Climb Every Mountain
Lijiang, Yunnan, China
May 23, 2009
We were up at 7:30 and showered. I ate my mango that we purchased at the market yesterday. It was so good and so fresh!
We checked the weather and email via the hotel computer and then started walking through Old Lijiang. Around the corner from our hotel an older lady and her husband have a "breakfast" stand set up. They are frying up some dough and then put an egg on top and scramble it. I ordered one and added a bit of red sauce (chilli) and green hot peppers. It was 5 yuan and it was delicious! Better than our over priced breakfast yesterday. I read somewhere that Naxi flat bread is called Ba Ba (not sure if this is it).
We stopped at the mini mart/travel center and booked the flight to Chengdu. Bill only changed his mind three times about the flight time. I think the lady and I were both ready to strangle him! I was trying to confirm the bus situation at the Lijiang tourist information booth and the girl was telling me "yah, sometimes the buses go out there, but they decide not to come back, you should hire a minivan for 150 yuan instead..." Great!
We stopped at Prague cafe and I ordered a Masala Milk Tea (like Chai) and Bill ordered an egg, bacon and cheese "mcmuffin". It was OK, I was suspicious of the top part that was cut off and the bun tasted stale. This place was recommended in the book, but the service is not great "no cards" and the food has been mediocre... I don't think we need to come back again.
While were were at the cafe Mr Guo approached us about taking a tour. We asked him about Tiger Leaping Gorge and he wanted 450 yuan to take us and he would also provide a taxi. It would cost us an additional 50 yuan for tolls, plus the 50 yuan each park entrance. We negotiated him to including the first bend and a stop at a village for 450 plus park entrance. Not bad considering a tour was going to be 200 or 260 yuan each with a larger group and a guide who did not speak English.
We walked to the bus stop and passed by a minivan that tried to trick us (had #7 in the window). We found the real bus and were able to go to the mountain for 10 yuan each. Luckily there was a white guy and a Chinese guy behind us who conveyed the cost and confirmed we were on the right bus.
When we arrived at the park entrance we had to pay another 80 yuan each ($14), our Lijiang passes did not work here either!
A short ride later we arrived at a large gate. The driver made us get off here. I think there are a couple more chair lifts a bit further up, but we have no choice! It was 170 yuan ($30) each for the cable car ride up Jade Dragon Snow Mountain aka Yulong Mountain. The mountain is 5596 meters at the summit. FYI: Lake Louise is 2700 meters, Cuzco is 3300 meters and Lasha is 3650 meters. It is 35 km from town and was first climed in 1963 by a research team from Beijing.
We paid at 10:43 and had to wait for bus "S". At the information desk they suggested it would be an hour wait. We wandered around a bit and did not see any food that was too appetizing. There were drum sticks, packaged noodle soup, chicken feet, hot dogs on a stick and corn on a stick (it has a cob, why do you need a stick?). I wanted to get popcorn, but I would like salt and it had sugar. We ended up buying peanuts, coke, Snickers and sugary Yak jerky (enough with the sugar people!).
We walked down a path toward a coffee shop, but they only had beverages and 3 goats hanging around outside (alive, not dead). We also saw a show going on next door. Twice we saw horse and riders in costume go over a big archway.
To pass the time (an hour had already come and gone) we sat on a bench outside (it is nice and sunny) and played Rummy. Bill won one very close game. During the next game I was about to score a ton of points when the wind picked up and was blowing our cards off the bench, plus our bus has been called, so Bill called the game (I ended up narrowly losing the next game, I should have won with that hand. GRR!)
We had to wait inside for the bus and then it was a mad rush to get on. Bill and I let everyone get ahead of us and then had to squeeze on. There were more passengers than seats and people were too impatient to let us by before flipping the jump seats down. One woman shoved me, then a little girl was "chirping" at me because I had to climb over the jump seat that she was trying to climb over and sit in.
We ascended a winding hill at breakneck speed to 3356 meters and we unloaded, only to go and stand in another line. We waited single file in a line that was under an awning and it zigzagged a few times. The "chirpy" little girl was in line behind me and thought the line would go faster if she leaned against my legs the whole time. Bill tried to scare her and her little brother, but it did not work. He has been scaring a lot of other Chinese children, but not these ones!
We finally boarded the gondola around 2:00 (almost 3 1/2 hours later) with a family of four. The ride was pretty quick and took us up to 4506 meters. We saw some pink and white flowers, moraines, snow, ice and the top of the tree line. There were only some small yellow flowers above that point.
We started up the stairs and passed numerous people with rented winter coats that were 3/4 length and oxygen cans (40 yuan each). I was wearing pants, a long sleeve shirt, sweat shirt and rain coat. Bill was wearing sandals, shorts, long sleeve shirt and sweat shirt. Do you think we stuck out at all??!!
Part way up to the top of the climb Bill decided to pick a snowball fight with a Chinese guy. I thought it was going to cause and international incident, but it did not. The guy was thrilled and had to get his picture taken with Bill.
The climb was not tough, but the air was thin and I had to stop once in a while because my heart was pounding. Bill had a hard time catching his breath at first, but was fine once we got going.
We made it to 4680 m, which is the top of the climb, and hung out for a while and took some pictures. I purchased an expensive iced tea (10 yuan) to quench my thirst. This was a great spot to view the glacier. The clouds would roll in and quickly move by. People started asking us to be in their pictures. One older lady in a denim outfit was so excited to have her picture taken with us. Each time we had our photo taken I would give them a Canadian pin. The denim lady was kind enough to give us some cow candy (toffee). Another younger lady gave us some really strong candies (like Fisherman's Friend). We had couples, groups, some buddies and some girls ask us to be in pictures with them (maybe 10 different groups). It was hilarious. We had a lot of fun!
A lot of people said something to Bill or gave him the thumbs up because of the shorts and sandals. They must think all Canadians are crazy!
An 1 1/2 later we decided to head back down. I bought a Lijiang cake for 5 yuan because I was starving. It tasted like buckwheat and syrup (pancake) and was very yummy. The girl had it heating in the microwave for over 3 minutes. I thought it was going to be rock hard, but it was perfect.
We waited in line (AGAIN) for the gondola ride down. We were with the garbage guy and a bag of smelly garbage on the way down. I used the toilet and Bill disappeared. He had jumped down a hill and scared a grazing horse while trying to take a picture of the white flowers we had seen.
He reappeared after a bit and we boarded the bus to go back down the mountain. We were seated in the back and I kept sliding out of the seat. Thank goodness it was a short ride.
We were excited to see our city bus driving waiting on the road! We jumped on the bus, but had to wait for another 1/2 hour for it to fill up. We both napped on the way back to Lijiang. We were dropped off back where we started and we walked back into the Old Town.
We weren't sick of high places yet, so we climbed up to Wengu Palace. It has influences from Buddhism, Taoism and Confucianism.
Further up on Sleeping Lion Mountain we visited Wengu Pavilion. The word Wengu in Naxi means hill. In 1997 this 2 storey building was erected. It is 33 m high and has 16 pillars.
We walked down the hills and I bought a hair pin (10 yuan) since my hair is out of control these days. She showed Bill how to do it, but he is not sure if he could show me.
At the hotel it started raining around 7:00. Bill watched the very boring and repetitive CCTV and I used the internet.
After 8:00 we went to Naxi Family Restaurant and had kung pao chicken (cubes of meat and carrots in a simple broth, not spicy), mixed veggies - bok choy, bean sprouts, elephant ear and carrots and minced chicken with thin slices of cucumber. It was all really good. I had green tea and Bill had a coke. Dinner was 90 yuan.
After dinner we crashed early because we are going to go on a tour in the morning.