Well isn't this place just perfect? Not only have we met up with our friends, Ayumi and Taylor again, which is perfect (they also gave us quite a surprise, we thought taylor was in Thailand, because Ayumi have been travelling solo for a few weeks, so we had only heard from her, and planned with her to meet up, maybe in Laos, we really hoped to. And then we hould meet them both in Thailand at the end of this week, but then she told us, I'm coming to Luang Prabang tomorroe, and we cheared!! And then we met the next day, and she brought Taylor along as well, and we didn't have clue, he just showed up on the street, with a hug smile, lovely!! And now we're all four together again, feels good:) wow, this was a long "detour" or a long short-story-in-between..;)
Not just have we met our friends again, this town also have a Scandinavian Bakery!! Which means, today we had good cheese and different kinds of bread for breakfast, and even Gott och Blandat!!! They got it yesterday, in the bakery, fresh sweets from Sweden, it is so funny, and I had to buy of course, even it was very expensive(not too bad, but still expensive), just because it is so funny!
This is a good day!
Gott och blandat forever!;)
(Maybe we miss home sometimes, at least the food and the sweets.. And the people;)
g
tirsdag 22. juli 2008
søndag 20. juli 2008
Ah, Laos..
We have left China, and entered Laos, lovely! I was tired of China, and it feels good with some change here!
We left Kunming, Yunnan on Saturday, 19th, and arrived here in Luang Prabang yesterday, Sunday the 20th. It doesn't sound to bad, but we spend over 28 hours on the same bus, which was kind of exhausting.. But it was still a good trip, we saw the chinese border open on Sunday morning, it was quite a shw with soldiers and so on, hoisting flag and marching and running a little bit.. Funny:) And we had no problems crossing the border, luckily we had already fixed visa and so on, so we just smiled and they stamped our passports and on we went.. Only problem was the customs on the Lao side, not for us, but they stopped the bus and loked through everything, and even then we weren't alloud to continue, so we waited at the customs for about 6 hours, no reason.. Boring!
At last we were allowed to drive on, and on the Lao side the scenery changed:) We saw a lot of small villages with tiny huts made of bamboo and giant mountains and small ricefields and so on. It was absolutely beautiful!
And then we arrived in Luang Prabang last night, found a quiet nice guesthouse and some food:)
Today we had baguettes with real butter and mustard and vegetables and cheese and chicken for breakfast, Laos is a former colony of France, so the food here is absolutely lovable! Can't wait to try the coffee, or the french restaurants! Time for lunch everyone!
And now, we're only 5 hours before Norway in time, South East Asia is not on the same time as China. :) Details, but still..
And tonight our friend Ayumi from Japan is coming to Luang Prabang, we really can't wait!! So looking forward to see you again Ayumi!!!;)
Hihihi!
g
We left Kunming, Yunnan on Saturday, 19th, and arrived here in Luang Prabang yesterday, Sunday the 20th. It doesn't sound to bad, but we spend over 28 hours on the same bus, which was kind of exhausting.. But it was still a good trip, we saw the chinese border open on Sunday morning, it was quite a shw with soldiers and so on, hoisting flag and marching and running a little bit.. Funny:) And we had no problems crossing the border, luckily we had already fixed visa and so on, so we just smiled and they stamped our passports and on we went.. Only problem was the customs on the Lao side, not for us, but they stopped the bus and loked through everything, and even then we weren't alloud to continue, so we waited at the customs for about 6 hours, no reason.. Boring!
At last we were allowed to drive on, and on the Lao side the scenery changed:) We saw a lot of small villages with tiny huts made of bamboo and giant mountains and small ricefields and so on. It was absolutely beautiful!
And then we arrived in Luang Prabang last night, found a quiet nice guesthouse and some food:)
Today we had baguettes with real butter and mustard and vegetables and cheese and chicken for breakfast, Laos is a former colony of France, so the food here is absolutely lovable! Can't wait to try the coffee, or the french restaurants! Time for lunch everyone!
And now, we're only 5 hours before Norway in time, South East Asia is not on the same time as China. :) Details, but still..
And tonight our friend Ayumi from Japan is coming to Luang Prabang, we really can't wait!! So looking forward to see you again Ayumi!!!;)
Hihihi!
g
onsdag 16. juli 2008
Chengyang - Zhaoxing - Guiyang - Anshun - Kunming.
So, time passed by again!
Since Guilin, we ahve traveled in the countryside, which is absolutely beautiful when it comes to scenery, but it takes a lot of time.. Endless hours on busses, bad roads, mountains to cross, you name it..
From Guilin we got a bus to Sanjiang, and there is really nothing to see there, so we hoped to get further on.. But we didn't, so we went to a small place called Chengyang, just 20 minutes out of town.. It was a silent place, with a famous brigde and small small Dong villages. Dong is a minority group in China, really interesting to see their traditional clothes and the way they wear their hair and so on:)
We stayed 2 nights in Chengyang, did some hiking in the mountains and in the small villages. Also we met more travelers, from all over the world, so we had a good time with new friends. And we went swimming in the river! And this time Kristoffer also went swimming:)
From Chengyang we went to Zhaoxing, another small Dong village, and we went with all our new friends we met in Chengyang (Marco germany, Isaac usa, Kit scotland, Kirsty canada and Leilei China). We missed the bus from Sanjiang, and had to go on another bus to somewhere else, and the bus we missed would wait for us on the way so we could get to the right place, they just had to go past all the policestations on the way first, cause we would have been sitting on the floor, and that is not ok for the police.. However, we never saw that bus again, instead we ended up on some really muddy roads were no bus could go.. So we had to by boat on the river for a little while, and then try to find another bus on the other side of the muddy road.. But we never found any bus, which had the result we had to take a minivan, more expensive and oh so much more uncomfortable!! The driver took us to Diping, a small town, but we were to late for all the buses that day, so he drove us all the way to Zhaoxing. And it was all good in the end:)
In Zhaoxing we also spend 2 nights, had quite a hike around the countryside, walking along dirtroads, small paths between ricefields and ending up in small small villages.. It was a good day, the scenery is to good to be true, and the people are so friendly! We took some good pictures with some old men hanging around the "supermarket" in one small village, hehe, very funny! (flickr everyone..)
We also met a Chinese-swedish family here, with three children, the oldest was 6 years old. They were taking a year off, to travel in China, and the kids were so happy to talk some swedish with Kristoffer, the oldest couldn't stop, he had to tell everything about Kung Fu and Spiderman 3 and so on, lovely:) We saw "Kung Fu Panda" with them the first night, loved it!
From Zhaoxing we tried to get to Kaili, so we got up at 5:30 in the morning, to catch an early bus. We made it, and got all the way to Liping, drove through some really beautiful scenery again! When we got to Liping we had 20 minutes to buy breakfast before we entered next bus, to Kaili, had time to buy bananas, and that was it. It was a 7 hour busride, and luckily the bus stopped so we all could have a proper lunch, or I guess we would have starved!
When we got to Kaili the group was separated, some stayed in Kaili, and some headed forward. Kristoffer and I got a bus to Guiyang, the main city in Guizhou province. When we got there, late at night, all the tickets for Kunming were sold out.. Not only that day but also the next.. Luckily we met James Bond, a local chinese guy, who helped us find a hotel and food:) Saver of the day!
The next day we found a bus to Anshun, only 2 hours from Guiyang. But we couldn't get traintickets that day either, so we had to stay in Anshun, which is not the most exiting town.. We walked around a little bit, and that was it:)
The next day, we got standing tickets on the train to Kunming, and we were so tired of trying to get there, so we bought them and were ambivalent.. The book said it was 11 hours trainride, but it is often so much longer than what the lonely planet suggests, so we were afraid, but still, that is the way the chinese travel, so it felt ok to try it, to see how they manage:)
We stood on the train, absolutely no space to move or even sit on the floor, for 3 hours, when luckily a lot of people went off the train, and we got a chance to get into the carriage(stood by the doors, with a lot of others, even families with small small babies, standing for several hours.. They are strong..) And when we got into the carriage, a 15 year old girl came and asked if we would like to sit with her and her family, they could just squeeze together. So we said yes, and then the mother and some other guy had to stand.. But it was okey, they said, it was more important that her daughter got to practise english! Which we did for 7 hours! We talked about everything, and her little brother also spoke a little bit, he touched my arm and said "friend" when he wanted to show me something, or tell me something, lovely! And we played cards and had a good time:) Lovely! So 10 hours trainride with only standingtickets went so much better than we thought! Luckily!
And finally we were in Kunming!!
It is not really much touristy things to do here, but we have to plan our trip to Laos, which we enter in maybe a week or so.. So we're here to fix visa and change money and all that boring stuff. We spend so many hours in the bank today, the embassy was closed, so we have to go there tomorrow, and then wait even more days to get the visa, and so on, so, from now, it is not much happening in a few days.
Kristoffer got a haircut today, looking good! And when I asked for one as well, the hairdresser said no, too beautiful hair, so I didn't get a haircut.. But it was very nice in a way:) Although I want a haircut;) And I almost bought new glasses today, just because it is cheap and I might need an extra pair:) And then we're soon ready for Laos! South East Asia, here we come!!
g
Since Guilin, we ahve traveled in the countryside, which is absolutely beautiful when it comes to scenery, but it takes a lot of time.. Endless hours on busses, bad roads, mountains to cross, you name it..
From Guilin we got a bus to Sanjiang, and there is really nothing to see there, so we hoped to get further on.. But we didn't, so we went to a small place called Chengyang, just 20 minutes out of town.. It was a silent place, with a famous brigde and small small Dong villages. Dong is a minority group in China, really interesting to see their traditional clothes and the way they wear their hair and so on:)
We stayed 2 nights in Chengyang, did some hiking in the mountains and in the small villages. Also we met more travelers, from all over the world, so we had a good time with new friends. And we went swimming in the river! And this time Kristoffer also went swimming:)
From Chengyang we went to Zhaoxing, another small Dong village, and we went with all our new friends we met in Chengyang (Marco germany, Isaac usa, Kit scotland, Kirsty canada and Leilei China). We missed the bus from Sanjiang, and had to go on another bus to somewhere else, and the bus we missed would wait for us on the way so we could get to the right place, they just had to go past all the policestations on the way first, cause we would have been sitting on the floor, and that is not ok for the police.. However, we never saw that bus again, instead we ended up on some really muddy roads were no bus could go.. So we had to by boat on the river for a little while, and then try to find another bus on the other side of the muddy road.. But we never found any bus, which had the result we had to take a minivan, more expensive and oh so much more uncomfortable!! The driver took us to Diping, a small town, but we were to late for all the buses that day, so he drove us all the way to Zhaoxing. And it was all good in the end:)
In Zhaoxing we also spend 2 nights, had quite a hike around the countryside, walking along dirtroads, small paths between ricefields and ending up in small small villages.. It was a good day, the scenery is to good to be true, and the people are so friendly! We took some good pictures with some old men hanging around the "supermarket" in one small village, hehe, very funny! (flickr everyone..)
We also met a Chinese-swedish family here, with three children, the oldest was 6 years old. They were taking a year off, to travel in China, and the kids were so happy to talk some swedish with Kristoffer, the oldest couldn't stop, he had to tell everything about Kung Fu and Spiderman 3 and so on, lovely:) We saw "Kung Fu Panda" with them the first night, loved it!
From Zhaoxing we tried to get to Kaili, so we got up at 5:30 in the morning, to catch an early bus. We made it, and got all the way to Liping, drove through some really beautiful scenery again! When we got to Liping we had 20 minutes to buy breakfast before we entered next bus, to Kaili, had time to buy bananas, and that was it. It was a 7 hour busride, and luckily the bus stopped so we all could have a proper lunch, or I guess we would have starved!
When we got to Kaili the group was separated, some stayed in Kaili, and some headed forward. Kristoffer and I got a bus to Guiyang, the main city in Guizhou province. When we got there, late at night, all the tickets for Kunming were sold out.. Not only that day but also the next.. Luckily we met James Bond, a local chinese guy, who helped us find a hotel and food:) Saver of the day!
The next day we found a bus to Anshun, only 2 hours from Guiyang. But we couldn't get traintickets that day either, so we had to stay in Anshun, which is not the most exiting town.. We walked around a little bit, and that was it:)
The next day, we got standing tickets on the train to Kunming, and we were so tired of trying to get there, so we bought them and were ambivalent.. The book said it was 11 hours trainride, but it is often so much longer than what the lonely planet suggests, so we were afraid, but still, that is the way the chinese travel, so it felt ok to try it, to see how they manage:)
We stood on the train, absolutely no space to move or even sit on the floor, for 3 hours, when luckily a lot of people went off the train, and we got a chance to get into the carriage(stood by the doors, with a lot of others, even families with small small babies, standing for several hours.. They are strong..) And when we got into the carriage, a 15 year old girl came and asked if we would like to sit with her and her family, they could just squeeze together. So we said yes, and then the mother and some other guy had to stand.. But it was okey, they said, it was more important that her daughter got to practise english! Which we did for 7 hours! We talked about everything, and her little brother also spoke a little bit, he touched my arm and said "friend" when he wanted to show me something, or tell me something, lovely! And we played cards and had a good time:) Lovely! So 10 hours trainride with only standingtickets went so much better than we thought! Luckily!
And finally we were in Kunming!!
It is not really much touristy things to do here, but we have to plan our trip to Laos, which we enter in maybe a week or so.. So we're here to fix visa and change money and all that boring stuff. We spend so many hours in the bank today, the embassy was closed, so we have to go there tomorrow, and then wait even more days to get the visa, and so on, so, from now, it is not much happening in a few days.
Kristoffer got a haircut today, looking good! And when I asked for one as well, the hairdresser said no, too beautiful hair, so I didn't get a haircut.. But it was very nice in a way:) Although I want a haircut;) And I almost bought new glasses today, just because it is cheap and I might need an extra pair:) And then we're soon ready for Laos! South East Asia, here we come!!
g
mandag 7. juli 2008
Yangshou - Guilin
We stayed 3 or 4 nights in Yangshou, got to a point where we both were quite tired of seeing new stuff and being tourists, so we didn't do anything for a few days.. Yangshou itself is very touristy, so we met a lot of other travellers, which is nice of course, but the real beauty of Yangshou is the countryside, with a scenery so green, strange mountains and snall villages.. We got ourselves out there the 3 day, I think, and it was lovely, hired bikes and biked for 5 hours straight, no problem, it was almost all flat, hehe! Have a lot of beautiful pictures, K will upload them at some point.. And we met a norwegian couple on honeymoon, she is originally from China, but lives in Oslo, theire storys about the two weddings was great! In Oslo they married in a church, normal big weddingdinner, everything fine, long speeches of course, but still fine. Then in China her father had invited 200 guests, and the newlyweds were more on display than anything else, all dressed up in traditional chinese opera costums, on a stage, and all the guests eating, haha, she told us they were so hungry they had to sneek out at night to find some food, hihihihi, so funny! They took us out for dinner, and since she is chinese and speaks the language, we really enjoyed an easy night out, without the hazzle of dechifring a menu.. Hehe;) And later we met som Irish girls (had met them two nights earlier as well, nice ones, love them!), and we all went to a disco, terrible music, but of course K made it his mission to make everyone have a lovely time, so he ruled the dancefloor like no one else, hahaha!!;) Perfect!
And the next day we went to Guilin, the guy on the bus cheated us for money, so annoying, why is he demanding 50 from us when everyone else is paying 10? Bastard. But we were to tired to argue, and paid. We arrived, and I got sick, and all plans have been delayed as I have stayed in bed for 2 days with fever and pain everywhere (dramaqueen, sorry.. But I really had a bad time.)
And tomorrow we will move on, hopefully!
All for now, enjoy summer everyone!
g
And the next day we went to Guilin, the guy on the bus cheated us for money, so annoying, why is he demanding 50 from us when everyone else is paying 10? Bastard. But we were to tired to argue, and paid. We arrived, and I got sick, and all plans have been delayed as I have stayed in bed for 2 days with fever and pain everywhere (dramaqueen, sorry.. But I really had a bad time.)
And tomorrow we will move on, hopefully!
All for now, enjoy summer everyone!
g
onsdag 2. juli 2008
Perfect Guiping!!
We went from Guangzhou to Guiping on Sunday, expected 6 hours on a bus, it took only 8, so we were happy;) Guiping doesn't have many tourist attractions or anything, it is famous for the very kind people living there.. And they were the nicest people we have met in China, I think! Of course, we meet wonderful people everywhere, but it seems to me that all the people of Guiping is nice! It was helpfulnes and smiles and "hello" all the time! We got help to find the hotel when we arrived, help to find a great restaurant. And the next day, when we had cilmbed Xi Shan, a small mountain, and we were walking along a road, saying hello to everyone driving by on their motorbike, (beautiful scenery, ricefields, bananatrees, bamboo, and tea-fields, we have some lovely pictures!), someone stopped to take pictures with us, and managed to ask us if we wanted to go swimming with them(not the best english in Guiping, but the friendlyness makes up for it!), we said yes, of course! We sat behind on the motorbikes, and after a few kilometres, it was a kind of a swimming pool, with a restaurant and all, so we stayed all day, getting to know our new friends better:) Then they drove us back to the hotel, we had a shower and dinner, and then they picked us up again, and we went to a karaoke-place, HAHAHA, GREAT FUN! You all missed out on K's and my version on Crazy with Britney Spears, hahahahaha! Unforgettable!!
It got late, but no problem, they drove us home too.. Nice people!
On Tuesday we left Guiping, to go to Yangshou, where we are now, and we spend the whole day in the busstation and on the bus.. 5 hours waiting for the bus, it was delayed, of course, but it was ok, the employees took good care of us, getting us tea, and food and entertaining with chinglish and chinese, and the bus ended up waiting 10 minutes for us, as we were busy, haha!
And the busride took of course 6 hours, not 3 as they told us, but even though we got here late, we found a nice youth hostel, and everything is ok!
Have to get outside, the weather is too nice, and the scenery to beautiful to sit here!
Have a nice day!
g
It got late, but no problem, they drove us home too.. Nice people!
On Tuesday we left Guiping, to go to Yangshou, where we are now, and we spend the whole day in the busstation and on the bus.. 5 hours waiting for the bus, it was delayed, of course, but it was ok, the employees took good care of us, getting us tea, and food and entertaining with chinglish and chinese, and the bus ended up waiting 10 minutes for us, as we were busy, haha!
And the busride took of course 6 hours, not 3 as they told us, but even though we got here late, we found a nice youth hostel, and everything is ok!
Have to get outside, the weather is too nice, and the scenery to beautiful to sit here!
Have a nice day!
g
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