Day 16: Lugu Hu (瀘沽湖)

Today our bus back to Lijiang (麗江) picked us up at 10am and we were surprised to hear we wouldn't get back until 8pm. It started by driving us 20 minutes and letting us off in a museum of another town, so we went there and Charlotte went on a chinese tour where the guide informed her that the Tibetan people, in particular the Dalai Lama, is very appreciative of Mao and respects everything he did. He also let her know that Cultural Revolution was great for the local tribes, because they were too poor before to know the traditions they were doing was wrong, once the communists made them marry, they then understood how bad they had it before. Anyway after the museum, they told us to go get lunch and the bus would leave at 1:30. Finally we get on the bus and get to the mud, which was now about a 1/2 mile uphill hike. Once I got up I went back to help Charlotte with her bags. There was 1 Chinese guy helping people with their last couple steps, but looking back there were a lot of people struggling, especially with roller suitcases, and everyone just seemed to watch rather than help. So I went back to help a couple more times with women who couldn't carry their suitcases as everyone just stood and watched. Once through the mud we hiked in the rain to our bus, my sandles were so slippery from the mud i had to hike back barefoot.

From 77 Days in China

From 77 Days in China

During the ride back the weather cleared up so we got some good views, but of course we had to stop for "dinner" at 4:30 just 2 hours after starting in this bus. No one on the bus wanted to eat, but we had to wait there for 45 minutes. Everyone including Charlotte and myself used this time to go to the bathroom.

This was our first real Chinese bathroom experience. First off it was really just an outhouse, but of course it was asian style toilets, which in an outhouse means on the concrete floor there was a rectangular section about 6 inches wide that slants backwards for about 2 feet and out of the outhouse. There was no actual toilet, just the concrete sloping down and out, I was afraid to see what was on the other side, but from where we were it wouldnt surprise me if the toilet dumped into the rice fields. Now this is bad enough, but there were actually 2 of these "toilets" next to each other (within 3 feet) with no dividers. So both us opened the bathroom doors to find people squatting, going to the bathroom and starring at us, wondering why there was a look of shock on our faces. In my case this is when I look like a deer in headlights before I recovered and went to the unoccupied "toilet", now with my waist about a foot away at his head level, while he continues to squat. I just stand there having an exceptionally hard time with my belt until he finishes. After that the rest of the bus ride was uneventful, but we did get some good pictures.

From 77 Days in China

Mountain views on the way home

From 77 Days in China

From 77 Days in China

Same picture as a couple days ago, without the fog

From 77 Days in China

Man coming home from the fields

Once we got back to Lijiang Charlotte found a black market REI store where we were able to buy name brand products that were about 10% of the original cost.  Charlotte got a hat while I got a shirt for our trip to Tiger Leaping Gorge tomorrow