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Arrival at Mama Naxi's
Entry 32 of 102 | show all | print this entry |
After spending four nights in Dali it was time to move on. Plans to get the early bus fell out of the window and I ended up getting the 2:30 bus. The conductress was dressed up in traditional Dali dress and gave everybody a bottle of water and a key ring in the design of a silhouette of a naked woman. A little unusual.
The bus pulled into the "New Town" section of Lijiang. This section of the city is a mass of concrete building that look as though they were built by the Ikea design team. Consequently the first task was to get to "Old Town". I'd been recommended Maxi Naxi's by a few people. I'd spent sometime on the net looking for the address and eventually found it. There were a Spanish couple who were also interested in finding the same place so we teamed up. After asking for directions and getting nowhere I showed the address to a few taxi drivers. Unfortunately I only had the address in English (Roman?) script rather than Chinese so the taxi drivers weren't able to help. In fact, they were positively afraid of the paper. One threw up his hands and ran away whilst one refused to look at it and covered his eyes incase it would turn him to stone. So it was back to asking for directions.
It seems that there are several bus stations and we had no idea which one we were at. And the directions to Old Town seemed contradictory. Eventually we were approached by an English speaker who told us there were TWO old towns. We got directions to the right Old Town and 15 minutes later we were there. At this point the Spanish bloke pulled out a business card with Mama Naxi's address on it in Chinese. If he'd got it out half an hour ago then we could have saved half an hour and a lot of hassle. I suggested we use it to get a taxi from here but they were unwilling to spend the 25 cents on the fare (Talk about being on a tight budget). As they had the card I ending up walking with them. We showed it to 20 odd people as we walked around the narrow, twisting streets and eventually got to Mama Naxi's about 30 minutes later.
The Naxi's are descended from Tibetan Qiang tribe and are a matrilineal society. They are not technically matriarchal as men do get to be "rulers". The title "ruler" seems to give them the illusion that they have some power. A bit like the title "husband" ;-).
Mama Naxi is definitely in charge of this household and has every organised from guests to her husband. Her husband seems nice enough but I think he has had any form of resistance beaten out of him a long time ago. He walks around with a bit of a hunch as if he is afraid of being hit over the back of the head by his wife at any moment. Mama Naxi pretty much takes charge of everything. I've seen a few guests mention that they are thing of going to Chengdu and she's been on the phone organising bus tickets and lifts to the station before anybody had chance to say "I'm just thinking about it". I was discussing Tibetan options with a Swedish guy here
and before we knew Mama Naxi had called around and had about 30 different options and prices for us. Looks like I should have my Tibetan plans sorted before I leave.
I managed to get out and see some of the Old Town last night. Although I stuck to the main streets and it is too easy to get lost here (it was hard enough fining the guesthouse in the first place). The city was virtually destroyed by an earthquake in 1996 that was over seven on the Ricker scale. Most of the new buildings were destroyed but the old ones were left standing. I guess they don't make them like they used to. The government took notice and rebuild the Old Town in the traditional manor. This helped the whole Lijiang country be listed as a World Heritage Site in 1999. All of the buildings were lit up and there were lots of girls outside the restaurants and pubs singing away trying to get customers into their restaurants. One even had an Eminem "8 Mile" style battle going on between two girls in the balcony and three in the street. I didn't stay out too long incase I got lost again.
I had a look around the streets this morning (now that there is less change of getting lost). There are some big mountains surrounding the city that I didn't see last night. I'm not sure how high up we are. I've been told 3,000m but that seems a few hundred metres too high to me. But either way, it looks like I'm getting closer and closer to the Tibetan Plateau.
Latest Comments (4)
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Mama Naxi address (reply)
Oct 3, 2007 14:45 EST by williwinkle
Hi we just got back from a two month journey around certain parts of China and we also visited Mama Naxi and I can write out her address but only in English and this is from her card here we go; Gu CHENG XIANG GE YUN KE ZHAN (I don't know what this means but it is written as the card's header. Address; 78 Wen Hua, Wu Yi, Da Yan
(more important the phone number which is an even greater help) 08... show all
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Address and phone (reply)
Oct 31, 2006 07:01 EST by chris74
Try these:
Address: 78 Wuyi Street
E-mail: zhao_gang1982@yahoo.com
Phone: +(86)-888-5185930/5100700
Chris
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Re: mama naxi (reply)
Oct 30, 2006 06:32 EST by chris74
Hi,
I afraid I've past her business card on. I just googled her and after a while I found her address and phone number. The address in English won't help you much so I'd call her for a pick up.
Good luck,
Chris
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In reply to:
hi chris it was good to read about your experince of trying to find mama naxi's.... show all
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mama naxi (reply)
Oct 29, 2006 06:50 EST by tiffany0
hi chris it was good to read about your experince of trying to find mama naxi's. i am also trying to find where it is so if you get this it would be great if you could either pass on her number or her address.
thank u it is much appreciated.
tiffay
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