GuiZhou Trip

Page 12

LiPou (6th Sep)

WHERE AM I!!!??? What happened last night?

I am inside the "7 Small Holes" scenic area a couple of hours drive from LiPou city when I wake up. Ok, I know, I was drunk last night at dinner. After drinking non-stop for a few days, the accumulated alcohol in me finally took over. I felt asleep right after I got into the car that drove me here.

Xiao* Yang works at the Education Bureau of LiPou. He is to drive me to "7 Small Holes", sightsee, and take me back to DuShan for another around of relay.

Good news is, I have only one person following me this time. Bad news is, I have only till 11am to check out this place. And it's already 8:30am now.

I thought I was in control .. .. What happened to lone backpacker Kam?

* (This Yang is younger than me so I call me "Xiao" Yang, as oppose to "Lao" Yang who is older than I am)

This is where "7 Little Holes" got it's name. Count the holes in the bridge.	"7 Little Hole" is a place of water.	.. ..	water .. ..
.. ..	and water .. ..	Yao tribe lives inside the "7 Little Hole" area.	Another "hanging foot" hut. They keep pigs at the bottom.

"Mr. Leung, why don't you come into the car. We can drive thru the whole place in an hour", Xiao Yang is driving very slowly behind me all the way while I insist on picturing "7 Little Holes" on foot. The intension is good but darn, I have a car following me! That is a little more attention than a lone backpacker needs.

After the first section of water scenery, I hop onto the car and Xiao Yang takes me to this "Bell of Heaven Cave".

It's not a big cave but it's alive. Water is dripping everywhere in the cave, wires are not cemented to natural lime stones, visitors are confined to designated path, etc. It's a cave well managed by mainland China standard. I enjoy it the minute I walk into it.

Turn up your monitor's brightness while you view these PICs.	The Bell the cave is named after. 20+ feet wide.	It dripped for hundreds of thousands of years to make a stalactite this big.	Look left.
Look right.	Look up.	Look everywhere.

After the cave, it's another water area.

GuiLin style lime stone hills.	This is artificial.	But still, it's breath-taking.
			This is a PIC badly exposed. I can't believe I make such a beginner's mistake. But I am not digitally altering it to cover up my mistake.
2 1/2 hours zoom by. We are leaving .. ..	On our way back, we pass by the "7 Big Holes" scenic area. Too bad, no time to go in there.	I realize that the trip is not up to me any more. I bet there are more arrangements ahead.

On our way back to DuShan.

It's a simple bowl of rice noodle I eat on a roadside. We have bits of deep pork fat, scramble free range chicken's egg and thick meat soup. My gosh, it's a 4.5x!!!
These kids are super cute and smiling big until I point my camera at them. Maybe I should bring some candy when I PIC kids.	Villagers going to a market that meets once a week.	Back from the market.	Harvesting rice.

Near the evening, Xiao Yang passes me to QS officials. We head back to DuYuen.

"Ge Ge Yu" [Horn-Horn-Fish

] dinner. Cat fish again!

Same kind of spicy and sour hot pot. See the water glass on the table? Yes, you guess right, it's liquor again!

Back in DuYuen, I see Lao Yang again. I am informed (I am invited at the surface but I don't think I have a choice) that I will go to a couple of school foundation stone lying ceremonies in the coming 2 days. How come it's not sightsee? But it would be nice to PIC all the kids at the ceremony. So as if I had a choice, I say "yes".

I didn't know that is when the most unexpected is gonna happen .. .. ..