Day 1 – Hurry up and wait…

My flight was scheduled for 7:45 am on a Tuesday morning.  This would prove to be interesting because it takes just under an hour to get to the airport from my apartment.  I was going to be taking the airport shuttle bus and my plan was to leave my apartment at about 5:30 so that I could catch the 6:00 bus.  I did make it to the bus but I was unaware that terminal 3 was the last stop of the bus. I must have forgotten.  Thankfully, I didn’t have any luggage to check or it would not have made it to Lijiang.  I was also able to check in with ‘speedy check in’.  All of these things contributed to my being able to make my flight on time.  I got to the gate and walked on the plane.  The flight to Chengdu (where I had a four-hour layover) wasn’t so terrible.  Seems like such a waste of time to sit in an airport…

As you may know, I’m not really fond of flying.  This flight was decent.  A little bumpy but not the worst flight I had been on.  We were approaching the landing and we were rewarded with the most amazing view of mountains.  Far in the distance, as far as the eye could see were mountaintops.  It was glorious. And the best part was the clear sky! (This would be my constant companion for the next week.)

I landed, found the airport shuttle and was on my way to the city.  I hopped in a taxi, found my hostel, checked in and then went out to find some supper. (Yes, it was already that time…)  I found a small restaurant and ordered something simple before heading back to the hostel to crash.  I had gotten sick just before my trip and was still sick when I arrived in Lijiang. I decided to make it an early night, wake up without an alarm, and see how I felt in the morning. I was supposed to be climbing the gorge in a day or two after all.  I slept decently well considering I was coughing, sneezing, and blowing my nose all night.  I would have slept a lot worse had there not been an electric matress pad on my bed!!  China, you never cease to amaze me!  (In the southern part of the country there is no heat.  They also don’t really know what insulation is.)  Thankfully I was warm while I was sleeping.

Day 2 – “Sure I’ll be carried up a mountain by a horse…”

I woke up still feeling sick and decided that maybe a nice hot shower would help.  The woman at the desk the night before told me that you have to let the water run for about five minutes before it becomes ‘warm.’  Hmmm…. 10 minutes later, I shut off the water and put my clothes back on.  Not the greatest start to my day.  I decided to take it easy and wander around the Old Town in the morning (what was left of my rapidly waning morning).  There are really two Old Towns in Lijiang, the one for the tourists and the actual Old Town. My hostel was in the actual Old Town.  Looking at the rooftops from above, the two blend together very well.  From inside the two towns there is a noticable difference. 

This is from the top of a hill where there is a monestery and countless restaurants. Most of the 'houses' in Lijiang have this type of roof. It's a pretty cool sight!

While I was wondering around the touristy Old Town, a woman approached me and said, “You want to ride a horse?” My immediate thought was, “not really” but I listened to her.  Her English was pretty good and she was super friendly.  Her name was Li.  Actually, that was her family name but it was easier to call her Li than try to understand her given name.  After about 30 minutes of bargaining and making it known to her that I did not really want to ride a horse that day, I gave in. 🙂  She told me to meet her by the waterwheels in the square at a given time and she would pick me up in a minibus.  This was not weird. At all.  After I left Li, I ran into a random foreign guy sitting on a bench and chatted away the hour or so that I had before I was supposed to meet Li. 

Li picked me up and then told me that there would be another man joining me for the ride. Great. We found ourselves in front of the Lijiang Grand Palace Hotel (or something ritzy like that) and I couldn’t figure out who would pay that much to stay in a hotel.  The man who climbed in the minibus was about 60 years old (he told me but I can’t remember) and he was American. An mystery author living in Thailand but was currently traveling in China.  He told me about some of his books and they seemed interesting.  I hope to read at least one of them someday. 🙂

We made it to a little village outside of the city and found our horses.  They carried us up the mountain–which was okay, heights and all–and we looked down the other side of the mountain.  The view was pretty cool even though there was a haze in the sky.  We saw the Yangtze River in its early stages. (I would seeing this again before the hike.)  The mountains (the big ones in the distance) kept taunting me.  At this point, I had not found anyone to do the hike with. Yes, it was only my first day there, but it was like they were teasing me…’you won’t really climb…’ etc…  I’ll show those mountains!

After the horses carried us back down the mountain, we ate a lovely Naxi hotpot for a really late lunch. (Naxi is the minority group in and around Lijiang.  They are matriarchal in their lineage and the women are the field workers.)  After hotpot, we were taken on the lake in a canoe.

This man was rowing the canoe with a very long bamboo stick. It was very relaxing to sit on the water. I also blame the water for the first of three days worth of sunburn on my face!

We were not alone on the lake. It was beautiful weather and incredibly peaceful!

I was returned to the city by minibus and back at the hostel to switch rooms.  (The reservations were silly when I tried to make them online.)  Thankfully, I would be in this new room for the rest of my time and would not have to switch again.  I made my way down to the common room and started chatting with a group of three guys and one girl who were just sitting around hanging out.  The three guys had just gotten back that day from hiking the Tiger Leaping Gorge.  I was interested to hear how the hike went for them.  They were telling their tales and relaying mishaps while Susanne (my new friend from Holland) and I listened carefully.  She had also wanted to do the two-day hike but had no one to do it with!! 🙂  Isn’t it funny how HE answers our prayers?… She and I decided to do the hike together.  She didn’t want to hike the following day because she had just arrived that evening and wanted to explore the city for a day.  I would have to delay my hike by one day. It was fine. I had a hiking buddy.  After chatting and getting to know each other a bit, I headed to my room and about five minutes later found out that Susanne was also in that room.  It was a four-person dorm room.  We also met Andrew, a Brit teaching in Guangdong Province, who was planning to leave the following morning on the hike.  (And I thought there would be no one!)

I decided to keep track of the different forms of transportation that I used on my trip.  This day added quite a few:
                                                      Taxi, Bus, Airplane, Minibus, Horse, Canoe