Songtsam Retreat At Shangri-La

... things seemed to be looking up. Unfortunatley this didnt last long and when we were still 2 hours away from Shangri-La we mad to change to another car.<br><br>We got back over four hours later than the others who had gone by 4wd and we had just enough time to move our bags to our hotel room and marvel at our toilet where no yak or hourse blocked the route to it before we were called down by the Zhang guide, he wanted to show us a shop selling Zhang steel swords ...

... in Sichuan, but English is still very rarely spoken there, many things simply don&#8217;t work, hot showers are not something you don't take for granted, western toilets with seats are non-existent and I&#8216;ve probably mentioned about the roads, haven't I? In Shangri-la everything is different and the old town has been restored and filled with shops that sell trekking gear or anything Tibetan you can think of. In addition to the Chinese and Tibetan cuisine ...

... typical Buddhist shrine and outside is an oven for cooking offerings. Next to the oven is the Tibentan-style prayer flag stick bundle and prayer flag lines. We climbed the hill at sunset and so had a very picturesque view of the sunset over Shangri-La amidst fluttering prayer flags and tinkling bells. <br><br>While in Shangri-La we attempted to secure passage into Tibet, only to finally find that it is simply impossible to make a budget tour of Tibet. Chinese can ...

... et aux pas de douches parce que prendre une douche par moins 5, non merci. sachant que l eau est chauffee au bois et un mince filet d eau chaude, je suis pas prete psychologiquement. et sutout aux nausees ou au mal de tete. faudra attendre un peu avant de gravir l hymalaya. demain, normalement je pars vers des petits villages , moins touristique avec la francaise. explorer la nature. see you soon

... tibetaine, la philosophie bouddhique et le statut de cette region. La nuit a ete tres agreable grace aux couvertures chauffantes !!! Et oui ici il fait tres froid mais il n'y a pas de chauffage, tout est chauffe au feu de bois (meme l'eau chaude) !! 2eme jour: visite du monastere bouddhique de la ville: magnifique ! Et balade sur le plateau au milieu des chevaux et des yaks, c'etait superbe !

... in Tibet (I think this is the nearest we will get to it on this trip). As we walked at we witnessed another public fight, this time between a group of Tibetan women dressed in traditional clothes and one woman dressed in regular clothes. We don't know what it was about, but something had seriously upset all the parties involved. After buying a genuine Tibetan bottle friom the obligatory souvenir seller, we headed back to Shangri-La and then ...

... book and all of the travel agencies put together. Outside of town there is a large monastery which he (the Californian) advised us to visit and like he said it is very big and impressive monastery with some 600 monks. In spite of the intermittent rain we climbed all the steps up to the top of the hill to the monastery buildings ...

Yes, as the title implies I've finally managed to escape the smog. I flew out of Guilin on Friday afternoon and after a short stop over in Kunming made it to Lijiang late Friday evening. First impressions of Lijiang are good. It's at about 2500m which means lovely bright warm days with blue sky and fluffy clouds and cool evenings. A perfect combination in my book! Had a bit of a nightmare finding my hostel. I was meant to be ...

Despite both Andrew and I being a little under the weather, I had been looking forward to hiking Tiger Leaping Gorge since reading about it in the travel guide a whole three weeks ago. So as soon as our bodies peacefully accepted the food we put into it, we decided that it was time to leave lovely Lijiang and head for the hills. We boarded the 9am bus and were put in the very back seats in the corner - Andrew's head hitting the roof at every bump was none too amusing. About ...