A tour through China with no guide

[KTMphil]

Quick shower - then off to find some food in Jian Shui , this restaurant had top quality food

& great ambiance ....

We ate top quality nosh, bill was around 120 Yuan/ 600 Thai Bht

 

[KTMphil]

Jian Shui temple at night'

Even saw the odd enduro bike around town

Beautiful traditional designed buildings

Old Chinese men passing the time'

& the movie theatre

 

[KTMphil]

Next morning, hunt for some food

& a great busy noodle shop along the main street

They use a lot of mint here in their noodle soup

 

[BWG950S]

[/quote]

Love the name of the hotel you chose Phil.

Even in China it is hard to get away from it! 3

Fantastic pictures.

 

[KTMphil]

Then a quick tour of Jian Shui

The Confucian Temple in Jian Shui is the 3rd largest in China, with the Xue lake leading to it

The lake is tranquil

Jian Shui school children off on an outing

 

[KTMphil]

Day 3 - Jian Shui south to Yuang Yang - 115km through the mountains







We had a hunt around for the Shuanlong bridge west of Jian Shui




Five kilometers west of Jianshui , at the confluence of Lujiang River are the Tachong River, lies Shuanglong Bridge. A combination of science and art, the stone bridge ranks first in Yunnan Province in terms of size and artistic value. It is now under provincial protection. When the bridge was built during the reign of Emperor Qianlong in the Qing Dynasty, it had only three arches on the north end. Later on, as the Tachong River changed its course, fourteen new bridge arches were added to the original ones and thus got the name "the Seventeen - Arch Bridge''. It is a masterpiece among ancient bridges in China.


It's at the confluence of the Lujiang and Tachong river. We had a quick poke around and even went up into the hills to see if we could spot it from above

But we were running out of time and pushed on - if you go to Jian Shui we're told is wort the effort to try find it. Also the ancient Tuanshan village about 13km west of Jian Shui is supposed to be fantastic with terraced rice fields.

A few KM's up in the mountains and some amazing rural views

 

[KTMphil]

Down that mountain and it becomes pretty obvious where we're headed next

The ride south from Jian Shui to Yuan Yang is an awesome ride, filled with views and switchbacks

Communicating here is a huge issue - no one speaks English - highly recommended that you have a English speaking contact that can help you while you're in China

 

[KTMphil]

There wasn't a dull moment - you end up riding along at 45km/ h staring at the amazing scenery

Villages on the ridgeline to the right

Som capturing the view

Looks like a fun dirt trail on the far side

Then down to a dammed river

The road followed the river for about 10km's , fish farms scattered the area

To a hydro-electric dam

1st one we had seen in China

Looking down-stream after the dam
'

 

[KTMphil]

Finally into Yuan Yang, it was slow going through the mountains and we find the flashy Qeifi hotel - 120 Yuan a night ( 600 Bht). a real bargain.

Even had a computer with free wifi in the room!

Hotel details below:

We had dinner here, a fantastic restaurant

https://foursquare.com/v/jang--y-fan-te ... c3a9e13971

Didn't look much fun being a laborer next door building these steps, humping cement

 

[KTMphil]

Typical shop house noodle shop in Yuan Yang, they were everywhere

Then off to the morning market to see what was there - the ladies traditional dress was beautiful

The fresh water fish market

We thought this was some kind of cured soy milk

 

[KTMphil]

Vegetables

Then the meat and poultry section, looked like all pork, but was it???????

We wondered if we'd see live dog for sale in any of the markets and at first this just looked like a chicken seller

As we were leaving, out the corner of my eye i caught sight of dogs in cages under the chickens

I suppose its something they've been eating for thousands of years and from children see this animal as food and have no emotional attachment to them, with both found it quite disturbing.

The chicken and duck production line

 

[KTMphil]

The best hotel in Yuan Yang seems to be the Heng Yuang about 200 Yuan a night on the main street

All manner of things get carried around in strange ways in China

Elderly Chinese ladies in Yuan Yang

 

[KTMphil]

Day 4 -- Yuan Yang - Gejui - Mengzi


Distance : 123 kms through the mountains with dirt trails







Same old fantastic riding conditions were ahead

Now it looked like there maybe a way over the top of the mountain from yuan yang to Gejui, we had plenty of time and could spend the night in Gejui if we had to so went went poking around

You can make out the main rd in the valley below that we came off to go over the top of the mountain

 

[Stokes70]

Phillip, seems to me that your photography has gone up a notch or two. fantastic pictures, I agree with 2wheels, your " cobbled roads" pic is really nice.
what an adventure you had, great stuff.

 

[Ally]

Simply stunning.

Thanks for sharing Phil & Som.

Ally

 

[KTMphil]

Farming village in the mountains west of Gejui

It had a very alpine feel to it in this region, pine tress an' all

It did go through after all - early approaches to Gejui

Gejui is a very new looking city, built around a huge lake. The lake was "naturally" created in 1954 when some torrential rain filled a limestone cavern swallowing 1/2 of the down town area in the process. About 95% of Gejui's economy comes from tin mining and smelting, its seems to be a very prosperous area.

 

[KTMphil]

This temple on the top of the mountain in Gejui looks worth a visit

We found a decent Chinese restaurant on the ring road around the lake, there were plenty of restaurants around

Downtown Gejui

Patting ourselves on the back, from finding our way through to Gejui, we then decided to be more adventurous and see if we could get over the mountain to Mengzi

This turned into a nasty rutted dirt road, if it rained we would have been in deep do-do

 

[LivinLOS]

Communicating here is a huge issue - no one speaks English - highly recommended that you have a English speaking contact that can help you while you're in China

This is what buddies who have traveled or worked in China have warned me, just the absolute inability to communicate..

Theres a few amazing looking national parks I would love to see, but I really dislike trip and tour groups and being hustled from place to place.. But if the communication is so hard, makes it tough to independently travel.

 

[LivinLOS]

We thought this was some kind of cured soy milk

Tofu surely..

 

[KTMphil]

Wiki


Tofu, also called bean curd, is a food made by coagulating soy milk and then pressing the resulting curds into soft white blocks



http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tofu

We thought this was some kind of cured soy milk

Tofu surely..

 

[LivinLOS]

Surprised you hadnt seen it before..

I hate the stuff with a passion...

 

[KTMphil]

Ticket booth at the entrance to the Chinese highway

More dirt on the way to Mengzi, with some interesting hydraulic controls along the way

Typical rural house compound away from the big cities

& one of the coolest that was knocked up pretty quick

Farmland on the outskirts of Mengzi still using the buffalo for ploughing

An old lady with bound feet on her way home at the end of the day

Looks like the sun and wind had taken its toll over the years

 

[KTMphil]

A walk around this new town was pretty interesting.


Wouldn't mind one of these tops for the 990 Adv for rainy season

A nicotine bong hit

This was outside a wedding planners shop, presumably celebrating a wedding, will try confirm this with Frankie and Jah

 

[KTMphil]

Some very fancy restaurants in Mengzi

With some very fancy prices to match

A Govt. office down by the lake

 

[KTMphil]

A quick bit of sight seeing around the lake in Mengzi

A pretty peaceful spot

 

[KTMphil]

On the way back, loved the military-style pep talk the boss was giving the staff at this restaurant!!

Ate in Mengzi at the Business Club on the end of the main walking street shopping area

Decor was very Chinese

Pork fillets and french fries, Som had a curry, all for around 180 Yuan with a few beers

Well engineered exhaust on this street vendors set up on the way back to the hotel

 

[KTMphil]

The road signs in the newer towns had English translation, but there wern't any printed maps, so their use was limited

Early morning in the new town of Mengzi

New buildings popping up everywhere

the town had a very affluent feel to it with it's manicured side streets

The hospital didn't look bad at all

Then off to Mengzi morning market to see if there was anything interesting - this wasn't bad next to the steamed bun seller

Noodles everywhere

Never did find out what was in these earns

 

[KTMphil]

We found the livestock area curious to see if live dogs were for sale to eat here too


Only chicken and duck were on show

But dog was advertised above

To kill the poultry, they cut the throat and then put it in the barrel to die

Then these guys clean the bird

Then more steamed buns

Young boy just outside the market

 

[KTMphil]

Some pretty fancy hotels in Mengzi, this would probably be around 300 Yuan a night

This building was pretty good looking for Chinese taste

Our hotel in Mengzi, had the most sex aids ive ever seen in a regular hotel

A - condoms

B - some kind of clitoral stimulant for women

C - male ejaculation delay cream

D - KY equiv.

E - flavored condoms

F - absolutely no idea

 

[KTMphil]

Time to get the bikes packed up and on our way

Day 5 - Mengzi to Mile


Distance with the westerly detour we did, 220km

 

[KTMphil]

The road north we took from Mengzi was so new that the GPS was trying to route us a different way for about 50km

Not far up, we came across this set-up, she didn't look too happy at all

The road was a bit dull, so we took a detour off to the west into the mountains

After about 20km we came across the biggest open mine i've ever seen

The road basically went around the mine in a loop

Carrying the veg home

Typical Chinese farming village

The ugly side of progress

An ancient suspension bridge further north

& a very cool old sand dredger

Chinese tuk tuk

Beautiful village further north

 

[KTMphil]

I wonder how many 100's of years old this bridge was

 

[KTMphil]

These guys were in a spot of bother in the middle of no-where. Wasnt until i was leaving i saw that they had the back axle and diff. assembly all off!!

Was a pretty fun road NE back towards the main road

'

This truck caused a huge headache getting his wheel stuck in a gully - blocking the toll road access ramp!

We found a short cut into Mile, but it looked like they didnt want the truck traffic going this way

Found a decent hotel in the center of Mile, 90 Yuan / 450 Thai Bht, a great deal

Hotel in Mile contact details

MORE TO COME ----------------

 

[Steve Canyon]

Amazing looking place, the colours really stand out... :RO

Beautiful shot man...

Looks as you say really peacful...

Feel sorry for the dogs, I'm sure the birds are glad their on top....

How where the people towards you?, is it like Thailand /Laos?

You seem to have captured it in a different light to what I'm used to...

Nice one.. :RO

 

[KTMphil]

Most were people there were very shy, not sure if it was just they were scared of the language barrier or not, but they don't see ANY western people in some of the places we were poking around.

 

[KTMphil]

We asked the manager of the hotel in Mile, if h could tell a taxi to take us to the best restaurant in town, this is where we ended up, it was excellent

https://foursquare.com/v/%E6%B8%A9%E6%B ... 7551e779cf

We ate like kings, the bill was 192 Yuan / 950 Thai Bht . We both found that in all the restaurants the soups had too much oil in them.

 

[KTMphil]

Dali beer seemed to be the most popular beer here

Another fancy restaurant in the Mile area

The Garden Hotel in Mile looks a good top end option

There is a bakery in the center of town if you're sick of noodles for breakfast

Sugar cane sellers on the main street

Some kind of special rice dish which they add pork

The hotel opposite our looked excellent choice for twice the money,if you want to treat yourself, while driving they are really hard to spot as they dont look like hotel while you're moving

 

[KTMphil]

Into an armored taxi and off to the morning market

Off to work

Mile construction

Female construction workers in Mile, hoping to get day work

We find Mile main market

 

[KTMphil]

Tongue anyone

We went around the livestock section, no evidence of dog here at all

1st time we saw a hare

The end of the road for this guy

The production line

 

[KTMphil]

This is one of my favorite pictures from the whole trip

Fish out in the street

Feet

Weighing chickens the old fashioned way

Timeless

Beautiful Chinese lady at the Mile market

The veg. here was some of the biggest and best i've ever seen