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13 August: Lijiang

We got up just after 09h00, walked to the south gate to get breakfast, noodle soup, before returning to pack and head for the West gate where buses departed for Lijiang. Along the way we passed Sisters Cafe where we stopped to ask for directions. They said there was no bus leaving in the morning and that the only bus would be at 15h00. We weren't sure this was the case and thought they only wanted us to use their bus so they could get commission. Leanne stayed with the bags while I walked on to the West gate to look for a bus leaving earlier, everyone I met wanted to take me to an agent. In the end I followed one and came to an agent with the same story, I returned to Sisters Cafe, passing a bus and recognizing the Chinese letters for Lijiang. It was close to Sisters Cafe and I called Leanne, collected the bags and ran to the bus, but to no avail, they wouldn't let us board. It seemed to be a tour bus with a fixed tour group, we went further and someone else led us to an agent with the same story. In the end we believed them and returned to Sisters Cafe, buying at ticket for the bus leaving at 15h00. Again another day of not doing much - writing a bit in our diaries. We went for a cold spicy noodle salad lunch in FuXing street, sitting on toddler chairs in a small alley, really nice. Heading back to Sisters we had our very last ice coffee shake :-(, at least it was a good one! The bus arrived just after 15h00, we placed our big bags on the back chairs while keeping our smaller backpacks on our knees. The leg room in the bus was incredibly limited and I had to sit with my legs pointing out to the isle most of the ride.

We met two travelers on the bus, both from France, and chatted to them for a good hour or so about where they had been in China, one of them, Antone, had worked in Beijing as a ski instructor for two years and was fluent in Mandarin. He was also a para-glider instructor and they were fanatical about the sport. They had stayed in Dali for a month taking locals on flying trips, although they hadn't been very successful due to the scared nature of the Chinese. They both worked in Corsheval in the French Alps, according to them the richest of rich go there where the cheapest bottle of wine costs in excess of R70 000, most of the guests are Princes/kings from the middle east and Russians. There he worked as a ski instructor while she had a very expensive villa that she maintained, even cooking for the guests.

The road to Lijiang was beautiful, with millions of huge sunflowers along the way, smiling up at the sun or lack thereof. There were also many canola fields, used mostly for the famed Yunnan butter. The mountain ranges majestically reached to the sky with towering peaks breaking the otherwise flat surfaces of the mountain tops. We drove past a military exercise evidenced only by soldiers running around and tanks parked in a line formation. Most of it was obscured by a banner they had placed along the fence, but some of it was visible looking down from the top of the bus.

The road was incredibly busy with a large number of trucks and buses passing us. At many places the bus would stop and wait for oncoming traffic to pass before starting up again and continuing forward. There were also a variety of roadworks along the way making the 3 hour journey particularly bumpy and stretched out. At one stage our Chinese bus converted to the Vietnamese one's we had come to hate, they started with loud music!! It was a bit softer and nicer on the ear than the Vietnamese, at least this didn't continue too long. After 5 hours of driving we arrived in Lijiang and were dropped off on a street corner, having to find the old city. Antone had been there before and we decided the best would be to follow him through the streets where one can loose your bearings faster than you would imagine.

He took us to Mama Naxi's guest house, it was the same one we had planned to go to but there was no way we would have found it, seeing as he even had difficulty finding it with his Chinese skills. It was absolute chaos at MNGH, we were surprised to see how many travelers there were all in one guest house. He spoke with Mama a few minutes, who had recognized him from staying there a year back. The prices had gone up considerably according to him, but he managed to get us a 6 bed dorm for the four of us for Y30pp instead of the Y150 rooms. The dorm was really nice with big bunk beds made of thick wood, nice mattress and cushions and even our own private bathroom. Mama had expanded so much that there were now a Mama 1,2,3 and 4, we were now in Mama 2!

We walked back to Mama 1 where there was a set dinner with rice and a variety of plates of meats, vegetables, chilies, mushroom and beans, an absolute feast for Y15pp! We had been a little late so we got our own table for the four of us, more than enough food and we ate till our stomaches pained. We sat for quite some time drinking tea and a beer chatting with the French, a considerable amount of time about para-gliding, according to Leanne I was hooked, definitely the next sport I plan to do! We headed back to our dorm later, the French sitting outside with their last Ganga siggie, seams the Europeans are big on their weeds! We headed to bed just after 01h00 and slept like babies!