Lijiang

---

In Lijiang, I went with the girls to the guesthouse they had been before the Tiger Leaping Gorge, called Mama Naxi. I'd heard from others that it is a nice hostel too. However, it turns out that mama and her staff are only shouting the whole time to everyone. And most of the time in Chinese, and it was really getting on my nerves. So the next day, first, I tried to change my flight to a day earlier, which didn't work out because that flight was full. Then, I started looking to another hostel. This turned out to be not as easy as it seemed, most of the hostels being already booked. Finally, I found a hostel, which only could guarantee me a bed for one night, so I continued my search. But after almost two hours of looking for another place, I went back to that hostel and reserved the hostel for that night. It turned out to be a really relaxed hostel with only Chinese guests and very friendly staff.

After that, I found the directions to yet another hostel, went there and booked my third night in Lijiang there. For the rest of the day I wondered around in the touristic part of Lijiang and sat down in a Tibetan cafe. There I had lovely momo's (Tibetan dumplings), which were delicious and after that some freshly baked cookies, just coming out of the oven! I spend most of the day reading my book there. There was a Dutch tourist group there, and when they left, their guide stayed in the cafe. So I used the opportunity to ask her some questions where to go. I ended up with good directions to many places and some nice sights to see for the rest of my trip! She was a real tour guide, very enthusiastic and with a lot of knowledge about the ins and outs of China, so that was very helpful. The last two hours I spend trying to get the Chinese tourist feeling: trying to pass the streets with shops that are all the same, which were all full of people. It is definitely not my ideal way of spending the day, but it is also part of the Chinese culture I guess.

The next day, I moved to my last hostel, and on the way going there, I met a girl who I met more than two weeks earlier in Yangshuo. She did a completely different trip, so it was very funny to see her there. In the hostel itself, the guys who we met walking the Tiger Leaping Gorge entered. So unexpectedly, I was there with a lot of people I'd already met before. It was a really sunny day and I spend most of it on the rooftop terrace with a great view on the mountains surrounding Lijiang. I also explored the sights in Lijiang that were not packed with Chinese tourists, which were very beautiful and much more the way I like it...
That night, we went for a Korean meal, which was some kind of barbecue and because we were all so bad at it, one of the waitresses helped us the whole time during our diner.

---

Photos

Tourist group in Lijiang
One of many