I am in Lijang at the moment and the weather is a little bit poo....i am supposed to be following the sun! Where are you?
Dali was fabulous; when we finally decided to get out and do some exploring! -aided by the fact that Mr sun had deemed it time to show his face!.... the first couple of days were spent mouching around the hostel, catching up on some well earned sleep after a v tiring 16 hour sleeper bus and eating from the local 'pick-a-mix' restaurants and of course stting infront of my life line...the computer! We also 'missed' a day after a night playing the 3man dice drinking game.....lethal! In aim to get off the beers we are trying to learn chinese chess....its been a little tricky fathoming out each piece but we are getting there.
Dali is great to explore, easy to walk around and very laid back, i think this is helped by the fact that it seems to be the place to 'smoke'. You only have to walk for about 5 minutes where you will be approached by a little old lady offering you 'ganja', 'smokey smokey'. Ant found a new remedy to this as neither of us were interested, the 'name game'- we both chose a word for eachother...his was 'buttocks' and mine was 'porcubine' and these were to be used whenever we were approached by touts or ganja ladies. So it would go something like this...
Ganja lady "ganja?" , me "porcubine, porcubine!" or tout "you want a bus blah blah blah?", Ant "buttocks" - with a head shake. Silly i know but it did the trick! So we were now established with a way to get down the street peacefully!
We ventured down to ERHAI HU lake, ended up in a horse and carriage trit trotting through a village of cobbled streets, through fields and fields of farmers cultivating rice and a multitude of colourful vegetables. Causing a few road blocks and opened mouth looks and the occasional 'ni hao'(hello). After a very bumpy ride we made it to our destination, the edge of the lake where a man in his slighly decrepid boat adorned with emerald eyed comorants was waiting for us to take us out on the lake. We clambered wobberly on board and perched ourselves on some stools. We were rowed out into the lake which was magical in itself, the rain was holding off and we could see mountains surrounded by puffy white and grey clouds. Once far enough out the fisherman showed us the way they fished....(no fishing line or bowl of maggots in sight) ...Before doing this he instucted Ant and i in turn to stand up (that being a mission in itself with the waves) and then he placed the soaking wet flapping comorants on our arms, nothing like a kodak moment!
After our posing he set to work, he took each bird in turn and tied a piece of straw around its neck, loose enough for them to be able to eat small fish but if they caught a big one it would stay in their throat. The birds were then sent out, ducking and diving and coming back to the boat where the fisherman would pull them out of the water, open up there beak and out would pop a fish into his bucket...Amazing! After they were finished before heading back they were fed. Seems like it worked for both the fisherman and the comorants.
We spent the next day on mopeds....little electric bikes which cruised at a moderate pace along the streets. We headed off in the direction of the lake and randomly chose a dirt track to investigate, we soon came to a stand still as along the road there was a parade of people. A man lead the crowd holding a huge wooden pole adorned with fabric and throwing fire crackers followed by children, smiling old people saying hello and a chorus of singing. It seemed like such a happy parade. As the line progressed past us we realsised the occasion, we had stumbled upon a funeral. The wooden casket balanced perfectly on two wooden poles was carried past us by several men with the family singing somberly behind. We watched them down the street leaving behind strewn paper and incense sticks burning on the ground, it was a humbling experience.
We carried on through muddy cow dung rocky streets much to the amusement of the locals and spent the day whizzing and wobbling through the village, beeping our horns round sharp corners. We made it to the lake and admired the views once again, sat and listend to old ladies singing and ringing bells, and said hello to the many children who greeted us with warm friendly smiles. On the way back it started to rain so we doned our very attractive bright macs (which also went over the front of the bike) put our sunglasses on.....so we could see in the whip lashing rain...and headed back into town.
We have also ventured up ZHONGE mountain, not in the best footwear of flip flops....found zhonge temple which was actually very dissapointing. Almost got ripped of by some monks...had some incense sticks, prayed,put our names in a book, breathed on a stamp for goodluck(?) and gave a minimal donation - should of seen it coming! Then we set off, after huffing and puffing ( i put this down to the altitude not the copious amount of cheap fags i have been smoking) we located a map and headed off on the apropiatley named Cloud path which to our delight was well paved, flat and empty of tourists. We spent the day in the hill tops venturing off every now again. We spotted a sign for Dragons eye cave, walked up some steep steps to find ourselves on a mountain edge with precariously balanced slaps of concrete leading to some steps, i managed to get on the slabs, got the hebbie gebbies and a slight knee tremble and had to shimmey myself backwards off. Ant went on a little further much to my horror, all the time i was thinking how was i going to explain to his mum and dad whom i have never met how he came to his demise?
After recovering we came across lots of small waterfalls, dipped my toes in - (couldnt feel my feet afterwards!) had some well needed lunch and went to the best waterfall of all, The Seven Dragons Fall. It was beautiful, large mounds of grey rocks with this gushing greeny blue river whizzing through with the sun coming through the clouds to make it warm enough to sit and chill. We walked up retracing the steps of the the river. We had seen lots of people go up further but it seemed a little tricky as you had to leap from one boulder to another with the fast river running through it. I wanted to do it, kept on trying and backing out but with Ants encouragement and help i got across heart in my mouth...walked to the top up of the slimy stones (thankfully they had finger holds)...and admired the view. The way back down i used the bottom sliding technique and then tried to figure out the dilemma of getting back to where Ant was sitting chilling ?!? I ended up taking very slow steps on the boulder ankle deep in the rushing riverwater, getting absolutely soaked and feeling slightly terrified i would end up in the little pool of water at the bottom. Lucky for me Ant has a good grip and confidence in my abilities and i did it. I was quite proud of myself. It wasn't til afterwards that Ant said that he was a bit concerned but knew that i wanted to do it so didn't say anything at the time! We fininshed our journey down nicely tired.
We headed off to Lijang on a nice spacious bus with some chinese tourists. One girl was filming the fog (why?), it did cross my mind that her video camera might be used as a black box on planes as we careered around corners and braked very hard along the mountain roads. Nevertheless we arrived (safely) in the rain and made our to the old town. Its very picturesque -cobbled, red lattern lined streets that weave over streams into eachother creating a kind of groundhog day maze. Shops galore that all seem to sell the same thing and some nice cafes offering a cozy place to sit, chill and watch a dvd which is what we did. Well what else can you do in terrential rain?
So doned with our nice warm woolies and umbrellas we are exploring the rainy town of Lijang, playing chess and just taking it all in....also praying for the sun.....
Oh and in case you were wondering the absolute reason i am now vegetarian it is this....one evening (in Dali) Ant and i decided to have bbq'ed food instead of our usual egg and tomato with rice plus 2 veg. We went to the stall down the road and picked off loads of veg and some meat sticks for Ant, waited whilst it got cooked and headed back to our hostel bottle of wine in hand to tuck into our feast. Some of the meat Ant was unsure of what it was esp the small pepperoni looking things on a stick, so i asked a chinese man as he passed us. After much laughing, head shaking and him saying 'i will take this' and my insistence on knowing what it was we were finally (to Ants dismay) learn that it was pigs penis!......need i say anymore!
I am definatlel veggie through and through now...and on that note i shall leave you....
