<!-- @page { margin: 0.79in } P { margin-bottom: 0.08in } -->

19 August: Lijiang

It had not been one of our best nights, my sinus was still blocked throughout the night and Leanne hardly closed an eye. We finally got up just after 08h30 and started packing, Antone and Valerie were still asleep by the time we had finished so we enjoyed a cup of tea before leaving for breakfast. We checked out, walking down the street with all our bags to the first restaurant serving noodles. All three of us were on a noodle breakfast, but Antone preferred the pork dumplings. After breakfast we said our goodbyes as we split up. We were headed directly to the bus station to find a bus to Lijiang, while they were off to the Tibetan hospital where Valerie could find cheap medicine for her eye after which they would find a bus to Dali.

We walked along the road asking directions with one of the Chinese words Antone had given us until we came upon it. The bus station was an impressive size, with a multitude of buses standing outside waiting to go in all directions. We went into the building and spoke to one of the counter assistants in manageable English to find out the details of the buses departing for Lijiang and their costs. The earliest one was 12h00, it was now 10h30, so the wait wouldn't be so much. We bought the tickets and sat down on the chairs in the waiting room, while catching up on the past few days and also planning that which lay ahead. 10 minutes later Antone and Valerie came into the station, they had also just bought tickets for a bus heading to Dali, lucky for them it was leaving at 11h00. They had also managed to find the medication prescribed by the Tibetan doctor the day before, it had only cost 40 Yuan instead of his 280 quoted price! We chatted for a few minutes before they were called and said our goodbyes once more.

Now we were truly on our own when it came to the language, the past week had been so easy, we had become lazy as everything was easily obtained and well negotiated. At least we still had a few words he had taught us and a phrase book of the lonely planet in Mandarin, we would survive! Just before leaving we bought some supplies for the road, warm vegetable dumpling, corn cob and 5 banana's, most of them didn't last that long, the dumplings were finished before we had even driven out of Shangri-La.

The ride back to Lijiang was another long one, 4 ½ hours of winding roads, ascending and then descending and so on! Although the scenery was breathtaking, we had eagerly watched all of it as we drove to Shangri-La the day before and at this stage sleep overcame us. Both of us drifted from consciousness to a head bobbing, swaying body in the bus. Leanne had tried to learn some Mandarin along the way, while I had been able to sleep, occasionally waking up to find my cap on the floor and the Chinese guy across from me staring at me. We arrived in Lijiang just after 17h00, one of the officials had directed us to a city bus that would take us to the old city for 1 Yuan. We had hardly walked out the bus station with all our bags before the bus pulled in and we got on. From the bus station it was only three stops further before we were told by the lady in front of us that this was the old city stop. Grabbing our bags we got out and tried to ask for directions, a couple and their teenage daughter pointed us in the right direction, but afterwards walked with us to show us the way.

5 minutes walk and we were in the old city, problem was its like a maize and you get lost faster than you think, every shop looks the same and even the bridges crossing over the streams can cause you to doubt yourself. We were lost and they knew it, they walked a little further with us until a street where they thought our guest house was located in and then greeted us as they walked back. We thought we were almost there, so near so far! We continued to walk the streets asking everywhere we could, they would give us directions, but we never seemed to arrive at the place. In the end after 30 minutes of walking up and down streets we were pointed in a direction by one of the shopkeepers. As we walked down the street we met "Mama", I was to busy looking for landmarks that I could recall to see her, but at least Leanne saw her. She greeted us warmly and pointed us in the direction to her guest house. We had walked past the small alley side street twice before, but hadn't recognized it.

We decided to rather take a double room, although it was more expensive, but with the dorm room you couldn't lock the door. We went to find our bags we had stored before leaving for our week long expedition through rural Yunnan. We freshened up and headed out for supper, we found a restaurant on the corner of the road were we tried some of our newly learned Mandarin, not to bad although we still need some work. Sitting down on the upper level, looking down on the cobble streets and life below, we ordered a noodle soup and fried noodles and vegetables. While drinking our tea, Leanne preceded in teaching me some of what she had learned while I was counting sheep. Its a lot harder than one would think, they can have one word ie "Ma" that can be pronounced in 5 ways each with their own meaning. The "a" can be neutral, rise, fall, rise and then fall or fall and then rise!

After dinner we walked through the streets, it was already dark and the street lamps had been turned on. Everywhere were people, even if you took a walk down a small secluded street, there would be people. We hadn't spent much time earlier looking through all that was for sale and now, we leisurely strolled through, appreciating all the work that goes into making the paintings, woodcarvings, metal ware etc. At the end of the street after about 30 minutes walk we sat down to enjoy a newly cooked corn cob. It had been a long day and both of us were keen on getting back to catch up on lost sleep.