Yunnan adventure: DAY 6 when my camera stopped working..

Morning in the village by our hotel :)

On the road again...back to the Yangtze...hoping for boat..



Arrived to the river bank around 9:30 (we were told the first boat would come at that time)...and then we sat by by the bank of the river Yangzte...and sunbathed... for 2,5 - 3 h... Around 12:00 am boat came from the other side & it took us 2 minutes to cross together with a nice horse and a couple of locals..

Btw, my camera crashed sometime during that wait, so from here on - borrowed photos ;)
Still no boat...


3,5 h bus ride to Lijiang with nonstop spitting driver and occasionally vomiting lady... We reached max of 3250 m and saw some snow on the way!

Our plan to take 9:30 bus to Lugu lake had failed ...as we reached Lijiang around 16:00 ... and even though we tried hard to make it to Lugu that night...nobody would drive us during the night. And we simply didn`t have enough time to travel there the next day..

So we had to correct our itinerary...deciding to go to Dali! And it turned out to be a wonderful alternative! Much more laid back and real than Lijiang...real villages...real people (Bai minority) wearing real traditional clothes ...all in all - great choice and definitely cooler than Lijiang :) We stayed in Tibetan lodge in the heart of the old city with all the parties, cafes, restaurants around ... Went to Bad Monkey bar right across our lodge and felt like being in the movie "THE BEACH" :)

And now before we start checking DALI, let`s look at a couple more borrowed photos from the previous days of trip ;))

Tiger Leaping Gorge




Hot pot :)

Yunnan adventure: DAY 4 or 32918 steps of "wow" views!

The day started with the birthday cake..

..and went on to take our breath away by stunning us with the amazing views of Tiger Leaping Gorge!!!
Tiger Leaping Gorge is the longest, deepest, and narrowest gorge in the world (according to some sources ;). The Gorge acquired its name because, according to local legend, a tiger once leaped over its torrid rapids of Yangzte river.
The hike is around 30 km (and we were initially sure it was 15 km)...and the first day`s plan was to make it to Half Way guesthouse 16km into the track!28 bends uphill was not easy, the trail was sometimes getting way too narrow and there were places when looking down was better avoided, but we all made it in one piece to Half way guesthouse and it took us 8 h of hiking (7h=hike; 1h=resting)

Yangtze river

3 out of 4 hikers :)







Halfway guesthouse. Breathtaking view!

And one of our team`s hikers b-day dinner-party :)

Yunnan adventure: DAY 5 or the day we missed the boat..

Morning in Halfway guesthouse!



And then came the waterfall...like in the movies...had to go through it...it was a real windy day...water splashing..getting the clothes wet and soooo cool!!!



Our Australian friend that we met during the hike. For Latvians who know Spriditis - this is the image of him in my mind = happy traveller with his hat and a small bag looking for adventures :)

And while the rest of the team took a hard climb up...I decided to take it easy and went downhill to take the easy road (that actually most hikers take) and enjoy the scenery on my own :)

The Gorge!

Wallnut garden!

Children. No better way to stop hurt child`s crying than getting him/her up and offering to make a photo :)

And after reuniting with the rest of the team in Wallnut garden Sean`s guesthouse cafe...some lunch and by SMS reccomendation of Canadians that had left a couple hours ago...we arranged the car to take us to the Ferry to cross Yangzte river (it turned out that was a 10 km drive and we didn`t have time, nor will to hike it) and to make it back to Lijiang same night...
Some of those things were not meant to happen...

The road was all in construction works...and we were forced to wait several times for the road to be cleaned by excavator.. It took us roughly 1 h to make those 10 km by car and then 20 min hurried hike down to the river on foot...

...so when we exausted made it to the river of Yangzte....no boat...waited some more...asked nearby construction workers to call to the boat guy...they did & told the boat will come...then after some waiting the guy came to tell it will not ...



...and then in darkness we took our hike uphill...took some time to find road there...found village...found "hotel"...and probably the "best ever WC"...no comment..

Looking back that definitely seems like an adventure!
Back then that was one hard sleepless night!