Loza's Travels his is it! I am finally getting my chance to travel the land of Europe! Starting with Turkey and the Greek Islands including ANZAC day at Gallipoli before making my way to work in London. Then hopefully earning some money to fund more travel experience

So now for another update! when i left you last we were about to board a sleeper train to Dali

Day 9 Dali was a lovely quaint, relaxing old town on lake Er hai with the backdrop of the Cangshan mountains. About 2400 metres above sea level so taller than anywhere in Aus i think.
In the arvo we did a horse trek up the mountains to Zhonghe Temple and what views down over the lake, hope the photo's work. With a very sore arse headed back down the mountain. We had tibetian dinner with Keith and he taught us some Chinese drinking games!

Day 10 Get on our bikes and ride! with the already tender arse we begrudgingly hopped on bike for a day of riding around the lake! On our way down to the lake we were allowed to go to the local kinder and they sang to us so we sang twinkle twinkle to them very cute! The riding wasn't that bad as it was pretty flat however no helmets so
didn't hoon it down the hills! On our way back we stopped in at an  old warlords house left over from the Tang dynasty about 250 years old very interesting. Then we hoped a local bus for the last part as we didn't want to fight the traffic and our bums were sore!

Day 11 Bus from Dali to LiJang.  LiJang is another city were we stayed in the old bit, and walked to the top of a hill and what a contrast between the old and the new parts! I suppose with the largest population in the world you can't be expected to house everyone in the quiant old parts! Great nightlife and atmosphere in this town and clare and i killed an hour in the arvo by tea tasting the local teas quite interesting as it
was a lot of hand gestures to figure the healing qualities of each!
That night saw the Naxi Orchestra perform the local minority group in LiJang. A reasonable show with good dancing and interesting english translations, however very rude chinese tourists kept talking loudly, answering phones and getting up and down during the performance! Had a beer in amongst the night life and the restaurants have little sing offs across the creeks, very fun atmosphere.

Day 12 Start of the HIKE!!!
Bus out to tiger leaping gorge with a random tyre change on the way so didn't think we were going to make it! Finally going again and we followed the Yangtze river around with the Jade Dragon Snow mountain in the background. At start we walked down about a million steps to get down to the river which has such force, amazing, then the million steps back!
Met local guide who was lovely even though not much english! Walked 11 km in arvo mostly along the low road to Tina's guest house where we were lucky enought to have our public shower over the top of the squat toilet so lucky we were the first group there as could have shower before toilet started to smell!
Met a lovely couple there who were travelling overland from London to Melbourne! We had dinner and drinks before joining the locals there for some traditional dancing then we decided to teach them a dance - the nutbush! and they loved it so made us keep doing it over and over till they had some idea! Very fun night!

Day 13 2nd day of hike
First a quick walk down the raod to a walnut village although didn't end up at the village as our guide told us it was only 100km up the river to tibet! And we started taking the good pointing photos!
And it was up to the high road from the relatively flatness of the low road yesterday! Bit of a killer... am going to blame the thin air and not my lack of fitness as i can! What absolute stunning scenery tried to take lots of photos but i dare say none of them do it justice!
Made it to our next stop around 2 so only 4 hours of walking and this place boasts the best views from the toilet, and they are probably right fantastic but seeing as us westerners can't squat as low it might not have been the best scenery for others! But also our rooms faced out onto the mountain range across the river, not a bad thing to wake up to!

Day 14 last day of hike and apparently the hardest, 12 or so km but up and down then up to peak then down around the 28 bends. climbing from 2300 to 2600 metres to top and we made it there around 12noon and it was freezing as we were quite high up and we were all sweaty in t-shirts! Felt like we were on top of the world.
Then the 28 bends downhill for about 1 hour or so and finally with very shakey legs we made to the lunch spot with the knowledge we only had another 1/2 hour down to the bus. And on the bus it started to rain so we were very lucky with the weather, and when we got back to LiJang ran to showers so that we would get water whether it was hot or cold!
Had a well earned Hamburger for dinner.

Day 15 Bus from LiJang to Kunming
Keith our geckos guide told us we were getting a nice bus for the 8 hour ride and he wasn't wrong! Massive business class style leather seats lots and lots of leg room, aircon, and a flushing western loo! I am finally learning how to sleep on buses!
Back in Kunming with the proper shower not just a pipe!

Day 16 Free morning in Kunming so slept in with no alarm, very good!
Flight from Kunming to Guiling on CHina eastern quite a bumpy ride then bus to Yangshou an extremely touristy town. We had dinner up on a rooftop bar in the middle of no where with the omminess limestone outcropsso of a hazzy backdrop.  Had a nice bottle of great wall red wine and our first duck in china!
Trying to teach Keith about "Funk" but failed terribly as ended up at a random retro chinese discoteck!, very funny booze night!

Day 17 Hoped on our bikes for another day riding in the countryside with a local guide named rose. Lots of rice fields amongst the random limestone outcrops rising out of the ground! Bamboo rafting down river which was a bit cheesy. Near our lunch spot some hawkers (farm ladies selling junk) spotted us and the race was on they raced after us on their old bikes and were very persistant but us tightarse Aussies wouldn't buy a thing! Had drunk duck for dinner with eggplant and sichwian chicken where i managed to eat a chilli so got to wash it down with the cordial red wine we got, serves us right for thinking we could get 2 good bottles of red wine in China!

Day 18 Boat cruise up the Li river which was very nice to relax for an hour. Then our driver took us off the beaten track on the way home. We went to a local produce market which was a sight! But was good as they knew we wearn't going to buy so didnt get hasseled!
Then onto a local factory where the silk wall hangings and decorative fans are made and we almost biught up the shop! So cheap and all individually painted a great find as they were atleast 4 times more expensive in Yangshou! That night we boarded sleeper train for Waylu(cant remember the spelling) Long trip 14 hours and very noisy!

Day 19 Arrived at train station then hoped on bus only for it to go 2 minutes down the road to wait 40 minutes for more passengers so that the bus was full. Very long hot uncomfortable bus ride so not so happy little vegimites at the end! Got to Yichang where we were told there is not much to do so had a shower and some lunch then just wondered around! Found a park and went bumper boating!
We were all wearing thongs and t-shirts as were so hot on bus and needed air out and the local just kept looking at our feet and couldn't understand why we were wearing thongs when the weather was low 20's! Not a very touristy town so we were a bit of a spectical! Dinner tried some duck neck, some sort of shell fish with lots of garlic and dessert pumpkin pretty nice!

Day 20 Sleep in and lazy day. Walked up to the squirel (as keith calls the town sqaure!) and had a wonder before ending up her in this dodgy internet place with teenages playing random internet video games,whatever tickles your fancy i suppose! Hoping on yangtze boat tonight and seeing the dam projest at the three gorges first so
looking forward to that!