Liiang Part 2 - Aqueous Overload

We arrived back in Lijiang exhausted, damp, slightly chill and rather relieved. Walking back to Mama Naxi's (our guesthouse) was somewhat surreal. The ultra pleasant cobbled streets with their traditional styled modern facades and well planned lighting were just sooo secure that something felt wrong. Obviously nothing was wrong at all though and after our day so far, I think that's where the confusion came in. After checking into the guesthouse and getting warm we headed off for some dinner where Mama Naxi made us (the 5 from the trip) a special one of her legendary dinners. (Special as it was past dinner time.)

Now.. Mama Naxi.. Mama Naxi and her guesthouse(s) require some explanation. Mama Naxi is crazy. But it's a good crazy and, being that she was a rather hot topic of conversation, it was widely agreed that everyone liked her. She was loud, rather controlling, illogical, kind, trusting and very charismatic. There were at least 3 guesthouses, probably 4, possibly 5, all numbered sequentially, all in close proximity and all run by Mama Naxi. At 6 each day you could go to Mama Naxis 3 where everyone sat around large tables meeting everyone else form the various guesthouses. Each table was provided with as much rice as you wanted and several plates of food which would be placed on the table giving everyone a large, varied meal. Apart from being a great meal for only 10 yuan it was a great way of meeting people and getting information on places to go or see. Or for that matter to discuss Mama Naxi.. It was strange to note that everyone, regardless of what guesthouse they stayed in could hear Mama Naxi first thing in the morning and thought that she must stay in their own guesthouse. My best example of the experience that is Mama Naxi would be her trying so get 10 people into 2 vans to go to Tiger Leaping Gorge. After breaking up nearly all the groups of travellers into separate vans she then changed all the bags around so that half the bags were in vans different their owners. After that she decided this wasn't working and we needed a third van. Another van was called and everyone was shuffled around so that we were now taking up 2 different vans.. There were some half hearted attempts to point out the obvious to her and sort things out ourselves but she was completely in charge and just so well meaning about everything that nobody really wanted to contradict her. Anyway she eventually got there and after 20 minutes or so we left in much the same way that we were originally packed in.

Anyway, once we got back from the gorge, next 2 days that we spent in Lijiang were pretty much spent relaxing and recovering from our trek. During this time we were hoping to get some washing done but, much like the first 2 days we were in Lijiang it was raining. It would be safe to say that Lijiang was the rainy city of our trip. On the bus from Dali to Lijiang it started raining. Once in Lijiang we'd no sooner checked into a guesthouse and found a place to eat when the rain became torrential and we were stuck there for 2 - 3 hours. (At least the cafe was nice and a Canadian couple told us of Mama Naxis.) It continued raining right through Tiger Leaping Gorge and as previously mentioned, the remainder of our time in the city. It didn't stop raining until our bus trip to Zhongdian.. and it's barely rained since.. I'd have to say though that there probably couldn't be a nicer place to be when it was raining. It's not that the rain improved the place it's just that Lijiang is so damn nice that it would be hard to get down on it.

Like Dali the place to stay in Lijiang is the old city. Unlike Dali though this old city appears to have been thoroughly renovated and spared no expense. It's beautiful. Touristy of course and aimed at both chinese and international tourists but I cannot think of a prettier urban scene. At one end there is a large square with a waterwheel. The river flowing past this is divided and runs through the city down several open waterways. Several small arch bridges cross over the river and all the streets are cobbled with foot long, uneven chipped bricks. The old town itself must be approximately a kilometer or so wide and several (3 maybe) kilometers long. The streets may seem straight forward enough looking at a map but it's surprisingly easy to get turned around lost. Especially on your first day there. The buildings and shop fronts are well made and strong in character. At night the main part of the old town has lights highlighting all the rooftops which lead up a hill and look particularly scenic. To add to this there was, apart from your usual assortment of eateries, the Prague Cafe, which did real coffee (well) along with nice western and japanese cuisine. It's rather rare to be able to get eastern food which isn't soaked or fried in oil over here so the chicken katsu was mmmmarrrrgggghh.. chicken katsu..

So anyway, I guess what I'm saying is, Lijiang was a nice place to chill out and unbelievably pretty but we didn't really get up to much. (apart form Tiger Leaping Gorge) Adding any more than that would really just be bogging this entry down with needless detail.

We left from here to Zongdian.

(P.S. - Naxi is pronounced Nashi)