26 November – 28 November 2013

We arrived in Beijing at 11am and caught a taxi to our new favourite hostel P-Loft. This time we were allocated a real cell in the former prison building, complete with typical prison balcony, staircase and windowless concrete architecture. We headed out to nearby Hutongs to wander the tiny streets and do some last-minute shopping, and stuffed our stomachs with as much street food as they could handle. We booked a Great Wall trip for our final day and enjoyed a lovely ‘cook your own’ style Korean dinner with grilled tofu, duck breast and vegetables… yum. We returned to our cell and having noticed the impressive collection of fungus growing on the bedroom wall we fell quietly to sleep.

We woke early and after wolfing down fresh yoghurt in the hostel we walked to the pick-up point for 8.30am. Together with a handful of other tourists we drove for three hours in a minivan to the Jinshanlin section of the Great Wall. As the tour guide sprinted up to the start of the wall, tourists in toe, we were pleased this was the only organised tour we had booked in our whole trip. We climbed the steps to a well-renovated part of the wall and as we wandered along, the path deteriorated tower after tower. 

After half a dozen towers the unsuccessful postcard selling touts drifted away, allowing us to enjoy the magnificent mountain panoramas. Buffeted by the strong and freezing winds we continued and climbed a considerable height on stepped and non-stepped sections. After 22 towers we abruptly reached our destination at Simatai, with the guide surprised to see we were early… something we were less surprised about given his speed. 


We descended to the car park and were happy to be back in the van, where we could warm up out of the wind. Three hours later we were back in the Hutongs and still in need of a warm drink we headed to a friendly café. We went to Mr Chi’s Dumplings for our final meal of the trip and unsurprisingly over-ordered  yet again. With stomachs full of tasty dumplings we had a final packing session and went to bed.

We woke up early to enjoy a full breakfast at the hostel and braved the excellent metro for the last time, headed towards the airport. We spent our last Yuan on duty-free Belgian chocolate. What followed was what seemed like an endless day in the air. Arriving finally but knackered in Belgium at 9pm local time (4am Alby-and-Clara-time), we went to bed.

22 November – 24 November 2013

We started the day in the nearby Somewhere Else café with a delicious big breakie. We wandered around town looking for a good deal for renting bikes, but decided it might be more relaxed to simply walk to the Napa Hai Lake, 7km north of town. We wandered out to the main road and walked through a part of town filled with mechanics shops and truck stops. 


After two hours of walking the lake was still not in sight, so we hitchhiked towards our destination. We hopped off and hearing about an angry stone wielding Tibetan villager who demands a bogus entrance fee we walked across farm fields and found a path leading towards the scenic area. On arrival we were presented with a huge expanse of grassland, but with no water in sight. We walked behind an expensive ticket booth and found a nice spot to enjoy the view and a snacky lunch. One of the main draws to the lake is the rare black necked crane which we saw despite the lack of water.

We hitched a ride back towards town where we found a Nepalese Indian restaurant with a very charismatic and talkative owner, and enjoyed a massive pot of masala chai by the burning fire. From there we went straight to an Italian restaurant for our Friday treat: pizza and beer. Again we were the only customers but were entertained by a charismatic Italian expat. Surprised that this pizza expert didn’t have a wood fire pizza oven, we asked why and discovered that, since Chinese people eat pizza at all times (including for breakie), it is simply not possible to keep such an oven going all day long. After watching the locals doing their daily work-out, we went to bed.

The next morning we headed back to the same breakfast place, this time with Rik. We enjoyed swopping great stories before hopping on the bus to the Songzanlin monastery. We wandered around the huge complex which houses 600 monks – by the busyness it seems we might have seen them all. Grand statues of various Buddhist deities abound, we headed to the roof tops of the temples to appreciate the mountain view amongst golden shimmering statues. 



After losing ourselves in the backstreets of the village where the monks live we hopped back on the bus into town. We got off in the new town and found a tasty pot of noodles in the cheap street eatery. After picking up snacks for the bus ride, we headed back to our hostel to grab our bags and the pants we had left drying on the roof and set off for the bus station. We caught our bus at 4pm and spent the rest of the day/night lying down and snoozing.

18 November – 21 November 2013

We started the day with a really good breakie in our hostel’s sister hostel before hopping on the bus to Qiaotou on the edge of the Tiger Leaping Gorge. Five hours later we arrived at Jane’s Guesthouse, a wooden crib run by a single, slightly eccentric, man who was host, cleaning lady and cook. Since it was too late to start hiking we settled down and planned our next couple of days with the help of various TLG maps – all produced by guesthouses within the gorge. We concluded that the map of Shaun’s Guesthouse would be the best one to stick to and enjoyed huge plates of fried noodles before bed.

After a bit of a false start (it was dark outside so we snoozed for an extra half hour) we got up and searched for our host. Despite the fact we had to wake him up for it, dishevelled ‘Jane’ cooked a great breakfast for our first day of the trek. We left most of our luggage there and with an overnight bag we headed up the high path. After an hour of walking we found the Naxi Family Guesthouse and soon afterwards arrived at the start of the ’28 bends’. After bend number 2 we came across a small stall selling a variety of refreshing ‘energy’ products to top up with before the climb… including large bags of weed which we all know provides perfect stimulus for such activities. Politely declining we continued up and reached the highest point of the trek, 2600m, an hour later. 

Avoiding the fee of 8 Yuan to take a photo from a tout claimed/occupied viewing point we bought a drink and admired the view of the gorge. After another hour along the track we reached Tea Horse Guesthouse, where we stopped for a snack lunch and use some of their shade. Covered in dust from the track we continued and crossed three waterfalls. 


In the afternoon sun we reached a small village and found ourselves following the track through the Halfway Guesthouse which looked tempting. Determined to stay in the little known Five Fingers Guesthouse, 20 minutes further, we continued only to find a very surprised host, clearly not expecting guests today – the courtyard was filled with donkeys, cement bags and loud machines processing corn. Unsurprisingly the decision was easily made to return to the Halfway Guesthouse to spend the night. We enjoyed a beer in a swinging chair on a wooden rooftop terrace with a stunning view and had an early night.

The next morning we set off early with empty stomachs as the plan was to do the steep two hours descent to Tina’s Guesthouse for breakfast. After a couple of eggs and Tibetan fried bread we continued our descent down the gorge from Tina’s to the river at the middle rapids. We also found the Tiger Leaping Stone here – according to legend a tiger jumped over the river here and climbed the cliff on the other side… nobody knows why.




Whilst admiring the wild water, Clara was very pleased to hear that Alby “would probably not paddle this rapid”. All guidebooks/failed expedition reports say this water is UNKAYAKABLE. After enjoying the view and successfully avoiding the inevitable additional fees we made our way back up the valley along a wicked path cut into the rock, called Ray of Sunshine. 

Partly due to the low tourist season and the fact that this trail is not known by many we arrived in the terraced farming village Walnut Garden without seeing anyone except a local goat herder with his flock. Quite exhausted from the ups and downs we made our way to Shaun’s Guesthouse, where we enjoyed a very welcome shower and ice cold drinks on a sunny terrace. Shaun is the original pioneer of the TLG, being the first one to set up a guesthouse and mark a trail in the 80s… quite a local legend. Unfortunately we only saw him for five minutes, but his daughter and wife did everything to make us (the only guests) feel at home. We had a big and delicious dinner in front of a wood stove and collapsed in bed.

13 November – 16 November 2013

We started the day with a bus ride to the train station and a street food breakie (lovely middle eastern bread and Alby’s favourite yoghurt) in the waiting hall. Since there is not much more to do on a train except for eating, sleeping, reading and waiting for the next time to eat there is not so much to tell. Our main accomplishment of the day was to have finished a book each. 24 hours later we arrived in Kunming, capital of Yunnan.

Reeling from our long journey, slightly bewildered and very disorientated we hopped on the first bus we saw. Turned out not to be a bad choice, as it seemed to be heading into town. By chance we hopped of at the entrance of a massive phone shop and, given that Clara was in the market for a new phone, we decided to have a look. Eventually Clara was tempted into buying an new machine and satisfied we walked to the nearby food street for a ‘pick your own ingredients and we’ll fry it’ noodle house, where we devoured huge noodle soups for only 8 Yuan! With full stomachs we hopped on a bus and after a suitable amount of faff we arrived at the long distance bus station where we found an immediate connection to Dali. Five hours later on the most luxurious bus we’ve had we arrived at what we thought was Dali… it turned out to be Xiaguan, the nearby modern city. We spent two hours stressing and faffing before arriving at the Jade Roo hostel, on the edge of Dali’s ancient village. After settling we went to a local restaurant where (again) we overordered ourselves with rice, veg and tofu… and went to bed.

Our planned lie-in turned into a relatively early morning since neither of us could sleep much. We packed an overnight bag and headed into town for a street food breakfast which we enjoyed in a local park – with taichi practicing early birds. We had heard about a good cycling route around Erhai lake (98 kilometres) which passes through sleepy fishing villages and fields of veg-garden. After our fill of taichi entertainment we found ourselves a couple of mountain bikes in a nearby shop and set off. 



We sped downhill from Dali for fifteen minutes before we reached the lake’s shore and were greeted with clear views across the lake. We found a scenic road which we followed up the western shore for a couple of hours before stopping for a snackie lunch overlooking rows of Chinese cabbages. After experiencing the worst public toilet in the world – complete with maggots – we continued north until the village of Shangguan. We envisaged spending the night here but we were advised by locals to cycle on to the eastern shore where at Shuang Lang there was a larger choice of guesthouses.


We munched some snacks before setting off and 20km later we arrived at our destination. We had cycled past a family of twelve cormorants waiting for their fishing friend on a fishing boat, dozens of semi-submerged trees along the shore and had spent most of our time dodging nets full of drying fish on the side of the road. By lack of our mandarin skills we again madly pointed at random vegetables in a restaurant to compose our meal (which included a tomato and egg soup which we had proudly deliberately ordered). Again we were polite and left our plates clean which left us to roll down the streets back to our beds in a luxurious but cheap guesthouse suite. On the way we experienced the village Am-Dram showcase of the month/year which proved very entertaining.

We woke early in anticipation of our long day of cycling ahead, however our departure wasn’t as smooth as planned. We headed into town looking forward to a big sweet breakfast, but with the lack of cafes/bakeries/anything resembling bread based snacks we found ourselves eating one of the spiciest noodle pots we’ve had at 9am. Although intriguing we avoided the furry, fungus inhabited tofu slabs which appeared to be a local specialty.


With fire in our bellies we hopped on our bikes and were back on route heading south along the eastern shore back to Dali. With the sun beating down on us we stopped for lunch by the side of the road overlooking the lake. As we continued and with increasingly sunburned arms and legs we took more and more breaks until we arrived in Dali at 5pm. We dropped off our bikes and promptly returned to the hostel for a well needed shower and a monster laundry session. We found dinner in an overpriced Buddhist vegan restaurant and smothered ourselves in after-sun before bed.

9 November – 12 November 2013

We enjoyed  a chilled day yesterday in Guilin, which we ended with an amazing pizza and beer on the river front – a growing tradition of a Friday treat. The next morning we caught the bus to Yangshuo, a touristy town surrounded by stunning Chinese nature – Li River, mandarin orchards and rugged karst peaks which looked like something from Avatar. As soon as we arrived we checked in to our hostel and took a walk around town. We found bikes to rent for 10 Yuan a day and after a noodle lunch we took off! As soon as we left Yangshuo we found ourselves amongst stunning limestone peaks and small villages as we followed the Yulong River. We stopped for an ice tea and a pomelo at the Dragon bridge to cool down...the sun had been beating down on us all afternoon. We took the same route back to Yangshuo, where we had a street food dinner and a delicious mango juice before heading to bed.

We woke up to the sound of heavy rain outside our window which put our plans of a long hike from Yangdi to Xingping into question. After enjoying yoghurt and fruit for breakfast in the hostel we sought some advice (and a weather forecast) and decided to head to Xingping by bus. When we arrived we found the ‘This Old Place’ hostel and enjoyed a short walk through the narrow cobbled streets lined with traditional old buildings. By this point the weather had cleared up and decided to go on with our initial planned hike but in reverse. It turned out to be a good decision as the weather held out for our four hour walk along the Li River through more beautiful scenery. 

We passed through many small villages linked together with mandarin orchards and crossed the river three times with traditional bamboo rafts in order to follow the track around riverside cliffs.



We arrived in Yangdi to find a public bus for Xingping waiting and after an hour’s drive found ourselves back at the hostel. With tired legs we headed to a local eatery for tasty noodle soup before returning to our cosy pine clad room.

Unfortunately it had been raining all night long and we woke to the continuing heavy downpour – the tail end of ‘super typhoon’ Haiyan which has devastated the Philippines, but luckily lost most of its power by the time it hit China. Without much choice this was to be a relaxed and lazy day. We spent the morning reading at the hostel before braving the rain and heading out for lunch. Alby tried beer duck which was good, a Guiling specialty. As it happened we were both in a shopping mood and hit the little shops and stalls for soggy souvenirs, local tea and spicy ginger sweets. We wandered along the river bank for a dusk view of the scenery and encountered a fisherman with his cormorants giving a tourist show to some snap happy Chinese tourists. Actually the cormorants do most of the fishing – they swallow the small fish but keep the big ones in their long throats where the fisherman collects them from – an amazing double act. After watching the spectacle from a distance we headed to the same eatery as the night before and went to bed.

As we woke up we were happy not to hear the sound of rain. After a yummy dumpling and buffalo yoghurt breakie we climbed one of the massive peaks at the edge of town. After more than 1000 slippery steps we reached the pagoda at the top and enjoyed the beautiful view over Xingping and the surrounding area. After descending the steep steps back down we caught the bus back to Yangshuo. After a disappointingly meaty and complicated noodle lunch we headed to Fulli, a town 15 minutes’ drive away, famous for its handmade fans. We wandered around the cobbled streets and dipped our heads into a view family run fan making studios. After a bubble tea we went back to Yangshuo – Fulli wasn’t that spectacular. In Yangshuo we hopped on a bus to Guilin, where we checked in to our favourite hostel, had Japanese dinner in a good little food street and went to bed.

3 November – 7 November 2013

With Clara too ill to face the subway, we decided the next morning to catch a taxi to the train station. After breakfast in the waiting hall we hopped on the train and discovered to our surprise that it was gonna be a comfy ride – 6 bed open compartments with fluffy duvets, comfy seats and notably well-mannered co-passengers (no spitting or screaming this time). We realised Clara had picked up some kind of bug and she helplessly lay there for the entire 27 hour journey. With constant check-ups from nurse Alby the day and night went by.

We arrived in Guilin early afternoon, hobbled off the train and made our way slowly to the bus station with Clara insistent that she could handle the journey to the rice terraces – about 2 hours north of Guilin. After 2 bus stops we had to ask the driver to let us off because Clara felt so unwell. A gentleman as he is Alby stopped a taxi – actually a few until one was kind enough not to try to rip us off – who brought us to the backstreet hostel, a cosy place with big beds. With Clara knocked out in bed Alby decided to take a wander and explore town, at least the parts they let you explore without paying admission. We concluded the day with plain rice for Clara and a slightly more interesting take-away for Alby.

We started the next day slowly with breakfast at the hostel. Clara was feeling much better, if a little weak, so we decided a second attempt at reaching the rice terraces. After a smooth ride to the bus station this time we caught a bus via Heping to Dazhai, a tiny farming village amongst the Longji rice terraces. After a short walk around the village we found a place to stay (deserted apart from us) and a nice place to eat although we avoided the mountain frogs on the menu. In our cosy wooden hotel owned by a woman with meter long hair we went to bed.

The next morning we woke early and after a tasty breakfast at one of the village ‘Inns’ we made our way up the hill to Tiantou, the next village. Still weak Clara opted to nurse a very strong iced tea whilst Alby hiked up to ‘Music from paradise’, one of the viewing points for the sprawling rice terraces below. After a simple lunch of rice and Chinese cabbage we set off again towards Zhongliu village unaware of the hotel touts we would soon encounter, in semi traditional outfits (their hair, also meter long, is false!), along the way. After a lovely and sunny walk along the sides of the terraces, interrupted only by herds of goats and trickling streams,  we neared the village.


We were immediately spotted by a ‘helpful’ lady who insisted on showing us the way to a local hotel. After several attempts at trying to communicate that we wanted to find our own place to stay (and avoid having to pay her commission) we were whisked away by some far friendlier locals without funny costumes. They guided us through the multi-layered village to a quiet corner and a friendly hotelier. After installing ourselves in our new wooden abode the owner invited us into her kitchen and displayed a great collection of fresh veg and juicy tofu for us to hand pick for our dinner. As we ate, family and friends wandered in and enjoyed a dinner party hosted by the hotelier. After introducing the guests to Euros, Dollars and Mongolian Tugrug which they found very interesting they left, torches in hand, and we headed to bed.

We politely declined breakfast in the morning (which consisted of the same choice of vegetables as the night before) we set off for a second day of hiking, this time to Ping’an, our final destination. We successfully fended off many touts along the way and enjoyed a stunning hike. As we climbed a final hill we saw the village appear in all its touristy glory.


Snapping a few more photos from surrounding viewing points we descended into the village and sought lunch – we tried the local speciality of sticky bamboo rice, steamed over hot coals in a piece of bamboo plugged by a sweetcorn cob. Very tasty. With full tummies we hopped on the local bus headed back to Guilin (via Heping) where we enjoyed a chilled night at the Backstreet hostel.