Man Man Zou

That sounds pretty negative- and don’t get me wrong, things are going very well in China- but it’s one thing I find I keep saying to myself.

It has only been 10 days, and already I’ve seen things that have kept me awake at night and experienced things that I never want to experience again. I know that since I’ve barely seen what China has to offer, and since it has only been 10 days, it’s going to get worse.

Each time we catch a bus somewhere, I never know what’s in store for me. One day was smooth, with little discomfort and fairly good air-conditioning. The next bus trip, we hit three landslides (one that just happened minutes before due to a bull-dozer slipping from above), and each time we had to get out with all our bags, walk over the rocks, and wait for a bus to arrive on the other side (the buses just trade off passengers on each side of the landslide). One bus got stuck between two landslides, about 20km apart, so all it could do was just shuttle passengers back and forth all day. The last landslide we went through was too big to walk over, so everyone had to hustle down a very steep path to the river, and get on a boat that some fast-thinking ‘local entrepreneurs’ set up. After the short boat ride, we had to hike back up the path with all of our things, only to find that there was no bus, and instead there were dozens more local entrepreneurs waiting to transport us to our destination.

I knew that since I was only a few days into China, it had to get worse. And sure enough, today we had another epic ride that made me pass out in the middle of the day at our hotel when we finally arrived (see photo above). I tried buying bus tickets to the village of Zhaoxing, but the next bus wasn’t for hours. A fast talking ticket lady approached me and told me I could take another bus to Balao, and transfer to Zhaoxing from there.

“Are there a lot of buses to Zhaoxing from Balao?” I asked.

“Yes, very many”, she replied.

So, after a three hour dusty bus ride with a bus packed full of chain smokers, we got dropped off in a village that consisted of a dozen houses, one small shop, and a bunch of people sitting outside playing cards and smoking. There was no bus station, or even any buses that came through, according to the people. There were, however, several people more than willing to drive us for the last hour and a half leg of the journey. After much fun bargaining, where we jokingly tried to convince the people that we wanted to walk there instead, we found a motorcycle taxi driver to take us on the bumpiest road I’ve ever been on. I can’t even put into words how bumpy it was, but I guess one way to explain it is that once we arrived at our hotel and opened our bags, all of our flashlights and my cell phone had turned themselves on inside the bags. Today’s backbreaking journey topped the last, but I just know I have yet to see the worst of China’s roads.

And then there are the disturbing things I have seen and experienced. I used a bathroom today, on the side of a very rural road. And as I tried to fall asleep tonight, I couldn’t get images of the contents of that wooden shack out of my head. The bathroom was something I’ll never forget, but is it something I want to put into words? I guess not quite yet, I’m trying to keep my journal a little tasteful.

Since my mind keeps thinking about things such as today’s toilet, I can’t fall asleep and it’s now past one in the morning. I’m sitting here on my bed, typing on my laptop which is being dive-bombed by a dozen or so moths attracted to the light.

As I said in the beginning though, so far things have been great.

We stayed for an unusually long time in beautiful Yangshuo. Normally we have the unfortunate habit of rushing things while traveling, but we knew that Yangshuo was one of the easier and more comfortable places to be in China so we stayed longer. I finally got rid of my headache, and everyday after that we took an outing of some sort. The guide books recommend renting bicycles, but after one day on a piece of crap bike, I discovered that it’s much better to take local buses to nearby villages, and then walk back to town along farming roads, or take a raft along the river. It was also easier to take photos that way. So we went to quite a few little villages.

My favorite memory from the Yangshuo area was just after it rained. It was too slippery and muddy to wear my flip-flops, so I took them off and walked along the farming roads in my bare feet. The mud on the ground was of the clay type, and after a few minutes of walking, I had about an inch of red clay dried to the bottom of my feet- almost like wearing shoes! The dried mud felt like something that spas would charge a lot for. I recommend walking on clay dirt to all (though some might not like the idea of walking barefoot along a rural road in China).

After the backpacker town of Yangshuo, we headed to Longsheng, which is in the area of some beautiful rice terraces called Longji (Dragon’s Backbone). At Longsheng, there were a few touts trying to talk us into coming to their village, Tientou. At first we refused, after all, it isn’t even mentioned in the Lonely Planet. But then after remembering one of my goals for this trip- to stray from the Lonely Planet-, we decided to take them up on their offer.

The touts said it would be a 20-minute walk up the mountain to their village from another village called Dazhai, but of course it was more like an hour. That didn’t matter much though, because once we got dropped off at Dazhai, there were dozens of women all fighting over who got to carry our bags up the mountain. We tried to refuse, since it was a little ridiculous for a 50 year-old woman to carry a 25 year-old’s bag up a mountain, but they insisted. It was embarrassing for us. But it meant an easy hike for us and good money for them, so I guess it all worked out.

Our homestay, in the village of Tientou, had incredible views of the rice terraces. I was immediately glad of our decision to go there. There were very few tourists, and no one around who could speak English. Our homestay had a large family- I couldn’t keep track- but all were very friendly and liked to talk to us.

I was pleasantly surprised to discover that we were staying in a Yami village (one of the many aboriginal minorities of China). The ladies had very long hair, and many still wore traditional clothing. The men smoked out of long pipes, and always wore a nice black outfit.

While hiking, we saw a woman working far down in the rice terraces. She was wearing traditional clothing, and for some reason I had a sudden burst of bravery and non-shyness, so I decided to approach her to ask her if I could take some photos. Mark stayed behind, since we decided it would have seemed too invasive for both of us to go. After I finally made it down through all the rice paddies, I offered to pay her for a few shots (after all, I was interrupting her work time). She got all embarrassed, and said she was too dirty and ugly, but accepted as long as she could fix her hair first. This was where I got lucky. I watched her uncoil all her hair from the top of her head. Her hair went down to her feet, and she also had two other separate, long sections of hair tied into her hairdo- one from when she was 8 years old, and one from her twenties. She brushed all her hair, then tied the pieces back together, and wrapped it around her head (the hair wrapped around her head quite a few times). After this, she was ready for her photo shoot, but I was so pleased with what I had just witnessed, that I just bothered her with a couple more shots before I stopped. We made a little more conversation about her three children and grandchildren before I thanked her and let her get back to work. That was a moment to remember.

After staying overnight in that village, we took ‘landslide highway’ (as explained above) to another village, called Chengyang, near Sanjiang. The county of Sanjiang is full of Dong villages (another one of the aboriginal minorities), many with elaborate ‘Rain and Wind’ bridges- something that the Dong people are known for. The bridges are covered, and are one of the places in the village where people can gather to talk or just rest. Chengyang is home to the most famous bridge in the county, which was built in the early 1900s. It was really beautiful, but even better were the small surrounding villages.

We walked from village to village and lingered around the people to see what they were up to, while they marveled at the size of my legs.

We also managed our way into a drum tower, where all the men were gathered playing games and instruments. I kept seeing one particular instrument in the villages, called the lusheng, which is made of tall pipes of bamboo. The men play it, and it makes a very unique sound. Sitting in the drum tower was quite an experience, but Mark and I have also been cautious not to impose too much on people’s lives here since they live so traditionally.

After two nights in Chengyang we left for another hell ride (the one where we got dropped off in the middle of nowhere) to a village called Zhaoxing, where I am typing this from now.

Zhaoxing (a Dong village) is fairly touristed as far as these villages in the provinces of Guangxi and Guizhou go, but there are still only 15 or so tourists here today. It took a lot of the day to recuperate from the ride, but we still managed to get out and walk through most of the village. Many of the little boys have shaved heads with a small square of hair neatly left behind (part of the Dong culture). The men all smoke from long bamboo pipes, and the women wear traditional clothes and hair styles. We’re slowly learning about the traditions of the villages we stay in, but it’s usually difficult since no one speaks English. We have to make guesses about things.

We also got to see a traditional song and dance performance tonight at the drum tower. I’m not sure if it was a special occasion, or just for us few tourists, but it was a good performance. Their singing (which the village is famous for) had a very uplifting tone, which I still have in my head.

And that’s more or less it for now. It’s hard to say what our plans are for the next few months- we just want to keep on chuggin’ through China. Once in a while we pull out a map and trace our fingers around some possible routes, but it’s so hard to plan- especially with winter coming, some places just might not be possible to access. We had planned on flying to Tibet in a couple of weeks, but that might not be possible because apparently Tibet is closed for the next few weeks…?

And since it’s so fun to keep track of these things:
Photos taken: 9.9 GB
Money withdrawn from ATM: RMB 4500
Souvenirs bought: 1 (with a goal of 0)
Items lost: 1 (a bag of food)

Celebrity sighting:

And here are some clips from our trip so far. (11MB)

The link to my betelnut video a few posts below is also fixed (It was my fault- Thanks Dale!)