Travel log #01 - 05 (+ intro)

Before I start posting my travel logs, let me introduce you to what I'm doing and why. Since I was first time to Asia in 2010 with my friends, I fell in love with the diversity and the amounts of experience and information a person can get when encountering people with different background, different philosophies and ways of life. I realized that the world is a great pool of knowledge and the attempt to acquire wisdom is never great, unless you challenge your views and stances with people from different parts of the globe.

It took me seven years to make enough time and money (and also to reach the sufficient level of determination to invest both) to make the big journey. I left my work to travel, meet people, educate myself and - mainly - to enjoy myself, to have a good time. In that pursuit I left my homeland in February with a rough plan. I only knew what countries I wish to visit. I didn't want to limit myself with detailed plans, budget plans, or the length of stay.

The logs I'm posting on various social platforms tend to be short, informative and - I hope - fun to read. In them I don't go deep in what I learned or realised. For deep thoughts I require more time to materialize them in words. The writings serve mainly for entertainment, they're ment to uncover my feelings about the countries I visited and to inform you about what I've done there. Nothing more. ;-)

From now on I'll try to post here one article of 5 travel logs a week. It should be timed well that my last post will collide with me coming back to Europe.

Happy reading. Happy traveling.

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6.2. 2017 Log 01
Kunming, China. Sunny and warm. The city of eternal spring, that's how the Chinese call it and they're right! Chinese people are merry and helpful despite the fact that they don't speak english at all! But the city is beautiful and clean (a true miracle in Asia as I know it).

Tomorrow we leave the city and take a train ride to Hekou on the borders with Vietnam. I expect some beautiful mountain sceneries to be seen on the way there. The spirit is good, and everything goes smoothly. Well, everything but my adaptation to chinese food. The very first meal I received on the plane twisted my stomach so hard, that I had to visit a hospital in Chengdu. But now I feel well and tomorrow I will hopefully start to enjoy China on the gastronomical level too!

9.2.2017 Log 02
Hello my dears. Today we successfully crossed the China - Vietnam borders and given the fact that all our knives have been taken away from us already in China, we had no complications at all... Vietnam is even more friendly towards tourists than China was. People are smiling at us, they greet us on the streets, the services are cheaper and on a higher level. We crossed the border on a bridge over Red River between Hekou and Lao Cai. In Lao Cai we found out, that the hostel I booked in advance because of our visa application requirements is approx 30km further (and 1km higher) than we thought, in a mountain village called Sa Pa. This fact confused us for a while, but in the end we realized it and took a bus there. The temperature lowered to pleasant 15 degrees and we are in a cloud. Now we go to get some food and plan our next steps. After the troubles I had in the beginning of our journey, I can say that everything goes smoothly now and we enjoy every second of it.

11.2.2017 Log 03
Sa Pa is in the clouds. Waiting for my friend's mobile phone to be repaired, we wonder, what exactly are we going to do here. I meet with a friendly girl who introduces herself as May of the Mong (an ethnic minority originally from Mongolia, who live in small villages scattered all around surrounding hills). She offers us a trek with the possibility to spend the night in her house with her family. What else to wish for? Even though the fog is so dense and thick that you can cut it with a knife and we are more than sure that there will be nothing of all the spectacular views of local magnificent landscape, we accept the offer gladly. For the price of 650 thousand Dong (that is approx 20 quid) we will have a two day walking and a night spent with the Mong tribe. The path leads us through several tribal villages. Terraced rice fields with freely roaming buffaloes, bamboo woodlands and crystal clear streams. That is how the landscape looks here. Close to the dusk we come in Hau Thao, the village where May lives and we meet with Cheng, May‘s husband. May is 31, Cheng is 34 and they have four kids. They live in a modest wooden house which they built by themselves. The dinner is made by Cheng on an open fire, everything is from their own resources. Chicken meat, pork smoked bacon, spinach and beans fried on garlic. Everything incredibly fresh and tasty. After the dinner Cheng pulls out a bottle of rice spirit and we talk and smile until there is nearly midnight. Except the home-made spirit, May brings home-grown weed and again: it's fresh and tasty.

The following morning we walk through silent and foggy land back to Sa Pa. When we get there, we realize that today is Saturday and the prices of all the hostels are higher than when we left. In the end we decide for a little bit more expensive room, but it‘s with hot water and that is - due to the fact that there is only around four degrees outside - very welcome. We spend the evening roaming the streets of Sa Pa, buying Da Lat vietnamese red wine in a local shop and having a Pho. That‘s vietnamese noodle soup and it‘s very good.

Today the clouds finally rose up a bit and we can see further than 10 meters for the first time since our arrival here. It‘s still cold though and we have whole day to kill before the departure of our overnight bus to Ninh Binh. ETA: tomorrow morning. PS: my friend‘s phone did not get repaired after all...

14.2.2017 Log 04

Today was a beautiful day. In the morning we hired some bikes at the hotel and got to ride around touristic highlights of Ninh Binh. And it should be mentioned, that there is quite a few of them in a relatively small area. Our first ride took us to a location called Tam Coc, seven kilometers beyond the city. We saw few temples about which I can‘t be sure if they were dedicated to Buddha or Confucius, but I think they‘ve been built for both of them. In Bich Dong cave temple I offered a coin of my currency to Confucius to ask him to protect me on my travels. One Czech Crown, in notably rusty condition was already in the bowl. Afterwards we received a rather vigorous lecture in fluent Vietnamese about stalactites in one of many local caves. The guide obviously didn‘t care at all, that we don‘t understand him a word. He did a honest job.

But the main attraction was a boat trip amongst knob-shaped rocks of Tam Coc. Almost two hours long boating on a small boat with a rower using her legs to handle the oars, took us through rice fields and several karst caves. If a man manages to think-away the load of other boats and hordes of sellers trying to lure your money out of your pockets in hundred ways, it was a nice trip through silent and changeless landscape. A drizzle, which met us right when we were boating, didn‘t spoil my mood. Of course, yesterday it was a nice and sunny day, but today, when you actually want to make some nice photos, it had to be gloomy. But I‘m learning not to whine about the weather, because it is not in my powers to influence it. Only the chinese can do that...

18.2.2017 Log 05
We‘re back in civilization after two days of camping in national park Cuc Phuong. And they were powerful days, filled with experiences from the „first time in my life” category. We entered the park by an unofficial path of the locals. I couldn‘t descibe it better than a nature‘s garden. Blossoming meadows full of flowers, bushes and trees, but mainly the butterflies! It was really wonderful to see so many butterflies (of which I knew some from the butterfly sanctuary in Stratford upon Avon) in their natural habitat. We crossed the park from one end to the other and along the way we visited two caves. In the larger one - called The Palace Cave - we didn‘t even manage to reach the end. Everytime we thought that there is no way further, we discovered a narrow chimney and behind it another large rocky domes. Further than one hundred meters into the mountain we reached a point where we didn‘t dare to continue without a rope. Another unique experience was to see a one thousand years old tree. When we stood by it, I could‘t do more than to humbly acknowledge the majesty of nature.

The fact, that in Cuc Phuong the nature rules above man was proved by our last section of the route, which begun behind a plate that read „Stop! Easy to get lost.” It was definitely the hardest walk of my life. When we didn‘t go through jungle so dense, that on several spots I couldn‘t see my friend as close as three meters far from me, we climbed over sharp rocks and ravines, where one slip could easily mean a nasty, potentialy fatal, injury. I would never believe that a man can walk six kilometers for five hours.

Now we are back in Ninh Binh after three nights spent in our tents. We are in a hotel and I have to admit, that I never liked so much to have a shower and clean bed-sheets. Tomorrow we will go to Dong Hoi and our next aim will be a cave again. This one is supposed to be the largest cave in the world. After the experience from The Palace Cave I can hardly imagine what expects us there.