Finally the weather is with us! We woke up to a nice and sunny morning today. Shir had a bit of a fever last night but it wore off during the day. The kids were overjoyed to spill out of the RV right after breakfast and run around the gravel around the motorhome. Not that they don’t like their current home. In fact, both Shir and Orr can now say RV! We crossed the border into
It was snowing a bit at night but by morning only 2 or 3 inches accumulated on grassy patches, and the road was clear. It was very cold outside, probably -5 Celsius. Outside the RV the cold and wind were bone chilling, but inside it was nice and cozy, except right next to the windows.
The kids woke us up at 6am after several episodes during the night. Ron puked twice for some unknown reason. (more…)
Silver Sky RV Park,
Today was a long day on the road. That road is called Route 50. It starts in
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We woke up to a cold rainy day. I went to the campground office to check road conditions and although it was snowing in the
Today is an all Tibetian day. The city of Shangrila (Zhiongiang) sits at the elevation of 3450 meters.
the highest point of today’s escapades was 3700 meters. Around us we can see the mountain tips of the eastern part of Himalaya with snowcaps on top. We went to see the highest lake in the Yunnan Region, elevation 3600 m. (remember lake Tahoe?), the lake Bita (Alon in hebrew) named so because of the trees surrounding it. At this hight in Europe or the States the mountains are bare, but here everything is green and many forests. Again we had to walk on a kind of boardwalk about 3 km, and at that altitude it is quite an achievemnt. Rachel did quite well. We saw a lot of chinese people there – remember they have a week off in honour of the May 1st labour day. Many of them walking with oxygen masks. The air was thin, but pure and with perfect visibility. Since our arrival to Beijing and up to Xian the visibility was quite poor.
Our local guide is a Tibetian women of 24, Dorma is her Chinglish name. Her real name is quite complicated. When they enter studies of tourism and the English language, they get an english name. She is single, living in Shangri La in a rented room withouth toilets and bath. She is taking a shower once a week in a public place. When some of us invited her to take a shower in the hotel, she refused explaining that this is customary here. Her parents are farmers living 600 km away, deep in Tibet. She is one of 5 children. She is nice and speaks not so fluent Chinglish (Chinese English).
Later we visited a Tibetian Temple, a replica of the big one in Lhassa. quite impressive, colorfull with Tibetian buddhas everywhere. Situated on a top of a hill, it has a very impressive view, but the approach quite difficult. Again Rachel did not disappoint and saw all the buddhas, as most of the group (but not all).
Everywhere one can feel the preparations for the Olympic year. The road to the temple is being reconstructed, The entrance to the lake reserve is being built from scratch, a lot of chinese working everywhere to get ready on time.
The evening we spent dancing in the main square along with a million or so chinese and in a tea house sipping some butter tea with cookies (chinese of course).
Tomorrow early we fly to Kunming, the Capital of Yunnan, elevation 2000.
Goodnight
Abraham
Hello all
This evening we arrived to Ziongjang (Shangri-la) which geographically and historically belongs to Tibet, but now it is a part of the Yunan province. The town is situated at around 3000 meters above sea level. In the hotel room in the mini bar they have Oxygen bottles! We went to the main square of the old city and found thousands of chinese poeple of all ages sexes and appearances (including folk dresses) dancing in one big circle with many other concentric ones, some kind of chinese folk dances. We joined of course, including Mom, Varda and Elisheva.
This morning we left Lijiang, this beautiful little town of 1 million people, with its old town and picturesque little narrow streets. We rode along the Yangtse river. At some point there is a path of 1.5 kilometers leading to some viewpoints, where the river runs fast with many rapids. Mom did the whole trip by foot, there and back! Kol Hakavod. Then we visited a typical Tibetian Village and a house. Little children met us at the entry murmuring something that appeared to be: one yuan. Their faces are typical mongolian type, they are dirty and with snotty noses. Most of the houses are built of wood and tit. The one we entered was an all wooden one and quite nice, with a lot of electrical appliances. To enter it you have to climb steep wooden stairs, one floor up (the first floor is occupied by their animal stock – mostly pigs, but they have cows and yaks). Over there a big room with wood stove, Mao`s picture, and dried meat hanging from the ceiling. the man of the house was working in the yard, preparing wooden blocks for his house. A few of the neighbours little kids escorted us inside.
After leaving Lijiang we lost connection thru Cellcom. We are staying here (Ziongjang) for 2 nights and then flying to Kunming, a big City in the south. I hope there our connection will resume.
In Ziongjang (I may be misspelling the name, but Mom is sleeping and I cannot take a look into the map or papers) we are in the Holy Palace hotel tel (86 887) xxx xxxx room xxxx. I hope to write you tomorrow as well since in this hotel the internet bussines center is open 24 hours. In the previous ones we arrived to the hotels after closing times (22:00).
Hemi, How is your trip going on. Where are you now?
Regards and kisses
Abraham
p.s.
1. Our group is quite good, with very little exceptions. The ages are from mid forties to at least one 74 year old. But he is in no worse shape then i am, I found it out when we both hurried up from the bank of the Yellow river in ChonQuing, to the upper boardwalk, on stairs and he jept up with me!
2. The group started to learn a Polish song the melody of which we danced in the main square in Chongquing. I am the teacher and the our guide is very entusiasting about it.
Good night
Update: Click here for pictures
It was a cold night but our heater did a good job and none of us froze. Ron had to pee in the middle of the night but other than that it was quiet. No bears came around either. We got up to a nice and sunny day.
After getting ourselves together we set off for a hike to
On the way back Shir and Orr fell asleep in the stroller. When we got back to the RV, it was warming up so I stayed outside with them while Paola prepared a tasty lunch for us. We had lunch on the picnic table at the campground for the first time. So much easier for cleanup than inside the RV!
Later we debated staying another night at
Going to bed now, a lot of driving tomorrow…
Hemi
PS – pictures will come soon, once we have a fast Internet connection
We woke up to a cloudy day that promised to be cooler and wetter than we would like. After getting ourselves organized we set off from the campground to
We drove to our campground for tonight which is in
Sweet dreams
Hemi
Yosemite Pines RV Park, tachometer – 192 miles.
Today finally arrived! The moment most people dream of, is happening to us. We are at the end of our first day of our Big Trip, which will last until early next year. Paola and I still can’t believe we are doing this.
The last 2 weeks have been very hectic for us. We had to pack up our house for storage, prepare stuff for our North America RV tour, prepare additional stuff for the rest of our vacation afterwards, and prepare stuff that will go with us to Israel when we end our world tour. Tonight, all those worries are behind us, and we are settling in to our home for the next 3 and a half months.
On Friday the movers came and emptied our house, or so we thought. The amount of junk we still had to either pack, donate, or throw out was immense. If anything, moving is an exercise in cleaning out all the stuff you don’t really need. It took us most of the weekend to tidy up. Yesterday (Monday morning) Ron had a farewell at his preschool and then Paola and I went to pick up our RV.
Our RV is a newer model than what we had last month during our Pesach Trip, and there are some minor changes compared to the older one. Some are for the better, some are a little disadvantageous for our 3 tots configuration. Since we had the luxury of loading the RV from our house, we have about 3 times more stuff on this vehicle than we did last month. It took us 4 hours to load, and ever since yesterday we are working on fitting everything into the cupboards, closets and other nooks and crannies in the RV.
On Sunday and Monday night we stayed with Gal and Adi, as we no longer had enough furniture at home. It was fun for Ron to have a sleepover with his friend Roy. Although Roy is 2.5 years older, they got along very well and looked very cute sleeping together on a huge inflatable bed. Last night Dan and Yael also came over to say goodbye and we had a long evening of laughs.
Benny really helped us out over the weekend, serving as primary entertainment for the kids, while Paola and I were packing up. Thanks Bro!
This morning we loaded the last of our stuff onto the RV, ran some final errands and by noon were on our way. Our first stop is Yosemite National Park. We are now 22 miles west of the park in an RV campground that has full hookup. This means that we are connected to running water, sewage, and electricity. Unfortunately, these luxuries do not exist at the campgrounds within the National Parks (monopoly by NPS?) . So everywhere you go there is always the dilema of living in comfort or living where the action is.
That’s it for now, I am pooped after several weeks of poor sleep. Time to hit the sack…
Hemi