Tiger Leaping Gorge

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Southwest China, Lijiang, about 100km from India and also close to Tibet. We stayed in this old town, which had a unique charm to it and snow capped mountains in the background.

I was there with my Welsh and Dutch mates, Steve and Michael, and we spent the first three nights getting absolutely slaughtered. After a few days of being pissheads we then headed up to a mountain range called, 'Tiger Leaping Gorge.' It was a 2-hour bus ride from Lijiang and we arrived at about 5pm. Meanwhile, we were nursing huge hangovers and on about 5 hours sleep. We hiked for about 2 hours and reached a guesthouse up in the mountain. The family that ran the guesthouse were overwhelming nice and accommodating and when they started putting dishes of food on spare stools, we realised we ordered too much.

The next day was another hard climb up a part of the mountain called, "28 bends." I lost count after 3 as I was concentrating too hard on breathing. The air was thin up there and my lungs have taken a fair beating while I have been away, combine these two and I was struggling. We finally made it up and the mountain suddenly leveled out. When we stopped for a break, or in my case to get oxygen to the head, the scenery was simply amazing. Can't explain it and photos don't do justice but it was a grand part of the world. Someone mentioned that it was the foothills of the Hymalayas, but I think the Welshman is a bit confused when it comes to Geography, but I like the theory.

The last day was a nice walk down the mountain and a few passes through running waterfalls. I gotta say, going down was a lot easier than up.

We got back to Lijiang after three days and guess what, back to our watering hole for some well-earned beers. When we rocked up we were greeted by staff that obviously felt our absence and I'm sure the bosses were happy to see us drink more of their money.

So that was my time in Lijiang. Wish I could say how memorable it was but unfortunately, I can only remember half of it. Seriously though, it was a great time and a great week of traveling. I would recommend the Tiger Leaping Gorge to anyone…

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