Tiger Leaping Gorge

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Surprise....
Okay so we flew into Zhongdian and had a random lady pick us up in her car to drive us to the Tibet Cafe which was where we were supposed to find out information on the saftey of hiking the gorge. We then took a bus right into Qaio Tou which was the starting point of the next 2 days. Walked to Margo's Guest House (she is an Australian lady who has all the scoop on the gorge, owns a hostel here and makes great food (Western food that is). She is very scatter brained as we soon found out, she talks about 590689 things at once and none of us could understand her or figure out who she was taking to most of the time. But it was cheap ($2 to sleep) and we were tired! This was the night I wrote about an hours worth on the blog site and then the internet shut down. So the next morning we were up around 6 to have a healthy breakfast before we started our trek. We hiked 16km and it was over a period of 9 hours I think (stopping for breaks, pictures, swimming in a waterfall and having lunch). The hike was definitely something I would recommend if you are ever in China in the south. It is something you have to see for yourself and pictures won't even come close to the feelings you get of your surroundings. It was an intense hike for about 3 hours (we had to climb up 800m and around 28 bends which was exhausting but after that it got better). We stopped at the "Half Way Guest House" for the night which was perfect. We were set out in the middle of the mountains over looking the gorge and opposite one of the higher mountains in the area. Our Guest house had a veranda and was just the perfect place to relax. We met some Canadians here (Quebecer's) who we have been traveling with since Eliane and Steve both very nice and can speak really good English (as most people from Quebec could care less about speaking English). Again, we were up early the next morning to be the first on the trail... (this helps with having to stop every 30 minutes to have a p-break). It took us about 3 hours to finish at what we were told was the highlight of the hike Walnut Garden (or Sean's GH). Turns out the place is under construction and actually a bit of a dump so we were happy with breaking for the night at the Halfway GH. Overall, we hiked 22km and enjoyed every bit of it. Now, it was time to get back to Qaio Tou to pick up our big packs... we hopped in a mini van which I think has been the most horrifying experience in China so far (even considering the bathrooms here). I couldn't look down... thank God I was sitting in the middle... all I could hear was Adele talk about the drop and so on... I was counting down the km's and hanging on for life. We made it back safely and I could finally breathe again. Stopped at Margo's to have lunch before getting on a local bus to Lijiang for the night. This bus was old, rickety and we had to make a stop for the driver to hose the radiator down with cold water.... hmmm technology people! 2 hours on the bus to Lijiang and when we arrived we had to walk about 20 minutes withour big packs to the Old Town. It is absolutely beautiful here and my love/hate relationship with China has been restored. It is like the Venice of China (so people have said... Mark, we now have to go to Venice so I can compare😊. The night scene is amazing, there are lights everywhere, lanterns, music, people singing, streams with candles and a great restaurant called Sakura which is where we have had dinner, breakfast and about to have dinner again before leaving to Kunming tonight!
So there you have it... I have summed it up as much as I could... enjoy and please write!! I am sorry I can't do personal emails but I love hearing from all of you too!!!

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