Yixiang Hotel Shangri-La

Joel's third chance to become an orphan.<br><br>Finally we leave Litang and board a real bus. After some chaos we get a seat each. The bus is dangerously overloaded but we have real seats for the 12 hour trip. We are very comfortable, I am reading and Carl is almost asleep when one hour into the trip our driver hits a rock the size of a sofa. The bus topples alarmingly and I fear we will be tumbling into the abyss. In a heart stopping instant the bus ...

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... seen on local busses and we wondered why they happened to be on this particular one until we realized that the Lonely Planet guidebook gave specific instructions on how to get to TLG using this local bus. Otherwise, foreigners apparently book transportation through their hotel and get herded onto expensive (and probably plush) tour busses. <br><br>We, on the other hand, take the smelly, smoky, and not-nearly-cheap-enough Chinese public transportation. The bus to ...

... s where we quickly got going. The going was demanding. In order not to hold the others up I gave in a hired a burro and guide to take me up the '28 bends' and another short stretch. Total 160 Y] From the high pont at 2670 m. I did all the rest on my own. We got to Tea Horse GH about 4pm had some beers in the warm setting sun, had dinner and early to bed under warm ...

Today was the first big cycle day - 50kms including a 9 km hill right up. Very tough with the altitude and the lack of hill training. One of the girls had to be pushed up by Cathy, the Chinese cyclist. My bum was super sore and the cold went straight through us. Was five degrees as we hung around a guard house waiting for permission to cycle into the National Park. We went down into a valley with a great lake ...

... recipes. We learnt how to do the yak croquettes, fruit curry, the pork ribs and vegetable pakoras. They use a very wide range of spices, some that we have never heard of (but I am sure we will be able to find them back in London). After our cookery class we chilled out with the gang round the fire at the Tibetan cultural centre, that is the Americans temporary home for the month they have been here. That night we went to the Puppet ...

... been carved out of the side of the gorge that was level and only about 5 km roundtrip. We hiked to the stone that the tiger was supposed to have leaped in order to cross the gorge. The view of the gorge was very beautiful and worth the side trip. We then began our next leg of our Journey, to Zhongdian (Shangri-La). It took about two hour arriving after 7PM. We quickly checked into our hotel and went to get a light bite to eat (it was this time) consisting of ...

... time was spent looking around and still we didn't find it, so we left him in the old town and started out on foot. Eventually we found the hostel and it was a dump and our room reflected the conditions there. We'd arrived in the evening so the following morning we booked into the next door cheep hotel which was a whole lot better ...

... were but i guess we just had to get off as even the locals had to dismount!! Once we were all off and the bus drove away, he stopped to pick back up the chinese passengers so he must have mentioned to them before hand of his plan!! Cheeky git.. Anyway we did eventually find our way back to mamas and yes she did come and pick us up for free and yes even though it was gone 7pm (tea is served at 6) she still cooked us all a banquet when we got in.. I love Mama.. :) The rest of ...

... which oozed out of the crisp Naxi style naan bread. Deciding that we would stay the night, we left our bags in the room, conceding to the fact that we would never find a hotel showing the premiership, (why wasn't there this many Spurs games on the box earlier on in the season!). The room was large and clean, a shame about the toilets, but something you have to get used to, especially in rural China. The next day we woke early hoping to bypass the Y50 entrance fee to the ...