Tiger Leaping Gorge - nothing like Scotland!

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  Lijiang, China
Saturday, October 27, 2007

Kathryn and I were very excited to see Lijiang in the light as even the dark the sillouets of the houses were pretty....sure enough we weren't dissapointed!  Lijiang is an enchanting town - just like the china you see in the movies and books...all cobbled streets and courtyard style houses - and overlooked by a snow topped mountain!  Lijiang is where the Naxi (pronounced Nachi) minority group live, and the food is gooooooooodddd!!  Breakfast where we are staying is a choice of either bananna and honey pankake (more fried bread then pancake) or egg and tomato pancake!!  The owner of the guest house - mama - is a real maitre de which makes everything utterly manic but really quite funny!!  She seems to be obsessed with eating and believes that the english language complies of a series of words ending in ty/ey which must be repeted ie. eaty eaty breakfasty breakfasty eaty!!

On our first day in Lijiang we wondered round the maze of the town and within 5 minutes had bumped into 3 people from the tour group we had just 'left'!!  We visited the Black Dragon Pool - very peaceful and beautiful and a random pagoda which involved climbing up too many steps - totally worth the view and good training for TLG!  We then bumped into some more people from our ex-tour group and had lunch with them!  The afternoon was spent wondring around the many shops in Lijiang and then trying to find our way back to our hostel for a good nights sleep before our treck up Tiger Leaping gorge!

We told mama and bapa that we wanted to got to TLG and were told to get to breakfast at 8!  We duly emerged at 10 to 8 to be greated with breakfasty breakfasty eaty eaty....after an enourmous if a little hurried pancake we were frogmarched across lijiang to a waiting taxi given two bus tickets driven to the bus station where we managed to find the right bus and seats - phew!!  We then watched our ex-tour group walk past and get in a different bus headed to the same place as us....we arn't stalking them really!  After some difficulties with people trying to fit bikes in we set off to the town at the start of TLG - Quitou!  2 and 1/2 hours later we arrived and the fabled Australian woman Margot (who was to be taking our ex-tour group up the gorge) got on our bus and started shouting instructions at us - it turned out that the huge group on the bus with us had not booked accomodation yet and so she wasn't sure if we would get a space anywhere!  By the time we had got off the bus and found our way to her cafe she had booked a room for us at the same place as our ex-tour group - much appreciated!!  After further instructions Kathryn and I set off up the gorge ahead of our ex-tour group - see they were following us!!

The views were amazing and to my relief we managed to avoid the people that follow you up trying to sell you things and generally being a pain - hooray!!  We stopped for lunch - as instructed - at the Naxi family guesthouse where we had several very welcome cups of tea and vegetable flied lice!!  An hour later who should arrive but our ex-tour group!!  It was great to see some familiar faces and we were very pleased everyone (including an 80 year old man) were still intact!!  Kathryn and I then set off again up the infamous 24/8 (depending on the map) bends!  This was exhausting, especially in the heat, and we ended up stopping for 'photo and drinking' breaks every bend!  The views were awesome though and hopefully i have lots of good pictures....each a bend higher than the next!!  We finally made it to the summit of the Gorge and then started a much shadier route downwards towards our Guesthouse!  We checked in to our rooms which looked out over the gorge and the snow capped mountains behind and then sat out and waited for the others to catch us up!!  The evening was spent eating, watching the moon rise over the mountains, learning a new chinese card game and then playing a random chinese man - and beating him i hasten to add!!

The next morning we all huddled around the stove in the kitchen drinking tea and waiting for the biggest cheesiest hash brown cum rosti you have ever seen in your life!!  We then watched the sun come over the mountains and instantly felt much warmer!  Kathryn and I then set out for Walnut garden - mostly down hill - woop!!  We reached our intended destination - Seans Guest House just in time for a late lunch!  Just as we were pondering what to do with the rest of our day we spotted some of our ex-tour group heading our way for a spot of lunch themselves - which was of course a good excuse to have a pudding (never pass up on fried banana and chocolate sauce)!!  The rest of the afternoon was spent chatting to everyone - the whole tour group ended up eating / sitting at our guest house at some point or another!...Then in the evening we went up to their guesthouse to watch Babel!!

In the morning we were cramed into a minibus and driven the very bumpy 50 minutes back to Quitou where we caught another bus back to Lijiang and Mama Naxis!  After a chilled afternoon and much food we were well and truly ready for bed...

The following morning we got up early - had the best banary pancakys so far and got on a bus to Dali equiped with 3 bananas and a charm for peaceful travels from mama bapa!!

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