Close Quarters Sleeping
Trip Start
Mar 14, 2006
1
65
374
Trip End
Mar 15, 2007
Lijiang,
China
Thursday, May 18, 2006
Idan was not feeling so good this morning and had been up most of the night which meant we had a later than planned start which didn't really matter as it was only a 1.5 hour walk down to the road to Tina's guest house were we hoped to get a bus back to Qiaotou at the start of the gorge. The sun took a while also before it cleared the peaks of the mountains opposite giving an amazing view of it breaking over the snow capped ridges, so it would stay cooler this morning for a while at least.
Idan and Lihi had actually planned to continue north to the Tibetan village of Zhongdian, also known as Shangrila, but with Idan not feeling well they decided to head back to Lijiang and just get their visa extended while I needed to get a ticket to Kunming to get my visa for Vietnam sorted
Goat
.We took it slow and easy once we started to walk this morning but with plenty of sporadic stops, this time not due to anyones tiredness but Idans sudden need to nip behind the nearest bush or rock with toilet paper at hand, not the best place to get a touch of diorea. Maybe it was the sound of the rushing river all night, poor guy, but that still did not stop Lihi and I making side quips all day - well you have to don't you. :-)
Luckily, for Idan more than anyone else, we caught a bus at Tina's heading all the way back to Lijiang with the driver being kind enough to stop whenever Idan began to make a dash for the door. The bus ride through the gorge gave us some good views of it from the bottom but also of a less than welcome mini-landslide that started just in front of us with loose rocks from above spilling on to the road, from the state of the road and the driver proceeding to drive through just a few moments after I'm guessing this is fairly regular with the bus teetering on the edge of the road at times with a sheer drop down to the rapids of the river below.
Back in Lijiang bus station I managed to get a ticket to Kunming on a sleeper bus leaving tonight although I only just had enough money for the ticket as for some reason all the Bank of China ATMs I tried were rejecting my card, not good when it is the only bank that does accept foreign issued cards.
After one last meal at Mama's Naxi Guesthouse she then gave me a small Naxi necklace thing for good luck and a bag of fruit for the journey like she does all leaving guests, really great place to stay
Long Way Down
. I then said goodbye to Idan and Lihi as we parted company after traveling a good chunk of China together with even more gift exchanging going on though this time it was some Israeli medicine for a dodgy stomach I had now developed. Even with her good nature we were still unsure of the unknown pills Mama Naxi produced for Idan and with two cats and a dog in the place we really did wonder what they for.Trying unsuccessfully once more a branch or Bank of China near the bus station I then boarded my bus to find that my bed was right at the back in the middle of 5 other beds with no separation between them meaning that when lying down you were touching the elbows of the people on either side of you, this was going to be a long journey. The only relief was that the others beside me were relatively small giving me a bit more room including a small local Naxi women in complete traditional dress.
