Sunday, June 11, 2006
The Stone Forest
Let me start off by saying that my Mum should probably not read this posting. Everybody else can continue, but Mum, I think you should skip down to the next posting!
Yesterday, we decided to visit the spectacular Stone Forest in the town of Sillan, which is a hairy two hour bus ride from Kumming. We got to the Kumming bus station having been warned to not take a tourist bus. So what did we do? We took a tourist bus. Despite our insistence the people at the ticket counter would only sell us tickets for a tourist bus. It turned out to be a good deal: 50 yuan, and the trip included a stop at yet another freaking temple! We also met a couple of other Canadians on the bus who we are hoping to meet up with this evening in Dali.
The stone forest is stunningly beautiful. Imagine 100 meter high coral amongst rolling hills. In fact the theory is that the stones got there because Southern Yunnan province used to be covered by an ocean, back in the days when the dinosaurs roamed in more places than Ottawa and Washington, D.C.!
Not content with walking along the paved paths with thousands of Chinese tourists, we turned off on one of the less frequented paths. We started to climb through caves and to elevate one of the stones. We climbed higher and higher. As we reached the top the path began to get thinner and the stones remained wet and HIGHLY slippery from the early morning rains. As we began to move from peak to peak one had to litterally step from stone to stone, clinging to the edge. Even the slightest slip would have meant falling 70 meters and instant death! But none of us fell. We arrived at the summit and took some amazing photos. I managed to control my fear of heights. It was wicked fun.
Today, we have moved on to the beautiful city of Old Dali. We have found a beautiful and cheap hostel. 50 Mao bucks will go a long way in this part of the country.
Yesterday, we decided to visit the spectacular Stone Forest in the town of Sillan, which is a hairy two hour bus ride from Kumming. We got to the Kumming bus station having been warned to not take a tourist bus. So what did we do? We took a tourist bus. Despite our insistence the people at the ticket counter would only sell us tickets for a tourist bus. It turned out to be a good deal: 50 yuan, and the trip included a stop at yet another freaking temple! We also met a couple of other Canadians on the bus who we are hoping to meet up with this evening in Dali.
The stone forest is stunningly beautiful. Imagine 100 meter high coral amongst rolling hills. In fact the theory is that the stones got there because Southern Yunnan province used to be covered by an ocean, back in the days when the dinosaurs roamed in more places than Ottawa and Washington, D.C.!
Not content with walking along the paved paths with thousands of Chinese tourists, we turned off on one of the less frequented paths. We started to climb through caves and to elevate one of the stones. We climbed higher and higher. As we reached the top the path began to get thinner and the stones remained wet and HIGHLY slippery from the early morning rains. As we began to move from peak to peak one had to litterally step from stone to stone, clinging to the edge. Even the slightest slip would have meant falling 70 meters and instant death! But none of us fell. We arrived at the summit and took some amazing photos. I managed to control my fear of heights. It was wicked fun.
Today, we have moved on to the beautiful city of Old Dali. We have found a beautiful and cheap hostel. 50 Mao bucks will go a long way in this part of the country.
