13 Sep – Kunming

We will spend one night in Kunming taking in a bit of Chinese city atmosphere. Kunming is known as the “Spring City” for its perpetually fair weather, summer and winter. It is supremely organised here, with wide brimming avenues and an airport that is conveniently located near the city. Hopefully my Buddha vegetarian restaurant will still be open! Otherwise this will be a great chance to eat try Yunnan’s spicy cuisine.

14 Sep – Lijiang (altitude: 2,400m)

We will depart Kunming early in the morning by flight and arrive in Lijiang after a short one hour flight.

Lijiang is in many ways the capital of the Naxi minority, and despite being afflicted by mass tourism and the somewhat crass “authenticity” drive so popular amongst Yunnan local governments, remains an interesting place. A beautiful old town – ancient canal system, traditional architecture, with abundant cafes in the centre.

15 Sep – Wenhai village (altitude: 3,000m)

For early birds, rising early provides a chance to see Lijiang at its most natural, before the tour groups kick into gear. After breakfast, leave behind the hustle and bustle of Lijiang for the short drive to the trailhead at Yuhu, a small village nestled on the lower slopes of Jade Dragon Mountain. Amongst other things this was once the home of Joseph Rock – who was one parts explorer, another part plant collector, a third part scholar of Naxi language, and finally a master of fakery – who roamed SW China in the ’20s, ’30s and ’40s.

Here the walking begins. It’s about a five hour trek to Wenhai, another Naxi village several hundred meters up on the slopes of Jade Dragon Mountain. The site of a half-hearted attempt to impose eco-tourism, Wenhai has a slightly schizophrenic character – sometimes a quiet remote village struggling with the after effects of the ’98 logging ban, sometimes playing host to large groups of ‘eco-tourists’ with cameras and heels. Either way, the views of the snow peak on the way to and from Wenhai are beautiful and the trek, though up, relatively undemanding. A pleasant first day.

Tonight’s stay is at an eco-lodge establishment.

16 Sep – Xuehua village (altitude: TBC)

A short day’s trekking along the slopes to Xuehua, a much poorer Yi village and a chance to relax for the afternoon and check out a little local life.

Interestingly Xuehua is also the home of one of the few ‘bimo’ of the area, an Yi shaman-like figure steeped in a ritualistic history infinitely longer and more complex than its newcomer counterpart amongst the Naxi – the ‘Dongba priest’. Whether or not you’ll get the chance to meet him is moot, but it does give some indication as to the depth of tradition in this village.

We will take the night in a local homestay.

17 Sep – Shanghai village

(altitude: TBC)

Another relaxed day’s trekking under the snow peak to Shanghai, a relatively affluent Naxi village and the last stop before heading east away from Jade Dragon. By now those muscles should be flowing!

Tonight’s accommodation is also homestay.

18/19th Sep – Zhongdian/Shangrila

The day starts off with a 2-hour trek to the road and a pick-up (by mini-bus or 4WD) for the drive to and into Tiger Leaping Gorge before climbing to Zhongdian. TLG, while by no means as some claim the deepest gorge in the world, is still a sight worth beholding. From here the road climbs around 1500m up to the plateau and onto Zhongdian.

In Zhongdian (now optimistically renamed Shangri-La) is the site of Songzanlin monastery. Though largely a museum now – this sprawling and, in historical terms, very key monastery was commissioned in the 17c by the 5th Dalai Lama, and was the central monastery in the Gelukpa order’s south-eastern expansion.

Also possible a cable car up nearby Shika Mountain, which given clear weather offers great views of the region and it’s various mountain ranges. In the evening, dinner, a stroll, even a soak in nearby hot springs possible.

Since the retreat of the Tibetans from the Lijiang area in the 19c, Zhongdian (known in Tibetan as Gyalthang) has pretty much marked the south-eastern border of Kham Tibet in Yunnan. Up until a few yeas ago, it had the rough reputation of a classic frontier town – but now things have calmed down, and its markets and the old town make for a fruitful afternoon stroll.

The next two night’s accommodation is at a hotel in Zhongdian (3,160m), so we can further acclimatise to the elevation in preparation for the second trek.

20 Sep – Niru (Altitude: 2900M)

Departing from Zhongdian, we will take a four hour drive southeast across the plateau and then north to the isolated village of Niru (Tibetan) on the southerly edge of the Tibetan region. Here we stay in a lodge built as the keystone for local training and poverty alleviation projects.

21 Sep – Niru to Pastureland (Camp site altitude: 3,360M)

Three hours’ gentle climb through the Niru River gorge brings us to a waterfall where we take a packed lunch. After lunch we continuously climb for roughly three hours via densely forested valley, camp near a seasonal nomadic camp before the pass. We walk roughly five to six hrs today.

22 Sep – Pastureland to Shudu Thang (Camp site altitude about: 3,700M)

We have steep two hour climb before reaching to Dekyi Thang Plateau, which is beautiful with herds of yaks and mountain peaks that surround the pasture. Lunch at Dekyi Thang will be followed by a descent into Shudu valley, where we will either camp near the lake area or push further for two hours beyond Shudu Lake.

23 Sep – Shudu Thang to Geza village (Village altitude:3,200m)

We cross Shudu pastureland and climb gently through a gully up to the pass. After lunch we go down through an excellent rhododendron forest and a beautiful stream as we reach the Tibetan village of Geza. Overnight stay with a Tibetan family, after five to six hours walking.

24 Sep – Geza to Pastureland (Camp site altitude:3,400m)

After about half an hour’s walk our path steadily up Detri Datsan pass (3600m), lunch on
pass, go down to a pastureland and camp for the night. 6/7hrs walk.

25 Sep – Pastureland to Gegang Tso (Gegang Lake)

Our today’s walk bit gentler and easier, the path mostly crosses pasture lands and hills. We camp for the night at the pastureland near an alpine lake known as Gegang Tso.

26 Sep – Gegang Tso to Dalithang (cheese factory)

We cross a pastureland and steadily climb up Hodrong Dza Pass (4,100m), on the top we see majestic mountains and gorges, our path quickly drops to Dalithang, where we meet the 4WDs for pick up and a two-three hr drive back to Shangrila (aka Zhongdian). After settling in to the hotel there will be a final night celebratory dinner.

27 Sep – Departure

An early flight from Shangri-la will get you back out to Kunming where you can catch onward flights to Singapore, Hong Kong or Bangkok.

Links

Parallel Rivers, by Mark Jenkins

A fantastic National Geographic article on the region we wish to travel and its struggle between traditional culture and rapid tourism expansion.

Thanks for your interest in joining us on this unique hosted tour to the lesser explored regions of China. As a former Tour Leader for Intrepid Travel, China used to be my stomping grounds. Nowadays, I hanker for any opportunity to return and share my favourite places in China with whoever would like to join! I have hosted dozens of tours over my life and absolutely love doing it — it was and still is my favourite job in the entire world. Nowadays I consider myself a ‘freelance tour guide’ and don’t organise these tours to make money, but to make sure that yearly travel with good friends is still a part of my life.

So without further ado, here is the rough plan for first week of the trip. We have decided to go ahead with a September plan and I am setting it up as two overlapping trips (from here on out known as ‘laid-back’ and ‘hardcore’).

The first ‘laid-back’ trip will take in more of the classic tourist sites of Yangshuo and Yunnan and end with a trek in Yunnan Tibet. The second ‘hard-core’ trip will be geared towards my more adventurous friends and contacts who want to ‘rough it’ as much as possible and see some of the best Yunnan province has to offer. To make bookings as easy as possible for me, I would prefer it if people signed up for either of the two trips, or both.

Week 1 – Yangshuo – First week of September

Yangshuo. It is a backpackers mecca but also home to the Chinese version of the limestone karst scenery also seen in Thailand and Vietnam. The only difference is that in this region, the karsts are surrounded by lush, green, fertile rice fields everywhere you look. And there are lots and LOTS of Chinese farmers!

Yangshuo will be the joining point of the tour and you can easily get here directly from Hong Kong, Kuala Lumpur or Beijing. (you can fly to Guilin and transfer to Yangshuo by private vehicle (a 1.5 hour ride).

The best activity here is to cycle amongst these karsts and throughout the countryside surrounding Yangshuo. We will stop in at the houses of my old friends and taste some of the freshest food China has to offer — straight from the paddy to the plate. Better yet, we’ll do it all on bicycles! So you will get plenty of exercise to work off all the good food and get you ready for the trekking later in the trip.

Chengyang

After a three days trying to enjoy everything you can in Yangshuo, I would like to take the group up to two more spectacular destinations in Yunnan. The first is the village of Chengyang, home to several Dong Minority villages nestled in the mountainous countryside of northern Guangxi Province. After a relatively comfortable first few days in Yangshuo, we will be roughing it a bit more up in these mountains and facilities will be more basic but definitely not uncomfortable. There will also be a few glasses of locally made rice wine around so watch yourself!

In Chengyang there are opportunities to walk in the surrounding hilly countryside with a local guide, who will take us into the rice paddies and to neighbouring villages. Once again, Chengyang is fairly remote but not totally off the tourist map; while walking we will hardly see any other tourists and you’ll have plenty of opportunities to photography the gorgeous hills.

Longji Rice Terraces

After two nights in Chengyang, we will then start making our way back to Guilin, but not before stopping into into the Longji Rice Terraces. Longji means the ‘Dragon’s Back’, which is what the Chinese have rather creatively called this area of rice terraces spread over the hills.

The photo opportunities hear are spectacular, when the weather cooperates. The last time I was here it rained almost the entire time, and as a result most of my photos are of misty rice terraces surrounded by cloud. Plus the trekking was extremely slippery! But if the weather cooperates this time around, we might just be treated to views like the one you see here. This is not my photo but I aspire to one day see the terraces looking just like this. During September it is the pre-harvest season and the fields are erupting with pre-harvest green and hopefully gold colours.

Coming soon

In the next few days I will take the time to write up Part 2, Part 3 and Part 4 of this tour, one for every week that we hope to be travelling in September. Keep your eyes peeled for more.. and of course, feel free to share this link with friends who might be interested.

In summary here is the plan so far:

Day 1 – Meet in Yangshuo
Day 2-3 – Cycle Trip and Cooking School, spare day for optional activities
Day 4-5 – Transfer to Chengyang, day hike
Day 6-7 – Transfer to Longji, day hikes
Day 8 – Transfer to Guilin for flight/train to Kunming

Bangladesh: The Bradt Travel Guide Book Launch party, 1 Oct, Dhaka, click poster to see full size

It was a long road to get here, one of the biggest challenges I have taken on in my life and one that I now feel very proud of. More importantly, I fully believe my guide is important for the wonderful people of Bangladesh — some of the kindest and most hospitable people our planet has to offer. It is my hope that more people visit Bangladesh to see the reality behind the veil, the truth behind Bangladesh’s horrible headlines.

Today I’d like to offer some of my friends and contacts the chance to purchase a signed copy of the guidebook, which I will send from London when I visit the Bradt Travel Guides office on 21 September.

One of the wonderful things I learned about Islam during my stay in Bangladesh is the concept of Zakat — which means giving alms to the poor. A good Muslim is supposed to donate 10 percent of his earnings to support widows, orphans and the poor,

After getting inspired by the book Three Cups of Tea, I decided want to take this chance to raise some funds for the Jaago Foundation, a Dhaka-based charity that Belinda and I have chosen to support with all of our book’s launch activities. The foundation supports the education of slum children in Rayer Bazaar, one of Dhaka’s poorest neighbourhoods.

Here’s a Jaago promotional video:

From Jaago’s website:

Basic sponsorship cost per child is a minimum of BDT 12,000 (US$180) annually, or you may pay installments of BDT 1000 monthly BDT 3000 quarterly or BDT 6000 half yearly (The amount of the sponsorship is increased from BDT 500 to BDT 1000 monthly). You also have the option to sponsor a project. The money received at our headquarters is forwarded for the betterment of the children. Eid and/or birthday money can be sent via headquarters.

My goal is to sponsor as many children as possible with my book-selling drive, so if you’ve been thinking of buying a book, there is no better time than now to help me support a few underprivileged children at the same time. But it would be ideal if I can get 60 books sold at USD$25.99 each, I will be able to support two children for an entire year of education.

You can use the button below to donate to the project and buy a book at the same time. Please add your shipping address if you’d like me to send you a signed copy of the book.

After you click the donation button, you’ll need to enter in the donation amount. The best price I can offer for the book is $20.00USD, which includes shipping to anywhere in the world. The listed price for the book is $25.99USD and although you can pick up the book more cheaply at Amazon, it won’t be signed and you won’t be supporting a good cause like Jaago.

So if you’re ready, please click the donation button and enter an amount of $25.99USD (if you donate more I’ll use the extra funds to support Jaago). You’ll be able to add your shipping details at Paypal.

Even if you’re not interested in buying a book, this is a chance to donate to the project, one that I have felt is extremely worthwhile and run by people who I trust very much.

Thanks for your help in advance!

Note: if you’re in Dhaka and receiving this message you’ll have a chance to support Jaago by coming to the book launch on 1 October at the Australian High Commission. Click here to learn more.

But it does get thousands of expatriates, NGO workers, volunteers and diplomats every year. And all of these ‘tourists’ could be a part of your potential market.

So how do you get your product in front of that market?

Answer: Advertise in the right place.

Bangladesh: The Bradt Travel Guide
Most of you know I’ve been working very hard in creating a totally new guidebook for Bangladesh. For 2.5 years I have tried almost every travel experience your country has to offer, both good and bad, and earned the expertise that travellers want. I then spent six months writing a totally new guidebook for Bangladesh.

This August, we will release our new guide to the international market, and you need to be there if you want to reach new travellers to Bangladesh.

Bradt Travel Guides are very different from the competition. Our guides are known for their authorship and detail, something that is very attractive to the kind of person who would consider a visit to Bangladesh.

And even better: most of that market already knows there’s a new guidebook coming soon.

The power of social marketing
For a long time now, I have been working on a pre-book release website under the URL http://www.joybangla.info for the upcoming title of ‘Bangladesh: The Bradt Travel Guide.’

Under this website we have evolved a loyal following to the upcoming guide, which has earned over 30,000 individual views since early 2007, with over 100 individual views per day. Does your website have that much traffic?

We also have a loyal Facebook group with over 150 members (mainly used to promote upcoming Bangladesh trips), a building Youtube audience with travel videos, and a stunning collection of Flickr photographs which we would also like to use for a photography book entitled “Bangladesh: A Journey of Images” (PDF primer and dummy copies are available for interested publishers).

There are already thousands of potential readers out there, learning about our work, and our book, every day.

So do you want access to those readers?

Stand apart from the pack
In the international world, visibility is an important part of any business. It’s a competitive market out there, especially in one as small as Bangladesh. So you’ve got to stand head and shoulders above your competition.

Advertising in our new Bangladesh guidebook will help you achieve that, and at great value.

For as little as BDT10,000 you can be positioned in the new guidebook. For up to BDT1,10,000 your advertisement will be unmistakable.

Below are the advertising documents and information. Advertisements range from £100 to £1,156 (BDT 10,000 to BDT110,000), depending on size and colour.

Don’t know how to design an ad that is attractive to foreigners?

No problem.

For a minimal fee, I can help you create an advertisement that represents your unique product, or give you some ideas about how to do it.

Contact me for more information. The advertising submission deadline is April 24th, so you’d better act fast!

You can download the Advertising Info here (Word Doc, 352KB), and the Advance Book Information here (PDF, 1.5MB).

Best regards,
-Mikey Leung and Belinda Meggitt
Authors, “Bangladesh: The Bradt Travel Guide”

I’m not going to try too hard, because when I was coming over the border from Bangladesh at Benapole, they let some American guy through who said he was only going to drive for three weeks and come back out again. So I know they will eventually let you through if you can give them the right reason and seem presentable when you arrive. Thankfully, I already have the Bangladesh side paperwork, so once the Indians give in I’ll be through with my Thunderbird.. a moment that’s been several months in the making.

I’ll post some pictures once I’m back across the border and tell more stories as I find the time…. today I’ve just picked up the bike after a two month hiatus, and tomorrow I’ll get it tuned for the journey. It had been sitting for over two months, but after a few dozen kicks I managed to get it going. As they say, an Enfield never betrays its rider….

Why? One wonders how this region passed the conflict in a different way. The unique part of this region is that Tibetans and Chinese have worked economically hand-in-hand here for hundreds of years. The “Tea Horse Trail”（茶马道）, as it is more popularly known, is a historic trail of trade and goods ranging from Burma to Tibet to Nepal and eventually India.

Because of these economic ties, there has been more incentive for the people to work together here on the latest economic boom—and that’s tourism.

I just finished a radio piece on the region. You can listen to it in the below player:

I’m going to do my best to see if I can get this piece farmed out to other media.. we’ll see how it goes.

And now, see his new rickshaw:

Several other volunteers and I have talked and talked and talked about it, but today I finally did it. I’ve just spent Tk 10,000 (roughly $140 USD) to buy my friend Hobu a rickshaw, and, if he works hard enough, there will be a dramatic change in his income over the coming year because of it. We first met Hobu outside one of the expatriate clubs in Dhaka.

Normally, Hobu has to pay 80 taka per day in rickshaw rent fees, and on a normal day he can make somewhere between 200-300 taka. But even if he has a good day, he will still have to pay what could be 25% of his daily earnings to the rickshaw garage where he takes his rented rickshaw. His is a life of indentured labour—without assets like his own rickshaw, his ability to make more money is severely limited, and his story is one of millions in Bangladesh.

I will admit I am skeptical: the first thing I’d heard about Hobu was how he drank a third of a bottle of vodka from volunteers and got so drunk that he lost a rickshaw that evening, after peddling two other volunteers across Dhaka in the middle of the night.

But my skepticism went away when one day, I was his passenger and I made that journey across Dhaka in the middle of the night. From that day, I learned a measure of respect for these hardworking men, and especially Hobu, whose spoken English is actually quite impressive.

Later we took the time to visit his home and meet his wife and two kids, and while he is certainly persistent, he has never asked me for my charity, he has simply shared his life with me. So today, I’ve decided to help him out. And now, if you want to help me help him, I’d dearly appreciate it.

By now you’ve seen the locations where photographs can be installed onto the rickshaw. If you’d be interested in having your photograph added, please send it to me and make a donation. It’s a “pay what you can” kind of thing. Although, if you really feel like it, for $100 I will get your face custom-painted on the rickshaw plate (depicted below). Any extra money I can chase up, I will simply plow into making this rickshaw more and more elaborate and a source of pride for Hobu.

It never ceases to amaze me how little it costs to change one life in this vast country.

The documentary talks about the lives of a group of women inside a brothel in Patuakhali, a town situated in the Barisal district of Bangladesh. She recently did an interview with the Calgary Eyeopener, whom I used to work for at CBC a long time ago..

And perhaps some of you might be interested in hearing that interview. Here’s the link. You’ll need realplayer to listen to it (annoying I know, but what can you do).

Recently, Forbes.com pronounced Dhaka the world’s second dirtiest city. But according to me, there are still some fun things to do here.

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