The Road to Kaili

The first stop from Guilin was back to Sanjiang on a road that we had travelled twice already, we were hoping this was the last time! The following day we found out there were no buses to Zoaxing, our next intended stop but a lady at the bus station managed to get across a way to get to another village involving 2 changes of transport. We headed on our way and at the first change actually found a bus to Zoaxing so we arrived mid-afternoon in this pretty Dong village with multiple drum towers, wood houses and surrounding paddy fields. While it was undeniably attractive at present, the whole town was being renovated to make it more tourist friendly and I could not help but think that the result may be a sterilisation and loss of the character that makes it appealing in the first place. Still we had a good wonder around but then ended the day with our worst meal yet in China, a spicy chicken dish without the spice (or flavour!). The following day was a story of sitting on a bus. After 4 hours we arrived at Ronjiang but saw no sign of anything attractive and no sign of the Sunday market so the decision was made to press on to Kaili, a supposed 5 hours away. Well, it was more like 7 hours but the rode wound through and over some absolutely spectacular mountain scenery with the high passes providing spectacular view of the mountains, the villages of wooden dwellings and their associated terraced fields clinging to the steep, forested slopes. Kaili itself is a typical sprawling urban affair with no reason to spend any real time so the following morning we went to the Maoi village of Xijiang on the advice of a tourist agent. Disappointment set in early with a 60 yen fee just to get into the village. When we then wondered around we found a tourist village, what we feared Zoaxing will become! It was pretty but too neat, too tidy and not enough "real life" going on to back up the superficial visual appeal. Still, making the best of a bad situation we had a couple of good walks around the fields and over the hills, managing to escape from the Chinese tourists. Our stay in Xijiang convinced us that we had had enough of villages full of wooden houses and so rather than visit any more thought it best to push on to Yunnan Provence.