Trip Report: Shilin
Mike and I are interested in unusual rock formations. I never noticed rocks before I started climbing (my photos from a 2000 trip to Yosemite look completely different to me now) but now I am a rock junky.
So Mike and I hopped on the train for a day trip to Shilin, which is the home of unusual karst limestone rock pillars. We met some backpackers on the train—three guys fresh out of college, touring southeast Asia before they get real jobs. I found them incredibly boring so I kept my nose in my book. (I was reading “Wild Swans”—really interesting memoir of growing up during the Cultural Revolutions)
At Shilin station, we had three choices to get to the forest—riding in the back of a horse drawn cart (1 yuan each), in the back of the three wheeled motorcycle taxi (2 yuan each) or in a microbus (10 yuan each). We chose the second option and sped off to Naigu (3,3) Stone Forest.
We wandered around the stone forest park. Tall gray limestone pillars all around us. A group of Chinese girls giggling in front of one tall skinny suggestive specimen. The whole place was pretty empty and felt artificial, right down to the neatly manicured lawns and strategically planted flowers,
We got bored so decided to walk back to the train station. It was only about eight kilometers but every motorcycle taxi and minibus driver that drove by offered us a ride and looked horrified when we declined.
The walk back was quite nice. It was a scene of rural tranquility, a la Beethoven’s pastoral symphony. We walked through red fields neatly planted with rows of green crops. Goats wandered around eating grass. People were out walking behind ox-driven plows. Horses trotted past, pulling carts full of brush. And, jutting out in the middle of the fields, were the limestone pillars.
We got back to the train station thinking that we had a couple of hours to kill before getting out train back to Kunming. Lonely Planet lied again! We had to wait five hours for our train. I was glad to have my book but Mike was bored out of his skull. Lunch and dinner both came from the train station—instant ramen noodles, cookies, soda. I felt like ass.
We got into Kunming after midnight and decided that we had had enough. It was time to leave the city. The next day, we got a bus to Lijiang.
So Mike and I hopped on the train for a day trip to Shilin, which is the home of unusual karst limestone rock pillars. We met some backpackers on the train—three guys fresh out of college, touring southeast Asia before they get real jobs. I found them incredibly boring so I kept my nose in my book. (I was reading “Wild Swans”—really interesting memoir of growing up during the Cultural Revolutions)
At Shilin station, we had three choices to get to the forest—riding in the back of a horse drawn cart (1 yuan each), in the back of the three wheeled motorcycle taxi (2 yuan each) or in a microbus (10 yuan each). We chose the second option and sped off to Naigu (3,3) Stone Forest.
We wandered around the stone forest park. Tall gray limestone pillars all around us. A group of Chinese girls giggling in front of one tall skinny suggestive specimen. The whole place was pretty empty and felt artificial, right down to the neatly manicured lawns and strategically planted flowers,
We got bored so decided to walk back to the train station. It was only about eight kilometers but every motorcycle taxi and minibus driver that drove by offered us a ride and looked horrified when we declined.
The walk back was quite nice. It was a scene of rural tranquility, a la Beethoven’s pastoral symphony. We walked through red fields neatly planted with rows of green crops. Goats wandered around eating grass. People were out walking behind ox-driven plows. Horses trotted past, pulling carts full of brush. And, jutting out in the middle of the fields, were the limestone pillars.
We got back to the train station thinking that we had a couple of hours to kill before getting out train back to Kunming. Lonely Planet lied again! We had to wait five hours for our train. I was glad to have my book but Mike was bored out of his skull. Lunch and dinner both came from the train station—instant ramen noodles, cookies, soda. I felt like ass.
We got into Kunming after midnight and decided that we had had enough. It was time to leave the city. The next day, we got a bus to Lijiang.
posted by Michelle at 5:46 a.m.
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