I came to Zhongdian hoping to secure a permit and plane ticket to Tibet. To cut a long story short decided not to bother.
This place is like the wild west. It is much smaller than Lijiang and absolutely freezing. It was snowing yesterday. I'm wearing my mum's thermals as well as half of my wardrobe and I'm still cold. I'm staying in a lovely old wooden house with no heating other than the stove in the lounge come dining room come bar. Needless to say all ten residents hover around this stove like bees to a honey pot and we only venture out for short periods which is pretty lucky as there is nothing much to do here.
There are a lot of Tibetan and Nepalese people here and I'm enjoying conversing in Punjabi while they speak in Hindi to me. Admittedly they switch to English pretty quickly - I think it may be because my Punjabi is that bad. For some reason everyone I've met who has spent some time in India has stayed there for seven years - no more no less.
The restaurants have Indian dishes on the menu too, I was tempted to try until a proprietor of one restaurant told me not to bother as they weren't as good as those in India simply because they'd been adjusted to take account of the Chinese palate.
Would write more but absolutely knackered. Currently in Chengdu, Sichuan and off to Lesham at stupid o'clock tomorrow morning.
