Yunnan and then some

Ni Hao from Lijiang!

We have spent the last 7 days relaxing in the quaint ancient old town of Lijiang, one of Yunnan provinces most prized locations. We left Lhasa on 14th by air, managing to navigate two entire airports (lhasa and Chengdu) by ourselves and end up with luggage at the other end, we were very proud of ourselves :) Arriving in the late evening, we met our host for our stay, one Mama Naxi.

We were greeted with a 'Hello, you chicken' (check in), and were lead into the main dining room where a seige between Mama's six pets was underway. Desipite it being 11.30 mama wipped us up a dinner of vegetables and fried rice which after a whole day of travelling, with only a pot noodle to fill us was much appreciated. We have thoroughly enjoyed staying here. Every evening a family meal is served, where all guests sit together, with each table having five dishes to share, where at least 3 are vegetarian, yay! All for 15 yuan, approximatly one pound fifty. It has been a great way of meeting people, and arranging to share transportation, which Mama Naxi is more than happy to book for us. We have found people are either amused by her direct manner or leave the guest house never to return. We met a couple who ended up checking out, the final straw being Mama shouting from an upstairs window 'WHERE YOU GO? WHERE YOU GO?', only to then give them both a bananna. We find her funny though, and have appreciated her organising buses for us.

The old part of Lijiang is a beautiful town in which to get lost, and we did on many occasions as the streets are thoroughly confusing! But wanting a bit more adventure we planned a couple of day trips. The first of which was a short bike ride to the small traditional town of Baisha, a previous capital of Yunnan province although you would not guess it today. In contrast to Lijiang, which has been preserved absolutley and is cleaned unitl it sparkels, Baisha was a bit more down to earth and was a great opportunity to see a bit more of the Naxi (Na-shi) culture. The Naxi were a group of peeple within China with one of the oldest tradtions of having a Women run society. In this respect, our own Mama Naxi was a perfect example! Baba Naxi was a lovely guy but you can tell he knows his place :) In Baisha we had the fortunate luck to stop for food at friendly Mr. Yangs. With terrific food and the warmest welcome we also learnt a bit about the Naxi pictographic script, one of the oldest of it's sort. In general we have done very well with the food, even when we've had 100% chinese menues we've been able to end up with a meal we wanted and havn't accidentally ordered any fish brain or such, but then we've got a few weeks yet!

The second of our mini adventures was to Tiger Leaping Gorge. Legend has it that a tiger was being chased by a hunter and managed to escape by jumping across the gorge. We planned two days to do the whole trek, and had been told not to do the trek unless the conditions were good, as on the high pass the path is narrow and landslides regularly occur. On the first day we were relieved by the incredible sunshine, and perfectly clear skys. We arrived at the gorge at mid-day and began the gentle climb. However soon we arrived at '28 bends', a sharp assent which reminded us of the climb in Nepal named 'too steep'. I (Jenni) was so out of breath that a man with a horse walked behind me for ten minutes trying to persuade me to get on ("you want horse?!"). When we stopped for a break he stood with us and appealed to Joe to pay for me to ride the horse, for a 'very good price'. However this felt like cheating so we trudged on.

It was a great trek but didn't seem quite on the same scale as the Himalaya and Nepal. Although the views we had of Jade Dragon Snow mountain on the first day were eye boggling! The next morning we finished off the walk and stopped for lunch at a guest house. We had the option of returning home then in time for dinner or doing the 2 hour round trip down to the rapids and the 'tiger leaping rock' itself. Over a 1000m of ascent and descent near vertical? Of course we went! The gorge is carved out by the Yangtse river, the largest in China, and on squeezing though the gorge becomes a force to be reckoned with. So standing 5m above the roaring water was quite intimidating but exhillerating all the same. On climbing up, for a small fee we could climb the 'sky ladder' - a 100 or so step near vertical ladder up a cliff face, in mid air, and then up another cliff face! This was a bit too much for Jenni who opted for the route we climbed down but fearless joe stepped up to the challenge - and found his fear! Very scary (yes I looked down, wish I hadn't!).

On leaving the gorge we thought it would be a simple case of getting a taxi back. Pah! Not here, first we have to dodge the blasting they are doing on the lower road and scramble over fresh piles of rubble at the bottom of unstable cliff faces! They were literally drilling holes for dynamite as we passed and then minutes later, safely round a bend, BOOOOM CRASH crash rumble rumble echo echo echo............ dust. But we lived, and despite the set back got back to Mama Naxis at around 9:30pm where she surprised us again and gave us a slap up meal.

Anyway, this has been a bit of an essay but we leave Lijiang today on a sleeper bus to Kunming (capital of Yunnan province), where hopefully we can get a new visa! (nothing to worry about, just coming through Tibet means we have to jump though a few more hoops for an extension). Form there is it's a sleeper train to Guilin for 18 hours wher we will drop in to tell you some more.

Thanks again for all of your comments and messages, it's great to hear from you all. We hope everyone is doing well and that things aren't too grey and cold back home! (also, I hope no one was caught up in the flooding we've heard about).

Zajian for now,

Jenni and Joe.

EDIT: ps. We're about to leave Mama Naxis now and we didn't get just fruit to see us on the way but lavender filled neck ties for good luck! and a kiss on each cheek!

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Part of trip: China

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