Shangri-la and rained out Tiger Leaping Gorge

---

---

TIGER LEAPING GORGE
13/7/10: After a really noisy night it was definitely time to leave for the Tiger Leaping Gorge. We left our hotel at 8:00am and caught the no1 local bus to the main station. We paid 45yuan for the both of us; it was a 2 hour ride to Qiaotou. We had no clue where to go so we had fried noodles in a local restaurant and thought about it for awhile. We manage to find a room for 50yuan at a place called Jane’s Lodge. The room was clean but they had no internet until 8:00pm because their boss was too tight to turn it on. With a desperate e-mail to send home we had to go on a wild goose chase to just find the internet. After some angry body language the young guy agreed to let us use the internet; there was no reason we couldn’t, only we didn't have an ID card like most Chinese do instead we showed our passports. It was time to get some money out and with the only ATM in the town not wanting to give us money we had to rely on 250yuan to get us through the next two days. We hit the markets for some food and went back to the guest house to pack for our two day trek up tiger leaping gorge.

SHANGRI-LA and THE SICHUAN HIGHWAY
14/7/10: We woke up to the sound of rain; it had been raining most of the night. We didn't even bother getting out of bed because we knew it was a waste of time trekking. We managed to crawl out from our room around 8:00am and had some breakfast. While we were waiting we got talking to a couple that had been teaching English in China for the past two years. Natalie and Daniel were really nice people and we clicked with them straight away. Jane’s guest house would not turn the internet on until after 8:00pm but we were desperate to find out how long the rain would hang around. A few more travellers rocked into the guest house restaurant and before long it was crowded with disappoint travellers. One of the travellers had heard that the rain would hang around for two to three days so we made the decision to go to Shangri-la with Nat and Dan. It worked out better for the both of us as the van ride was only 100yuan each for the van; it was expensive but safer. We only travelled 1km before getting stuck at a truck rollover for 45mins while they righted the truck. We climbed up to 3300m high passing rockslides and boulders on the road everywhere. We made it to Shangri-la after 3.5hrs including time spent at the accident. Walking through Shangri-la was almost like walking through Lijiang only quieter. The weather was still terrible so we found a hotel dropped our gear and went for a short walk around town. Nat and Dan went to find info on getting a bus to Xiangcheng; an 8 hour bus ride from Shangri-la. We also found out information and later compared notes. It was agreed we would not return to Tiger Leaping Gorge, instead we would tag along with Nat and Dan as they had the same plans as us to travel the Sichuan Highway to Chengdu. We said our goodbyes to our loved ones on Skype and prepared to travel on one of the most dangerous roads in the world.

---