Hello from Dali,
Yes! We're already here and we did the full Tiger Leaping Gorge Hike in 2
days, in the rain, through the mountains, waterfalls, mudd holes, 24 bends
up (in reality 30, uffa!), climbing goatlike down to get a ferry across Yang
Tse river, along friendly guest houses (free tea and walnuts) with stunning
views of the Jade Dragon Snow Mountain (okay, there was a cloud or two) -
okay, we came back soaking wet and our boots are still nice wet and smelly,
hmmm! But it was s o g r e a t!!!
We took a bus from Lijiang to Qiaotou, and our walk started at 10 am, by
crossing the yard of the secondary school... when all the kids were doing
their synchronized morning exercises... all looking and laughing at the
strange foreigners about to go walking the hard path on free will...
During the hike, we did not come across Ingrid or the Sixth Happiness Inn...
but we came across Tina's, Sandy's, Sean's and Woody's (all western names
for chinese hosts...). We stayed with the Feng family in the Half Way Inn
(logical)... the room had the most beautiful view of the peaks... wow...
With chocolate baba (kind of local pancake) in our stomachs, we faced the
second, very rainy day and at the end we got a free ride back from Daju to
Lijiang with a super friendly chinese tourgroup.
Only a little landslide to cross (more mudd on the boots, but the empty bus
could make it easier over the obstacle like that) and 3 hours freezing in
the bus and we were back. Never a hot shower felt so good!
This morning we hopped on the Yunnan Express bus to Dali, a beautiful little
town surrounded by mountains with a lake nearby, which we will discover
tomorrow. The chinese government seems to be making a big effort to preserve
the local cultures and architecture, so here in Dali we see Bai people,
houses, dresses, music (in Lijiang it was Naxi).
If there' s time left, before we get on the next hard sleeper (yippieh, so
much fun!) to Kunming, we'll do a little excursion by horse (Nic' s all
happy about that).
So much for now, we're going for dinner : )
Chinese hugs and bye, bye from
Bruninho + Nicolinha
