Day 6 – “Wow! That’s the cleanest public bathroom I’ve ever seen!”

Bathrooms in China are gross.  I’m okay with the squatting part of it but I dread using a public toilet because they are usually filthy.  This is not the case in Lijiang.  It was here that I found the cleanest public toilet I have ever seen.  I should have photographed it.

The morning after the hike I slept in.  Sort of.  I think because I’m old I’m not able to sleep in. I don’t know.  I slept until 7:30 on that morning. 🙂  But, I didn’t crawl out of my bed until about 9:30. So that was good.  It was here that I learned everything I’d ever need to know about Andrew.  I met Andrew on my first day in Lijiang. We spoke two words to each other at the desk of the hostel and went our separate ways.  I ran into him again on my second night in Lijiang–the night before he left for the gorge hike.  He was disappointed to find out that I wouldn’t be hiking with him and his two friends.  I’m sure he was fine.  He was the fourth member of our “dorm-style” room at the hostel. 

Remember how I said I opted out of the bar-hopping the previous night because I would rather sleep? (man, how old am I?)  Well, Susanne did not opt out and subsequently did not return to the guesthouse that night.  So we were down to three people in our “dorm.” Me, Andrew, and a Japanese girl. 

I woke up at 7:30 because the Japanese girl turned on the light and was making lots of noise. Andrew also woke up.  We used the next two hours to talk about the hike and get to know each other.  He was going to be meeting his two friends for breakfast that morning and invited me along.  Ok. Why not?  Breakfast was amazing! It was so amazing, I photographed it.

Breakfast included: toast (good toast), eggs ('shuang mian'--which roughly means 'double sided'), hashbrowns (in a cute little disk-like figure), bacon on top of yak milk cheese (mmmm.....), tomatoes and cucumbers, honey, jam, and ketchup. This was the "American Breakfast." Do you notice the 'coffee' cup in the photo? Yes, that was definitely hot chocolate with Bailey's Irish Cream! 🙂 Perfect. Breakfast.

I forgot to mention that breakfast didn’t actually happen until around noon.  We ended up waiting a while for Andrew’s two friends to finish getting ready.  After ‘breakfast’ we split up for the day.  Andrew was going to rent a bike and I was going to help Susanne find a scarf that she liked.  She wanted to go take a shower first so I was own my own for a while.  This was great!  Except for one thing….

You should know that if something in pop culture catches on in China they will overplay it.  (movie, song, you name it…)  This is why Titanic is still super popular (especially the Celine Dion song), and also why the Chinese people love the song “Yesterday Once More” by the Carpenters.  They also think that every foreigner knows all the words to that song.  It’s so strange.  “Country Roads” also…  There is this really beautiful song called “Dida” (which I was told is by an artist from Yunnan Province–they are proud of their girl!).  I think I would really love this song (maybe even buy the CD) if I didn’t hear it for the next 8 hours straight. (and the entire next day) EVERY single little shop that had music playing capabilities was playing this song.  It was even one man’s job to sit in his store and play his bongo drum (poorly) to the beat of the song.  This is not a joke.  At first it was kind of nice.  But with every repeat of the song I hated it more and more.  I’ve included the song for you to enjoy.  The artist’s name is KanKan.  I hope you don’t hate it like I do.  ipernity KanKan – DiDa – by Anton Hazewinkel (Sorry. You have to click the link and then save the file in order to play it. I know no other way.  Seems like an awful lot of hassle to hear a song that I hate. I’m just saying…)

At about 2, Susanne and I began the search for the perfect scarf.  In Lijiang there were so many people weaving scarves.  They are pretty cool and each one is unique.  (Yes, I bought one too)  She clearly had in mind what she was looking for, and they clearly did not have it.  She finally settled for a lovely multi-colored weaved scarf.  (I bought mine the following day–it’s black and white) 

The whole time we were walking around the shops in the Old Town, my foot was killing me.  I had taken care of the aforementioned blister but my other foot was hurting badly.  I told Susanne that I needed to go take care of my foot.  She was fine with that because she needed to go pack up her stuff and get ready for her train out of town.  We were both fine with hanging out in the hostel.  I don’t know why I thought I needed to walk around the town all day.  I had just climbed up and down a mountain.  When I got back to the hostel, I discovered that my little toenail was cutting the second to last toe and my toes were both bleeding.  This actually happened on the second day of the hike too.  I don’t learn, do I?  I stayed off my feet for the rest of the night (well, most of it).  Andrew and company asked me later if I wanted to get a beer.  I joined them for a beer at a local western restaurant run by two foreigners. 

All in all–a really relaxing fun day!