Asia's largest 'cross-border' waterfall (and the world's 2nd largest, after Niagra Falls) is on the China-Vietnamese border, about 4 hours from Nanning. Last weekend a group of us decided to visit it. And it was spectacular!
We took a bus there and planned to spend the night. The problem was that none of the 4 of us spoke Chinese and there was no english spoken, and very little pinyin being used! Maybe I do need to learn the Chinese characters after all.
But, we managed, with phrasebooks and translating programmes. We organised a room (in a much better condition than I'd expected), got tickets to see the falls, and managed to find a return bus to Nanning. For meals, we've got a few staple dishes down in our limited Chinese so we'd ask for them and hope for the best! Some of the best food I've eaten so far was there, especially the Vienamese style egglant. We also got lucky that a Czech tour guide who was living in Guangzhou and taking Czech tourists around China (and spoke English) was there to help us at times.
When you approach the waterfall there is an option to take a bamboo raft towards the bottom of the falls. This we did and we got close enough to have a shower! We also spotten a man standing above the falls fishing. I'm not sure how successful he would have been.
The journey there was quite stunning, very green and rural. We'd pass rice paddies, pineapple plantations and plenty more of crops we were unfamiliar with!
We climbed up to the point where the mountains turn into Vietnam. This is not an official border crossing but it is marked.
This border area is filled with people selling the staple tourist stuff we see all over.
We also visited the neighbouring town of Shualong Town. There was little there but the guys went swimming (I was on camera duty) and we had a nice walk through town. We came across problems with ordering here and when we thought we'd ordered Coke and Sprite, we were presented with rice and snails!
Finally, we said good bye to Detian and returned to Nanning.
But, we managed, with phrasebooks and translating programmes. We organised a room (in a much better condition than I'd expected), got tickets to see the falls, and managed to find a return bus to Nanning. For meals, we've got a few staple dishes down in our limited Chinese so we'd ask for them and hope for the best! Some of the best food I've eaten so far was there, especially the Vienamese style egglant. We also got lucky that a Czech tour guide who was living in Guangzhou and taking Czech tourists around China (and spoke English) was there to help us at times.
When you approach the waterfall there is an option to take a bamboo raft towards the bottom of the falls. This we did and we got close enough to have a shower! We also spotten a man standing above the falls fishing. I'm not sure how successful he would have been.
with Carly on the raft
Carly, Mike & Becky
see the man in the middle?
This border area is filled with people selling the staple tourist stuff we see all over.
