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Published: June 21st 2012
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After a minibus journey to the Yunnan side of Lake Lugu, we caught a bus to Lijiang expecting a 7 hour journey but very surprised and happy to arrive in just four hours. Apparently a new road had just been completed. Throughout China we were seeing countless huge construction projects, mostly involving infrastructure. New highways, high speed rail links and subways were being built in nearly every big city. On arrival in Lijiang we set out on foot towards the Old Town - the main tourist area. We found it quickly, after a bit of local help, and made our way through the pedestrianized streets to our hostel, arguing only occasionally on route about which direction to head in.
The Old Town was an impressive sight in itself, a maze of streets, narrow walkways and small rivers. It was extremely touristy and shops lined all of the avenues, mainly catering to the Chinese tourists with offerings of dried yak meat and professional photo shoots. There were also food stalls, cafes and restaurants galore so we spent a couple of days taking in all the sights, sounds and as many different food stuffs as possible. Once suitably chilled, we booked our
transport to Tiger Leaping Gorge and set off early the next morning.
TLG is one of the world’s deepest canyons with steep 2000metre high cliffs and was an exhilarating trek. We started out at 11 am, just when the sun was really getting hot, and took the high road path up to the side of the gorge. After a couple of hours we reached a guest house where we stopped for some food before continuing on our way to the toughest part, "the 28bends", a switchback path rising steeply to the top of at the canyon. After at least an hour of uphill walking we stopped for some water and were dismayed to see a sign marking the start of the 28 bends - gutted. The bends, when we did get to them, were really tough and with the sun at its hottest, the paths dry and dusty and the air pretty thin, we were delighted to get to the highest point and enjoy the spectacular views along the gorge and deep down into the canyon. Once we'd summoned up some more energy we made our way along the canyon side - the path was in pretty good shape,
but in some places the drops down to the side were sheer. At 6 pm we finally arrived at our guesthouse of choice - Halfway House - and enjoyed the stunning views with a couple of well deserved cold beers. Knackered we grabbed some food and after a chat with a few fellow trekkers, got an early night.
We were really hoping for a good night’s sleep but unfortunately that was short lived as both of us suffered with food poisoning and ill during the night. Not fancying breakfast we headed off early and hiked the remaining few miles in a couple of hours or so. Tina, suffering the worse, stayed in a cafe waiting for our bus while Mark headed down to the bottom of the gorge - another 2 hour hike - to see the powerful Yangtze River close up. The ladders to get down to the very bottom were particularly scary. After a lengthy journey back, including a long delay, we finally got to Lijiang at 8 pm, filthy dirty, and settled on a stomach settling KFC to round the trip off.
Kunming was our next destination and we took our first sleeper bus with
the trains fully booked out. It was a hot, cramped affair, but bearable with the narrow beds allowing at least a small amount of sleep. We didn't think much of Kunming itself - other than it being one of the oddest places we'd ever been. Some highlights included a pair of black swans in the central park and another Buddhist temple (yawn) which was made more enjoyable by the resident turtles and large frog. Kunming was, however, the gateway to the Dwarvian Village (of Idiot Abroad fame). We arrived there very excited and took our time wandering round the little fellas houses and walkways, Tina managing to get a photo with one of the Dwarfs, much to her delight and Marks disappointment. Next up was a quick motorcycle show as a warm up to the main event - the Dwarf's performance. We were treated to a singing and dancing extravaganza of bizarre, funny and simply awful performances. All of the dwarfs dressed up for the occasion, led by the dwarf king in full regalia. We also had a high wire walker (not a dwarf) walk above us and performed a number of stunts with no safety net at all. Our
highlight though had to be a duet that didn't quite pierce the ear drums and a group of break dancing dwarfs busting some impressive moves. Unfortunately the show had to come to an end and we set off on another night bus journey, this time bidding farewell to China after an interesting month, and heading to the Laos border for the start of a new chapter.
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Jabba
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Hobbit House
Great picture of Tina and the dwarf, We have our own Dwarvian Village in Rothwell where Sam & Kate have brought a place very similar to the one in your picture!