kittykat23uk
Well-known member
Natural world on bbc 4 tonight is all about the Himalayas. I am seeing the animals you have been finding, I see what you mean about the resemblance to Michael Jackson of the monkeys! 
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Chlidonias Goes To Asia, part three: 2013 (2 Viewers)
- Thread starter Chlidonias
- Start date
chris butterworth
aka The Person Named Above
Errrrrm, you sure those Ostriches weren't some kind of Pheasant, Israel? You were delirious.
Chris
Chris
Chlidonias
Well-known member
they were probably Chinese monals!Errrrrm, you sure those Ostriches weren't some kind of Pheasant, Israel? You were delirious.
Chris
I'm feeling alright today, just a bit seedy with a bit of a headache. It was a one-night fever, with another day to shake off the effects. Tomorrow I should be grand.
Get well and take good care of yourself! That is really the priority.
As for the visa, there should be no problem.
If the Chinese are as smart as they are reported to be, they will realize that you and your posts are doing more for their economy than 50 normal visitors. They should really appoint you as a roving nature ambassador.
It would be a mutual benefit.
Chlidonias
Well-known member
hmm, I'm not sure my thread is really going to inspire anyone to follow in my footsteps, unless they are masochists! :-O
I'm still poorly this morning, all bone-achy, so it's another rest day. It looks like my entire stay in Yunnan is going to consist of the morning with the snub-nosed monkeys and nothing else.
With the visa I have heard that sometimes with the second extension they don't always give the full 30 days, sometimes as little as ten days -- and sometimes no days at all. I shall see what happens.....
Just a minor word of caution from one of your earlier comments... although you are probably right in your diagnosis, if you have been in Malaria etc areas, it can strike more than a month after contact, infact our health service in the UK suggest any fever within a year should be checked on.
Hopefully though you are already through the worst of your fever and you will sort out another 30 days visa and get to some more great places...!
Jeff Hopkins
Just another...observer
Jens Thalund
Well-known member
With all the public spitting, coughing and sneezing in China, I would still think that a good old fashioned cold is what it is, especially with all the public transportation that Chlid has embarked upon during his travels
Chlidonias
Well-known member
I've never had malaria before so it's not a recurrence, and I doubt I'd have picked it up from the places I've been so far because none are considered danger spots. I had dengue on another trip and as I understand it the second time you get dengue you get the hemorrhagic version which kills you, but I haven't started bleeding out of my eye-sockets yet. Anyway, I know I haven't been bitten by any insects for well over a month.
I don't know what it is. Yesterday I had the shakes back again really bad, but this morning my headache is almost gone, my body is no longer sore (apart for my back) which means I can actually walk like a normal person now instead of shuffling along like an arthritic zombie. Now I just seem to have a bad cough and a runny nose. I had planned on going to the hospital if things got worse, but hopefully things are on the up now.
I also changed my plan on the visa extension. I was going to fly back to Chengdu (couldn't face the train ride!) and then go down to Leshan, but I decided to just get the extension here in Kunming instead. It will take longer and be more bureaucratic, possibly they won't give me the full 30 days, but it seemed the more sensible option given that I don't know how long I'll be poorly for.
I don't know what it is. Yesterday I had the shakes back again really bad, but this morning my headache is almost gone, my body is no longer sore (apart for my back) which means I can actually walk like a normal person now instead of shuffling along like an arthritic zombie. Now I just seem to have a bad cough and a runny nose. I had planned on going to the hospital if things got worse, but hopefully things are on the up now.
I also changed my plan on the visa extension. I was going to fly back to Chengdu (couldn't face the train ride!) and then go down to Leshan, but I decided to just get the extension here in Kunming instead. It will take longer and be more bureaucratic, possibly they won't give me the full 30 days, but it seemed the more sensible option given that I don't know how long I'll be poorly for.
Remember, if you do go to the hospital, to take a shopping trolley for the all the meds they'll give you that you don't actually require and that are totally unrelated to your illness. And don't forget your credit card (so they can max. it out) :eek!:
I had Malaria once (in Africa) and believe me .... you are not going to be able to move from your bed to a bus ! Knocked me off my feet for a week.
Good luck with your visa and hope you are back to full fitness soon. :t:
Last edited:
Chlidonias
Well-known member
that was really why I didn't want to go to the hospital and would rather just sweat it out! I figure all they would do would inject me with penicillin, fill me up with an assortment of pills, and give me a bowl of pangolin soup. I'm not much of a one for drugs, I'd rather avoid them unless they're absolutely critical!
Chlidonias
Well-known member
yeah those are amazing monkeys. Totally worth getting sick over!! I have a friend who just went to Vietnam for a brief trip (I think like a week or something) and saw black-shanked doucs. Good thing Vietnam is on my itinerary!!
Chlidonias
Well-known member
I have changed my visa plans again. For the last two or three days I have been "mostly" alright. I haven't gone out and done anything at all -- I thought it best to stay in recuperation mode -- and what I have now is just a little bit of a sore back, a coming-and-going headache, a runny nose and a really bad cough. I bought some cough medicine today. I needed someone at the hostel to write down cough medicine in Chinese for me to take to the pharmacy but nobody could understand my accent. They all thought I wanted coffee.....despite me obviously having a very bad cough!! Sometimes it's not easy.
Anyway, I bought a train ticket from here to Leshan for tomorrow evening. It is a 15 hour ride or something like that so I hope that goes all right. I decided against Kunming for the visa extension because I kept reading it was bad idea to try and get one in one of the capital cities, and also I wasn't sure if the visa period starts from when you apply, or when you get the visa back -- and in Kunming it takes up to seven days for the process, whereas Leshan only takes one (or now two or three apparently, but still shorter than Kunming). More drastic was that I just found out about new visa extension laws which say that extensions can only add up the amount of days on your original visa period -- my original visa was 45 days, my first extension was for 30 days, and in theory that means that my next extension (if they even grant it) can only be for fifteen days which really kicks the rest of my travel plans in the nuts. One of my bags is still in Chengdu so I figured I have to go to Leshan for the extension and then if need be I can just pop back up to Chengdu and grab my bag for an immediate departure.
Anyway, I bought a train ticket from here to Leshan for tomorrow evening. It is a 15 hour ride or something like that so I hope that goes all right. I decided against Kunming for the visa extension because I kept reading it was bad idea to try and get one in one of the capital cities, and also I wasn't sure if the visa period starts from when you apply, or when you get the visa back -- and in Kunming it takes up to seven days for the process, whereas Leshan only takes one (or now two or three apparently, but still shorter than Kunming). More drastic was that I just found out about new visa extension laws which say that extensions can only add up the amount of days on your original visa period -- my original visa was 45 days, my first extension was for 30 days, and in theory that means that my next extension (if they even grant it) can only be for fifteen days which really kicks the rest of my travel plans in the nuts. One of my bags is still in Chengdu so I figured I have to go to Leshan for the extension and then if need be I can just pop back up to Chengdu and grab my bag for an immediate departure.
Chlidonias
Well-known member
The last two days in Kunming I hadn't been too bad, just a coming-and-going headache and the cough which doesn't seem to be getting better, but otherwise I'm pretty good. I got an overnight train ticket from Kunming to Leshan for the evening of the 25 November. After getting the ticket I discovered that there isn't actually a train station in Leshan – instead you get dropped off in some other station an hour by bus from Leshan. Still, it is several hours closer than continuing all the way to Chengdu, and from Chengdu I'd still have to get a bus to Leshan anyway so I still win.
The only thing I managed to do in the whole of Yunnan was see the snub-nosed monkeys, but they were totally worth getting sick over! In Kunming I did absolutely nothing and saw absolutely nothing. No zoo, no bird market, no museum, no Zoological Institute, no wild birds (except tree sparrows and white wagtails). Maybe on another visit.
I almost didn't make the train. I went to the bus stop round the corner from the hostel and waited, and waited, and waited. No bus came. I knew the longer I left it the more chance there was of missing the train, so I caved and went for a taxi, but none would stop. It really was ridiculous. Eventually I grabbed a motorbike. It was the first motorbike taxi I've used this trip, and it turned out to be the absolute slowest motorbike taxi I have ever been on! I probably could have run to the station faster if I hadn't been out of sorts. I got to the train literally ten minutes before it was due to leave. It was then a fifteen hour ride to a mini-city called Jia Jiang (the “Leshan” of the train ticket). I arrived there about 10am and had an extended conversation with a private taxi driver who tried to make me accept a 200 Yuan ride in his car to Leshan, and finally tried to charge me 30 Yuan to the bus station instead. I'm glad I was no longer feeling sick otherwise I would have been getting really stressed out. After a while I got sick of him and went and found a real taxi which took me to the bus station for 5 Yuan where I got a bus for 8.50 Yuan.
Jia Jiang is about an hour from Leshan (confusingly in Jia Jiang I passed the Leshan City Bank or somesuch....if I hadn't found out in advance that the train didn't actually go to Leshan I would have ended up very confused). Once I got to Leshan I found the Home Inn (at 406 Jiading Middle Road) because for the visa extension one needs to be booked in the not-as-cheap-as-backpackers-prefer-type-accommodations. It wasn't a horrendously expensive hotel but a bit more expensive than what I prefer at 165 Yuan (NZ$33) per night. After checking in and getting my accommodation slip I went straight to the PSB Office and filled in the forms for my visa extension. What I had heard about the new visa rules turned out to be true – the extensions can only total the amount of days of one's original visa. The lady misread my first extension a little and thought I'd been given 28 days (in fact it ran from the 28 Oct to 28 Nov which is 31 days) so gave me 17 days instead of 15 which was slightly better than I had been expecting. But still, it means my visa runs out on the 15 December and then no more China. I have to work out an itinerary for the time I have left – I think basically I'll be able to fit in the attempt for Guizhou snub-nosed monkeys and that's about it (my fight leaves from Shanghai due to earlier arrangements). At least I'm not going to miss not being able to speak Chinese! I mean I'm going to be in other countries where I don't speak the language but there just seems to be something much more difficult about not speaking Chinese compared to not speaking other languages. I don't know what it is. However my very next country is going to be Malaysia where they speak Malaysian and English, both of which I do speak so that's a bit of a bonus.
The visa application took two days, so yesterday I went to see the Giant Buddha. I'm not normally a “go see the local artifact/attraction from Lonely Planet” guy, but wow that was stupendous. Even the Batman would have had to take a step back if that one came to life and attacked Gotham. I can honestly say I have never seen a bigger Buddha in my life. Very very impressive. I took my binoculars as well of course. Can you believe I haven't even opened my bird book for a full two weeks! The Buddha is carved from a cliff-face and the surrounding crags are covered in trees, and the trees are full of birds. Mostly common stuff but that really beautiful common stuff which I haven't seen for a while, like Pekin robins and yellow-bellied tits. Oriental greenfinches were the first I'd seen in China, and a wryneck was only the second one ever that I've seen. Over the river at the Buddha's feet were hawking pale martins which were my first lifer for ages.
I also found a set of scales today, the first time I've got to weigh myself since leaving New Zealand. I've lost about fifteen kilograms of muscle, which is sort of what I felt like I'd lost but at the same time I thought I would have lost more just recently with being sick. I know my legs have shed a lot of muscle since being sick (before that they were holding up OK without the gym thanks to all the mountain walking!).
Now I am back in Chengdu. Tomorrow I go to the Air Asia office and see if I can change my existing flight (10 Dec) to match my visa expiry (15 Dec) because that will be the deciding factor on how much I can do with my remaining time.
255) Pale martin Riparia diluta
The only thing I managed to do in the whole of Yunnan was see the snub-nosed monkeys, but they were totally worth getting sick over! In Kunming I did absolutely nothing and saw absolutely nothing. No zoo, no bird market, no museum, no Zoological Institute, no wild birds (except tree sparrows and white wagtails). Maybe on another visit.
I almost didn't make the train. I went to the bus stop round the corner from the hostel and waited, and waited, and waited. No bus came. I knew the longer I left it the more chance there was of missing the train, so I caved and went for a taxi, but none would stop. It really was ridiculous. Eventually I grabbed a motorbike. It was the first motorbike taxi I've used this trip, and it turned out to be the absolute slowest motorbike taxi I have ever been on! I probably could have run to the station faster if I hadn't been out of sorts. I got to the train literally ten minutes before it was due to leave. It was then a fifteen hour ride to a mini-city called Jia Jiang (the “Leshan” of the train ticket). I arrived there about 10am and had an extended conversation with a private taxi driver who tried to make me accept a 200 Yuan ride in his car to Leshan, and finally tried to charge me 30 Yuan to the bus station instead. I'm glad I was no longer feeling sick otherwise I would have been getting really stressed out. After a while I got sick of him and went and found a real taxi which took me to the bus station for 5 Yuan where I got a bus for 8.50 Yuan.
Jia Jiang is about an hour from Leshan (confusingly in Jia Jiang I passed the Leshan City Bank or somesuch....if I hadn't found out in advance that the train didn't actually go to Leshan I would have ended up very confused). Once I got to Leshan I found the Home Inn (at 406 Jiading Middle Road) because for the visa extension one needs to be booked in the not-as-cheap-as-backpackers-prefer-type-accommodations. It wasn't a horrendously expensive hotel but a bit more expensive than what I prefer at 165 Yuan (NZ$33) per night. After checking in and getting my accommodation slip I went straight to the PSB Office and filled in the forms for my visa extension. What I had heard about the new visa rules turned out to be true – the extensions can only total the amount of days of one's original visa. The lady misread my first extension a little and thought I'd been given 28 days (in fact it ran from the 28 Oct to 28 Nov which is 31 days) so gave me 17 days instead of 15 which was slightly better than I had been expecting. But still, it means my visa runs out on the 15 December and then no more China. I have to work out an itinerary for the time I have left – I think basically I'll be able to fit in the attempt for Guizhou snub-nosed monkeys and that's about it (my fight leaves from Shanghai due to earlier arrangements). At least I'm not going to miss not being able to speak Chinese! I mean I'm going to be in other countries where I don't speak the language but there just seems to be something much more difficult about not speaking Chinese compared to not speaking other languages. I don't know what it is. However my very next country is going to be Malaysia where they speak Malaysian and English, both of which I do speak so that's a bit of a bonus.
The visa application took two days, so yesterday I went to see the Giant Buddha. I'm not normally a “go see the local artifact/attraction from Lonely Planet” guy, but wow that was stupendous. Even the Batman would have had to take a step back if that one came to life and attacked Gotham. I can honestly say I have never seen a bigger Buddha in my life. Very very impressive. I took my binoculars as well of course. Can you believe I haven't even opened my bird book for a full two weeks! The Buddha is carved from a cliff-face and the surrounding crags are covered in trees, and the trees are full of birds. Mostly common stuff but that really beautiful common stuff which I haven't seen for a while, like Pekin robins and yellow-bellied tits. Oriental greenfinches were the first I'd seen in China, and a wryneck was only the second one ever that I've seen. Over the river at the Buddha's feet were hawking pale martins which were my first lifer for ages.
I also found a set of scales today, the first time I've got to weigh myself since leaving New Zealand. I've lost about fifteen kilograms of muscle, which is sort of what I felt like I'd lost but at the same time I thought I would have lost more just recently with being sick. I know my legs have shed a lot of muscle since being sick (before that they were holding up OK without the gym thanks to all the mountain walking!).
Now I am back in Chengdu. Tomorrow I go to the Air Asia office and see if I can change my existing flight (10 Dec) to match my visa expiry (15 Dec) because that will be the deciding factor on how much I can do with my remaining time.
255) Pale martin Riparia diluta
Yeah I had the same issue with Air Asia. Check the terms on your booking form/ticket. They refused my attempt at a change.
You've lost 15kgs you say ? Now that is a very tempting diet regime - go on a China walkabout :t:
