Just two days after arriving back in Shanghai (just to refresh: this was back at the end of June), I went to the far south west of China to the towns of Lijiang and Dali. –On a side note, Yunnan is noted for its ethnic diversity and has the highest number of ethnic groups in all Chinese provinces. 38% of the population are members of a minority, and 25 of the 56 officially recognized ethnic groups are represented in Yunnan. Both towns were beautiful, and both towns were bumping with people. In general, there was a more backpacker-esque vibe, with cafes blarring Bob Marley and boasting book exchanges.
We started off with Dali, and at one point while we were driving, our guide casually said, “oh yes, this is the road to Burma. That road they’re building will go to Laos.” Uh, really? Anyone want to take a side trip? Sadly, passports were left at the hotel, so we went to market instead. And to console myself from my non-Laotian trip, I thought about buying a bunny,
We started off with Dali, and at one point while we were driving, our guide casually said, “oh yes, this is the road to Burma. That road they’re building will go to Laos.” Uh, really? Anyone want to take a side trip? Sadly, passports were left at the hotel, so we went to market instead. And to console myself from my non-Laotian trip, I thought about buying a bunny,
…or a waterbuffalo,
…and I considered a pig with these ladies, ….
but considering the fact that I have too much stuff as it is (and I’m not sure they’d get along with the dog I hope to have in the future), I settled on a horseshoe.
In all seriousness, it was great to get out into the country and visit some local markets where I really could have bought livestock, fresh veggies, cleaning supplies, without an “antique” seller in sight.
And then! Onto Lijiang, where the Old Town was built on a canal system and is incredibly beautiful…if you can see it through the hoardes of people. Which I could…sometimes. We decided to take the “old road” from Dali to Lijiang, which was supposed to take 6 hours compared to 3.5 on the “new road” but came with the added benefit of being beautiful. Well, if you’re on vacation and the point is to experience where you are, might as well go with the scenic route…10 hours later we arrived in Lijiang all ready for bed. Luckily, on the way we visited statues carved into the mountain side about 1200 years ago (sorry, no pictures, per 10+ signs requests), a monestary built into the mountain, and ran across a fair share of wild monkeys (which scared the beejesus out of me when the first appeared right over my head).
In Lijiang we spent the 4th of July on Yak Valley in Snow Mountain. I can’t promise there was a mountain because it was clouded over the entire time, but I did see yaks, so I’m going to take it on faith that there was a mountain too. Also, the “trek” up to Yak Valley involved a bus and a chair lift up to 3500meters.
There was another chair lift all the way up to 4200m, but that one just made my trek up Mount Meru in Tanzania seem useless, so we stuck with the 3500m lift.
And jiminy cricket, I think that will bring us all up to speed for the most part. Except for anything having to do with Sydney, I’ll let you know more about it in the days/weeks/month to come!
In all seriousness, it was great to get out into the country and visit some local markets where I really could have bought livestock, fresh veggies, cleaning supplies, without an “antique” seller in sight.
And then! Onto Lijiang, where the Old Town was built on a canal system and is incredibly beautiful…if you can see it through the hoardes of people. Which I could…sometimes. We decided to take the “old road” from Dali to Lijiang, which was supposed to take 6 hours compared to 3.5 on the “new road” but came with the added benefit of being beautiful. Well, if you’re on vacation and the point is to experience where you are, might as well go with the scenic route…10 hours later we arrived in Lijiang all ready for bed. Luckily, on the way we visited statues carved into the mountain side about 1200 years ago (sorry, no pictures, per 10+ signs requests), a monestary built into the mountain, and ran across a fair share of wild monkeys (which scared the beejesus out of me when the first appeared right over my head).
In Lijiang we spent the 4th of July on Yak Valley in Snow Mountain. I can’t promise there was a mountain because it was clouded over the entire time, but I did see yaks, so I’m going to take it on faith that there was a mountain too. Also, the “trek” up to Yak Valley involved a bus and a chair lift up to 3500meters.
There was another chair lift all the way up to 4200m, but that one just made my trek up Mount Meru in Tanzania seem useless, so we stuck with the 3500m lift.
And jiminy cricket, I think that will bring us all up to speed for the most part. Except for anything having to do with Sydney, I’ll let you know more about it in the days/weeks/month to come!
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