To Lijiang: view of Jade Dragon Snow Mountain

March 24, 2007

Right out of the hotel the climb starts.

We are up at 7am, eat only cookies for breakfast. And due to the dire circumstances, Rachel stashes the toothbrushes in her handlebar bag, we'll brush our teeth once on the road. Surprisingly we both slept very well in our sleeping bags and comforter.

Wee climb the road as it snakes up 5 km and we are just above the town after gaining 350m meters, we can still see where we started. And we climb some more through pine forest and many farmer vehicles passing us. At 9km we stop for an eating of oreos and bananas and brush our teeth...we are just above the lake that is by the town. Then we reach a plateau at 11km and 600 meters gain from the town. The fields now are rolling fields rather than terraced. Again, we stop to eat PB & J and Nutella sandwiches.

We've been seeing glimpses of Yubong Xueshan Mountain with snow topped peaks (Chinese name is Jade Dragon Snow Mountain or Naxi/Tibetan name Mt Satseto 5596 meters).

The fields are beautiful and so picture perfect. We reach the town at 20km and the descent starting at 11km has been gentle. We continue to drop down and reach the main road at 26km. The fields are bright with color--the yellow blossoms of canola, the pink cherry trees, the white blossomed fruit trees on the hillsides look silver. Women dressed in indigo traditional dress and hats carrying large woven baskets filled with greenery, or women and men carrying hoes.

There is one more short climb to Lijiang, then we drop down into the valley and reach the town. Navigating the "not based on a grid" pattern for roads becomes difficult. We see the hilltop where we need to go. Patrick says just keep going left, based on the "you're not lost until you admit it" principle.

Then we are in "old Town". We see wooden signs with "you are here" that are very confusing with no reference to directions. The large stone streets winding through narrow corridors, we start to see souvenir shops an indication we have reached the outskirts of the tourist area. Attempts to orienting remain confusing; we find landmark hotels and eventually the main square and waterwheel.

The road we need has stairs, so we navigate around them, find the road and a sign to MCA Guesthouse (Hostel), our destination. Again, stairs so we navigate around and up a final steep road, narrow alley downhill, around a corner and...

......we arrive!

The guesthouse is very Tibetan looking, nice cozy room; we are soon out the door to find food and eat at KFC with mashed potatoes and gravy! Familiar food. Then back to the hotel to do laundry and internet. We wander around Old Town a little later. Then explore the supermarket in the "new city" shops. Patrick finds a nice Mountain Hardwear jacket, and later we find some hats with ear flaps.

Back at the hotel, we go to the restaurant with a great city view, study maps, write journal and relax with a beer and French fries. A full day so far and its 5pm. After dinner at Mama's (lasagna and hamburger) we return to the shop to buy the same Mountain Hardwear jacket for Rachel. We both now have a red & black wind stopper jacket to match our red & black panniers and a red & black hat for Rachel with Patrick's being grey and black. Just too much color coordinating.

The night view from the hotel of the city lights is beautiful, Patrick gets some good pictures.