I have a few days to catch up now! Sunday morning (11th) I woke up early, grabbed all my bags and checked out of the hostel at about 7:30am, leaving my heavy things behind for the next couple of days! I grabbed some steamed buns for breakfast (which were not so nice) then went to the tour office ready to walk!

Outside I met Michael whilst I was waiting. He was also on our trip and was a Chinese pilot from Beijing who had very good English. Once the tour office opened there was some confusion, most of which was in Chinese so I just watched as usual with no idea what was going on. Arnaud and Sylvain arrived, the two French guys also on the walk with me.

Eventually we got going and went to the minibus. We stopped on the way to pick up some Communist Party members. We also stopped a couple of times for photo opportunities then arrived near to the start of the walk and stopped for lunch. I dined with the two French guys and Michael and the food was very good! Afterwards we got into the minibus and drove for another 20 mins before starting our walk about 12noon.

We had lost the Party members somewhere along the way and our walking group was me, Michael, Arnaud, Sylvain, the guide (Wan Ker... hehe), three trainee guides and an older guy from Guanzhou who took photos of everything!

The first part of the walk was very steep and warm and in the midday sun it didn't take very long for everyone to start stripping. We then walked along the top of the gorge, it was breathtaking! I got to know the members of the group a little better, particularly the English speakers.

We had a break at the Halfway House and sat on a wooden platform drinking tea and taking photos. After a loo break with the best toilet view I've ever seen we continued along the top of the gorge and then started our descent maybe an hour later.

It was a long way down and the walk was taking longer because we had to keep waiting for the photo guy who always lagged behind! As soon as we could see him we kept moving and finally made it to Tina's guest house, we were very happy to be there!

We got the keys to our rooms, I had my own room with an ensuite bathroom and an electric blanket, it was the best room I've had so far! I had a quick shower then we all met downstairs for food.

The food surprisingly was reasonably priced and us English speakers ate together and had a good feast although Michael was absent for most of the meal, he was obviously having problems at home and spent a lot of time on his phone :(

After we had finished eating, the French boys were introduced to Baijou and the rest of the walking party joined us. I mainly stuck to beer, but is was clear the Baijou was affecting everyone else even though Sylvain kept insisting it was "like water!". Apparently he didn't have a good night once he went to bed and had to leave a 100RMB tip for the hostess...

Regardless of that it was a good night and it was very funny when the French guys had to remember the guides Chinese names and vice versa :)

To my surprise, we were all up and ready to go by 9am the next morning. We had some breakfast, Sylvain was pigging out to try to lose his hangover, then we started our descent deep into the gorge. It was a quiet start but things livened up when we reached the bottom of the valley.

The way we were trying to go was too slippy so we took another route to the "Middle Tiger Leaping Gorge", which to me seemed about as bottom as you could get, right next to the river! We stopped there for a while and took lots of photos, did some rock climbing then warmed up next to a fire. Arnaud bought a very pretty purple stone, and we talked to a crazy Chinese guy with a mullet who was running around and jumping, "Chinese Kung Fu!".

After quite a long break we started back up the valley, heading for the "ladder". I was not happy about the thought of climbing it, it was a long way down to the bottom of the valley, and halfway up I stopped and it took a lot of willpower to keep going!

At the top the sun was shining and I was so relieved to make it to the top! I wasn't happy to find a sign that said "<-- Dangerous Ladder / Safe Path -->", but by then it was too late.

We had a short rest then carried on walking which wore off some of the adrenaline I had left over! After about 10 minutes we came across another ladder and I started to stress until I realised it wasn't as high or as dangerous as the last one.

The final part of the walk was really pleasant, even though it was all uphill. It was really sunny and warm and I had thoroughly enjoyed the last two days!

At the top we had a rest, waited for the photo guy, and took some group photos. We went for some lunch where we had stopped the day before, then drove back to Lijiang.

It turned out Arnaud and Sylvain were staying at my hostel, so we got clean and met up again to get some food. Facebook also informed me that Elisha was in Lijiang and she called me just as we were going to get some food so she came to find us. It was a little complicated since she got lost and had no phone but I found her eventually and it was very good to see her!

She joined me, Arnaud and Sylvain and we sat and talked until the place closed. There were two sad goodbyes for me that night, but I had really enjoyed my time in Lijiang.

The next morning (Tuesday) I was up early to catch my bus back to Kunming. I saw Arnaud and Sylvain on their way to ride horses as I was getting into a taxi and gave them a quick goodbye before heading to the bus station.

I bought some cakes and crackers for the journey and got on my bus. It was very comfortable and I even got a free bottle of water and free lunch when we stopped!

Nine hours and three Chinese films later we got to Kunming. I took a taxi straight to the train station and queued for two hours for my train ticket to Chengdu. When I finally got to buy my ticket it was sold out :(

I took another taxi to my hostel and I had no idea what to do next. I found Sam at the hostel again, had a chat, checked my internet, had some food then got an early night because it had been a loooong day...

I woke up early this morning, had a good breakfast, then set myself the task of organising what to do next. After some research I decided to book a flight to Beijing on the 21st and a trip to Dali in the meantime.

By the time I was organised it was a little late to do anything constructive so I had a rest, spent some time on the internet and watched School of Rock and Attonement.