Winter Trip--North Viet Nam

We arrived in North Viet Nam on Chinese New Years. The trip in from the airport was uneventful, but we could tell we had left one country and were in another. The rice fields had been planted and you can see they rice growing.

The architecture had little Chinese influence and owed much to its former status as a French colony. The houses were colorful, had balconies, and were very narrow. The narrow houses reminded me of the houses in Holland--also high and narrow. And the reason was the same--houses were taxed by their frontage area. So if a house was built very thin and tall, the taxes were not so high--only the buildings were "high."

One of the first things that struck us was the wiring for lights and telephones. I have never seen so many wires strung along the streets--dozens of them all hanging from the same poles. It made me nervous, but I guess it is all right, if that's what one is used to.

Still the number of wires and the way they were connected and looped together was amazing. Question--If there is a power outage, how do they know which line has the problem?

Our first excursion was to Halong Bay. Those of us over 50 know it as the Gulf of Tonkin and remember the part it played in the Viet Nam war. However, today it is peaceful with the same kind of limestone cliffs that we saw on the Li River in China. Our boat chugged along among the various rock cliffs, occasionally coming across little water hamlets like this one.

Many of the little boats came out to sell us fruit or souvenirs. The people just climbed on the roof of their boat and sold their produce from there. This boat had a little girl--maybe 2-3 years old--helping her parents. She wandered around on the roof with no safety harness and the parents did not seem concerned about her. She probably caused people to buy her parent's fruit because she was so cute. I think I would have been nervous if one of my grandchildren was out there and been constantly on the alert in case of an accident. I'm rather conservative that way. Maybe it's my age.

The day we visited was cool and overcast but, as you can see, we did get some good pictures of the cliffs. Even in the mist they were spectacular. The cliffs are limestone and are riddled with caves.

This is inside one of the caves. Kevin and his family joined our tour to travel with us in Viet Nam and Cambodia. We surely enjoyed having them with us. The rest of our tour group thought it was great to have children along. They were all missing their own grandchildren. On the other hand the kids loved having 40 grandparents to spoil them!

When we arrived in Viet Nam, everyone was gearing up for the Chinese New Years celebration. There were balloons everywhere. We did go to a water puppet show which was very interesting--no pictures as it was indoors and we sat on the back row. I think if you go to Kevin and Effie's blog, they posted a few pictures. (Kevin has a much better camera than we do and was able to get some pictures.)

A lady had built a fire right on the street. I'm not sure what she was burning, but I guess it is legal to have a fire in the middle of the city.

The next day we made the obligatory stop at Ho Chi Minh's tomb. He is revered in Viet Nam like Mao is in China.

Did get a good picture of the changing of the guard, however. Reminded me of the changing of the guard at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier in the US--very formal and serious.

Also went to the "Hanoi Hilton" where American POW's were held during the Viet Nam War. That part of the buildings has been torn down, but the original buildings, which were a French prison, remain standing. The display shows how bad the French treated the Vietnamese prisoners(believable) and how "good" the Vietnamese treated the American prisoners (unbelievable). It made me mad that nothing was said about the torture, etc. But, as Jim says, "History is written by the victors." I was happy to get out of there and out of North Viet Nam headed to Cambodia.

Winter Trip--Dali

We went on a bus from Lijiang to Dali. The country was wild and beautiful. Small terraced farms dotted all the hillsides. I had to take pictures out of the bus window because the road was narrow and it was impossible to stop. It makes for some interesting photos--note the reflection of the camera.

This area is home to the Bai people. Bai means white so many of the homes, like this one, have white on them. We loved Dali. It is high in the mountains with clear crisp air. Despite the fact thaat we were there in January, much of the land was still green. It is a temperate climate because even though the altitude is high, the latitude is low.

One of the most fascinating things about this area was that many people dressed in the traditional way. This was a lady who was walking by the bus on her way to market.

Dali is located on Erhai Lake. That means Ear Lake because the lake is shaped like an ear. It is a rather large lake and we took a boat trip on it out to see a small island. Here is a boat like the one we took. The trip out was very nice, but by the time we returned a strong wind had come up and the ride home was rather rough--some people were seasick.

As we disembarked this is one of the first scenes that greeted our eyes. I took a series of pictures and have put three of them here. The boat had many large rocks as its cargo. You can see the man on the left has put the chain around the rock. The person on the right is turning a wheel which lifts the rock up--a rather primitive pully system.

Next the rock was hoisted off the boat and onto the land--a very tedious job--and probably a heavy and difficult one as well. You can see the men trying to get the rock to settle lightly? on the ground at the end of the gangplank.

Soon a cart came along, the men hefted the rock onto it and then they wheeled it away. It was a very interesting display.

We turned around from the rock lifting and saw many tables spread with various foods. This is the table which had dried fish on it. Fun to look--but we didn't buy.

As if the fish weren't enough, there were also some dried lizards for sale. We passed on these also.

Back in the town of Dali we visited a tea house. They told us about three kinds of tea--can't find my notes on the details. However, one kind was bitter, one not so bitter and one rather sweet. Each had its distinctive and traditional use. I did not sample them, but their aroma was truly interesting.

While we were waiting for the tea to brew, we were treated to some local entertainment. Young men and women played instruments and sang and danced while wearing some of the local costumes.

Here is a sample of the costumed women as they danced.

We also visited a batik factory--although factory is too glorified a word to describe what we saw. They showed us how they tie up the material and then dye it. After that it is hung out to dry. Eventually when it is completely dry the string is untied and the pattern on the cloth is revealed.

This is a vat of dye and the cloth coming out of it.

The woman on the left is hand tieing the natural material to get it ready to dye. The woman on the right is untieing the cloth after it has been dyed and hung out to dry.

Here is a sample of the cloth that has been partly untied. You can see the flower pattern. We were told it takes weeks to tie the cloth and make it ready to dye--a very interesting and labor intensive procedure. They did have some beautiful table cloths, dresses, scarfs, etc.

The hotel we stayed in here was the most elegant hotel of our whole trip. The lobby was amazing with carved wood furniture and the bedrooms and bathrooms were like suites--large and beautiful. However, as is the case in all of southern China, there was no heat in the room. So here we were in this elegant hotel, shivering and shaking. We just could not enjoy the place and be as cold as we were. Too bad!

Our final view of Dali was of the three pagodas. They are among the oldest standing structures in southwestern China and a sort of symbol of Dali. We did not have time to go into them, but did stop for pictures. A good view for our last one in China as we went to the airport and headed for Viet Nam.

Winter Trip--Lijiang

We flew from Kumnimg to Lijiang. This put us in southwestern China, near the mountains dividing China from Tibet. That meant the weather was dry, the sun was shining, the air was clear and cool. It was beautiful and was a nice change from the humidity--sort of felt like weather at home.
This is where many of the ethnic minorities in China live. We were take to some villages and were pleased to see that many of the people actually wear their ethnic clothes every day. We visited several villages. Here are some of the sights.






Often on the streets we found people selling sweet potatoes. However, here we saw a vendor selling regular potatoes. She roasted them over the coals, sprinkled them with some sort of spice and gave them to his customers wrapped in a napkin. We tried some--ok tasting, but a little dry for our taste.














Everywhere we go, we love looking at the children. Lijiang and the ethnic villages were no exception. This little guy's grandfather had purchased something for him to eat. He was really enjoying it. Note the little apron he was wearing.













All through the village we saw Yak Yoghurt. We were going to try some later, but as usual when you put something off--later never came so we didn't taste any. Too bad.











All through the village water was funneled down streams. The people put their food in bags in the water to keep it cool. They also had fish there too. It reminded me of cooling watermelon or soda in streams when we went camping. Only this was every day.

We found this man wandering along in his costume. For a small fee, he would let us take his picture. It is hard to tell, but he is actually holding a long stemmed pipe. The bowl of the pipe was almost on the ground and I missed getting it in the picture.















One of the shops was selling local costumes. I was not interested in buying any, but thought it was worth a picture.

















We wandered up one of the little side streets. This is an area where people from other parts of China come for a vacation, so there were lots of small hotels and hostels in areas like this.













Along the way there was an area with three pools. The top pool was for drinking, the middle pool was for washing food, and the bottom pool was for washing clothes. These women are cleaning their vegetables. You can see the garden behind them. The area had many gardens. It was fun to watch the people water by hand, dig up small areas to plant, and harvest their crops. Although the altitude here is high, the latitude is low so even in January, vegetables were growing outside with no worry about frost.






A chef from a restaurant came out with a live fish that someone had picked from his tank. He went down to the pools, killed and gutted the fish and then took it back to his restaurant to cook. Brings a whole new meaning to the term "fresh fish."













After we left the villages we went to Black Dragon Lake. It was beautiful and we saw several Naxi Minority women in their local costumes.














The view across the lake. Note the high mountains in the back. This area was a crossroads in ancient times--with goods from Burma and Thailand coming north, and goods going back and forth from China to Tibet and west on the southern branch of the Silk Road. If you cross the mountain ranges here, you will eventually end up in Tibet.

Naxi women carry their goods in baskets on their backs. We saw every kind of goods in them, even a child or two.

In the main part of town, we saw the firemen spraying down the streets. We wondered why.

Then we saw this woman sweeping in front of her shop after the firemen had gone by. Obviously, she was cleaning the street. Then we realized that Chinese New Year's was coming in a few days and they were cleaning up everything to get ready for the celebration.

In Lijiang we stayed in delightful little villas--or they would have been if it had been warmer. There were 4 bedrooms for each villa so 4 couples stayed there. Each villa had its own cook/hellper. She met us at the door and took us upstairs to our rooms. They were small, but did have heat. The main floor of the villa had a large living room, dining area, and kitchen. Our girl kept everything nice and clean and cooked our breakfast. It was a huge breakfast--both western and Chinese foods. Unfortunately, the only place that had heat was the bedrooms so we ate cold fried eggs, bacon, vegetables, etc. with our coats on. Like I said--too bad it wasn't warmer. It would have been delightful!


Here is our helper. I took my coat off for the picture, but put it right back on after the shot. I don't know how she survived in the cold, but the evening before as we got home, she was just sitting in the cold living room watching TV. Brrrrrr!

We have one more stop before we head south hoping for some warmer weather.

Winter Trip--Guilin and Kunming

After our river adventure, the bus ride back to Guilin was uneventful. We did stop an a museum where we were given a demonstration of Chinese art by a young graduate student from the art department in a local university. He was very good and painted what you see here in about 10 minutes.

We spent some time at a nice little park called Elephant Park. There were lovely paths, and elephant carvings on the beach of a small lake.

This is why the park is called Elephant Park. Using some imagination the hill with the archway in it looks a little like an elephant. The locals picked up on that theme for the park.

Next we went to Kunming and visited the Stone Forest. It was an interesting walk among the large stone towers. I was reminded a little of Bryce Canyon in Utah, except the stones were gray instead of red, and it was much smaller in area.

We did find some interesting sites. We walked quickly under this rock, although it has probably been that way for hundreds, if not thousands, of years.

And, of course, you would never find a pagoda-like structure at Bryce Canyon. We enjoyed our climb up and the view from the top.

This part of China is where the ethnic minorities live and everywhere we went we were treated to surprise performances by local musicians and dancers. This group was at the bottom of Stone Forest. They sang and danced for us. The most interesting thing about them was that they were mostly elderly people. Until this point, all the performers we had seen were young and at least semi-professional. It was fun to see "real" people dancing and singing. They did a wonderful performance for us.

There was also a stage with younger, more professional performers, but I still liked the "old" people better

Now, you are probably wondering what this pictrue is doing in with our China travels. A word about restrooms in China. They mostly have "squat" toilets, never have toilet paper, and take some getting used to. At the Stone Forest we were told there was a 6 star restroom. Since most of the restrooms would struggle to be given 1 or 2 stars we were quite curious about how China could have a 6 STAR restroom. We found out. The restroom was extremely clean, the toilets were western, and there was even toilet paper available. But the crowning achievement was: (ta da, drum roll) There were small television screens in every stall and over every urinal!!! Yes, everyone could watch a travelogue as they did their business. Jim couldn't resist taking a picture. We loved it!

After the Stone Forest, we went to a park. It was decorated up for Spring Festival (Chinese New Year). The following are some pictures we took in the park.

I am always amazed at how creative the Chinese are. Look at this dragon and its reflection. Everything they do has beauty in its own way.

All through the park there were scenes like this one. We saw lthis kind of scene display again after we returned to Nanjing. I will write about that in a later blog.

In the evening we had "mushroom hot pot." Hot pot is where the food is cooked at the table. There is a pot with boiling broth and various meats and vegetables are added in turn and served to us. We had been to a local hot pot restaurant where we did our own cooking. This night the girls dressed in local costumes cooked the food at our tables. It was delicious, but it was an outside restaurant. As you could see from the above pictures, the weather was cold. We ate with our coats on and were glad the food was cooked at the table so we could eat it hot and not have it get cold between the kitchen and our table. After dinner the girls sang some ethnic songs for us. Of course, we, in turn, sang some songs for them--Popcorn Popping on the Apricot Tree, Give Said the Little Stream and a couple of other simple songs. It was a fun experience to close the day before we moved on to Lijiang and Dali.