Lijiang and Fried Eggs with Chopstix

Trip Start Sep 01, 2007

Trip End Oct 22, 2007

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Flag of China Lijiang, China
Saturday, October 6, 2007

Annie recently read and thoroughly enjoyed a book called "Fried Eggs with Chopsticks" by Poly Evans, this morning we got the opportunity to experience just that as the hotel had knives but no forks. Instead we opted for the fried egg on toast with fingers method. Sadly our guide informed us that we were not able to move to our preferred hotel so we told him that we wanted a better room that night.

First stop on today's tour was the cable car up to a forest with a view of the Jade Dragon Snow Mountain. We were hoisted up from just below 3,000 metres above sea level to about 3,200 via the approximately 950 metres long chair lift. Even though it was a bit overcast and the mountain was somewhat shrouded in mist and cloud, it was still a beautiful place to be. They have built an environmentally friendly wooden walkway for people to have a good walk around the area without trampling all over the natural vegetation. it is really good to see some care being taken for the environment.

One thing we could not understand is how come, in an area of such natural beauty, are there such DISGUSTING toilets?! It is astounding how poor the hygiene is no matter where you go

Lijiang Forest

. From the beauty of this natural area to the sanctity of the Giant Pandas and every public or restaurant toilets, they are all the same stinking, dirty place where holding ones nose does little to help. Apologies for the graphicness of this toilet tirade but, given what we and especially Annie have had to see and experience, it had to be said at some point in this travelogue :-)

After that toilet tirade I can move onto more beauty, the lake and the "white water".

The melting glacier water passes over and through the most amazing rock pool and water fall creation by erosion that I have seen. It is a step-like formation that at first Annie was convinced was man-made but on inspection and questioning we discovered it was all natural. With the guide holding me firmly (and having a few heart attacks along the way) I managed to get down to the waters edge to feel how cold it was, it did indeed feel glacial.

Then it was off to a nearby village called Baisha where we were to have lunch and see some famous ancient religious frescos. Continuing with Poly Evans' book and experiences, we ate the most delicious Lijiang fish accompanied by fried corn, a very tasty Naxi sandwich of local cheese, tomato and chilli and, for the first time in ages, a can of diet coke. Heaven! (The Naxi, pronounced "Nashi", are a fascinating people and are one of many Chinese minority groups, most of them live in the Yunnan province)

We wandered around the town to the temple where the 600 year old frescos were

Lijiang Forest

. They were somewhat similar to some of the frescos / murals we saw in Tibet but used different and bigger symbols for describing the scenes and stories. These covered the Tibetan Buddhist, Taoist and Dongba religions but were a bit dark for me so had Annie in her explaining role.

The walk out of the temple took us through tourist-shop-alley where we had many offers to "lookkey here" or "cheapo cheapo". They were all very friendly and not at all pushy. At one point along the way I sat down to watch a game of Mah Jong (as if I actually knew what as going on!). We noticed a back courtyard where they were drying corn so got permission from the restaurant owner to go through for an interesting photo-stop. We finished the walk with a wander through the back alleys where the guides don't usually take their visitors and where real life goes on.

Yunnan province is famous for its coffee growing so we returned to the corn-drying caf� and spent some time drinking coffee and watching life passing by. Quite fascinating to watch, be watched, smile and wave at each other with a few "Hello's" from some of them.

Unfortunately our guide's manner throughout the day had been quite abrasive and, along with a few other incidents along the way, we decided, for the first time on our travels, to really stamp our feet. We told our guide how unhappy we were and, at some point during the conversation where we were trying to give him the benefit of the doubt, Annie decided to show her HR skills and, to his shock and horror, fired him

Lijiang Forest

. It turned out to be the right move as our new guide arrived a bit later and, after a chat and a phone call or two, told us it was our last night in the faceless hotel, he had managed to get us a room in the Zen Garden Hotel in the Old City that we had originally requested.

To celebrate we went to an English pub that Annie had spotted close to our hotel. What a fun evening we had, drinking local beer, eating familiar food including chips and tomato sauce / ketchup, a TV showing music concerts of bands we know and meeting and talking to a whole bunch of English speaking people from the UK, USA and, as anywhere else in the world, South Africa. For anyone reading this and planning to travel to Lijiang, don't miss out on a visit to the "Frosty Morning Bar and Restaurant" where Philip and Hsiaoping Houston will show you true English-Chinese hospitality. They are located on Yuhe Corridor just off the Yuuan Road and Orchard Road near the (faceless) Jade Dragon Gardens Hotel. If you need to, phone them on +86 130 38611503. We have been enjoying all the local food along our trip but, after 36 days in China, Mongolia and Tibet it was GREAT to find some familiar food and very warm hospitality.