This morning we decided to head to old town one more time before leaving town. As according to Tibetan tradition where wives buy their husbands a knife, Charlotte bought me a 35cm Tibetan silver knife. We shipped it to her friend who lives on the China/Hong Kong border (I respect Hong Kong as a different place than China, because it really is a different world). We will pick up the knife there before flying out of Hong Kong.
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| From 77 Days in China |
The knife Charlotte bought me
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| From 77 Days in China |
Up close
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| From 77 Days in China |
Yak Hot Pot
We went for lunch at a place serving Yak Hot Pot that is cooked in black pottery with coals from a wood burning stove, and it was one of the best meals we have had in China, this wasn’t too much of a feat as I have been pretty disappointed in the food. It was also the only food we could finish the meal in Shangri-La.
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| From 77 Days in China |
Getting charcoal for the hot pot
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| From 77 Days in China |
Charcoal goes in the bottom, yak goes in the top
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| From 77 Days in China |
Tasty!
Start of the Journey from Hell.
Off to the bus station after lunch and our plan was simple, bus to Lijiang(麗江) then an overnight train back to Kunming(昆明) where we would spend the day and fly to NW China Tuesday night. At the bus station we met a Swedish guy who told us his route to Chengdu (成都), another city we wanted to visit. His route, also the Lonely Planet tour books recommended route, was a bus from Lijiang (麗江) to Panzhihua (攀枝花) and a train to Chingdu (成都). This would save us about $150 each so we decided to do that instead.
Buses
Now a problem with China is that in most cases each city only has bus/train information for that particular city and can’t tell you anything about other cities and calling can confirm times, but not if there are seats available. Also no information online is about times is accurate and there are no online tickets for trains or buses. We got our bus to Lijiang with no problem. Arrived at ~6pm and even got to watch a Chinese movie on the bus about the evil English Imperialists in Hong Kong. Arriving in Lijiang we found there would be no buses until the morning, luckily outside we found a private “sleeper bus” leaving at 8pm. We ran to the “REI” blackmarket store and got some more cheap gear (shirts, hats, shoes) and then went back and got on the bus. The bus was 3 rows of bunk beds (parallel to the length of the bus). Only top beds were available and I took the center one because the roof of the bus was higher and Charlotte took the bed on one side next to me. The beds were small enough for Charlotte (5’2” on a good day) could touch both ends of the bed. At this point I knew I would not be sleeping that night.
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