To Baihanchang: tiles, kilns and stonework

March 23, 2007

The pool isn't as hot anymore, we fill up the bathtub in our room with steaming hot water for another soak. In the morning the large pool is drained and workers are cleaning the bottom. We're not sure how far we'll go today.

Yesterday left us a little short and we might have to make up for that today. Right out of town we climb through a narrow valley into another wide valley full of farms. Soybeans, canola, wheat and garlic seem to be the major crops. Then the road starts climbing seriously, amongst pine forests, we reach an altitude of about 2900 meters before losing about 500 of those meters in a beautiful downhill past a reservoir, into another wide valley. It feels like spring today.

Everywhere are flowering fruit trees and the willow trees have new green on them. We have carried some of our Laos Laughing Cow cheese too long. After we eat some on the brown bread we found in Xiaguan, we both end up with an upset stomach. We eat some ice cream and coke which seems to help.

Our decision is to continue past the larger city we come through after about 65km and get closer to Lijiang today. The last part is hard. Even though we have a pretty good tailwind the road keeps climbing away from the river up the mountain sides. Some of these climbs are steep! When we get to the village at the junction of 214 and the road to Lijiang, we find a town much smaller than expected from the mark on our map. There are two "guesthouses" and both don't look good. We settle for the concrete one in lieu of the wooden mostly because it's further away from the road, so hopefully there will be less traffic noise....

No shower though, just a tap in the courtyard and what looks like a public toilet out back. The room is bare concrete floor wall and ceiling that were once painted white now full of stains and smears from smashed bugs. Two single beds with a pad for a mattress. The sheets look clean though and we are given clean looking comforters to sleep under. It's cold so we decide to use our sleeping bags and sheets with the comforter as extra covering. It's already 5pm when we arrive, we have a good dinner right out of the "hotel" gate.

Rachel has been carrying a stash of snicker bars which make for a great treat in a dive like this.