Dali
Tuesday April 22 is a long day of travel. One of those days that reminds us that it is often challenging to get to these fascinating places. We are out of the hotel at 8 AM and the flight has a fun quirk. We are headed to Kunming in the south and in the foothills of the Himalayas so the passenger mix is very different from what we usually see. At least a third of them are glued to the window probably a first flight. We especially enjoyed the little old man who was one row up across from us on the aisle, sitting with two other matching little old men. We had a clear view of him swiping the blanket the steward gave him. Then he stood up the whole flight to look out the window including landing. It was really turbulent on landing and one rather exciting drop had all of them squealing. It felt like Disney all over.
The connecting flight involved taking luggage, breaking security, and then re-booking and going through security again. As I said long day. Thankfully the airports are new. All signs are in English and most of the airlines staff sort of speak English. This is huge emphasis in China and schools are now teaching it in elementary school.
After we drive an hour we arrive at Linden retreat an hour from town in a small village. The ethnic group here is Bai. Tired and hot we settle in on the terrace for a bowl of noodles and some rather decent wine while the sun paints the mountains pink and the farmers in the paddies finish up for the day. A cool breeze kicks up and this is that moment that wipes away the tired and makes the journey worthwhile.
Xizhou
This is the name of the little Bai village where we are staying. The hotel is the former home of a Bai lord and has 4 courtyards. The Lindens who run this center tried to preserve much of the original feel and still have modern comforts. They also run a school where children from the International school spend a few weeks.
Courtyard four.
Early morning walk through the village and the farmers are already out.
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Bai girl in traditional dress.
The famous cormorant fishermen on Erhai lake
She rows.
He fishes
Yeah success! They each got one.
I remember seeing this on Discovery and Anthony Bourdain but what they don't show is the other boatloads of tourists. This is pretty much a staged show now but tourism keeps this old tradition alive.
We buy one of those fish and head for a big floating dock where they have a restaurant that cooks our fish. Talk about fresh.
Ever tried to pick tiny fish bones out with chopsticks.
This is how our van is done up for us. White lace and silk pillows.
Lunch with David and our driver. He loves to eat and cleans the bowls. I don't feel so guilty taking a small bite of everything as they serve so much food.
We ordered pancakes from this man on the street. Like a baked fried nummy thing.
These two chickens are probably not going to have a good day. On market days they walk to market with large woven baskets in their back and head home with meat, eggs, vegetables for one meal. A daily market means eating fresh. The people here commonly live to be over 100.
Yesterday as we were about to step out of our hotel a funeral procession stopped us in the doorway. A band that has a wailing sound almost like bagpipes and drums. The mourners carried huge paper dragons, fishes and birds on sticks and then six men carried two bamboo poles with a red silk sling with the body wrapped in silk. The Bai are allowed to bury the dead in the ground so they take them to the mountain. Just as the body passed about a dozen more men came with huge packages of firecrackers they were setting off. We all stood silent as did everyone else on the street. One of the moments we did not take a photograph.
A folkloric show.
Checking the days harvest.
Sunset on the terrace.
David and Jon do Tai Chi
The people here are interesting and their clothes colorful. However we don't take a lot of pictures to be respectful but with a super long lens Jon does some stealth photos. Bags of potatoes at the end of the day.
Today's note for the kids. Two easy things to say in the Bai language.
Yahoo yahoo is go go. We had a little friendly competition with the other boats on Erhai lake and we were at a disadvantage as we had a private boat so only the captain and Jon and me plus David and the driver to row.
"Too busy" is thank you in Bai. Many of the older people speak only this dialect and there are 55 minorities. Mandarin or Cantonese speaking Chinese cannot understand the dialects and vice versa.
The drive to Lijiang.
The drive is scenic as we climb up into the foothills of the big mountains. Every square meter of available space is cultivated and fields are full of people. It is a crazy quilt of tiny pieces thrown over the landscape. In every shade of ochre to new bamboo green that gleams like neon. Every inch neatly tended. Since it is spring many fields have been newly planted so there are millions of square feet of plastic covering perfectly ordered rows of crops to keep out the weeds. Oxen occasionally pull a plow but just as often it is done by hand. Women do much of the work.
As we climb up and around the mountains the exuberance of spring lightens the harsh landscape. Bowers of white spirea arch over every hillside, tumbling down the mountains in snowy masses. Long graceful stalks with flowers from lavender to deep purple tremble in the breeze. Then as the soil gets deep red, carpets of purple lupines cover the ground. This is a day you cannot photograph, only experience. Every slightly level slope has a small farm.
Here on the mountain side are the small concrete or stone crypts where the Bai are buried scattered all along the roadside.
The roads are narrow with no shoulder and all have a one foot to ten foot drop or more even on the most level ground. Then the fields are below so it is bit like an automotive skyway. No guard rail either until we get into the mountains.
Our destination is another ethnic village. The Shaxi. Quiet and peaceful but the government is building big hotels as they wish to bring in tourism. Too bad, it gets comfortable, but real Disney like.
Steep stairs in old house.
Every house has an orchid for good luck.
Huge woks in kitchen used for feasts.
A shrine on the second floor of the house. Below washing hair and vegetables at street side open sewer with a faucet running sort of fresh water.
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Best food. Simple with fresh ingredients.
There is hardly anything left.
We arrive at The Banyan Tree resort and we just fell down the rabbit hole. First there is the flower strewn bed then below our private patio with a few of the mountains.
Right now we are sitting nibbling on these bar snacks we bought on the street with a glass of wine in our room. Incense is perfuming the air..
The hotel grounds.
Jade Dragon Snow mountain as viewed from our rooms private patio.
Jon's new favorite bar snack.
Today we explore Lijiang but first I have a story to relate that Jon and I are hooting over. One thing all female travelers to China have to be aware of is that there are few western toilets. The tray and pan is universally used, as I have a realtor left knee caused by years of getting in and out of a car, I practiced before I left home just to be sure. After awhile in that position my knee makes some real alarming sounds so I made the simple request of David if he knew of western toilets on the way to make a small detour as I can manage but...
Next morning they show up with a folding chair with a potty seat in it. I love these guys. However as we wander around in the Shaxi village we find the driver, following us, carrying the seat. I doubled up with visions of me trotting around China with my very own toilet seat following behind everywhere we go. Explained I don't need it that often but when it is time I merrily grab my tissue and my chair and my pride and off I go.
The day in Lijiang
Selling flower garlands to wear like a crown.
Another local home built on a courtyard. This one had four bee hives with their occupants living with them. One side was a barn for animals and the other a wall from the street so the remaining two sides are family dwellings.
Children at recess and we created a stir. They see lots of tourists, the vast majority are Chinese so we are still a bit unique. They are telling us they are local children and this is their school.
Jon is applying to import this to run to Costco.
A charming fluent English speaking con artist in the embroidery factor. I really really hate these places.
Bocce ball Chinese style and David was amazed when we explained the rules to him. He thought it was totally Chinese.
We ate yak at a VERY local restaurant. It is good.
Notes on wall from customers and right behind us two from Turino, Italy.
Children walking home from school. It is most common for children to be living with grandparents while
parents work.
Exquisite Black Dragon Park.
At a museum a local shrine for a Shaman based animist religion. As we looked through the museum we were struck how like Maya and Egyptian religion this is. The guide was amazed at that comment and then showed us where there local writing is side by side with the Maya and it is far too similar to be a co-incidence. Everything of the ancient Chinese culture strikes us with the similarity of other ancient cultures. The way the bricks are made, villages formed, agriculture and religion.
Every time we make that comment our guides are a bit dismayed as they take huge pride in their ancient history and I think they like to believe they are unique. However the museum guide has heard this from other tourists and is quite impressed we have seen so much. It continues to surprise us how one trip builds on another.
The Shaman who knows all things and is 7 th generation. He is so old now, 71 years old. Gag gasp wheeze.
Lijiang old town. A river runs through the center and creates charming little canals and streets lined with restaurants and bars. Walking down the street something happens that has happened several times here. I smile at a young mother and a baby and the next thing you know I have the baby and a dozen people are taking our picture. I feel like a rock star. David says it is because I am a very "elegant lady". Love his choice of words.
The bridges crossing the canal.
Two or more Circle dances were going on in every square.
Buying tea.
Dinner in a local house. This whole area is open to the courtyard.
Medicine on the sideboard. Don' t ask. We didn't.
To the mountains and Shangri La.
Today's journey is a a travelogue.
We are driving ever higher into the mountains following the Yangtze river.
The hillsides are heavily terraced with the graceful curving landscape typical of all hillside agriculture.
Clever farmers thresh soy beans by spreading the plants in the street to dry and at the end of the day they sweep up the dry stalks and all the cars, bikes and feet that pass over leave the beans ready to prepare.
This morning is crystal clear so the mountain is showing off it's glory.
First stop the first bend of the Yangtze.
Shigu is the name of this village.
These little guys are for sale in the market.
David bought these mountain strawberries at a road side stand and we then had them for lunch. Sweet delicious and so good.
Lunch on the road. Dried yak, pork and tree fungus, delicious, French fried potatoes, and local pork and turnip soup to name a few. Put rice in the bowl, pile on the stuff and enjoy. Both David and the driver practice local good manners by loudly slurping their food as they eat.
Leaping Tiger Gorge.
There are four routes in. Number one is 26 hours with an over night stay in a mountain hostel. 10 to a room, bathroom down the hall and out back. That was a no. Number two is one hour of stairs up and one hour down, more or less. Opted out of that so three and four are walk or ride the rickshaw on the flat route. Now I think David might be a little over protective but we can walk. He told us it would be one hour in and one hour out and we walked in in 30 minutes and out in 35. That should put an end to that. It was also about 90 degrees and hot sun. The gorge is fantastic and the pathway is prone to rock slides. Seeing all that evidence of falling rock helped us keep up the pace.
Off we go.
This tiger is about halfway.
This big rock is the actual Leaping Tiger.
After leaving the gorge it is 2 hours to Shangri La. We really start to climb and much of the drive is up a valley. The river running beside turns emerald green. A sure sign of glacial run off. The agriculture and architecture change from gentle terraces to wooden stockade fences for live stock. The graceful bowed tile roofs of Chinese homes give way to gleaming white stupas garlanded with prayer flags whipping in the wind.
High in the mountains after ear popping and crawling up and around the mountain road including an unpaved section we reach a lookout. A magnificent view but this pork stand had Jon running straight for it, baby suckling pig air dried. Never mind the view.
Way in the distance the high Himalayas.
The large valley that is our destination. Now pigs, cows, donkeys and goats all graze freely including in the middle of the road. As we drive into Shangri La the reality of a nation of a billion trying frantically to move into the modern age hits us. We drive by miles of homes under construction and then through a totally ugly new city half built, ugly apartment blocks. New commercial districts and chaos. This is the last thing we wanted or expected to see.
I hoped for a rabbit hole and of course we found one. We drove into the park that surrounds the Sonzanlin Monastery and we are now sitting on our balcony watching the sunset light up the monastery. We have come all this way to a contrived reality. This maybe what we are taking away from this trip. China in their rush to modernize and provide for their population is turning into a giant Disney Park. One thing I know for sure the rate of change is beyond comprehension. It boggles my mind. In Dali for example they have decided to move a new city center near the airport and flying in it looks like an excavation for 700 world trade centers covering miles.
It got so cold here at 10,500 ft elevation we had a little fire just for fun.
Songzalin Monastery
The way up is all those steps at 10,827 ft elevation to be precise. Made it! so kudos to body bar and all that pilates. David was sure I couldn't make it but I explained it is only one step at a time. Stairs were easy, altitude kicked up the heart rate a lot. He was surprised again.
This very plain exterior is quiet concealment for the explosion of color and ornamentation that is the interior of this sacred place. No photos can be taken and few words to do it justice. Golden statues of all sizes, tubs of burning butter candles, monks selling blessings, worshipers prostrating themselves before the Bhuddas, every surface is red, blue yellow,green or gold, incense drifts upwards creating a heady mix. As we approach the middle of the three temples we hear the deep sound of a muted drum. As we step in there are rows of benches covered with bright cushions with monks sitting in their deep crimson robes. The drums start again and suddenly the temple fills with monks running and all the hundreds of places are filled. We stand amazed. David says he has never seen this in all his years of guiding. Then a huge monk walks about four feet in front of us and an attendant robes him in very elaborate gowns plus a large yellow crown. He walks up and down the rows pounding a long scepter on the ground. Then he sits on a seat right next to us and the drumming and chanting start in earnest. We have stumbled by accident into a very holy ceremony held 2 or 3 times a month. We stay about 45 minutes and get to see something very special and very rare. We also see that the monks are not totally into it all the time. One is blowing bubbles and there is more than a bit of wiggling among the really young ones. Each one carries a cloth sack with their food for the day in it and these are neatly lined up on the floor. A wonderful treat to reward us for the climb up.
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We took pictures from a book to show the interiors as they do not allow photography. |
Three turns on the prayer wheel. Jon and I have always felt anywhere that is a place of worship is a good place to have some pray full time. I had a special moment for my cousin who lost his wife yesterday.
Old town
Street workers, mostly female.
Another Shrine, another set of steps.
World's largest prayer wheel.
Huge flowering pear trees grow wild in the mountains and cover this temple hillside.
Our three turns on the world's largest prayer wheel.
Miss adorable was chasing the prayer wheel around and around trying to grab on.
Yak butter tea. Creamy, mild and a bit salty. Not bad at all.
This very mangy disagreeable cat was a resident of the evenings restaurant.
This was bit cozy.
The square beneath the prayer wheel is one of the prettiest I have ever seen. There are three white marble bridges from the parking lot across a stream leading to the plaza.. The back of the square is the huge temple hill and the square at night is a big dance party. Full of circle dancers and the music plays for hours.
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