Lijiang Wang Fu Hotel

... a rustic wooden bridge
cutely named The Bridge for Lovers on the shore of Lugu Lake whose
array of eggs blew me away. Here he was offering boiled
pale-green duck eggs that contained more goodness than their chicken
counterparts, as well as gigantic goose eggs each big enough to feed
four. I found one of the best cooks at a
lakeside restaurant where the proprietor netted a live carp from her
pond and effortlessly ...

... are rising
much faster than the global average. A good portion of the area’s
existing ice fields has been lost over the past four decades, and the
rate of retreat has increased in recent years. The slow-motion
demise of Baishui Glacier No. 1 will have far-reaching consequences. In
the short run, there will, of course, be an abundance of water. But in
the long run there will be deficits. These will have national security
consequences as ...

... br>These included singing, performing 25 press-ups and finding his bride's shoes.

"I had to do three kowtows to the sun," Hunt says. "OK, there were three kowtows to the Guardian as well," he says for balance.

An affable figure, who embodies the so-called "Cameroon"
modernisers, Hunt will become familiar to viewers over the next six
months ...

... 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 ...

... going to cause and international incident, but it did not. The guy was thrilled and had to get his picture taken with Bill. The climb was not tough, but the air was thin and I had to stop once in a while because my heart was pounding. Bill had a hard time catching his breath at first, but was fine once we got going. We made it to 4680 m, which is the top of the climb, and hung out for a while and took some pictures. I purchased an expensive iced tea (10 ...

... climb was actually the second highest point that we will reach on this journey at 3,200 metres above sea level. So we rose 700 metres in altitude today. The high altitude had me quite short of breathe and most us have to do the type of breathing that women do when delivering a baby, well at least that's what it reminded of ...

... bathroom. The trail went down and then continued to go down, it was too late to turn around. Finally, we found the place, really someones house with an extra couple of rooms. However, the view was amazing, it forced us to sit down and take notice. I was suffering from diarrhea so we decided to take a rest and eat some lunch. The couple was very friendly, but they spoke no English. They quickly handed us some notebooks and a Chinese ...

... Gorge and bid them a farewell the next day where I could no longer look over my flock. They asked me if I wanted to do the Gorge trek again, but I couldn't even consider it in my condition. It's funny, looking at their pictures, it looks as they did exactly what my blog says to do instead of what I did. There's nothing like current travel information from people that are going the other way instead of reading a guide book that is already out of date when it's published.

... washed out or blocked by landslides - some seriously hairy moments were our overloaded tincan Suzuki got millimetres from plummeting the 2000 metres to the river below!! On our final day in Lijiang we hired bikes and headed off the local villages. Ben is actually a geographer but we still spend most of our time lost. This day was no exception and we ended up teaming with another random bunch of travellers to find our way. Had a great day in this old school ...

... backpackers taking an empty water bottle with them to urinate into, emptying the contents out of the moving window and then passing it on to the next person. I attempt to quickly navigate the absolute maze that is Lijiang. Another mistake. It's designed surely to make a quick reconnaissance mission utterly impossible - maybe a bid to confuse the enemy in case of attack. A whole town built like a labyrinth with a very Chinese theme in mind. Old Lijiang ...