Lijiang and back towards Kunming

• Williwinkle's Profile
• About this blog
• Entry from Lijiang

Trip Start Jul 26, 2007 Previous
Entry Trip End Sep 27, 2007 Next
Entry

  Lijiang, China
Saturday, September 15, 2007

We had no plans to trek in this area, Zhongdian, we were not dressed for it and the weather was so cold and rainy that after visiting the monastery and seeing the sites in the lovely town, we decided to start back. We arrived back in Lijiang and immediately settled back into Mama Naxi's, a great place. After some gentle persuasion I persuaded my spouse that we should make a trip to an area called Lake Lugo, roughly a day's journey east of Lijiang. We joined a few other travelers from Mama Naxi on a small bus to the lake. The journey was outstanding in its beauty the whole way there and eventually back. If I wasn't mistaken we crossed some 4 or 5 mountain ranges, rivers. The perilously narrow road of which my guess that some 80 kilometers of it was surfaced with cobble stones and that was the better part of the road. The rest was on the whole one mass of mud and rock falls, pot holes large enough to swallow up our small bus and whole stretches of road that had been washed away completely in the almost continuous rain

Back in Lijiang

. We arrived just before evening at a view point above the lake and the site was breath taking and in spite of the foul weather one could see this lovely pearl of a lake was set down there in the valley surrounded by mountains. When we arrived at the lake a little while later it was for a change, raining. We found lodging right a way in a large Tibetan log building with very good rooms at a reasonable to cheap price. Things were looking up. After settling we with others from our group decided to go out and find somewhere to eat. We found on the Lake shore a small hole in the wall eatery, the food was just about edible. Now not only had it not stopped raining it was now pouring down cats and dogs. Seated in our small restaurant looking out into the rain we could see a whole flotilla of small dugout rowing boats battling the rain and waves trying desparately to get back to shore before they were swamped. The boats had taken a load of tourists to a small island off shore, which in normal conditions would have been a lovely excursion but now it had turned into a perilous and very wet adventure. As far as we could see every one made it safely back to not to dry land.
Later that same evening we were invited to a meal in one of the locals houses right next door to us, and although we had already eaten we decided that this would be an experience not to be overlooked. We were right in this observation. The room we we were invited into was an unlit large Spartan room with bunk beds along one side an open fire place without a chimney, the smoke just flows up through the roofing, there was a low table with even lower benches around it which we were invited to sit

On the way to Lake Lugo

. I must admit that the little Tibetan food that we had tasted in Kangding wasn't to our taste buds at all but here it was even worst, in fact, some of it was so disgusting that it was enough to make me want to spew up. All this time one of our hosts who was on the way to being completely plastered kept on plying us with the local liquor which tasted so foul that I found myself eating more of the terrible food just to take away the taste of the even worst liquor, but apart from that it definitely was an experience. Our guests did their utmost to entertain us and explain to us about their way of life which is so very different to ours, theirs being a matriarchal society. All this time we and them were using sign language and one of our group knew a few basic words in Chinese so we got by understanding most of what was said. During the meal the most voluble of our hosts explained to us that they smoke the whole pig and that its meat can be edible even after 30 years!!! Then in an effort to maybe impress us even more he pointed out to us such a pig. The said pig was lying on a shelf inches away behind us, we hadn't noticed it because the room was so badly lit that we could hardly make out our food, let alone the smoked pig behind our backs. That same evening we were invited to a barbecue, also another experience we thought that we should partake of. So a little later on we started out towards proposed barbecue but we turned back, it was simply pissing down, so we had an early night. The next day it was for a change, raining, so on the spot we decided to take the next bus back to Lijiang

Between the hills

. The bus didn't start out straight for the destination it made for a far shore on the other side of the lake and there the rain let up a bit and we were able to see how pristine and lovely the lake really is. The journey back started out like on the way there that is until we hit a traffic pile up. Yes a real humdinger of a pile up. We had just gone past a coal mine up on the hillside when suddenly all the traffic the small road can possibly take piled up behind a coal truck that had tipped over and needless to say a good part of its load. Three hours it took until we were able to get past the blockage. The coal company had sent out its experts to try and straighten up the truck using 3 cables each one with a winch attached at one end at the other a spike driven into the ground at the other but the ground was so soggy that they couldn't hold. After many attempts they even strung up another cable to a telephone post down the valley some fifty meters away but that didn't help either so they decided on another approach to the problem that is of letting the masses of vehicles buses cars tractors and whatever go past but to do that they had to widen the road, no easy task either. With the help of local farmers they piled up loads of logs into a ditch alongside the road there bye widening the road, only then was it possible to scrape by the obstacle. Because the rest of the journey was continued so much later, our driver had not only to contend with the difficulties usual to this road but also now he had also to contend with the failing light and eventually driving in complete darkness of the night, there is no lighting on this road. Needless to say to the journey back was much of the way quite hair raising and often downright frightening. We arrived safely, tired exhausted and hungry. Mama Naxi had heard about our travails and was ready and expecting us with a good meal then straight to bed.
Next going back to Dali.

Post your own travel photos for friends and family More Pictures

Overcast but the Lake was till beautiful	Peninsula and Island in the Lake	A real Pearl	The water is so clear
There were flowers on the water	Through the trees	Flowers on the water	From the quay
The overturned truck	The coal spilled out	Trying to straighten the truck	The fron of the truck
Posing with our Colorado freind	Pekinese in Mama Naxi's	The crew of Mama Naxi	Our waitress in Mama's
Local old folk putting on a dance	The Guest House Mama Naxi No, 2

Slideshow Print this entry Share Hong Kong hotels

Previous Entry Next Entry