Lijiang 12th - 17th May
After a quick flight we arrived at 22.00 at Mama's, a widely kept secret of Lijiang old town. We had been recommended it by a couple we had meet in Xi'an, she makes her business by word of mouth only and she deserves every ounce of excellent reputation she has. As soon as we arrived she gave us bananas and told us off for not calling for a lift from the airport. Breakfast is 2Y and dinner is 8Y, what value and dinner is served at the same time with everyone who stays so you get about 10+ different dishes to pig out on, troughing with all the peps there and you are full the dishes still come! Mama's is run by a Naxi family one of the 43 ethinic groups in the Yunnan.
Lijiang was made a UNESCO world heritage after an earthquake that demolished the new town, left the old town standing. It's a spellbinding labyrinth of narrow cobbled streets and romantic bridges across streams of clear water, absent of any rubbish you would normally expect, they have even put goldfish and koi carp in some of the streams and pools. Bright red lanterns illuminate Lijiang by night, the town square is full at this time. Full of tourists snapping away at the cute old ladies that gather to dance together and particularly in one street named imaginatively "bar street" the tourists (mainly chinese) are encouraged to sing louder than the other side - oooh the noise! The town is set on the side of a mountain where the full view is amazing. On walking through the streets you where free of the usual drone of horns and clapped out vehicles chugging to get along. It was quite a sheltered break actually from the daily business of China.
Here we came across the best local market veg, fruit (mountains of watermelons) piglets, dogs, chickens etc. We where lucky enough to see how they prepare their piglets once drained of their blood - they blow torch it to get rid of those irratating spikey hairs and then gut it....interesting.
During our stay one day it rained hard, allllll day. A particular japanese guy we made friends with decided that there was nothing better than to drink Biao jiao allllll day - oopps by 5 he was in bed - Ha!
From Mama's we went to the Tiger Leaping Gorge, returned and got the bus to Dali.
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