We say good bye to the ancient tea horse caravan route and head to modern China's tourist route.
Monday was another long travel day and we arrived late last night. Nights in Asia are special because they have 2.3 billion miles of fabulous neon lights. (I made that number up but it is about right.) Brilliant glowing, dripping, twining, shooting, blinking, sparkling, streaming neon outlines buildings, trees, whole riversides and bridges. I really love sparkle and they do neon with exuberance. Like Christmas every night.
Cruise on the river Li. Iconic images of China.
Outdoor kitchen river Li style.
Water buffalo that do not give milk (no mozzarella).
Our guide calls for this local ferry to pick us up off the cruise boat. While everyone else eats bad boat food we scoot off to the local village and one of the most delicious meals we have eaten. Then our driver comes to get us and takes off the Moondance hotel. Life is nice.
PS.Yes we hopped right off the front to the concrete. Boat to boat the same way. OSHA would have a fit.
The local restaurant and we added our sign on the wall.
Our hotel. Open the bathroom outside door and this is the deck and view.
The road into the Moondance Hotel.
The Chinese love big shows and this one is the on river with the mountains in the background. It is really spectacular.
April 30 th is our last day in China. We are off to cooking school. Owned by an Australian woman it is a fun experience. We are joined by two Okies, an English couple and a Spanish woman fron San Sebastion (only the culinary capital of the world). The two cooking school pigs probably are in for a sad end.
Gardens and rice paddie where they source their food.
We cooked, we ate our lessons, and had great conversation.
After a long hike along the river we did an hour raft ride where we got to shoot the rapids. Then back to rest and re-pack for our trip to Singapore tomorrow.
This is our second trip to China so we are not experts and these are just our impressions. Conversations with fellow travelers tells us that we are not alone in a sense of confusion in how to define this trip. The scale of building that is going on here is mind boggling, probably the greatest building project in the history of human kind. They are modernizing at a rapid rate and even in the remotest part of China we found miles and miles of construction. The lovely ancient Songzelin monastery had a building crane in the middle of it. In Xi'an we counted almost 20 from our hotel window. When all is done it looks like it will be beautiful as they plant millions of trees along the roadsides and create gardens in the medians. We came to find the China of our imagination, the China that was, and found the China that is and in a few years, it will be gone, replaced by the China that will be. Will it be wonderful or a disaster? It is hard to believe something of this magnitude won't have growing pains. Certainly the pollution is a huge issue. Since the government owns all the land a person can only use it for 70 years so they use it hard with no need to conserve for the future.
They also need to solve the bathroom issue.
Jon is impressed by the growing affluence and sees the tremendous power Chinese consumers will exert on world economies. The prevalence of English signage and the feeling a safety are really nice. The people are lovely and friendly. The food is great but KFC, Pizza Hut and Starbucks are common. We are making inroads.
Western clothes on everyone just like everywhere in the world. Blue jeans have to be the most amazing successful item of gear ever developed.
I will publish this tonight when we get to the lounge in Hong Kong airport as this hotel has slow internet. Who cares when Jon walks 10 steps to take these photos while sitting on the riverside sipping a glass of Bordeaux. Plus there is pet mouse that lives in the lobby and a water buffalo that wanders down the road in the evening.
The hotel and the green umbrella was our largest of three decks off our room.
Before we head to the airport in the morning Nick leads us on a vigorous two hour hike. Through the rice paddies on paths that are one foot wide dikes between fields. The path is topped with uneven rocks and a fair amount of slippery mud. A tightrope hike and we are dripping wet when we get back. Since we sit and fly most of the rest of the day it is the perfect end to our visit.
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