Naxi Family Shangri-La

We have struggled so hard to get to Shangrila, traveled through such beautiful country and met the Tibetan culture not too trammeled by outside influences.<br><br>There are no snow capped mountains but streets dedicated to hordes of tourists.<br><br>"Hordes of tourists" I hear you ask "how can they all have got there through those dreadful roads?" Well do ...

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... able to get some sleep. Still not sure what made me sick - as Jake and I have been eating the same thing throughout the whole trip. We joke that my body was protesting all the oil on the food here - as even the peanuts we ate at lunch were stir-fried in oil! Well, I figured I was bound to get sick at least once this trip - it just sucked that it was the one time we had a room without our own bathroom! At least the bathroom was rated number 1!!

... who regaled us with tales of derring do as he continued his trekking/camping trip towards Zhongdian while we all kicked back in toasty warm (comparitively) Lijiang. Certainly a hardy fellow... It was too dark to get a real impression of the town, but the snow brought out the 5 year olds in all of us, and the evening was spent sipping Tibetan wine and roaming the cobbled streets, throwing snowballs at each other (except for Raul ...

... Tibet are in exile, mostly living in India. Spirituality is the key to Shangri-La. James Hilton put everything in one place-the big snow-capped peak, fertile valley of the Blue Moon, the High Lama, the special community of Shangri-La, and the lamasery of Shangri-La. There are definite "Shangri-La moments" while traveling in the Himalayas-in Nepal, Tibet or Bhutan. That's more what I would define it as-Shangri-La moments, fleeting glimpses of the Himalayan utopia.

Well, it only took 2 hours to reach Shangri-La (or Zhongdian). the town is situated at an alititude of 3200 metres, so it feels harder to walk up hills and the like. Mark helped us find a hostel in the old town, which is very pretty, lots of old buildings (like Dali and Lijiang) but much fewer tourists. I guess as this is the end of Yunnan, not as many people make it up here. We met the whole group for dinner in a Tibetan restaurant owned by the ...

... da man die Provinz Tibet nicht besichtigt, man befindet sich aber in von Tibetanern bewohnten Gebieten). Fuer die Strecke muss man 5-6 Tage einplanen und im Winter ist sie nicht moeglich. Gruss Ralf P.S. Carrefour in Kunming war sehr enttaeuschend, haette ja gerne Kaese gekauft, den einzigen Kaese den sie hatten war importierter amerikanischer... Amerika ist ja bekannt fuer seinen guten Kaese:-)

... away. We descended back down to the base station and boarded a tour bus to a lake that is fed by the glacial run off. Typical of Glacial lakes it was a greenish blue color. Touristy yaks were giving tourists rides across the river. After a light (???) lunch of Yak meat, wild boar, several vegetable dishes, followed by buckwheat pancakes and bamboo rice we started for Tiger Leaping Gorge. The road was winding and narrow at time very bumpy and passing at your own ...

... through the village of Qiaotou. We saw some great traditional outfits as we passed through; the woman wore these very colourful dresses with big hats that i hadnt seen before, the pace through was slow as it was only a narrow street so it tok a fair while to get out the other side. The rest of the journey was pretty much spent nodding off and listening to music until we arrived back in Lijiang. The driver decided to stop the bus before we got to the bus station - which we ...

We stopped at KFC (again) for breakfast, having nearly cleared out doggy tummies now. A short walk took us to the Bus station where we would get a large mini-bus to Quitou, the west side of the Tiger Leaping Gorge. There were some other farangs on the bus heading to Zhondian, they had already done the gorge the previous day stating it was truly amazing. They recommended Mama Naxis back in Lijiang just incase we returned there, but we don't think we will be. Our stop was about 2 and a ...