Paradise… Found – Legs Gone

No matter how you look at it, it had been a tough three days of hiking for us in the Tiger Leaping Gorge. That’s why Shangri La (香格里拉) was supposed to be our “rest stop” for this leg of the travels. (pun not totally intended)

In 1933, British author John Hilton wrote a book called “Lost Horizon”. In the book, Hilton wrote of a mythical, near-utopian valley called “Shangri-La”. Ever since, thousands of Chinese villages near the Himalayas have staked their claims that their village was the one that Hilton based his book on. I don’t think it mattered to them much that Hilton had never been in the general area before (By area, I mean “China”). Wanting to capitalize on the commercial success of neighbouring Lijiang, the municipal government of Zhongdian (中甸) managed to petition the Chinese government for them to change their name officially to Shangri La in 2001.

In any case, we’ve heard from other tourists that Shangri La was still relatively unspoiled by tourism because it is just too damn far from “civilization”. It’s supposed to be a good place to relax and many of the sights can still be enjoyed in near isolation.

Also, there are hot springs.

Hot springs!

That’s why one of the first things we did when we were there was to pamper our exhausted legs by going on an EIGHT hour bicycle tour on the outskirts of high altitude Shangri La. Cue Whitney Houston and insert your own pun for “taking our breath away”.

True story.

If you were to ask me now why we did not wait for a day (or five thousand) before we did something this stupid, I can only say that it was ALSO not the smartest idea to want to go to an outdoor hot spring when the average day time temperature was 0°C.

Don’t get me wrong, I enjoyed the ride IMMENSELY, the thing that got to me was… the cycling. I know that I probably would’ve enjoyed the ride A LOT more if I had not been so tired, but it was still an awesome ride nonetheless. The one word that keeps popping into my head for that day was “AMAZING”.

Being something of a city slicker, it never ceases to be a wonder to me that there can be so much land and empty space out there.

Cycling along the long endless roads were really nice. Once in a while, we'd even pass by old Tibetan women on their way to/from market. Thing is... the nearest markets were an hour away by bike, and these women were walking...

I meant it when I said "Long Endless Roads"

Jo says I keep taking silly photos of her, but that's only because she keeps doing silly things.

For me, the second biggest highlight during our long cycle was stumbling across this “eco” guest house in the middle of nowhere. Lao Shay’s Guest House (老谢车马店) is surrounded by gorgeous snow peaked mountains on one side and a vast field (complete with neighing/galloping horses) on the other.

The vast vista in front of 老谢's

We took the chance to catch our breath (and a beer) at Lao Shay’s. I told the owner (who I presume to be 老谢) how wonderfully secluded his place is. His reply was “yeah… that’s what drives all my customers away”.

I would’ve gladly moved into 老谢’s if we had not already paid for three night’s accommodation in the Old Town… and ermm… I was kinda put off by the thought of a cycle two hours to town and back again.

So maybe 老谢 was right!

The dreamy farm house nature of 老谢's was completed with this gorgeous golden retriever

Of course, the ULTIMATE highlight of our day of cycling was when Jo’s bicycle broke down on our way back. We had been cycling for six hours and we were kinda lost. It was the perfect moment for the gears of the bicycles to refuse to shift into gear.

This meant that we can only ride the bicycle downhill… on the almost strictly uphill ride back to town.

Yup... we felt as bad as this looks, although Jo managed to pull off the model "hair flying in the wind" routine.

The good news was that at the end of the day, my legs were not tired from the Tiger Leaping Gorge anymore.

Be there (panda) bears again

Apparently, one of our most popular posts so far is one without a whole lot of words. Let’s face it, it just possibly might be the post with the least amount of words. Over the past few months, I’ve even received e-mails requesting for more photos/videos of these critters.

Am I upset that entries that I spend more time, thought, and dropped follicles on receive less attention than an animal who is too lazy to mate?

I shall respond with the following video.

I can face facts…

You. Just. Don’t. Fight. The. Panda… unless you’re a lab assistant at the Panda nursery.

I have no idea how they do it, but these pandas look cute even when they are sleeping. This is a good thing because that’s what they do 99% of the time, anyway.

I am not bitter.

TW and Jo – Adventurers

Jiayuguan marks the last stop of the trip that we’ve made a plan for. We know that eventually we’d have to reach XiShuangBanna (really!) at the end of December to catch our flight back to Singapore, but how we are going to get there is still a mystery to us.

For now, our plan is to listen to what the other travellers are saying and after careful fact-checking and intense discussions, we’ll ditch the plan and just wing it.

So far, we’ve realized that the thing about winging it is that you’d never really know what is going to happen from day to day.

For example, when I woke up this morning, I did not expect myself to be Tomb Raider-ing through the caves of cliff-side temples before sun went down.

The day started innocently enough (don’t they always?). Jo was thumbing through our copy of Lonely Planet: China and felt that the description of the small town of Mati Si (马蹄寺) sounded “nice”. Looking at the map, Mati Si (besides sounding like an awesome Malay swear word) looked relatively near to Jiayuguan. Our original plan was to head straight for Xi’an via Lanzhou from Jiayuguan. However, since we had some time on our hands, we decided to do a quick detour to check out Mati Si.

To that, I only have one thing to say…

4 hours bumpy bus ride + 2 hours waiting in a dusty little town + 2.5 hours bumpiER bus ride = not THAT close to Jiayuguan.

On top of that, the first thing we found out when we reached Mati Si was that there was only one bus out of town everyday… at 8am in the morning… and also most of the town was closed because the tourist season was over. In fact, at that moment, there were only two shopkeepers in town who were willing to open up their shops as lodging for tourists.

So far,

Planning/Researching Ahead: 3
Winging it: 0

Since our quick detour seemed to be turning into a three-day side trip (arrival + one day tour + following morning departure), we decided to make the most of our time there and catch whatever sights we could while the sun was still up.

Right around the corner of our lodging, we saw this…

Temples carved into sandstone cliffs!!

Pretty darn impressive for something that just sounded “nice”.

But this is where it got even more awesome. The temples in the cliffs can actually be accessed… via vertigo-inducing staircases and narrow, twisting corridors. Some parts of the caves can only be reached using small hand/foot holds that had been cut into the walls.

It’s like rock climbing… only with the added bonus of an actual DESTINATION.

Jo - Tomb Raider

A view from the temple. With snowcapped mountains like these, who need sutras?

Score now
Planning/Researching Ahead: 3
Winging it: 100000000000000000000000000000

In other related news: I think I might’ve accidentally signed up for a climbing expedition. I’ve more or less resigned myself to the fact that we would be climbing up 1000000000000000000000000000 flights of stairs every other day.

Mati Si, of course, was no exception.

ahhh.... my mortal enemy... stairs...

Needless to say.. the view at the top is awesome... again....

We Heart Dunhuang

I read somewhere that cities are living creatures.

They are shaped by their experiences and they have dreams which will shape their development. I think it was Gaiman who wrote it, but I can’t be sure… (I know… extensive fact-checking and well-researched nuggets of information are the main selling points of this blog)

I’ll be honest… I’ve not been a fan of Chinese cities so far. They seem to be obsessed with progress at any cost. Because of this, they tend to be gloomy, congested and so stifled (polluted) that they would too literally take my breath away. Sort of like that over-achieving kid at school…

The Central Sculpture in Dunhuang is this awesome figure playing reverse pipa... Take that, Slash!

In that sense, Dunhuang is very much like the exotic exchange student who seems just a little more worldly than the rest of the class and who is not really that concerned about the grades, because hey… Life is too short.

Being an essential stop along the Silk Road, Dunhuang had been at the crossroads of civilizations for a very, very long time. The result of this can be easily seen throughout the city. We’ve never been particularly sensitive to architectural details in our travels so far, but walking along the streets of Dunhuang, even we could tell that the designs of the buildings were a fusion of that from many cultures. It was not hard to see Islam-design-inspired temples, nor Buddhist-design-inspired mosques.

The Night Market is filled with food from all over China. From what we’ve heard, there is no “must-try food” of Dunhuang. (But from what we’ve tasted, Dunhuang has some of the most awesome BBQ lamb skewers in the WORLD)

A Whole Leg of Lamb for... S$3??????? Did I mention it tastes heavenly too?

Despite all the slogans we could see on the street about unity in China, Dunhuang is very assuredly not completely “Chinese”. It seems to know that it is different from other Chinese cities and it is not afraid to wear this difference like a badge.

This confidence in its own identity is charming, and coming from the self-professed great melting pot of Singapore, this self-assuredness of Dunhuang is a trait I hope my city would have when it grows up.

Lighted Trees! Even more lighted trees!! Whole Streets of Lighted Trees! Something we will like to see more of in Singapore too

It’s a Sandy Wonderland

We’re in the Silk Road town of Dunhuang (敦煌).

The plan is to take it easy here for a few days to slow things down a notch and to recover from travel fatigue. (it happens when you’ve been taking 44-hour train rides and daily 12-hour bus rides on bumpy roads)

Personally, I think that it was kind of apt that we decided to rest in Dunhuang because back in the day, Dunhuang used to be a key supply base for Silk Road merchants that passed through the city. Dunhuang stands at the edge of the Gobi desert and is strategically positioned in the middle of the Southern Silk Road, the road to India/Nepal through Tibet and the thin Gansu corridor that leads into the rest of central China. In other words, it was the last stop for travellers to load up on water and food supplies for those setting out to cross the deserts, and for those arriving from the west, Dunhuang would have been their first sighting of civilization after their desert/mountain crossings.

The day started well enough. We woke at 10 and lounged around till noon before we went for a leisurely, filling but wholely unsatisfying brunch. We returned from brunch and I was surfing the net while Jo was watching TV and reading our copy of Lonely Planet.

All was well with the world.

Then Jo decided to drop the bombshell. “Do you know there are sand dunes near to town? Let’s go climb them!”

We clearly have a very different understanding of “slowing things down” and I obviously had too much for brunch because my reply was “YES! LET’S!!” (with a little more enthusiasm)

We took a taxi to Mingsha Shan (鸣沙山, literally “Echoing-Sand Mountain”), and there we have it… A ticketing booth!

Because brunch was still acting on our brains, we paid (good) money to enter to see the dunes. (We would later learn that there is a side entrance, through which we could’ve have gotten in for the grand price of FREE). And there we have it…. Sand dunes!!!

Have you ever been to Disneyland?

Now, in your mind’s eye replace all the rides and mascots of Disneyland with sand, and you’ll have Mingsha San.

Ok… I am being overly critical. The sand dunes at Mingsha San were actually quite majestic. According to the signs, the tallest dunes were around 5000 feet, which is pretty darn impressive if you actually know how much a feet is (90 million gallons).

I personally think the most amazing thing was how, after millennia of rubbing against each other, the sand was watery smooth. This makes for some really fun times for us.

It’s easy to jump with no fear of pain

Besides the dunes, there was also an oasis named Crescent Moon Lake (月牙泉). Back home, we have a name for a lake like Crescent Moon Lake… we call it a longkang, but hey! that’s me being overly critical again!

Crescent Moon Longkang... I mean Lake

Of course, the Chinese, being the shrewd businessmen that they are, loaded the park with touristy activities like archery,buggy ridding, camel trekking, paragliding, sand sliding, micro lighting and dune surfing. Being the hardened traveller and shrewd Chinese that we are, we would not fall for scams like these.

We just paid tonnes of money for the privilege of climbing up a dune and sliding down it.

Top of the dune (that we paid to enter)

Climbing sand dunes is not easy work

And we took the camel rides too…

Camels are fun! Though not really "ships of the desert". No ship I've been on ever hurt my groin that badly....hmmm... I better take that back...

I think the only reason we did not paraglide was because we did not bring enough cash… we were too smart to be suckered by them.

Yeah!