Hexi Hotel Lijiang

... an array of dishes,
ready to fry anything, including jelly bean, bean curd, xueguanchang
(sausage filled with yak blood and rice), potatoes and other
vegetables. Having spent most of my childhood in Kunming, capital of Yunnan, I'm a diehard fan of mixian (rice noodles).
As we climbed to the second floor of
a restaurant in Dayan, the narrow, steep staircase shuddered and
groaned. But the food and the view were well ...

... downward motion. Scientists speak
about the reactive behavior of these glaciers as if they were almost
human. The Tibetan and Naxi peoples who inhabit this region treat them,
and their mountain hosts, as embodiments of deities and spirits.
Now, a growing number of glaciers are losing their equilibrium, or
their capacity to build up enough snow and ice at high altitudes to
compensate for the rate of melting at lower ones. After surveying the
Lijiang City, Yunnan Province, China happysheep

... culture secretary, was marrying his Chinese partner
Lucia in a pre-revolutionary ceremony.
"We went back to what a wedding would have been like pre-1949 - that
involved us going through the streets with a sedan chair carried by my
family," Hunt says, recalling how he had to undergo a series of tests
before his family could carry away his bride ...

... work in the Embassy there.. Had a good lunch & rested & chatted for an hour before the next stage which would be the hardest for the day. They call it the "28 bends" - a series of switchbacks that takes us vertically up to 2800 metres above the gorge & we had a tough 900 metre ascent to do.. It was hard work & I had to step every couple of switchbacks to get my breath back. The horseman ...

... in 1935 with the aide of the townspeople. At the bottom of the path there was an old wooden bridge. This bridge is over 120 years old. There were lots of boys swimming in the river and 2 old men playing Naxi music. We walked through the market and over to the river bank. Bill was yelled at for wanting to walk down to the water. We had to stay up on the paved path behind the railing! We got back into the van and stopped along the way back at a monastery ...

... ordinary downhill because this was also on cobblestones for the whole way down. The scenery was quite stunning and I stopped a few times for photos. Those use to mountain biking got down very quickly whilst others took it cautiously. I managed to get confidence early on and picked up quite a speed but just 3kms from the bottom I got a puncture and ...

... were covered in this debris. Day two the men - all from the Bai minority - were back at it. Do you know the program on TV 'The Last of the Summer Wine'? They were a bit like the old fellas from that program. Chattering away, occasionally arguing. Preferring to sit and de-shell sunflower seeds. Or to comment on the actions of the foreigner. In a bizarre coincidence on the second day I brought them a bottle of alcoholic spirit as a thank you to them ...

... when there were no more seats on the public buses, he got me a seat on a private van that was going to Lugu Hu and walked me all the way to find the guy who had the van. There were a bunch of Israelis that wanted to go the same day as I did, but he told them it was sold out and they couldn't go. Mama will store your bags at no charge if you go to the sights around Lijiang. She seemed sad when I told her that I was only going 1 way to Lugu Lake and wasn't coming back. I ...

... loudly some song in Chinese and then shouts to the other group "Yaso Yaso Ya-Ya-So!" (Summer and Vivian told us "Yaso" means "Come on"). I still do not understand how do you win this contest, but it's really amusing to see them doing that. We are now staying and Lijiang and try to decide what to do next. We'll see... The pictures are in: http://picasaweb.google.com/ormeir2/Lij iang And Eyal's pictures are in: http://picasaweb.google.com/eyalis/Chin a3 Goodbye for now, Or

... open up below us, to our right. We stop for lunch at the Naxi guesthouse. It offers us simple noodles and meat. We have other supplies as well - Like our yak jerky. Tough dried strips of Tibetan bullocks which eventually soften in the mouth and become tender like beef. It's light to carry and will provide enough energy to live through a mild Himalayan nightmare, or so we hope. We meet one older gentleman having lunch at the Naxi and he seems to be trekking alone. He tells us he's ...