Kumming & Lijiang

Now getting into the travelling spirit.. so after getting of the plane I was determined to make it to Kumming Bus Station for my connection to Lijiang. Without getting an "expensive" taxi from the airport.

So after a bit of a chat with the local travel service who pointed me in the wrong direction for the bus stop .. I saw the no 52 bus into town. The bus a bargain 1 yuan as opposed to 25-35 yuan, got the bus - superb! No idea where I was to get off but with the my trusty Rough Guide map - I couldnt go far wrong.

Driving towards Kumming was cool, though there was a bit of a smell from these guys feet next to me... I just thought ah well, its not too bad and wont be long till I get off. I kept looking out for roads that I could recognise on the map and after seeing one and thinking whether I should get off it was too late and were driving in completely the wrong direction.

The bus emptied and the guy moved across to the other side of the bus... unfortunately it was then I realised that the smell was still there and it way my feet and he had moved as far away as possible from me. Mental note, dont wear socks for 4 days straight.... I thought to myself.

Anyway ended up in the arse end of nowhere, no maps and my rough guide had a helpful arrow off the side of the map that said the west bus station was over here. Time to get some help, so went into the bus stations drivers room and this lady told me to get the 54 and to get off at soin, so... I took her advice and was going back into the main center. She even told the bus driver where to drop me off.. so 10mins later back on the streets. I then decided to just get a taxi as the walk was quite a way.

At this point I had no-idea whether you could get a bus to Lijiang at this time. I arrived in the bus stop and was immediately met by about 20 touts all asking me Dali, Lijiang... I said Lijiang and put up a bit of a fight to chat to the official bus company they said, go with them and I did. Next thing I know Im on a bus and lying down in a little bed - ready for Lijiang.

10 hours later and at 5:30am we arrive in Lijiang... get off the bus - loads of touts, fight through them and then start trying to find an Internet cafe. I am meeting Kate here and we are staying somewhere, but I dont know where yet.

Have some food and find the Internet Cafe, the place we are staying is called Mama Naxi's Guesthouse, after a 2hr walk about and asking countless people I phone up Mamas and they come and find me.

The place is brillant, Mama Naxi and Papa Naxi give me food and bananas before I have time to sit down. You feel really at home.

2 lads also arrive from Dali and they mention that a girl told them about this place, I said I bet her name was Kate and they laughed and said your Simon are you?.. These guys (Dick and Mike we'd end up travelling about with.

Lijiang is a beautiful place, I was amazed by it to be honest. Its divided into two parts, old town and new town... the old town has been recently rebuilt due to a recent earthquake and all the traditional Naxi buildings survived the earthquake. Unlike the more modern buildings so the local government decided to rebuild in the same traditional style.

From here you can go on a trek to the Tiger Leaping Gorge, which we booked for the following day.

We decided to all go out and have a few drinks, of course one drink lead to another and we ended up getting involved in this tradition of singing across a stream that runs through the old town. Basically each team on each side of the stream takes it in turns to sing songs and try and out do the other side. Of course we took this on and found ourselves (4 westerners) battling against 30-40 locals... it was great fun. Such classics as bah, bah black sheep, twinkle, twinkle little star were busted out.... unfortunately we ran out of tunes and they were still going. We got beer sprayed over us being the losers but we vowed to get our revenge later on.

Staggering back to the hostel was pleasant and went to bed....