Now we continue with the main story.
We woke up in Luoyang, and head out for breakfast. This breakfast consisted of warm dishes, like steamed bread and dumplings, but the buffet wasn't heated, so the warm food wasn't warm either. We asked for tea, which was very normal to us after getting tea almost everywhere, but had to explain it by pointing at the round hole in our aluminium jail-like plate and making drinking gestures. After ten minutes, she returned with two glasses of warm water... (for those who now think we're picky, spoiled tourists, don't panic: we will try warm Chinese breakfast some other time!)
But this horrific breakfast wasn't the thing we were looking forward to. At 9 am, we were going to change rooms for a room with a double bed. And boy, was it a huge room. We gor the suite!!! For the same price. So we installed ourselves in our sofas, and had a tea in our room. Then, Eline went back to sleep, and I went for some serious blogging.
At noon. we left for the main sight in the region. The Longmen caves. These are temples that are carved out of rocks, resulting in artificial caves full of Buddha statues, It was breathtaking! We expected a lot, especially after seeing some photos in books, but these books show only a fraction of the whole complex. There are really thousands of Buddhas sculpet out of the rocks, and they are all still part of the saame rock. It is all solid and fixed (it's hard to explain), out of one piece. Absolutely amazing!!! While resting on a bench for a while, Eline jumped up in a way the would make the leap of the Tiger at the Tiger Leaping Gorge look like rope skipping. She saw a Carrefour bag flying by, hunted it like a hungry leopard and stored it in her purse, happy as a kid in a candystore. There was a Carrefour in Luoyang, and destiny had showed us the way.
In the bus, we met Jess and Paul again, and agreed on having dinner together to try the local splecialty: a water banquet. But first: Carrefour! Armed with our shopping bag, we strolled around at the bus parkimg lot, till we knew which bus to take. The supermarket was only 400m away from our hostel. We bought chocolate spread (Choco!!!), peanut butter (eline), pistache nuts, bread (BREAD!!!!) and ham. A quick shot of yoghurt for the road and of we went again. To keep the ham cool till the next morning, we hung it in front of the airco.
Chinese Carrefours much resemble European ones, except for the goods they offer. European products can be found, depending on how big the store is. One major difference is that you can buy living fish and other animals in the store, like big fish in huge tanks, or even in a chilren's paddling pool. But who wouldn't get tired of fish everyday? Thank God for variation! Like crab, eel, turtles and frogs!!! Yummy!
The water banquet was actually very nice. We liked only 3 of the 6 dishes we got, but these three were not only very good, they were also sufficeint to feed an army. The name 'Water Banquet' comes from the dishes mainly consisting of soups, and the speed of the dishes following up on each other. Back to sleep.
The next morning, we would sleep long and head for Xian. We catched the bus an hour earlier, and got it right on time. During the bus trip, we saw breathtaking landscapes, and also an awful Chinese movie, together with unbearable music videos. (and when I mean unbearable, I'm serious! The Chinese are fond of high nasal voices and also everything that is loud) In the mean while, we could witness how the baby in front of us was taken to the toilet for three times, the toilet being the garbage bin a mere meter away from our seats. This bin had of course the double purpose of spitting bin as well.
In Xian we arrived in a great hostel, and the reception lady could speak English perfectly. There was a cosy bar, and as we had been in the bus for a whole day, there wasn't much time left, except for eating a spaghetti (hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm) and drinking some beers.
The next day, we held an easy day, uploading loads of pictures, and visiting the city in the afternoon. We walked to the city centre, and bought the greatest cookies ever tasted in years. We wandered around in the Muslim quarter, and got carried away in the small souvenir street. Afterwards, we went to a famous restaurant (more than a hundred yeras old) to taste the typical ... dish, where you had to crumble bread into a bowl. When finished, they poored some mutton soup over it. It was tasty, but not spectacular. ( I forgot the name but will look it up, Eline and I gave it another name, which is not suitable for publication (think about the children!). Please ask us when we return)
Our second day in Xian was for visiting the Army of Terracotta warriors, after booking our plane tickets to Kunming. This is again a very touristic place, crowded with shops, and we didn't even find the entrance first. A funny thing was that a salesboy was trying to 'scam' Jess and Paul, by first saying the price for a box of terracotta models, and afterwards saying that it was for one statue in the box (or maybe his English was just so bad). But in stead of giving in or returning the box. Jess pulled it out of his hands and ran away! The boy ran after her, but a security guard stopped him, and the boy, visibly unhappy, trickled away.
The terracotta warriors were absolutely marvellous, breathtaking, stunning. It is unbelieveable that these people had been working on it for forty years, as their emperor had ordered it. This emperor of course, wasn't just someone (mind the place in time we're talking about)
A ruler from the western state of Qin united and subjugated the Warring States
and formed China in 221 B.C. He declared himself the first emperor of China and
named himself Shi Huangdi (meaning First Emperor). During the Qin
(Ch'in) Dynasty (221 B.C. - 206 B.C.), the emperor connected and extended
the old fortification walls along the north of China that originated about 700
B.C. (over 2500 years ago), forming the Great Wall of China to stop invading
barbarians from the north. The Emperor standardized Chinese writing,
bureaucracy, scholarship, law, currency, weights and measures. He expanded the
Chinese empire, built a capital in Xian, a system of roads, and massive
fortifications and palaces. Shi Huangdi (259-210 B.C.) was a cruel ruler who
readily killed or banished those who opposed him or his ideas. He is notorious
for burning virtually all the books that remained from previous regimes. He even
banned scholarly discussions of the past. The Qin dynasty ended soon after his
death, but a unified China remained for over 2,000 years. China's name is
derived from his short but seminal dynasty, Qin (pronounced Chin). (http://www.enchantedlearning.com/subjects/greatwall/Emperor.html)
We are talking about thousands of huge terracotta statues, gathered in combat formations, all with different faces and expressions, weaponry and horses. Have a look at the pictures on Flickr for an impression as soon as they hit the Net.
The next day, we went to the Muslim quarter again, as the great Mosue was now open. This ancient mix of Islamic and Chinese architecture was beautyful, and a very relaxing pace to visit. in the afternoon, we took the bus to the airport. While waiting, I found an English magazine!!! Hooray, Men's Health!!! bummer.... Strange magazine. It's a men's magazine, with half naked men on the cover and diets inside, something like a men's Flair. Some interesting things however (cocktail recipes!!!) This mag will be treasured!
The plane made a very rough landing, but we were happy to have skipped three days of train.
In Kunming, we stayed at the Cloudland hostel. Kunming does not offer many things to see, except for the Stone Forrest at 120km. Due to budgetary constraints (14euro entrance fee), we decided to skip this sight. Kunming was also used for resting, as we were getting a bit ill again. We used our time to plan our trip ahead, try to do some shopping, and just wandering around.
We also found a Carrefour again, and decided that it was time for wine. We bought cheese, a (German) Camembert, ham, two baguets, vegetables, wine and some more delicious things. We installed ourselves on the rooftop terrace and made an original 'smos', but with fake cheese. The Camembert was horrible, and it was apitty we spent so much money on it. But our dinner was perfect, and the glasses (we bough glasses) of wine made up for everything.
The next day we went to see two pagoda's in the city centre, and went shopping is the street shops and the upperclass department stores. We found another Carrefour (they have several stores in all Chinese cities) and this was even bigger. Here they had original cheese, like French Camembert, Brie, President butter and Dutch Gouda cheese. Thank you Holland for exporting Gouda Cheese!!! We made a smos for lunch (4.5 euro for a small package of cheese) and it was delicious. You have no idea how hard we craved for a normal Belgian bread lunch with cheese and other sandwich filling!
While walking to our restaurant, we passed an area where the Chinese come to buy their aquaria. We saw some of the most beautyful and pure aquaria we had ever seen, and this just in a network of small grubby shops. It gave us some inspiration for our own fish tank again once we're home.
That evening, we went for local specialties again, and ate 'Over the Bridge Noodles' The name is based on a woman who used to bring her husband lunch 'over the bridge' and got creative with the noodles. You get some plates with cooked and raw meat, vegetables, nuts, a raw egg and some more things, noodles and a bowl of boiling soup. You put everything in the soup, wait a few seconds (we waited to have the raw stuff it cooked a bit, the chinese just digg in immediately). It was an amazing meal and I will remember it to make it again at home. It was one of the best dishes I had in China up till now. Great. This day was a culinairy climax. Our dinner less than half as expensive than our sandwich lunch.
After dinner, it was time to get our luggage and head for the bus station. We booked two seats on a sleeper bus. When we got in, we were happy to have three smaal beds next to each other, and we hoped that no third guy would show up. He didn't!!! The bus left an hour too late, the guy next to us rasped a bit in his handkerchief, wiped the remains of his chicken claws of his bed, into ours, and off we went! We were glad with the space we had, but our happiness soon started to fade. We forgot to take out the nose spray for Eline, and the beds were only 1.75 m or less. In the beginning you think it won't be that mucj of a problem, but after a while, everything hurts and I could't sleep at all. We took out the magic weapons, Ipods, forgot the misery and fell asleep. A horrible night! We arrived in Dali City, took a atxi to Dali, booked our room, had breakfast, and that where we are righ now. Eline is sleeping, and I'm blogging while uploading pictures.
The following days, we will do a trip recommended to us by Bernard, we will adapt it a bit, and also try to do the Tiger Trek. Our initial plan was to hurry to Chengdu, so we could wait there for our plane to Tibet (that we will book there) while also waiting for our Visa extensions. But now we heard that these extensions can be easily received here, so we don't have to rush through these beautyful villages and landscapes, which would be a pity. So we'll see.
Ok enough blogging for today. I hope you don't mind the fact that this was an awfully long post without much detail. But now, we're up to date!
New pictures have been put on the Flickr sets, but I you can wait, I would advise you to, as Eline's pictures haven't been added yet.
See you!
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