Hey everyone,

I met a few guys in Kunming/Lijiang who I've been travelling with for the last few days so I shuffled the plans around a bit, but this is what it's all about I guess. I got a 9 hour bus from Kunming to Lijiang so that I could hit the Tiger Leaping Gorge trek over the following couple of days.

Lijiang is home to the Naxi people of China where the woman is most definately boss. Nowhere was this more evident that at the infamous hostel that we stayed at called Mama Naxi's. I was met at the door by Mama and then immediately marched to my room and instructed where to put my bag before being told where to park my behind for dinner! She is a character, put it that way, and if she had found out about my ongoing phobia for using the Chinese hole in the floor toilet I have no doubt she would have marched me into the loo for a bit of on the spot potty training.

Anyway, at dinner I hooked up with the guys I'd met in Kunming and also a couple of Irish lads James & Cothall. We were all heading off to the Tiger Leaping Gorge the following morning for a two day trek. Having been in the major tourist cities it was great to get out into the country. Lijiang is a picturesque place and nice enough with the cobbled streets and arts and crafts but I was really here for the TLG, and it didn't disappoint.

It was fantastic. We decided to trek it over 2 days but you can take longer if you wanted to. It was 5 hour trek upto the summit of 3400m and we stayed at the Tea House Guest House near the top. Basically when you get there, it's all about cracking open a couple of beers and just relaxing with everyone else. We tried our hardest to get the local TV repair man up the mountain so that we could get the Champions League Final at 3am, but it wasn't to be and I pretty shattered anyway.

The following morning we set off on our descent at 8am. Once at the bottom there's a few options that you can take and we opted for the Middle Leaping Stone down by the river. It was quite a climb down, but well worth it and you only really get a perspective on the size of the Gorge once you're at the river. It was the highlight of the trip so far for me. If you ever get to do it, make sure you have enough energy to get back up from the Middle Leaping Stone, as I was running on empty.

After the trek it was a 2 hour drive back to Lijiang and Mama Naxi. I had a little look around the town and then went to the local Irish pub (yes they are everywhere!) before setting off for Shangri La for a one day stop en route to Deqin.