Back in China

yep back again. I just can't stop away from the place. After a fine time in Oz and a few days RnR in Melbourne and crashing on Maria's couch, a few beers and some absinthe, it was time to head back to china.
After all i had a girlfriend i hadn't seen in almost four months, a handful of good friends to meet back up with and the promise of a trip to Yunnan and the Snow mountain.

Unfortunately the trip to Yunnan was crammed into a small space of time and we spent most of that on the road getting to and from our destination but it supplied a huge amount of quality vistas for us to feast our eyes upon and a yearning to go back for more. I have just added a number of photos to the flickr site.

We set out from Guangzhou by train to Kunming, unfortunately this wasn't booked far enough in advance so we had no seat or bed or anything reserved, except for the joys of overcrowded Chinese railways on national holidays... I could see this would be a fun journey, although we did manage to find just about enough room to stand for several hours until we finally made it into the dinning car once it opened.
We decided to eat slow and keep our seats. we payed a little extra and spent until near dawn sat drinking beer and dozing in the dinning car until a few free sleeper spots became available and we got some much needed sleep before our afternoon arrival.

From Kunming a couple of buses, fairly uncomfortable buses, took us to Dali when were spent the night in a wonderful hostel and awakened to see the sun rising above the mountains which cast exquisite shadows and reflections in the lake.
We spent the day driving around until our departure via bus and then mad speedy taxi van to take us to Zhongdian. with a brief stop in Lijiang to refresh.
We spent the next two days walking to and from Meili snow mountain Yunnan, i just wish we had time to spend a month here. but everyone else needed to get back to work so with great sorrow we made our way back and this time made sure we had a more comfortable journey and adequate space to relax in... well besides a mad taxi driver determined to break all land speed records and almost coming undone on one or two of the many corners which would result in a new air speed record for such a vehicle as a several hundred feet drop to a muddy river would await the unfortunate... however the driver would most likely remain unaware of this as he was too busy talking on his phone to pay attention to such trivial things as death. perhaps the next life would be better to him. Personally i like mine as it is thanks.
We also had time to take in the pleasure of the largest buddhist monastery outside of tibet (Songzanlin) .. a most pleasent way to while away a couple of hours.

I'm now sat back in Guangzhou sorting out my money so i can book a flight back to Oz and head off to see some friends in Yangshuo where this out of shape mess i call my body can enjoy some climbing for the first time in several weeks, hopefully it should help get me back into some form of fitness.