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"Tiger Leaping. You go, come back."
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I had a lot of trouble finding Mama Naxi's highly recommended guest-house and finally had to go into a travel agent's office and ask them to call there for me. Thankfully one of the girls who works at the guest-house came to pick me up and walk me through the winding maze that is Lijiang's old town until we finally reached the hostel. Upon arrival Mama Naxi, who can only be described as a dynamo, immediately thrust a banana in my face and yelled at one of the girls to bring a cup of tea to a table where I was ordered to sit. This became a trend.
I spent an hour or so walking around the old town with a couple of people from the hostel before heading back for the much acclaimed communal dinner. Every night at Mama Naxi's there's an all-you-can-eat communal dinner for only 10 yuan (about $1.50). Anyone I had met who had been to Lijiang had told me that not only did I have to stay at Mama Naxi's, but that I also had to eat dinner there every night. They were right. The food was fresh and wonderful. With 8 people per table, different dishes (all Chinese, of course) kept coming out (about 2/3 vegetarian) and the girls kept refilling our rice bowls and tea cups. By the time we finished eating we were all so stuffed we could barely move. After telling Mama that I was vegetarian, she fried an egg for me since "you need protein and no eat meat".
After spending the next day wandering the old town trying to avoid the hoards of Chinese tourists, I was ready to head to Tiger Leaping Gorge for the 2-day trek across the gorge. Mama Naxi regularly puts together groups of people to head to the gorge together. On the day I decided to go there were 8 of us, all traveling alone - 1 Swede, 1 French, 2 Brits, 2 Israelis, 1 German, and me. While there's no need for a guide on the trek, Mama took care of arranging a minivan to drive us out there for the same price as the bus. She ushered us out the door, yelling "Tiger Leaping. You go, come back."
We spent about 2 hours hiking before having lunch at one of the many guest-houses sprinkled throughout the trail. After lunch we headed up the steep portion - 28 bends - for about 2.5 hours more before reaching the guest-house where we planned to stop for the night. Unfortunately the Swedish girl had never hiked before and had a really hard time with it. Rather than just doing her best and getting through it she decided to complain loudly and constantly. Even though it was incredibly annoying, we couldn't just leave her lagging behind since it's not entirely safe to be hiking alone, so we had to put up with her whining.
Despite the whining I was still able to enjoy the magnificence of Tiger Leaping Gorge. The entire trail offered spectacular views of the gorge, which is easily toward the top of my list of most beautiful places I've been. The water at the bottom was bright blue and the mountains above were capped with snow. Stunning.
The second day of the hike started out practically flat, but instead of taking 2.5-3 hours as expected, it took us over 4 hours going at Paola's pace. We eventually reached the low road and had lunch at one of the guest-houses. The final portion of the hike was heading down to the bottom of the gorge and back up. Only five of us decided to head down since the other three didn't feel like they could handle that difficult of a hike. Paola especially made a good decision not to go. She never would have made it down and back in the 2 hours necessary to get the bus back into town. The down and back hike was incredibly steep - almost entirely stone stairs with a couple of ladders at the places where it was just too steep for stairs. Once we finally reached the bottom there were massive rocks at the bottom of the gorge that we had to walk across to get to the end of the viewpoint. I only made it about half-way to the viewpoint since I didn't feel very stable on the rocks and was already lagging behind the guys. The view at the bottom was incredible and well worth the effort to get there and back up to the road.
Unfortunately Tiger Leaping Gorge probably won't exist in its current state for much longer. The Chinese government is planning on building a dam that will effectively remove all the water from the gorge. The plan has been in the works for years and it still hasn't happened yet, so hopefully they'll continue to delay it indefinitely and leave the gorge intact. Without the bright blue, rushing water the gorge will still be impressive, but will definitely lose some of its beauty.
When we finally made it back to the top, we met back up with the other
three and negotiated a van ride back to the start where Mama had
arranged to have a van meet us to take us back to the hostel. Had we
not been in the car we would have all jumped with joy when Mama called
the van driver to find out if we all wanted dinner when we returned to
the hostel, about 2 hours after everyone else had already eaten. We tumbled into the hostel to the "come back" greetings of two of the girls who work there (we think they probably meant "welcome back") and immediately sat down to a very large, delicious dinner.
After two days of trekking, I needed a day of relative relaxation. I spent some time walking through the maze-like, cobblestone streets of Lijiang's Old Town, including a visit to the local market. All sorts of fruits, veggies, noodles, sweets, salads, and meats (including dog) were sold there. Everyone shopping at the market seemed to be wearing a backpack basket - something I had never seen before. When they bought something, they just turned around for the seller to toss it in the basket. Much easier than carrying a bunch of bags home with you. I walked up to the top of a nearby hill hoping for a good view of the old town, but the houses were so tightly packed that all I could see was a mass of rooftops without any view of the maze-like streets. Oh well.
If anyone reading this is heading to Southwest China, I would highly recommend staying at Mama Naxi's in Lijiang. It's one of my favorite places that I've stayed throughout my travels (even with its squat toilets). Mama and the girls are wonderful and the rooms are pretty nice too. I couldn't imagine enjoying Lijiang while staying anywhere else.
Where I stayed:
Mama Naxi's Guesthouse
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| 127. | "Tiger Leaping. You go, come back." - Lijiang, China Mar 06, 2008 (  46 ) |
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