CHENGDU, SICHUAN, CHINA 6/5/02

We left Dali after a few days - I was quite sad to leave as it was such a charming place - moving north onto Lijiang. The best way to describe Lijiang would be to say that it is the Amsterdam of China with cobbled streets and houses lining flowing rivers. Understandably it is very popular with Chinese tourists. It was very easy to distinguish a chinese tourist from the locals as they usually wear a red cap and follow a leader holding a green flag!

<PAUL>

We completed our first overnight trek carrying all of our gear along a very steep gorge containing the Yangtze River (Leaping Tiger Gorge). After the first 1/2 hour of hearing non-stop complaints from behind, Dimity got used to her pack and ended up really enjoying herself. I just tried to keep on walking with my odd-sized boots, and eventually just took them off much to the amusement of the Chinese! They will not be coming with us on any more of the trip.

We then went to Western Yunnan (Zhongdian), and into the most interesting area so far. This area is part of the nation of Tibet (although outside the Tibetan province). Probably 70% of the women still wear a distinctive, tribal costume. The men wear hats that look distinctly like akubra's or stiltson tipped jauntily to one side and have long hair (sometimes curled ) and wrap around coats with huge sleeves, which they don't wear as such, leaving them to dangle unless it is very cold.

The houses are fascinating and very beautiful. The style and material varies from valley to valley, but in general they are huge; up to three stories high with a square plan. The are made of either rammed earth or stone and decorated with brightly painted wood carved windows and doors. We were lucky enough to stay in a Tibetan house one night in Xiancheng. The inside was at least as decorated as the windows with murals all around the rooms. Hopefully we will be able to post a few photo's on the web soon!

The scenery was spectacular with treeless grasslands bordered by huge snowcapped mountains. We reached an altitude of over 5000m and passed through a few snow storms. This was the first snow fall either of us had seen (besides some slush Paul saw when he was 12). We are travelling very lightly and don't really have good cold weather gear - even Paul splurged on a set of woollen thermals! Adjusting to such a high altitude is an experience. You can get easily puffed or lethargic. One of the towns we stayed at (Litang) is at an altitude of over 4000m and when I walked about 500m on a flat plain I had to sit down, I was so exhausted! Or you will be sitting down not doing anything at all and you can still feel your heart pounding away - a bizarre feeling!

Paul has an obsession with the local yaks and has spent quite a bit of time videotaping or photographing them in various poses with differing backdrops! I don't think that he will be able to help himself and I am sure a photo will find its way onto the web site. Must admit it is quite a sight to see a herd of yaks, guarded by a tibetan shepherd, grazing in the grasslands surrounded by white tipped mountains.

<PAUL>

... Yakitty Yak, Yak Yak. Dimity has a fascination with piglets and took a few photos of them too! The Tibetan breed of pig has a long bushy tail and lots of hair.

The buses are an experience - In the mountains you travel in these rickety old things which puff a lot of black smoke. The only form of heat was from the local Chinese men who would chain smoke with the windows closed. If they were not smoking then may have the window open so that we had blasts of sub zero wind in our face! (<PAUL> I got my own back at the last set of smokers behind me by opening the window and blasting them with freezing air whenever they lit up! This may sound petty and vindictictive but my tolerance was low!). The drivers overtake around blind corners (of which there are many) and drive very close to sheer drops off cliff faces - admittedly this was somewhat due to the state of the roads. Rural Chinese also tend to have this compulsion to rid their bodies of every possible ounce of plegm and spend a lot of time hoiking this out in the bus! Even if there is no phlegm left they hoik anyway.

Chinese toilets are worth a seperate email...hmmm where do I start! Basically they are the foulest things on this earth. I have seen maggots, I have seen s...t piled so high that you had to be careful not to squat too low. Grossed out? - I was! The other notable thing is that they usually have no doors or partitions and you can usually guarantee that if there is a queue they will all be looking in your direction. At first you get stage fright but now this has even worn off and I barge in just like the rest of them and ensure that I don't inhale!

The food is delicious although the language barrier is a little difficult. Last week I had a bit of difficulty communicating that I just wanted a bowl of plain steamed rice. They kept on giving me fried rice or a plate of what Paul ordered. We are also learning that it is not good to look too carefully at what is in the cooking wok: We had a delicious tasting noodle soup today (ignoring the tripe), but as we left I saw what appeared to be a goat/sheep head and intestines simmering away.

<PAUL>

The funniest meal (for me) that Dimity ate though was in the mountains. She loves trying out jellies and she saw some really interesting jelly for sale at a roadside stall. It was flat and folded, and is sold skewered on a stick grilled with a few spices. I had my suspicions, and waited for the dawn of realisation to come, but it didn't! 2/3 the way through I couldn't contain myself and let her know that I didn't think it was jelly at all, but pigs fat. The look on her face!!!!!!! Sure enough, she then noticed a few hairs and needless to say did not finish it off! I tried to tell her that it was bad form not to finish your pig's fat but she was too busy trying not to spew.

Anyway have to go..... IT'S DINNERTIME!

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