Chengdu 150415

Chengdu. My hate & love relationship with Chengdu. I stayed the longest so far throughout my trip here for 12 nights, mostly because I had to wait to get the permit for my next trip destination Lhasa, Tibet. What I dislike about Chengdu; Cold, Expensive, Big City, Money, Getting Colder – the coldest I’ve been too, figuring how to go to Tibet – more and more money, the city is too big – so you have to use public transport to go around – more money and China certainly made a big hole from my budget. What I like about Chengdu; people I met (travelers, locals, students, a Malaysian guy), the cheap local food, the Xingjian lamb stick, the food cooked by a Malaysian fellow, the spice of the food, meeting lots & new people and finally the good weather on the final days of my stay. I would say I had a first bad week followed by a good one.

The first thing I did when I arrived in Chengdu was to find a taxicab and showed him the address of my host. It took a while for the taxi driver to figure out where it was – this shows how big the city was; even the taxi drivers didn’t know all the roads in Chengdu city. Chengdu is the capital of the Sichuan province and it was twice bigger than Kunming. My host lives somewhere in the southwest of Chengdu. Chengdu was structured in circular way with ring roads. Rieneke from the Netherlands has only been in Chengdu for about a month as she is taking Chinese language studies at the southwest university. I also met up with Michael that evening – he approached me on couch surfing for meet up. He was from Sarawak, Malaysia and has been working in Chengdu for a year and half as a kindergarten teacher. He has plans to do a reversal trip from Chengdu to Malaysia by land, once he is done with Chengdu – that’s why he wanted to meet up at first. Michael kinda introduced me Chengdu and the way we should travel around here. The second elevated ring road has a frequent bus that just goes around and from there we can go to outer part of the city. And then we can use the bus on ground level or metro subway to go inner towards the center where everything was. He also showed me the cheap street foods and ‘Hui’ (Muslims in China) food of Chengdu.

On the first week of my stay, I didn't do much sightseeing and I only go outdoors for food and to figure out about Tibet. The weather on the first week was really cold. And it was the first cold weather I encountered for years – so it took me quite some time to adjust and waking up to the cold mornings were hard. Rieneke was busy with classes on weekdays and she was mostly available at night. I went to my first few couch surfing meeting with her. I met a lot of random people whether they were traveling or on a break from traveling (working), locals, and other couch surfers with their hosts from. It was awkward for me at first but once we started talking – we just couldn’t stop. I also introduced Rieneke with Michael and we went for our first hotpot together, which was very spicy experience. Michael introduced us to his colleague Lana from Ukraine and his American friend Hubert. They made dinner at one of the nights - cooking meals from their home country. And it was good and fulfilling one.

Figuring out the Tibet trip was like a roller coaster. I searched it online before but it was just too expensive because foreigners must have permits to enter Tibet. And in order to get permits – we must go with a tour. From the Internet it showed that the cost was about USD1000 for seven days trip until the border of China – Nepal. I decided to figure it out once I’m. I went to Lazybones hostel, which was recommended by Michael, and somehow from the packages that they offer – it seemed to be out of my budget. It is cheaper if you have a big group go with but I don't have that. So, they told me to email the Mix hostel if there any groups that I can join with. The respond was good as there were a couple going there soon – and I can join them but I need to decide as quick as possible whether to join them or not, so they can do my permit with the limited time. I went to Mix Hostel, which was located at the north side of Chengdu to get more details. If I joined the couple, the cost for each of us will be 3000 Yuan excluding accommodation and food. I also need to get the 2day train ticket from Chengdu to Lhasa. I guess that was the cheapest price for the last minute limited time that I had left. The train ticket to Lhasa is sold out according to organizer of the trip at mix hostel but somehow they can get it black market (what is that suppose to mean). I was 50 – 50 on going, because it will make big hole out of my budget but on the other hand, I really wanted to make my way through Nepal by land and this was the only route to do so. While figuring out and deciding whether to take the Tibet route or not, I met a lot of exciting travellers at Mix hostel. There were three bicycle travelers and by coincident they met up at Mix Hostel – an Aussie guy cycling from Europe to Australia, another Aussie guy cycling the opposite way and a French guy who is cycling towards Mongolia. I’ve even met up with a traveler who has been traveling for 14 years.

My 2^nd week was so much better because the sun was out. I’ve also decided to take the Tibet route but I was unprepared for the weather in the hills of Tibet. Luckily, I met a local, Amy at a couch surfing meeting and we talked about my Tibet route. According to her it’s freezing cold at Tibet. She helped me out to get cheap winter clothes from an NGO and 2^nd hand hiking shoes.  Thank you for that Amy. I’ve also moved to stay with Michael on the 2^nd week. I’m the first person he ever hosted on couch surfing. Michael loves food. Somehow he managed to get me cooking my favorite ‘Ayam Masak Merah’. I never really cooked for people before and my last cooking was about two years ago – and Michael really wanted to learn a Malay dish. All in all it turned out good and I’m glad that they enjoyed it. With the days that I had left before the Tibet trip, I went to explore the Chengdu city – like Kuanzhai alley, Jinli Street, Tianfu Square and some monastery. And during the night I would spend my time with Michael, Lana & sometimes Hubert – we even went for a typical Chinese Karaoke TV on one of the nights. That somas up my time in Chengdu and I was time to move on for the Tibet trip by taking the 42 hours train ride to Lhasa!

Route: Kunming (China) – Chengdu (China) 040415

Train departs 7.45pm. 17hours train ride. Last minute ticket bought two days earlier. Hard sleeper middle bed 426 Yuan. Hard sleeper have 6 beds in one cabin. Soft Sleeper has 4 beds in one cabin. Lowest bed is the most stable because of the low point of gravity but during the day time people from the upper beds would sit on it and you may not get the extra sleep that you wanted. Middle bed was the best for me. The upper bed doesn't have space even to sit properly – only to sleep at you have to climb up and it take skills to do this but it's the cheapest among the three beds. As always – the cabin or the train was full of Chinese and I just don't want to make the effort to communicate because the chances that we can understand each other are really low. Only communicated to makes sure where is my bed and whether on the right train or stop by showing the train ticket. Bought food earlier from Carrefour. Just need to sleep and wake up next day. By this time, can sleep peacefully on the train comparing the first few rides. 12.30pm next day Chengdu. Almost 17hours.

Kunming 030415

I underestimated China. I didn't really prepare or read anything about my next location Kunming, China. The South East Asia Indo China route was really backpacker’s heaven. I knew this once I arrived in China. I don't speak or read any Chinese or mandarin language or characters. And they certainly don't speak English. When I first arrived in Kunming at 12 noon – I was lost in translation. My host Anna is working and only available at 6pm. I had no Yuan money at all and was hungry. I tried to communicate with the Chinese but we end up being like a chicken and duck talking. I was happy to see a hijab Chinese woman and so I asked her that I was hungry and was looking for food. That didn't go well because she just doesn't understand me. So – my next step was looking for an ATM to withdraw some cash and I just took a taxi to go straight to the mosque at Zhengyi Road. It was far off form the south bus station and the taxi fare cost me 45 Yuan. Somehow – Kunming is a big city and I don't like big cities. I would prefer walk able distance city. Usually I would Google my way round whenever I get Wi-Fi but in China they seemed to blocked Google and Facebook. I used most of my stuff on Google and somehow all the blocking doesn't help.

It was only two nights in Kunming. Anna – a Housman ship doctor and her husband Dan – and engineer at the airport hosted me for the stay in Kunming. They were from the southern part of the Yunnan province and just got married last year. Anna made me dinner, once arrived at their home and they also helped me out for my train ticket to my next location Chengdu. I went alone to the train station before I met them but even after an hour there, I just could not figure out how to buy the tickets.  It was weird how tight the security was at the train station as it was as tight as the security that usually you get at the airport. Even entering the train station I had to put my bag through the scanner. Anna & Dan went with me to the train station again that night and I found out from Anna that there exactly last year there was a massacre targeted against civilians, left 29 civilians and 4 perpetrators dead with more than 140 others injured.

At around 9:20 pm local time, a group of eight knife-wielding men and women attacked passengers at the city's railway station. Both male and female attackers were seen to pull out long-bladed knives and proceed to stab and slash passengers. At the scene, police killed four assailants  and captured one injured female. In the afternoon of 3 March, police announced that the six-man two-woman group had been neutralized after the arrest of three remaining suspects.

It was going to be the Chinese holiday & Easter this coming weekend and there was just so many people getting the tickets. I was lucky to get a hard sleeper for 426-Yuan middle hard sleeper for 17hours train ride.

I went out as early 7.45am for the two mornings that I had in Kunming, as Anna & Dan had to work. My offline map was the best thing in China – I just needed to mark where I’m going and just take the bus that Anna/Dan recommended me to take an as soon as I’m nearby the marked places on my offline map – I would get off on the next stop. The bus drivers were all ladies and that is something new for me seeing them in the busses pushing their way through the traffic. To get around with busses and subway was about 2Yuan every ride and you just need to know which bus number to take.  I went for the Green Lake, which was established in the 17th century on the west side of the Wuhua Mountain and is sometimes described as a "Jade in Kunming". I was amazed by the different type of exercises they did just in this park – taici, racket dancing, fan dancing and other sorts of workout dancing. It was just nice to watch and see how they feel the dance & music. I spent half a day at Green Lake just discovering and wondering around the place. Anna said I just missed the Seagulls migration. The seagulls from Siberia would come to Kunming because of the weather. As soon as I’m done – I walk towards the Zhengyi Road. This is like the main business center – it was like a typical modern shopping complexes area. I was looking for food because the mosque was there. Nearby Zhengyi road you’ll discover a market where they sell puppies at the street. Kunming is a really clean place.

What I love about Kunming is that it was kinda easy to find food. I thought it was a country of pork-eating people but there was this Hui race – a Chinese Muslims from NiangXi and they are spreading around China. And the food was just great and almost similar to Malaysian food – rice and portions of food to choose from. The only problem I had was eating with chopsticks. I found three different mosques in the center of Kunming and certainly they have great food. They would have a food court and stalls just in front or below of the mosque and it was the cheap. There were even halal stalls if you look carefully around Kunming – and it was great fast food. I was even at the Friday prayers by coincidence and it was really cute seeing the Chinese Muslims majority praying – this is something really rare for me.

Kunming is a big city for a backpacker. This city I walked around the most just getting from one place to another – an average of 20kms per day and by the third day my feed were just tired and having blisters. The last day in Kunming – I spent at Daguan Park. Kunming was also known for the beautiful flowers that they have. The weather was just perfect for Seagulls and flowers. Daguan Park was more of Entertainment Park. There were so many primary school students from different schools at Daguan Park. The view here was simply beautiful as you can see the hills and the sea/lake. They even have a theme park with roller coaster, fair wheel and bumper cars but I just walked around.

I didn't get to see Dan before I leave as my train would depart 7.45 pm as he was stuck in the traffic getting back home. Anna sent me to the subway for me to get to the train station.  Thank you Anna & Dan for letting me stay. We had great conversations and it was one of the intellectual ones I had so far. Thank you again!

Route: Luang Prabang (Laos) - Kunming (China) 010415

Leave Vonchampa Guesthouse at 6.30am. Motortaxi pickup to the bus station 10k kipp.Bought the ticket the day before 490k kipp at was said the trip is for 24 hours. Bus to China - company from China - full with chinese or maybe some from Laos but felt like i was the only foreigner. First come first serve system for the beds. its either the couple be or the single. Lucky got the single for myself. The trick - there is always three single beds and three upper beds - the front single bed usually for drivers. so get there first and just sit and ignore everyone else unless they have proof it is their seat. The roads in Laos before the border was really bad in condition. It was under construction and hilly mountainous road. So imagine, they were like fixing or taring the roads and its like one way. So they had to close one side of the road and had to wait for the cars from the opposite direction to come. So, there were many stops like this. and there was just so many dusty sand dirt. many stops for toilets in the bushes and the ladies would just do the toilet in the bushes too. It was a boring ride. Chinese people in this bus are just not friendly or they are just simply shy to communicate. Didn't eat much too because they only stop at the places they want too. Only had cookies and bread for the whole trip. And of course along the way pick ups to fill up the bus. Arrived border at 5pm Check out from Laos 10k kipp. China immigration was so modern. Not many questions but may times the bags have to go through the bag scan. After entering China - some people leaves and new passengers come in. A stop by the police custom. Its kinda tight the military/police in China. sleep throughout the night. China time plus one hour from Laos. Woke up about 5am because the bus had some problem - stopped inside of the tunnel - Doing the fixing of the bus for two hours. In the morning - just cant sleep because everyone just talks loud. Arrived at Kunming Bus station at noon. Total travel trip 28hours. Longest trip I had been on. Crazy! Dusty! Dirt! Very Long Journey! Hungry! No communication with anyone! Welcome to China!

Luang Prabang. Kuang Xi 310315

My trip in Luang Prabang was short and just a detour. Initially I just wanted to go straight from Hanoi to China after receiving my Chinese Visa but somehow the guy that couchsurfed with at ‘Vietnam Says Hello’ – Liam convinced me to go to Laos. He just arrived from Laos.  Why not? and I would tick another country in my list. The only problem was the bus would take up to 22 – 24 hours. I’ve never been on a train/bus ride more than 20 hours before. By distance it should not take more than 20 hours but because of the hilly mountain roads and the border crossings that would add up to the long journey.

I’ve arrived at Luang Prabang around 7pm and I met some new Japanese friends from Fukuoka and one of them Shuya was sharing a couple seat with me, which lasted for us to be next to each other for 24 hours. My main motive in Luang Prabang is just to see one of the greatest waterfalls in South East Asia and I convinced the Japanese guys to come along. They said they didn't know about the waterfalls. They were just heading to Luang Prabang and Vientiane the day after as they are almost to an end of their South East Asia month trip. So, we kinda teamed up to look for a place to stay for the night. We found a guesthouse next to the Mekong River for 80k kipp per night for two people. I shared the room with Shuya. The room was okay but the wi fi was really bad. I tried looking for Halal food here from what I have researched but it was not there. The only place that I can find was kinda far away from my place. But there was so many vegetarians food here – they are vegetarian friendly and the night market has good foods too. They would do sandwiches in a baguette – like the Subway sandwiches and it was good enough for me. And I ate a lot of that and the coconut food.

We went for the Kuang Xi waterfalls the next morning and it was about an hour away. The owner of the guesthouse also owns a Tuk Tuk and would charge us 50k Kipp per person one-way to the Kuang Xi waterfalls. I love waterfalls or nature stuff and I’ve been to a few in my country and I would say the view was breathtaking with the blue water and levels of waterfalls. By far this is the best one in Asia I’ve been too so far. And of course I just had to swim here. There are levels of waterfalls that you could go to and you could choose where to swim except for the top one which was restricted. They also had bears in the park– so be careful.

Besides that – the Mekong river was great to see and of course the temples which I didn't go too. The only transport to cross the river was the local long boats for the locals to cross, If you stay at the riverside, everything is in walking distance. I kinda like this place and would like to come back again someday. It is laid back, touristic – friendly and even though there was no halal food around there vegetarian food was really good especially at the night market. The Japanese guys only stayed for a night. I spent two nights here and the 3^rd day I had to leave early at 6.30am for my bus ride to Kunming, China. 28hours bus ride!!!

Route: Hanoi (Vietnam) – Luang Prabang (Laos) 290315

Bought the ticket a day early for USD43. 22hours journey. Motor guy pick me up at my staying place at 5pm and gather with others going to same destination. 7pm leave for Luang Prabang. My first time on a bus, which the seats are not totally flat. About 20% incline for sleep. Meet Shuya, Yuuta & Masasaki from Fukuoka, Japan – students on break– doing an almost similar trip like mine. Bus was half filled with travellers and the others locals. Did not manage to get a single seat but lucky next to Shuya – slightly smaller than me. Can you imagine two big guys seating on the couple seat for 22 hours? Bus will fill up with people, picking up on the way to the border. Even the walking lane in the bus is used for passengers that they pick up along the way and they just sleep there. This route is really different. It is really curvy as the bust goes through the mountains. As always I did not sleep because the sit is too short and I cannot move around much. Bus stops from time to time for toilets and little breaks & dinner. Arrive at the border 6am. Have to wait for 7am for the immigration to open to check out Vietnam and enter Laos. Have to walk through the border from Vietnam to Laos border. About 8am everything is done. Finally, in Laos but still a long way to Luang Prabang. Usually when taking night bus or train - will probably arrive the noon the next day after sleeping at night but this is different – will only arrive at night. Couple of stops from time to time for toilets & food. Laos is looking a little bit different. With curvy roads and houses along the mountain roads. After lunch bus puts on Rambo Marathon and somehow they all like Rambo. Finally arrive in Luang Prabang – 24 hours trip. Hungry! Knackered! Crazy! Longest bus ride so far

Hanoi 280315

When I arrived Hanoi after a 16hour train ride – the weather was gloomy with dark clouds. The public people was a bit cold but in a way it was good because the people or even the motor taxi don't hassle you that much comparing to the other cities that I went too – so it was nice to walk around without sellers on the street bothering you. And of course the traffic was crazy but in smaller streets comparing to the Ho Chi Minh City.

I would say the best part of Hanoi was the people I met at the place that I couch surfed which was an English Centre for the Vietnamese local to practice English speaking. I approached for a place to stay and by coincidence Ha & her sisters where the caretaker of this English Centre. Even the Centre’s name were welcoming  - ‘Vietnam Says Hello’.  Ha is a final year student and is studying in Hanoi. Her two sisters are living with her as they are working in Hanoi. Apparently there are many English Centers in Vietnam. It’s not that they don’t learn English in school but they didn't have the proper English being taught and their pronunciations were really bad I guess. And in these English Centre’s they usually have Westerners teaching English. ‘Vietnam Says Hello’ was still about a month old and the classes just started for about a week or two. It’s a business done by two young guys Trung & Son. I was quiet impressed with their ambitions at the very young age. And I really liked the idea that they gave travellers to stay. In Hanoi, it was something different for me and I really felt like a foreigner. Before this, along my trip, I would always see local Vietnamese talking to travellers (non-Asian) at the park but here they were interested with me too. In ‘Vietnam Says Hello’ – the building have four levels. The ground floor, the coffee room, the classes and my room were on the fourth floor. We usually hung out at the coffee room where students would be there and wanting to practice English speaking with you or just simply interested in what & why were we doing these travels. Even on my first day there was an hour session of  ‘talk show’ where a professor from Belgium just came to talk about his life and students came just to listen and learn the English language by communicating. A couple came to couch surfed two days after I arrived. Liam from England & Sabrina from Austria. They were traveling for five months and decided to find a work in Hanoi. So, having them around was great. Ha was really great in helping us finding our way in Hanoi. Trung had been hosting couch surfers before and just enjoys the company of travellers. Son, the local Hanoi boy was around at times to help out as well. We surely had a great time and we have nights just talking discussing exchanging opinions on everything that we would like talk about. Sometimes I would join the classes just to observe but all in all it was great fun to be surrounded with these curious people.

I also needed to get my China Visa in Hanoi – which was not that, hard. I tried going to agencies but they charge you like double the cost. So, it’s best to do it yourself. The process will take only three working days and it’s best to do this on a Monday. At first – I thought mine would get rejected because the officer that received my passport said that I didn't have enough documents. You will need a health insurance, a booking of a hostel in china and a flight ticket. I just had a booking of a hostel, which was usd1, and most probably I won’t stay there and I told them that I just wanted to travel by land. When she said it would be difficult – I just gave a proposal of my trip and the next day, I was granted a Visa. The tedious part was to pay it at the bank of China, which was a little bit far from the China Embassy, but luckily there was a local girl to help me out.

I didn’t really explore the historical side, which was my initial plan when I wanted to go to Vietnam but I guess it was just enough when you have all these great people surrounding you. The Hoam Kiem Lake was the biggest attraction for me. It wasn't that exciting at first seeing it a little temple in the middle of the lake but once the night time arrives – it was simply beautiful with the illuminating lights.  The public busses were convenient – you just need to know where to go. It was 7 Dong per ride. The Old quarters were my daily routine thing because that’s where the best Halal food I had so far, next to the mosque. The Old quarters are where the backpackers are and at night there’s this one corner at a four junction where everyone just sit down on the little chairs drinking.  Besides that there’s the museums, which I didn't go too. And the best nature sightseeing was outside of Hanoi like Ha Long Bay & Sapa. I just can’t afford to go there and I think it’s probably like something similar in along Southeast Asia.

It was a great night out on my last night in Hanoi. We hand an entourage going to the night market. It was really long night market located in the old quarters and they only have it on Fridays. It started out only with Liam, Sabrina, Andrea (another Swiss traveller that just arrived at ‘Vietnam Says Hello’) and me. Along the way to the bus stop, we met Giang – a student/worker at ‘Vietnam Says Hello’ and she tagged along with us and became our translator for an Uncle that was interested in us inside the bus ride to the old quarters. The Uncle (old man) is mostly interested in Liam because his son is working in England. The Uncle invited us for ice cream desert, nearby his place at a walking distance to the night market. He also invited us to have lunch at his place on the Sunday but I couldn't join because I was heading for Luang Prabang, Laos before I would enter China. And then walking towards the Night market along the Hoam Kiem Lake – there were many local students stopping us just wanting to talk to us. And after the night market, we hung out at the crazy drinking corner. And lastly for the night was meeting Liam’s friend from Manchester where I met other Expats – mostly teaching English with only high school qualifications and just by using their tourist Visa. Some have been living for a year or two and only go out of the country to renew the visa. They just simply came to Hanoi and live there.

After a week in Hanoi, it was time to head for Luang Prabang. I thought of going too directly to China from Vietnam but somehow Liam convinced me to go to Luang Prabang – so it was kinda like a detour for me before entering the Mainland China. Thank you Trung, Son, Hana & sisters for the hospitality. Thank you students of ‘Vietnam Says Hello. And nice meeting you Liam & Sabrina & Andrea. Thank you guys for being a part of my life for the time in Hanoi! Vietnam locals are simply great!