Lazy & Crazy in Yunnan

Liz, Megan, Lauren and I arrived in Lijiang this afternoon. It was raining, we were starving, and the bus ride had been uncomfortable and smokey (some of the older men on the bus apparently couldn't read the 'no smoking' signs on the bus). We had checked into our cozy and whimsical hostel and were waiting for our food to arrive at a Chinese restaurant next door when I noted that there hadn't been nearly as much bitching and complaining when I was traveling with four guys during the Spring Festival in Southeast Asia. We were all in much better moods after a delicious lunch and treated ourselves to a local desert that a street vendor was selling... fried dough filled with banana and egg and drizzled with sweet condensed milk. We spent the rest of the afternoon wandering around Old Town, which is gorgeous - even in the rain. The streets are cobblestoned and lined with canals filled with running, clear spring water. Sprigs of violets and other flowers pop out at the entrance of shops. All of the shops and restaurants are cozy and look like the inside of a Pier 1 Imports store, selling local handicrafts.

We had spent a couple of days each in Kunming and Dali. Kunming was a nice, clean city, with a very cute university area. Megan and I had bad colds when we arrived there, so we spent the first day liesurely - treating ourselves to western food (I had a huge bean burrito!) and super cheap massages at a Blind Massage parlor. We went out to the Stone Forest the next day, which we joking called the Stoned Forest. The forest was interesting... long slabs of stone stood among trees and resembled female reproductive organs according to Megan...and I had to agree. We were the only western tourists, and the Chinese tourists were taking as many pictures of us as they were of the scenery. We actually started running from the Chinese tourists when we heard them coming upon us. I stayed in Kunming an extra night while the girls headed to Dali.

I took a bus in the morning to Dali. It was nice to have some time alone, but the bus ride turned out to be about five long hours. My ipod amazingly lasted the entire time. I listened to 2Pac, Soldiers of Jah Army, and Bob Marley and read from the book I borrowed from Liz, Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World by Murakami. I thought a lot of about leaving China and the people I had met here. I thought about what I should do when I get to Charlotte. The bus ride was pleasant. The small old Chinese man beside me fell asleep on my shoulder. I looked out the window and admired the enormous mountains, the green rice fields dotted with farmers in straw hats, the distant roofs of walled villages. When I arrived at the Jade Emu Hostel and was warmly greeted by my friends, I felt very proud of myself for making it there on my own. We went out and got a traditional Bai dinner (the local minority) in the Dali Old Town. Dinner was delicious, and we were too full to enjoy more than one cocktail at the Bird Bar. I drank a Hainan Bikini, which was a nice frothy and fruity rum drink, and played foosball with Liz. She dominated until I got Megan to play with me.

Day 2 in Dali, we hired a nice driver with tan forearms, stylish aviator sunglasses, driving an aquamarine minivan and speaking no English to drive us around to some of the sights - traditional Bai homes, a Batik warehouse, the famous three Pagodas, Er Hai lake, and Gangshan Mountain. At the mountain, our driver said goodbye, and we took a cable car up to Gangbi Waterfall. The water was clear and cool and beautiful, and the mountains were covered in pine. We walked a 12 kilometer trail and had gotten to the 11th kilometer when it started raining. Megan squeezed under my umbrella with me, and Lauren joined Liz under her umbrella. As the wind started to blow harder, and enormous black clouds threatened us ahead we began to worry that we had not seen signs for the cable car at the end of the trail to take us down the mountain. We needed to get to that cable car by 6:00 PM, and it was 5:45! We were wet and cold and randomly decided to take a trail past a temple in hopes that it might be the right direction to the cable car. The rain poured down heavier and thunder sounded. The area was completely deserted. I began having visions of us spending the night in the abandoned temple in the storm... these visions turned into a Chinese Blair Witch Project sort of situation... Finally we saw a man who directed us down some stone stairs covered in grass. At the end of the steps, we spotted the cable! YAY!!! But as we got closer, we realized this wasn't a cable car at all... it was a ski lift. Not enclosed. Liz and I got on a lift chair together and braced ourselves. It was too amusing and ridiculous for us to be completely miserable. Here we were sitting on a lift that seemed to inch along in rain that poured down in sheets - our umbrellas completely useless. The cable seemed to go on forever. When we arrived at the bottom, we were soaked and shivering,and my fingers and toes were numb. How were we going to get back to our hostel in this? The place where we came down was only a 20 minute walk from the Jade Emu...but in this storm... then we saw it... our savior.... the aquamarine minivan... our driver! He had come back for us! We celebrated that evening with cheeseburgers back at the hostel and watched a movie in the cozy common room.

Tomorrow we will either explore Old Town Lijiang and some of the exterior villages or start hiking Tiger Leaping Gorge. Although I am the least athletically capable person ever, I still want to try to hike the gorge, and I was very encouraged when Megan started saying things today like..."hmmm, being here is kind of making me want to hike the gorge." Hopefully, we can convince Liz that the sight will be worth the laborous ascent...

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