Trying to get off the beaten track

From Guilin, where I wrote the last two entries in a really friendly youth hostel, everyone we spoke to was on their way direct to a city - either west to Kunming, the capital of Yunnan province, east to Guangzhou and Hong Kong, or even north to Beijing, a 28-hour train journey. Our plan was to take several days travelling northwards into the next province, Guizhou, via a series of small market towns and some picturesque mountain villages. As none of the reasonably intrepid-seeming travellers we met were going that way, we felt pretty sure we'd be getting off the beaten track, that holy grail for all pretentious wannabe travellers like me.

(Actually, talking of pretentious travellers. The French. What's up with them? In this part of the world, there aren't many people that speak any English, so when Europeans, North Americans and Antipodeans cross paths, they tend to be all friendly and chatty, keen to find out where they've been and are going, and if they know of any good places to eat etc. It's just nice in this fascinating but very alien country to have a chat with someone you don't see 24/7 - no offence Faye. But there appears to be one group of Westerners who shun the others, who want to avoid sharing even a smile of recognition with other foreigners. And if you pay attention, they always turn out to be... French. Now maybe they're so keen to get the genuine China experience that they think any Western contact would make it less pure. But who do they think they are? It's as if they see your presence, along with theirs, in some out-of-the-way town as meaning they've failed in their mission to get away from it all. As if only they and the locals have the right to be there. Maybe I'm misinterpreting it, maybe they're all just shy. Hm. We even overheard a French girl remark to her boyfriend, after Faye had chatted to them in French at the top of Moon Hill, that other foreigners they meet are "sympa" but the French are not. In case you think I'm being hypocritical by the way, considering the previous paragraph, we were actively hoping to find Westerners on our route across country, to give us someone else to talk to - we were just pleased that it didn't seem that EVERY foreign tourist in China goes that way. Anyway - I just had to get that off my chest. If any French people are reading, please use the comments page to defend your proud nation! Sorry Matthieu, you know I like you froggies normally, but here they're all turning their noses up at us...)

Our planned route involved taking country buses to market towns, finding a cheap hotel, dropping our bags and getting local buses up to unspoilt little villages full of ethnic minority groups such as the Yao, the Dong and the Miao (yes, the Miao). We planned to stay in some of the villages themselves, where the Rough Guide mentioned accommodation. See what trailblazers we are?!

Because of the number of hours it would involve in uncomfortable, bouncing country buses, we planned to take our time over the journey. This started out fine - we spent two nights in the town of Longsheng, with a day trip up to Ping An village on the middle day. But then we realised that we'd seriously underestimated the amount of money we'd need for the trip, quite a problem as there are no branches of the Bank of China, and hence no cashpoints that recognise our Visa cards, anywhere along the route. This miscalculation was largely due to the phenomenon of these "untouched" little villages charging hefty admission fees to tourists. And when I say hefty - just to walk around Ping An cost us 2.5 times the price of our hotel room, with private bathroom, for that night. (In saying that, the room was about 2 pounds 70 between us.) So unfortunately over the last three days we've spent a couple of hours in pretty villages and then many more hours on a bus, as we couldn't afford any more nights' accommodation before we reached our destination town of Kaili and the Bank of China. Worse, hours spent on buses here have turned out to be seriously damaging to your hearing. Bus drivers blare their horns for six seconds on average before overtaking ANYTHING - including pedestrians and cyclists, of which, in this country of 1.3 billion people, there are quite a few. And bus airhorns, especially when you're sat in the front seat, are LOOOUD LOO-OOO-OOUD LOOOOUD. We both had splitting headaches when we finally reached Kaili last night after seven hours on the bus.

So, what about that beaten track? Well, as you can guess, we were less than pleased with the entrance fee policy for the villages we saw. I think in summer they'd be full of tourists, probably mostly Chinese. But luckily we seem to be here in low season, so despite the disappointment of finding out that these villages are definitely tourist attractions, the experience felt a lot more authentic than it might have done in season. The last village in particular, where we arrived too late in the day to pay the entrance fee (woo hoo!) and stayed the night, was full of locals in traditional dress going about their daily lives, rather than locals dressing traditionally in order to get money for photos from tourists. And what's more, there's no mention of any accommodation in this village in the Rough Guide - and the village doesn't even feature in the Lonely Planet! That surely counts as at least a mini-sidestep off the beaten track.

Beaten track or not, the scenery along the whole way, and the wooden buildings in the minority villages, were absolutely beautiful. We spent about 16 hours in total on buses between Guilin and Kaili, but I don't think we travelled more than a few hundred kilometres, so mountainous was the route. Later today (there doesn't seem to be much to do in Kaili, and I'm buggered if I'm getting on any more transport today) I'll upload some photos. We also continue to eat very well for very little - Chinese food in China really is good. For 1-2 pounds between us, we're getting two meat dishes, usually with a tasty sauce and plenty of veg, plus unlimited rice, and for lunch we can usually get a bowl of fried rice, fried noodles or noodle soup for about 30p each. Pointing at what other diners are eating seems to be the best policy for ordering. And it all tastes GOOOD! Also, as we get further west, nearer to Sichuan, the amount of chilli used in every dish is on the rise, which can only be a good thing. And we don't think we've eaten any dog yet (Guizhou is the best place to come if you're a canine-ivore apparently).

We're still on the original plan (see first entry). We're going to relax here for a day or two, then get an overnight train to Kunming in Yunnan, right in the southwest of the country. We've heard good things about Kunming - it's known as the City of Eternal Spring apparently and people who've come from there have said the weather was really good. That's nice to hear, as it's bleeding freezing in Kaili today.