Located in the Southwestern corner of China near to Tibet and Burma, Lijiang is now a UNESCO World Heritage sight and popular destination for hikers and backpackers. It is the home of the Naxi ethnic group, who are a matriarchal society and still wear traditional clothing. The town is surrounded by beautiful mountains. We'll get used to the altitude here for a few days before attempting to hike for a few days through Tiger Leaping Gorge. Ariela will have her 16th birthday in this town.
After our trip to the Panda Reserve we took a cab back to the area of our guesthouse hoping to find a restaurant. We went into a 'hotpot' banquet hall but the menu was completely in Chinese and none of the items in photos looked recognizable so we wandered towards home and found nothing. Back at Sim's we had a nap and I started feeling like the last thing I wanted to do was go to the airport to catch a 9:00pm flight to Lijiang. But at 6pm the driver was waiting and off we went.
The big modern airport was packed and our gate was not posted, so we had to hang out for about an hour waiting. I wandered into a nice looking restaurant to look at the menu but there was nothing that looked safe. It was mostly pig intestines, pork brains, chicken entrails and things like that. In the afternoon we'd pass some food stalls where they freshly prepare dished and you sit at small tables nearby to eat. The only things we saw were chicken feet, and duck heads, including the bills, and yes, rooster heads too, dipped in sauce. My sense of adventure has limits.
Finally the flight was posted so we went through security to the gate. After about an hour I looked up and noticed that the flight was no longer listed at that gate so I went to enquire and was told it was moved to a different gate, so off we hustled. They typically board at least 2 flights from teh same gate at the same time. You get on shuttle busses to your plane, but just make sure you get on the right bus because the announcements are in Chinese.
Once on the plane, we sit there for an hour waiting for air traffic control clearance. We are the only Westerners on the plane. Finally we take off and smoothly head towards Lijiang. We are preparing to land when we hit some turbulance and the pilot announces that we are unable to land and are flying back to Chengdu. Sigh.
An hour later we're back on the tarmac in Chingdu waiting for a place to unload.
After much ado, we get on busses and are driven an hour into nowhere's ville to the most dismal looking hotel you can imagine. Luckily we were sitting in the front of the bus, so we got into the lobby right away and were issued a ticket with two room numbers on them, and no key without any more waiting. Upstairs the place was dimily lit and the lights didn't go on. There was a sign by an outlet that said "Insert key to obtain power." But we did not have keys. I guess they were trying to save electricity. The bathroom light worked.
The rooms had twin beds. Gary brought the quilts from his room and slept on the floor with us. We could only assume that Air China was going to manage our luggage and re-schedule the flight. It was 1:30. We crashed into bed. At 2:00am I heard the phone make a noise and so flipped it open. I'd gotten a text message from our guest house in Lijiang saying that the driver wanted to know if we were still coming or should he go home. Yikes. I'd forgotten that we'd requested airport pickup.
In the morning I found the receipt from the air tickets. I had made all the flight reservations through Ctrip - a Chinese travel service run by the government similar in set-up to Orbitz only much cheaper. I called their number and got an English speaking person who told me that the flight was re-scheduled for 11:30am and she could re-confirm that we wanted to be on it. Shortly thereafter someone came banging on all the doors and we went to the lobby where they were handing out packaged rolls. We got back on the bus and returned to the airport.
Went through the same security - and gate chaos. Of course the flight was delayed but we had seats in the waiting area (not everyone did). Finally boaraded, sat on the tarmac, and FINALLY took off, and got to Lijiang around 2:30 in the afternoon. Our driver was waiting with a sign with our names. The sun was shining, the mountains beautiful and we could see people working in the fields wearing traditional clothing. It was great to be in warm sunshine.
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