Lijiang

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I spent just one day in Lijiang old town, but the experience of staying at Mama Naxi's guesthouse will stay with me forever! Mama Naxi is a ferocious little business woman and runs her guesthouse the way a grandmother would run a house full of grandchildren. I arrived late at night and was presented with a banana and packed off to bed. Mama Naxi even came into the dorm room to turn the light out, practically tucking everyone in. The next day she packed a group of us off in a minivan to Tiger Leaping Gorge and told us when she expected us back, and believe you me, she isn't a lady you would argue with. When we got back we sat down to a family style Chinese dinner, before being packed off to bed again. Not the typical way of running a hostel but through being such a great cook I think Mama could just about get away with anything! When we left she hung little decorated bags around all of our necks, warning us not to take them off until we got to our next destination for good luck travelling - we definately weren't taking those bags off!

Lijiang itself is a pretty town, very touristy but all the tourists are Chinese so its actually pretty interesting (and quite funny as they like to get drunk, sing kareoke and take photos of us weird western people)! The old town is a maze of tiny identical streets lined with waterways and the odd waterwheel, the new town is set up the hill and less interesting. The main highlight for me was drinking yak yogurt - it was available in every shop and I think I developed a slight adiction to it, I have been looking for it ever since and have even checked how much it would cost to buy my own yak and ship it to the UK... do you think Jim would mind me keeping a yak in the back garden??!

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[Mum]

Photos
Your photos are getting so good.... The one of the black dragon pool could be in a calendar- The homes in the old town are fascinating