The Chinese Are Coming!!

Nee How !!

How was pesach ?

We hope you had a kosher one... (ya like we care if it was kosher - we ate pork :)

Happy 1st of May everyone - its a big thing here with a week long holiday and the Chinese are taking advantage of the holiday - they are traveling everywhere.

We landed in China almost two weeks ago and man how time flies. Since we were on a connection flight to Chengdu (from Katmandu) through Lhasa (in Tibet) we had a special treatment. There were only four of us on the flight that continued to Chengdu (2 Chinese and us). When we arrived in Lhasa all 4 of us were escorted by 6 airport officials to pass through the immigration - so we wouldn't accidentally pass into Tibet (you need a special permit). At the X-ray machine we were stopped and Hila's bag was thuroughlly checked - they opened each and every of the books she was carrying to check for subversive material - that's when we realized we landed in communist china.

Landing in Chengdu gave us the opposite impression. The downtown part of the city is filled with huge skyrise shopping malls selling all the big designer brands and the Chinese are buying everything. You would never believe its a communist country. The streets are 4-6 lanes, and the sidewalks are wide and clean. Lots of trees and the city is filled with huge green parks with tea shops where all ages spend the afternoons sipping green tea and playing majong. Old locals congregate under the pavilions singing, dancing and doing tai-chi.

If Chengdu is a face for China then the western world doesn't stand a chance - Watch out The Chinese are Coming!!!

In Sichuan we visited Jiuzaigu national park which has beautiful crystal clear turquoise and green lakes surrounded by snowcapped mountains... We will have the pics from there soon. After that we spent 3 days around Emei Shan (Mt. Emei) which is a sacred mountain with lots of temples and monasteries. The mountain is constantly covered with clouds and mist but the walk (we walked down as the trail is 2500 meters climb on very steeeeeep steps - so we took the bus and chairlift up and slowly walked down griting our teeth against the pain in our knees and calves) in the jungle was beautiful - lots of green, the flowers were all blooming, birds chirping, lots of butterflies, insects and frogs and of course you can't have a sacred mountain without a few packs of wild cheeky monkeys that ambush you on the trail looking for food. There were actually signs that warned about the monkeys and how to behave. Luckily we didn't have too much trouble but saw a pack attack a Chinese tourist group and steal their bags of munchies - the Chinese always have something to munch on. The only run in with them we had was when a huge one blocked our path - we had a local guy help us through with a big stick while the big monkey sat on the side and hissed at us... sssssssss...

The monkeys reminded us of Divluly which we just got word from - apparently he was mixed up in an guns and drugs deal with the maoists in Nepal. He was caught with a truckload of Ak-47's and opium near the Burmese border, heading for Nepal. He had some weird sympathy for the Maoists and decided to help. But alas he was caught when he also tried to steal some bananas at a small town market. So he is in the Thai jail now and his solicitor (a well know monkey enthusiast) told us he is urgent need for money.. What else... So if you have the heart to donate just place the large sums of US $'s in one of our bank accounts :) Im sure Divluli would very much appreciate it (Tommy especially you, since you named him - he is counting on you!! - he feels you are his Godfather ;)

The Chinese like to be tourists. They travel everywhere in huge tourists busses. They arrive in the tourists hotspots which are filled with tourist hotels. The national parks are all covered with microbusses shuttling between the viewpoints and have female guides dressed in traditional costumes explaining the history and what we are looking at (though its in Chinese so we don't understand a word). During the boring parts of the ride the TV's in the busses show videoclips of favorite Chinese sticky sweet pop songs with the words at the bottom so the tourists can sing along - and of course they do they are just suckers for kareoke.

We arrived last night in our first town in Yunnan province - Lijiang. We came in from Sichuan province after a long ride - 13 hours by train then another 9 by bus. Its a small town with a gorgeous old part - no cars just walkways between old wooden houses with lots of souvenir shops... We will spend a few days here before heading north to Tiger Leap Gorge on the yangtze river for a 3-4 day trek which should be great.

Ok now for pics - we finally Ul'd all the pics from our treks in Nepal and here they are

From The Anapurna Circuit Trek:

Pics from the way Up to Pisang

Pics from Manang and the Pass

Pics from after passing the Throng-La Pass

And also pics from the Poon Hill Trek (the one we did with Hila's Parents)

If your still interested in seeing pics we uploaded from India:

You can find some pics from Agra here

You can also see pics from Delhi here

Ok I guess that's it for now.. We will write again probably after the trek or in Dali (we will get there in a around 1-1.5 weeks). We are going to try and catch a 1st of may parade and hope we will not be swept into the communist frenzy ;)

Please leave your comments on the pics and post (we are using shutterfly instead of yahoo for the pics this time - tell us what you think)

Nee how,

Hila & Mr. Morphhh Sleazy.