UP and UP and UP

The drive to the Rice Terraces was eventful. The road, at first good became increasingly bumpy and we climbed up through countryside which was very rural and quiet except for the cicadas.

Then we met a river and the road ran alongside it on steep banks

Then we saw our first landslide which only left enough room for one car.

Then the river bank got steeper and the river very fast running and deep in places

Then we saw more and more landslides which were by now even making the driver comment on the stability or otherwise of the banks!

And by the way the road was full of potholes

We were amazed that this road which goes to what we assumed was a well visited area was so bad but it still got worse and as I was not feeling as well as I would have liked I was quite alarmed. Tone and I said nothing but he, like me, was holding on tight!

And then we entered what I suppose was the National Park within which the area was contained and we, or rather Helen, had to pay for us to go on any further.

From here for a while the road got better but it was not to last!

We knew we had to walk up to our guest house so had packed all we needed into one back pack for the two nights we were staying there.

The other bags were left with a farmer and his family in a small hamlet which was still some way from our final destination.  We paid him 60 Yuan for keeping the three bags for two days and set off again.

Another half an hours driving brought us to Longhi where we got out of the car.  We were to walk from here as no cars can get any further!

So in the hot sunshine and with me by now feeling pretty awful we left the car, took our bag and started walking. Up and up and up, see the pics.

The people in these valleys are from either the Zhuiang or the Yao Minority Groups in China. They live in huge, three storey houses which traditionally housed animals on the ground floor, stores and feed etc. on the first floor and the people on the top. Nowadays many are guest houses and restaurants but they retain the very attractive exteriors and make the area very attractive indeed.

After passing through the first village we walked up a stone path which was really steep but with a surface that was much better than the road!

But it was a long way and it was hot so I did not really care much if the scenery was beautiful as Helen kept telling us. I just trudged on, and on and on and then I trudged some more.

We did stop to rest several times and some chaps with a sedan chair sussed me as a m=likely customer and followed us for a while but there was no way I was going in a sedan chair so after a while they gave up.

By way of a little warning here.

If you are not small and you all know I am not small, be warned that if you go in a sedan chair you will look like a stranded and larger than life jellyfish. You half sit and half lie and even if you think it is comfy you will regret the photographs as long as you live.

I only say this to be helpful because the lady I saw in one the next day must wish she had not been so keen to record the event for posterity!

Anyway back to the walk or trudge as it had become

Eventually we did get there. The Starwish Guest House is almost the highest building in the village and it is a lovely if rustic place to stay.  If you consider the walk we had done, a big half an hour by anyone’s reckoning, and you consider that everything in the place had to be carried up here you would not quibble at the fact that there was only French and Australian wine and that they had no Sauvignon blanc! Actually the local, although not very local, beer was what we drank here and it was good