September 1, Day 11 Kunming

 Today we had a full day of sightseeing. First we climbed to the Golden Temple, Jindian, a former Taoist monastery set on top of Mingfeng Mountain, Singing Phoenix Mountain, within a lovely park. We both panted up that hill and wandered on our own at our own pace. Then we were whisked away to an amazing living Buddhist temple complex - Yuantong, where we lit incense sticks and watched devotees reciting scripture. 

Entrance to the park and the Gold Temple

In quiet corners people were engaged in Tai Chi

Entrance to the Golden Palace complex

Entrance to Yuantong a living Buddhist temple complex - a place of pilgrimage 

The air was thick with the smoke from 100s of burning incense sticks

A Chinese Lion Dog stood guard

Deities abound throughout the temple complex

A central temple, its mote dotted with flowers and tiny turtles, surrounded by rooms for visiting monks 

We wnadered through twisting streets past tiny markets groaning with delivvcous looking fruit to finally arrive at Cuihu Park surrounding Green Lake which was just that - green. It was packed with huge blowsy lotus plants bearing glorious, mainly pink, blooms - and lots of tourists, mainly Chinese. Here we grabbed some snacks and chilled out for a little while.

We all through these were humongous grapes but I think they're green plums

A lake full of lotus plants and fish and turtles - young women dotted the edge taking selfies 

Peacocks their lucky bird

Many places we looked we saw elephants and peacocks - statues not real ones! It seems that both are found in the jungles south near the Mekong. Peacocks are their lucky bird.

The twelve core Socialist values of China

August 31, Day 10 to Kunming, China

A super train! In true Chinese fasion people line up at the allocated spot to board each carriage

Today we boarded a train to travel the recently completed 750km rail link from Luang Prabang, Laos to Kunming, China.   I was very happy to be leaving the hot humid weather of southern regions behind us for the more temperate climate of the higher altitudes of Southern China. Whizzing through tunnel after tunnel, we climbed into higher and higher country into the Yunnan Province. Because of its high-altitude plateau location and year-round mild climate, Kunming, its capital, is famously known as the ‘produce capital’ of China, a major food, agricultural, and culinary centre supplying a vast variety of vegetables and flowers to the rest of China.  Our Kunming local guide welcomed us to what she called the ‘City of Eternal Spring’ and the weather was indeed balmy.  We had arrived in Kunming.

Acres of greenhouses

Altitude almost 2000m. Lake Dian is formed in a fault line

Not far from Kunming is Dian Lake, also known by a number of other names including Kunming Lake. It is a fault lake located on the Puduhe-Xishan fault in the Yunnan province. Its nickname is the "Sparkling Pearl Embedded in a Highland". Unfortunately we didn’t get close enough to visit it.

Kunming is named for the ethnic people of the region, the Kunmi people. Two thousand years ago, this was the Kingdom of Dian and was not part of Chinaat all. Incidentally of the 55 ethnic groups that live in China today 25 are from the Yunnan province. Called ‘Spring City’, Kunming sits at an altitude of 1900m and the temperature seems to vary between 19 to 26C - perfect really. Because of the altitude we were told that the food of Dian region is spicy and oily to ensure sufficient energy. Kunming is basically a region of farmers growing 60-odd% of Chinas fresh flowers, 90% of China’s coffee and tobacco as well as corn and potatoes. 

Daisy our guide sorting out the itinerary with our wonderful leader, Kara

So much to know but so hard to get information! We had arrived in China and were closed behind the Great Firewall of China! Cut off from the rest of the world for all intents and purposes. Our guide recommended a Chinese AI app, ‘Baidu’, which we hastily downloaded and installed, then we were able to ask some of those essential questions that nag at you when you enter a new locality. We will simply have to manage to survive without Google for the next 2 weeks!  

A local restaurant for dinner on our first night

Fascinating display of fungi in a country where they have taken cuisine to the utmost in using local produce

August 30, Day 9 Luang Prabang and the Mekong

 This morning we were before the sun rose - we were joining the daily morning alms-giving ceremony, or Tak Bat. We sat on baby chairs on the side of the road waiting to give out rice and snacks to the monks who walk down the main street at dawn every morning. Ours were meagre offerings but it was a unique experience. We then dived into narrow lanes to explore the morning market before heading back to the hotel for breakfast. Our westernised breakfast was pretty bland after the astonishing array of food on offer in the morning market.

Most dwellings in the street where we stayed had shrines in front

A marvellous start to a day which promised much more - we were headed for a boat ride on the Mekong. But not before a visit to the Royal Palace ‘Haw Kham’ which was built in the early 1900s during the French colonial era. In 1975, the Communist Pathet Lao seized power in Laos establishing the Lao People's Democratic Republic and thus ending a 600 year-old monarchy and forcing King Savang Vatthana to abdicate. The Royal Family was arrested and sent to brutal ‘re-education camps’ in remote, northern Laos where they died from illness or starvation not many years later. After the gentleness of these people and their culture and spirituality hearing this struck a note of horror in most of us. 

Wat Xieng Thong one of the most important of Lao monasteries  

Haw Kham, Royal Palace, now a museum 

We were soon whisked away to board a ‘slow boat’ - long, narrow wooden vessels - to journey up the Mighty Mekong. And mighty it is!  Idyllic trailing your hand in the water watching the world slide past providing glimpses into the life of people who live, or make their living, along the river.  Fish farms and fishing, produce gardens being reestablished after the annual flood waters, woodmen out sawing up huge trees washed down by the river. And of course, we made a mandatory stop to ‘inspect’ local crafts which included whiskey and wine making and weaving.   Quite fascinating. 

The riverside gardens have to be rebuilt after each flood

Massive trees wash down the river and are stranded on the bank

Refueling stations along the river

Many riverboats ply the river

The universal problem of litter spilling into the river

A riverside wine and whiskey distillery - all manner of things are preserved in the whiskey 

Magnificent mountains 

Strange fruit clustered around trunks and branches 

Floating fish and produce farms hug the banks 

The vegetation was interesting and had me craning my neck to see more.  One eye-sore however was a newish development supposedly aimed at establishing a green and sustainable area – the ‘Luang Prabang Smart City’.  And not far upriver at the confluence of the Mekong and Nam Ou River near Pak Ou, there is a large hydropower scheme is under construction. I will admit to my bias as a person visiting this lovely place and feeling a sense of horror at its destruction/manipulation but I acknowledge the need of the locals who struggle.  It is a hard call. 

We diverted to a delightful restaurant on stilts opposite the Pak Ou caves for lunch. The Pak Ou caves are a group of two caves, the Tham Ting and the Tham Theung caves deep within the limestone cliffs. From the water they are dark cavities looking out from soaring limestone cliffs over the Mekong. Once monasteries, the monks had to move out after many floods prevented them receiving food, but their labyrinthine depth houses many Buddhist figures mostly made of wood. Most people walked up into the caves but I remained outside because the steps were very high to get into the first of the cave. 

Our quite idyllic lunch stop

From our table we looked out over the river to the Pak Ou caves

Beerlao was always deliciously cold

Reboarding our boat was a little challenging - slippery mud and our boat was of course the furtherest

The Pac Ou caves

It is a beautiful river

It had been a day full of unique experiences and sights. Lindsay and I finished the day by escaping the crowds in a pizza joint where we had hamburgers! and a bottle of wine alone. 

August 29-30 A tiny window into Laos

 Laos meaning ‘Land of a million elephants’, now only has 860-odd elephants, some in the wild and others in protection camps. I asked about other wildlife and it seems that many of the people, hill/rural people particularly, are very poor and so they eat whatever they can find - monkeys, bats, birds, snakes, insects, and so on. As a result, wild fauna populations are diminished - and markets are real eye-openers! Never say you don’t have enough to eat. These people eat everything - a lot of the wild vegetation, river weed, tiny fish, frogs, small birds, frogs, fowl of all descriptions, bee and wasp larvae, fungi, snails, buffalo skin - and insects although we didn’t see any at the markets.  Some of the sights at the market were a bit challenging for us used to sanitised, vacuum-packed food. One confronting sight was tiny birds in miniscule cages. I discovered that they are birds that the rice farmers capture because they swarm through ripe rice crops eating the rice as they go. Many farmers once simply ate them but now they capture and sell them. It is seen as a win-win scenario. The farmer gets rid of his pests and the buyers more often than not free the birds and in so doing are blessed.  (We gave our guide money to release two birds.)

These packages of buffalo skin and fried mushrooms were less than $A2 

These tiny birds were similar to Java Sparrows 

Buffalo skin while not very attractive is highly nutritious

River weed on the left and either roots or bark in the centre

A delicious array of mostly vegetables

Either bee or wasp larvae - we saw both

Fresh river fish and toads

On this stall were small birds, a wee mouse, and crabs trussed up ready to go

Fresh ducks, chooks and other fowl on offer. You could also buy them BBQed

The BBQed fish looked quite inviting