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!!
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