion sickness. 

Within the first 20 minutes of driving up a precariously steep mountain on roads extremely close to the edge, we spotted an over turned bread van, pretty much the same as the one we were in, hanging precariously on the edge of the mountain.  That’s when I started to pray for our driver and our safety.  Hoofta.    To make matters worse, the wind was strong, and the vehicle not very sturdy.  That being said, the scenery was amazing and our driver was kind enough to let us stop where ever we wished to take photos.

After arrival we asked were the best hotel was, and were directed to the town’s only “hotel” a very very sketchy motel at best that had terrible washrooms and had questionable sanitary policies.  But for ￥25 a night we weren’t complaining…too much.  Merrill and I shared rooms the first night and after checking in we went to go explore.  We found the museum that displayed the wreckage of the “flying tigers” plane along with photographs of pilots and history displayed in the room.  While there we encounter the cutest old man, who could incredibly speak English.  In small towns like this its really rare to meet a young person who can speak English, but an elderly person is even more incredible.  He was awesome. 

Afterwards we rented motorized peddy cabs to take us to the China/Myanmar border, he dropped us within walking distance and we began to take some pictures, which apparently is not allowed as border guards came running telling us we had to delete our pictures.  So we did.  We decided to walk the 3 kilometers back to town in the scorching heat, I smelt gui hua half way back and convinced half our group to walk the route lined with gui hua while the others took an alternate route.  As a took in the beautiful scent a guard came and told me I was on school property…and that wasn’t allowed.  I just wanted to smell the osmanthus. :( 

Back in town, our group re-united in front of a man selling rings for a game of ring toss…with fish bowls, fish food, turtles and the like.  We decided to support local business and began to buy a few try’s at the ring toss, within minutes we gathered a crowd.  Kids started using there ￥’s to buy chances to get us to throw their rings.  Merrill and Gilles were the stars of the show, everyone wanted Merrill to throw their  rings in hopes she would win them a turtle.  A lot of pressure, but she did a fine job.  I tried my hand, but wasn’t nearly as talented…I think I scored a bag of fish food.  There were two little girls sitting right in front of me, they were so beautiful and kept looking up at me.

As we wandered through the streets, we could hear whispe rs of foreigners on the tips of everyones tongues.  It was apparent that everyone had heard we were in town and wanted to come see what these foreigners were all about.  Everyone was really sweet.  We found out Pian ma was a Lisu minority community after a Lisu woman invited for dinner (think traditional pig blood, duck head kind of dinner in a fly infested kitchen) and offered to give Merrill the same tattoo she was admiring on the Lisu woman’s arm.   We politely declined both. 

Later that night we ran into a foreign man with his Hong Kong partner who were there bird watching, they were kind enough to give us some tips for our future travels.  Apparently this area boasts birds not seen any where else in the world. 

That night we bought our favourite Jing jiu and had a jolly good time, and slept well.

Day 3

The next morning we met for a breakfast of dumplings at 8:15, packed our bags and headed back for Liu ku by 9 am.  The trek back down the mountain was even scarier this time around because the FOG OF DEATH made the roads impossible to see.  Visibility was zero, we asked our driver if it would be better if we just waited the fog out, but he assured us that he had driven these roads a million times and would be fine.  Although the ￥30, 4 hour bus ride kept us on the edge of our seats (and even got a request that I say a prayer for our safety) we did arrive in one piece back to Liu ku, where we quickly decided to head off to Fu gong （副贡).  After  a quick lunch of 三鲜炒饭 and a quick pee break we grabbed a cab (￥5）which drove us to the bus station with just enough time to buy snacks for our journey.  Before boarding the bus, all passengers had their temperatures checked to ensure no fevers were there to further spread the H1N1 that had infiltrated the city earlier that week. 

This time around, the roads were much less scary, about four hours into the journey (with an hour remaining) we got side tracked in a little town where an accident was blocking the road.  We got out to stare, and get stared at.  During the 45 minutes I saw the cutest little boy dressed like a dirty baby chick, his mom said I could have him if I wanted, but he cried when I said hello. 

We arrived safe and sound in Fu gong, checked into a hotel recommended by Lonely Planet for ￥40/night.  This time I got to share with Gilles.  After check in I tried to buy car sickness pills, but mistakenly got stomach sickness pills.. (车 vs. 吃)  But the pharmacist recommended an area where we could go eat.

It was really dark out, but we just decided to follow the pharmacists directions and headed into the darkness.  After a few minutes we decided that really there were no restaurants and so Willem and I decided just the two of us would continue around the corner to see if there were actually any prospective dinner options.  At the river’s edge, there was nothing.  So we headed back. 

Around the corner, Hana said she thought the man in front of us had a gun, he did.  We decided to play it cool and just go about our own business and pass him.  As we did, he got up out of his crouch and began to follow us, Gilles and I were in front of us, he quickened his pace, but was almost staggering like he was drunk or high, we were scared shitless and were trying to think where to go.  Gilles crossed the street, the gunman quickened his pace even more so I decided to book it across the street into a door frame with Gilles.  He left.  We breathed.

After getting back to a street with lights, we ran into foreigners volunteering in the city who recommended a safe  place for us to eat dinner.  We found the restaurant, right beside the pharmacy on the opposite side, the food was extremely slow, but delicious nonetheless.

After dinner we stopped in for our regular jing jiu, and Hana discovered they were selling absolute at an absolutely ridiculous cheap price, so she bought a bottle for  ￥100.  We all headed back to the hotel for a good old card game, Gilles decided he was too cool for jing jiu and substituted it for bai jiu, which wrecked him.  Not to mention that Hana and I kept re-filling his glass for him when he wasn’t paying attention.  Poor guy, I tucked him in and kissed his forehead before saying good night. 

Day 4

Before leaving for the Moon Rock we headed to a local market where Merrill, Andrea and I met some friendly Lisu men who were pulling noodles.  They were incredibly friendly, invited us to sit and have tea with them.  They showed us their traditional Lisu bags, which everyone has, and told us about their lives.  All of them were  believers. 

We continued our trek up the Nujiang valley, departing from Fu gong heading to Moon Rock (十月亮）, another Lisu minority area, again with a mian bao che (￥27).  This time instead of consulting the Lonely Planet guide, we took the advice of our HK friends J&J and stayed at a CLEAN establishment with an incredible view of the moon rock and the nujiang river.  This time around I bunked with Andrea.  The only down fall of this place was that the rooms had no washrooms, but there were troughs downwind from us on site. 

At first we thought the owner was really nice, he gave us a great introduction to the story of the moon rock, a local tale of a foreigner lost in the forest, and talked about tea.  Dinner was made at the hotel and was late, but very delicious.  During our many hours on the bus thus far, we noticed that the countryside boasted many churches so we asked about them.  He told us that this was an area that missionaries hit early in the 20th century and that there were many believers in the area.  He even offered to take us to a church service that night in the mountains.  We agreed, hired a bread van for ￥21 and hiked the remainder up the mountainside. 

When we arrived we were seated near the front; the rest of the people separated into male and female, with males sitting on the right side and the females sitting on the left, the same as us.  The service started with a choir of five members singing a hymn in local Lisu dialect, it gave everyone goose bumps and brought all the girls to tears.  I felt shivers the entire time they sang, truly a beautiful experience.  After they finished the minister asked us to sing something for them,  Andrea and I were the only Christians in the group and so agreed to sing Amazing Grace.  Andrea quickly powered out and left me to sing by myself, but I tried my best.  The remainder of the service again brought me to tears, which is crazy because although I couldn’t understand a single word of what was being said, I still felt the presence of God in that room, more than I ever had before. 

When we arrived back at the hotel, the owner had prepared a chainsaw chicken soup for us that we couldn’t eat, we gave it to the cat…and the owner walked in as we were feeding it, he wasn’t impressed.  That night we lost power and stayed in the dining room drinking warm beer and talking, Andrea and Gilles weren’t feeling up to par and left early to rest. 

Day 5

On Monday we embarked from the Moon Rock to Gongshan (贡山）on yet another bread van.  When we arrived it was pouring rain, so we decided to check out the Lonely Planet’s recommendation of a brand spanking new hostel.  It took us a while to find, but when we drove we were initially impressed.  There were clean dorm style beds, the prices were decent, not another soul in the place, but we were almost content to seal the deal…then we asked about the washrooms.  Now, we have seen some pretty sketchy washrooms in through our travels in China, but these were disgusting.  So we went for choice #2 of LP, it was better, a hotel.  Musty, but liveable…for one day.  After unpacking our things from the van into our rooms, we went wandering.  Gilles and I broke off from the group and started exploring back alley’s and stairs that seemed might lead down to the river, they didn’t and were blocked off, so we turned around and walked back exactly the way we came back to the hotel.  But only after I bought a Mao Zedong satchel for Tammy and we walked through a local market, where we saw the usual pig heads, chicken feet…but this time we also saw a man and his mom cooking a chicken with a blow torch; that way they didn’t even have to pluck it, the feathers just melted off.  On the way out the street we came across an animal that we never really figured out what it was, it had giant teeth like a beaver, but was way too small.  He was in a cage, we asked what it was, but couldn’t tell what the answer was.  This season was also apparently one where bee larvae are plentiful, as in every city/town we’ve been to has had women picking out larvae from the honey combs.  Mmmmmm. delicious. 

That night we asked a few locals about Dulong jiang, a remote village where elders still have the traditional face tattoos typical of their minority.  They’re the only minority in China with the tattoo tradition and are dying out quickly as the young people are not following the same tradition their grandparents had to.  This would undoubtedly be a once in a lifetime experience to meet people very few have had the chance to meet.  The only problem was, that it had been raining for the majority of our journey, and seeing as though the Dulong people were located in a remote northern community we were told that it would be too dangerous for us to try and reach the village.  That week several locals had died trying to maneuver the dangerous roads, even for a once in a lifetime experience, we weren’t willing to put our lives on the line.  So we didn’t end up taking the 9 hour journey to Dulong jiang.

That night we met a Canadian lady working on AIDS education in the area, she was awesome, and told us that AIDS in Yunnan is a problem of epic proportions, the problem is no one is educated about AIDS, and even if they are, there is such a stigma against it that no one would want to seek treatment.  As such, the disease is spreading too fast.  She has a tough job, especially seeing as though she had no Chinese language skills when she first arrived.  The restaurant we met her at was undoubtedly the best meal of the trip thus far.  On our way home we were approached by a friendly man who offered his help in anything we needed, very kind. 

Then it rained, and rained, and rained some more. We kept our jing jiu tradition going that night at the hotel and slept well.

Day 6

The next morning we departed from Gongshan on our way to Bingzhong luo (1+hours), a one street town famous for the Tea Horse  route just outside the city.  We checked in at Tea Horse Inn (￥40/night) Gilles and I roomed together.  After dropping our bags, we walked down the street and stopped in a local restaurant for ‘baba’ and yak butter tea, an experience we were told not to miss.  Yak butter tea, is well liquefied yak butter, a salty drink that locals seem to love.  It wasn’t as bad as all the foreigners before us had warned, and baba resembled the bannock back in North America.  The baba and tea was more like an appetizer, so we decided we should eat again, but couldn’t agree on what to eat.  Me and Hana didn’t want noodles again, so we set off looking for a place that would cook us some vegetables late in the afternoon.  We found one, where another family on vacation was on vacation with their daughters, also from Kunming.  A rich family we presumed, as the parents quickly nudged their daughters to make friends with us and practice their English, which they did and did well.  They conversed with us for the remainder of our meal and proceeded to treat us to the dinner we ordered.  Nice. :) 

After lunch, we went on a hike, as per the suggestion of a middle aged Italian man , who gave incredible directions..”like dis, dis dis, then like dis…” we followed them, and walked for hours and hours, this is where Andrea amped up her complaining and couldn’t hack all the walking, but we were searching for a ‘viewpoint’  we ran into a group of Chinese tourists who were in a jeep and asked them how much farther, they said probably about a kilometer, mind you they were riding in a car and perhaps couldn’t judge how far they were driving, because after about another hour of walking we still had not fallen upon the promised viewpoint.  And in fear that cougars would devour us as darkness fell, we decided to turn back, this time taking “short cuts” back down.  Did I mention that I did not pack a pair of running shoes with me?  I didn’t so I did all the hiking in my trusty birkenstocks.  All of us fell a few times on our slide down the mountain.  We arrived back at the hotel at around 7:30pm (we left at 1pm).  After a quick shower, and dinner we again found our trusty jing jiu and had a swell time of games. 

Bingzhong luo was a town where the Tibetan influence was strong, it is located only 35 km from the Tibetan border, but because of Chinese law, there was no way we could have entered.  The food, clothing and buildings were all evidently influenced by the Tibetan culture. 

Day 7

The next morning was an early one, too early according to my journal.  But at 7:40ish we met for a breakfast of baozi and decided we would go on a 14 km hike to a village that boasted a very old church.  Andrea decided not to join us, so we set off around 10 am.  After 4 hours of walking we called Andrea and told us she should join us, rent a bread van and drive up to the village, that we thought we should be close to, but were apparently not even close to.

By this time my foot was swollen and not feeling to hot, so when An drea arrived in the MBC I was glad to have a rest.  It was then we decided that we would simply have the driver take us the rest of the way to the village.  On our drive through we were stopped at a checkpoint; Gilles and Merrill got out and found some monkeys to play with.  I did not. :(  When we were close to the village, the driver told us that he could not actually take us up the mountain as there was construction going on that prevented vehicles from passing, but told us it would only be another hour and a half.  However, the last time we heard that, the trek went for another 3+ hours, and for that reason, I backed out to rest my foot.  Hana and Andrea also came back to town with me.  And it turns out, that the hike was less than an hour, and beautiful, so next time, I’ll hike the extra mile.

When we arrived back at the hotel, we all showered and Andrea tells us she’s starving, we don’t understand seeing as though she had been at the hotel all day, and could’ve simply walked outside to a noodle shop and eaten, but she didn’t.  Poor Andrea.    We decided to wait until everyone arrived back and showered until we went and ate.  That night we just talked and went to sleep.

That day we hiked for five hours, Gilles was the highlight of the walk, so cute. 

Day 8

The next day we departed from Bingzhong luo for Alou’s Guesthouse, located in the small village of Di maluo.  To get there we first took a bus for ￥6 to Wuqu (五区), from there we took a bread van the rest of the way to Dimaluo for ￥20.  The roads were extremely rough, and the constant rain was not helping the state of the roads.  At one point in time, we had to get out of the van, and move boulders that had fallen from the mountain side from the middle of the road. 

When we arrived at Alou’s we dropped our bags, asked our driver if he could return the next morning at 8am to ensure we had enough time to catch a bus back home, ordered lunch and went explore while the women at Alou’s made us lunch.  Alou’s guesthouse is so quaint, we were all in the same room w/ mattresses on the floor of the wooden cabin, undoubtedly Alou’s was our favorite accommodation and Laoban of the adventure (￥20/bed). 

Dimaluo is a friendly quaint little one street town; a town that doesn’t see many foreigners, we can always tell by the excitement of the kids we meet.  We played with the kids, snapped a couple pictures and headed back to eat a HUGE meal, so delicious.  New favourite meal of the trip.  After lunch, Alou drew us a map of how to get to a church on the top of a mountain that was over 100 years old.  A rarity in China, as the Cultural Revolution wiped out almost 100% of religious buildings, this was an exception, most likely because of it’s hard to reach location. 

It rained and rained and rained, which was okay with us, because it just made all our sweat look like rain :) The hike was pretty okay, Andrea chose not to come, but the Church itself was epic, so beautiful.  On our way into the churches courtyard we met  a Tibetan man, who self taught himself Mandarin, he told us that about 80% of the towns population (3000) were practicing Catholics.  There were church services every night, but we declined to go as we thought hiking down the side of a steep, muddy mountain in the dark might not be the smartest idea.  So we hiked back down (1 hour). 

Before making dinner, Merrill and I went to go buy batteries and jing jiu, on our way down to the centre of town, we were attacked by a drunk lady and her friend.  At first we thought it was funny, but then she just wouldn’t let Merrill go, and we ran.  That night I prepared a Chinese style dinner for our group, it was delicious, but I was told I was a slow cooker. 

After dinner we sat and visited, finishing our jing jiu quicker than usual, so Merrill and I headed back downtown to find some more.  There was none left, but the shop owner suggested we go for some of his homebrew, he even gave us a sample.  One shot of that did me in. Crazy strong.  We decided to go for beer instead.  That night we made friends with two Chinese friends from Guangzhou, they were super nice. 

The WC situation at Alou’s wasnt’ the best, but we’d definitely seen worse.  The only problem was that the rain made the path to the WC slippery as hell, thankfully there was a cute little pig we named Jungo we got to see every time we passed.  That night we had a God talk. I cried.  I don’t remember why.

Willem and Hana’s Chinese skills were shown off as they talked Alou’s ear off, they loved him, I struggled to keep up with the conversations. 

It rained all night. 

Day 9

Our driver came late the morning we were to go back to Gongshan to catch a bus to Kunming; when he arrived he told us that the roads were 10 times worse than what they were the day before, incredibly dangerous.  He told us he could still take us across, and we trusted him, only because the day before we saw him wave goodbye to his wife and newborn son, and we figured he wouldn’t take an unnecessary risk if he had a new baby to worry about.  Also, the day before he told us that most of the local drivers were alcoholics and to not trust them, he on the other hand, wasn’t originally from here and never drank. 

When we left the core of the town, we got to the mountain where the day before we had driven into Dimalou, today there were no more roads.  Rain water had engulfed the roads and created a river that looked to have a pretty strong current.  Pray. Pray. Pray.  The driver asked us to get out of the van and walk along the side of the mountain so that he could drive through the river road, cautioning us to pay attention to falling rocks from the blasting above.  Okay.  Although there were falling boulders, we managed to not get hit, and our driver managed to make it across safe and sound.  He then told us we could walk across a pedestrian bridge, and he would drive around to the other side so that we wouldn’t have to endure the twists and turns of the sketchy roads.  So we did. 

We arrived in Gongshan thanks to our great driver (￥30/ person) just after 1pm, there were no more buses heading to Fugong or Liuku that day. 

We decided eating lunch would be our next best plan of action, and while we were enjoying our meal, the Italian man we had met earlier in Bingzhong luo showed up.  Weird.  He suggested we just take a mbc to Fugong, so we did for ￥30/person.  We arrived at around 5pm and found out there were no buses to Liuku or Kunming until the morning.  So what did we do?  Found a bread van to take us for ￥40, had we known what a dumbass he was, we probably would have waited until morning for a bus.  He had his karaoke playing the entire time, spat constantly, and drove like a maniac.  We persistently told him to slow down, please slow down, it’s raining, we’re not in a rush, can you please drive slower.  He would, for 45 seconds then increase his speed until we would ask him again. 

Hours into our trip we decided we needed a bathroom break, he wouldn’t stop.  After a while we insisted, saying we didn’t really need a real washroom, that the side of the road would do.  So after seeing a gigantic accident our driver pulled over for us just before the start of a curve and turned out all his lights.  Nice work smarty pants, that is how people die.  Hana freaked out. (But we learned how the two huge trucks crashed, one had to go pee..so turned off all his lights and parked in the middle of the road. hmmph. ) After almost 4 hours we arrived safely in Liuku and set out to find a hotel. 

Our first choices, were windowless hooker hotels, where the stairwells were lined with women, we decided to try and find something a little more…safe.  And finally found something on probably our 4th try.  ￥30/night .  We were famished, a western looking pub seemed promising, but they had no food.  We wanted food, so although there were some other foreigners from Gemany who were uber excited to see us, we jumped ship to find a place with food.  They suggested a BBQ place, it was *only* ￥300, and that is why it is important to speak Chinese my friends, they actually thought that was a decent price. Oh goodness. 

We ended up finding a BBQ place, I paid ￥7 for my eggplant and tofu. 

Our hotel that promised 24/7 hot water, had no hot water in actuality, but I was dirty and my icy cold shower still made me clean.  That night we watched Lost on Chinese TV while drinking coffee and coke zero. 

Day 10

We woke up early, 8am, to make sure we could get tickets home; we did 7:30pm, and stopped to eat our usual baozi for breakfast.  We had heard that there was  a ￥1 bus to the hotsprings, but after discussing the possibility of contracting H1N1 we decided against it.  instead, we rented peddy cabs to take us to a giant gold buddah.  We climbed hundreds of stairs and listened to Andrea complain and tell us she couldn’t climb any more.  We encouraged her…after the giant gold buddah we decided on Dai minority food for lunch and ate rice out of pineapples. delicious. 

Instead of hiring a peddy cab, we walked back into town and found a market to wander through, in which I saw two little kids, a boy and a girl with giant baskets full of bottles on their backs.  It broke my heart, I looked at Hana and we cried.  It’s so hard to see kids who are just trying to survive and wanting to give them something, but knowing that giving them money might put them in more trouble than not.  The kids walked slowly behind us, and watched us sit down at a coffee shop for refreshments, it was so hot outside and they probably didn’t even have a bottle of water.  It was then that I thought of story we read in class, about a man who was so poor and hungry but had no money to buy anything.  He eventually stopped a lady and asked her for some water, he wanted more, but thought it embarrassing to ask, so he only asked for something free.   She knew that he must be so hungry, but didn’t want him to lose face by giving him more than he asked of.  So she thought about what she could give him, and decided on a glass of milk, at least that way he would get some substance and nutrients, so I thought I could do the same.  The place we were at had no milk, but I walked down to the next one, bought a few bags, and said to the kids, it’s so hot outside, I want you to have this milk.  Jesus loves you. And walked away.  

We relaxed all afternoon and headed to the bus station just in time to catch our long bus home to Kunming.  It was an epic, story filled, adventure.