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Published: October 25th 2007
Morning View from Hotel
Woke up to a beautiful day!I am starting to get a little lazy. I just feel like staying in one place for now. I originally wanted to do the Tiger Leaping Gorge two-day trek, but I think I'm going to pass. It's super touristy here, but I like relaxing in the little town.
I started my morning with breakfast at Prague Cafe. They have yummy Naxi cheese with eggs, toast and coffee. The Muesli with fruit and yogurt is great too. I love breakfast.
I spent the morning walking and exploring Black Dragon Pool, slightly north of the old town. The place is actually a quaint little park, with a nice bridge and view of Jade Dragon Snow Mountain. It was too cloudy to see the mountain the morning though. I walked up to the Dongba Research Insitutute which I really liked. Dongba is the pictograph written language of the Naxi people. It's quite interesting. At the Dongba Research Institute I started to ask the tour guide some questions and she of course asked where I was from, etc. She was excited that I could speak fluent English and decent Chinese. As I started to head out, she asked what I was up to
and I told her that I was just going to slowly walk around until lunchtime. She says to me, "Why don't you sit down on this bench for awhile?" She sits next to me and whips out her Chinese-English dictionary. She explains to me that she's been teaching herself English and asks for me to pronounce some sentences for her. Before I know it, I recited the entire (not exaggerating) "C" section of her dictionary. From configure, to confirm, to conform, to contest, etc. It was humoring to me since she was frantically practicing. I think this girl has the motivation to really learn - she will do fine if she continues to hunt down vulnerable English-speaking people like myself! It was fun to talk to her and give a quick English lesson. 😊
I met up with a Canadian I met in Chengdu and walked around Old Town for awhile and walked up to the Lion Hill to see the rooftops during sundown. Really beautiful. We walked around and had dinner at Blue Papaya and shared our travel stories. I started to think about how I wish I had a little more during the autumn to travel. I
Nice Breakfast
Grilled Naxi cheese, eggs, twice baked potato, Yunnan coffee. I was happy. feel more comfortable about my traveling, I'd love to be able to go to some more less traveled places, off the beaten path. Oh well. Nonetheless, it was a nice evening.
I went with Canadian and some other travelers the next day to ride bikes to Baisha, which is 10km (20 km round-trip) away. It was slightly uphill, and given the 2800 meter altitude, I was pretty darn tired. The other peeps on the bike ride were real bikers. Two girls rode (bikes) from Beijing to Yunnan. Ummm? That's thousands of kilometers.... I can't even ride a train that far. Anyway, the trip to Baisha was OK. The ride was nice, but the town itself was so-so. Biasha is the old Naxi capital, and I was hoping to see some real culture. Baisha is another quaint town turned touristy. My favorite part of the day trip was meeting the famous traditional medicine doctor, Dr. Ho. He's 90 years old and nicknamed, "The Most Admired Man". He's quirky and enthusiastic about telling vistors about his life achievements. He's a riot, a cute old man, who loves to talk. You have to meet him. The ride to and from Baisha was
quite nice. I was pretty tired though!
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christina
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great pictures! love the little girl in the bucket! you're quite the adventurer biking through china and making friends with random people - i'm continually impressed!