Day 12 - 23 Apr, Thursday: 大寨>龙胜>三江>程阳

. Thursday, April 30, 2009

It was raining that morning, so there was no sunrise to catch. And there was fog after the rain.
The fog came...
... and went with the wind.
I checked out of the hotel and started to make my way down the hill when the weather became better. This time, i carried my own luggage.
At the bottom of the hill, i took a bus back to 龙胜 and then from there, another bus to 三江. On the way, i met this group of 3 Malaysians who were going to the 三江 train station and i borrowed Lonely Planet from one of them to take a look. The chinese travel guide which i bought was much better than LP, at least for the Guangxi chapter.

And this is 三江.
From 三江, i took another bus to 程阳. 程阳 is actually a collective of a few Dong (侗) minority villages, turned into a tourist attraction.
Most of the fields were filled with water already.
I was walking among the villages, which made me feel that i was intruding the privacy of the villagers.
A sign that nobody cared about.
Green.
The whole place was actually rather beautiful and there were quite a bit of art students staying at the same place as me.
Those looked like giant cabbages. 
Water wheel.
The main attraction of the place - 程阳风雨桥, the main attraction of the whole place. This bridge was constructed without any use of nails and rivets. Impressive...

Day 11 - 22 Apr, Wednesday: 大寨

.

I woke up early that morning cause i wanted to catch the sunrise. Sunrise was supposedly 6.10am. This was the scene before the sun was up.
And in this pic, the sun has just risen from behind the mountain far away. It was a cloudy day, so the group of us there waited for quite a while to see the sun for that few minutes before it disappeared behind the clouds. And then i went back to sleep.
It was only 7+ when i was woken up by noise outside. The sun was shining brightly, casting strong shadows,
through the window... It felt like a good start to the day to see the sun shining brightly.
People were gathering outside, ready to go down hill or go on some tour, which explained the noise. And the Yao women were there doing their handiwork while waiting for the tourists to finish their breakfast, so that they can carry their bags down the hill.
The same scene when the sun was up.
There were three viewing spots in total. Since my hotel was at Spot #1, i planned to visit the other 2 spots that day. This's a close up shot of the terraces filled with water.
The water is being channeled from up the hills to the terraces through bamboo pipes like this.
Resting hut for the farmers. I was talking to one of them in that hut previously.
On the way to Spot #3.
And this's the view from Spot #3.
Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers. I met this group of uni students from Guilin and we hung out for a while.
The view further down. Anyway, the terraces have been around for nearly 700 years!
There were 5 of them in total. One of them was not in the power rangers shot cause he was taking the picture. And they said i looked not more than 20. Ha...
I was taking pictures non-stop...
Horses were being used instead of buffaloes to farm the land cause they are supposed to be stronger according to the uncle who carried my bag the day before. And they are smaller than buffaloes, so they can work better on the terraces, some of which are really small plots of land. I came across this horse when i was walking down a trail. It was in my way and it didn't look like it was going to give way initially. I have this fear about walking behind horses cause i feel that they might use their powerful hind legs to kick me suddenly.
This old Yao man wanted me to take a picture of him, which i obliged;
and i even took another pic with him. And while talking to him after that, he requested for 2yuan to contribute to his tobacco fund, which i also obliged.
Spot #2.
Some other place.
Resting dragonfly. Do you notice the missing leg?
This reminds me of a golf course somehow.
I saw this when i returned to my hotel. I think the chambermaid crushed the moth's wing when she closed the window which i left open. I felt guilty about it...
My sad dinner.
Charlotte's Web.
"Please dun eat me..." The pig pleaded.

Day 10 - 21 Apr, Tuesday: 资源>龙胜>大寨

. Wednesday, April 29, 2009

I woke up rather early that morning so that i can catch the 8.40 bus from 资源 to 龙胜 and from there i took another bus to 大寨瑶族梯田, terrace farming areas belonging to the Yao minority people. The farming area over there, together with the neighbouring area belonging to the Zhuang minority people has been turned into a tourist attraction.
This was taken on the ascent up to the top of the hills, where i'll be staying.
When i alighted from the bus at the foot of the hills, there were Yao minority women offering to carry our luggage up the hills for a fee. I didn't want their service initially but upon their earnest persuasion, i gave in and gave them my big backpack. But that was a regretful decision cause it was heavy, i should have given them the smaller backpack that i was also carrying. The bag was heavy enough for the Yao woman carrying it to request for the help of her husband. I did ask them about changing backpacks but they insisted on carrying the big backpack, saying “不可以让我亏”. So the only thing i could do was to give them slightly more of the appointed sum for their service.
Finally at the top.
The spectacular view from my window. The place where i stayed is called 全景楼 or Panorama Hotel cause this was the highest point of the area and is also one of the 3 viewing spots in the area.
Poser.
Plants that reminded me of microphones.

Day 9 - 20 Apr, Monday: 资源

. Tuesday, April 28, 2009

After i've arrived in 资源 on the previous day and was walking around looking for a place to stay, i established the fact that i was the only tourist in the whole town. After i've found a place to stay, i was trying to contact the official tour centre to arrange to go for a boat ride cum tour of 资江, which according to my guide book author is a must try and the reason why i went to 资源. But it turned out that since there wasn't even a single other tourist, i couldn't go for the tour since the boat requires a minimum of 8 people and i wasn't prepared to book a whole boat. But the tour centre staff had bad service and they didn't even bother recommending me some other place to visit.

Anyway, this pic was taken in the morning when i was walking to the tour centre and i think the whole town looked even better.
I happened to chance upon this scene and took this photo that could be quite suggestive.
In the end, while trying to look for a travel agency that i thought might be able to help me in arranging for the boat tour, i came across this place that was arranging whitewater rafting on 五排河. Though i can't go on their rafting tour because of the same reason that there weren't any other tourists, the friendly staff over there recommended that i go to 八角寨 and even gave me detailed instructions on how to reach there.

I took a tuk-tuk-like taxi to the transport station and from there i took a minivan to reach another town called 梅溪镇. And over there, after rejecting two van drivers who wanted to charge me exorbitant prices for sending me to 八角寨 even though it was a mere 9km, i found a motorcycle taxi driver who was charging 10yuan for the same service. I agreed and went for a motorcycle ride without a helmet. On the way, he was offering me a 50yuan package that includes the admission ticket and the transport there. I took up the offer as i figured i'll save quite a bit since the student ticket into 八角寨 would have already cost me 60yuan according to the staff at the tour centre.

So this is 八角寨. The first thing that greeted me over there was the steps that i'll have to climb.
八角寨 is so named because there are like eight prominent peaks like these over there. These peaks are actually stone formations that resemble snail shells.
Steep steps accompanied by tree-trunk-textured railings.
I came to this bridge that supposedly could only take 3 people at a time,
and the bridge was over this deep valley.
This walkway was kind of set in these giant rock formations.
A viewing spot called "人字天" cause these 3 rocks were leaning towards each other forming the chinese character "人".
The view from an even higher spot.
Intriguing formations. 
I met these group of 6 people from 资源 who were visiting this place too and ended up talking to them for a while. On my descent from the hill, i called the motorcycle uncle so that he can come in and pick me up for another 10yuan. But when i reached the carpark, the group of 资源 people were still there, about to leave on 3 motorcycles and one of them offered to send me directly back to 资源. I rejected him initially cause i've already called the uncle but they were saying that the uncle would try to cheat me and stuff lidat cause according to them, you dun need an admission ticket to visit 八角寨. 

I accepted his offer in the end cause even the souvenir store person was telling me to go with them. And by accepting his offer, i did something even more dangerous than riding pillion on a motorcycle without a helmet, which is riding pillion on a motorcycle without a helmet, with another pillion rider behind me. So the 3 of us were on the bike without helmets, which according to Peter the Norwegian (the angmoh i was talking to in 凤凰), he'll rather bungee jump than do something lidat. It was indeed an experience but it wasn't that bad lar.

And on the way back, the uncle called me quite a few times but i couldn't pick up his call, not that i want to pick up anyway...

A traditional water wheel installed by the river in 资源. Saw quite a few of these wheels in those minority tribe villages later on.
Sunset again.
People happily dancing at the town square at night.

 

^