Fortress Of The Chieftain Shangri-La

... a bit more challenging for foreigners wanting to go to Tibet since the pre-olympics events and Chinese government now requires all foreigners to go through a travel agency to get the Tibetan permit. We just have to find a better deal.

Then we learnt on October 20 that Tibet was closed for foreigners due to Chinese celebrations of the 60th anniversary of New China, until October 8th. Sh...ttt!

So we decided to ...

... is off a small base of last year - so small that last year many businesses closed and some barely survived.




Despite of the impact of worldwide economic crisis on tourism industry,
Deqen Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture in Yunnan Province shows a
prosperity in tourism market and becomes more and more popular for ...

... 1497;ע 14; אצבע, מסודר 93;ת כקשקש 97; נחש, והמים זורמי 01; מהם והלאה למטה. מידי כמה שניות זוחל לו גל מי ...

Our two weeks in Yunnan hasn't disappointed. In fact, it has exceeded expectations. A truly fascinating province with a magical and diverse range of landscapes from traditional towns, rice and tea paddies, karsts rising out of rivers and some of the highest mountains in the world.

Our trip northwards from the capital, Kunming, to Shangri-La (the start of the Tibetan world), has taken us through the wide range of scenery.

In terms of character, Yunann is very ...

... signs of getting better despite the fact that I was taking lozenges as well as liters and liters of water. Shangri-la was also a possibility as a starting point for my Tibet trip but by then Chengdu had caught my interest and before going I definitely needed to clear the throat problem. There were no flights from Shangri-La to Chengdu so I was back on the bus to Lijiang to then take a flight to Chengdu.

... des gens pour faire le trek du Kawa Karpo. Il me pose beaucoup de question sur moi et accepte que je fasse le trek avec lui et son ami qui est deja a Deqin pour l'organisation. Du coup, tout est organise pour moi. Trop facile!!! hehe! ah oui, heureusement que Wang fesait la traduction parce que Shen ne parle pas anglais et son ami parle juste un peu. Ca va etre joyeux.

... there are still 600 monks living, working and praying here, but I have seen less than one percent of that with my own eyes!They have their own villages with tradional tibetan white painted stone houses.Its all in one compound on a hill, and on top of it the monastery with its golden roof and decorations, a very attractive sight.To find the way to the "viewing platform" on ...

... is just a carrier for our soul and the body should be returned to nature as soon as it is no longer needed. On the top of a hill, the master of ceremonies, dressed in white overalls, begins hacking at the dead body with a saw until limbs are torn off and insides are on show. This man is special in the Buddhist world and is not allowed to marry or have children; the job being passed on to one of his nephews. Then he stands back and a huge flock of vultures feast ...

... hour or so of the walk was a fairly mild climb to the Naxi Family guesthouse, where a wedding was taking place. I'm beginning to appreciate Naxi hospitality - we were invited in and brought an immense amount of food. Papa Naxi from Lijiang was there as well, smiling as ever, and the beautiful bride and groom were obliging when it came to photographs. Being a big table of foreigners, the locals all seemed to want to drink with us. It took ...

... me off ;) After settling in to our hotel we went to a restaurant called Ma Ma Hu (I think) which serves traditional Naxi style food. (The Naxi are a minority in this area.) To get to this restaurant you need to "walk the plank" - the entrance is across one of the streams which run throughout the town so they have installed a kind of bridge with no rails. It wasn't very long but long enough to make us nervous crossing it in the rain! The decor of this restaurant ...