Main street with shops
Courtyard of a village house
Seong was able to participate in the local orchestra after a small donation
Village womenfolk and vegetable sellers.
Naxi woman with back cushion for bearing loads.
Kay joining in a village dance (after a small donation)
Video clip of dance -
More pretty water features -
System of triple-wells provide efficient use of water in washing and cleaning -
We celebrated Keir's birthday with a cake and dinner -
PETER'S LETTER (2)\
Dear and patient readers,
Still in the beautiful living theme park that is Lijiang. The window is open n the cafe tonight and the locals are just as noisy and the tourists just as numerous. One delightful addition I only discovered last evening is that the locals do this real courtship dance in the main square just 20 metres away- a kinda conga line lead by a guy playing a bamboo flute. They vary the dance and they are quite intricate in the steps so preclude the foreigners who are turpischorically- challenged from joining in. The Naxi certainly enjoy themselves anyway so I guess it works for them. Certainly adds lots of colour and movement.
The others are having their usual evening coffee after we had a great birthday celebration for Keir. Our guide organized a western-style birthday cake iced beautifully with frangipani and the usual greeting and we even had candles!! Thankfully not 76 of them otherwise the wooden beams might have caught fire and that could have been Pudding Lane all over again! Imagine the smell of stir-fry!! Keir was tickled pink about the cake as it was organized with the help of Kin Mun’s Mandarin facility whilst we were out tourist-ing today. Yet another day of delightful sights- just a village today after a yesterday's village viewing and a trip up a mountain to a monastery. Keir used his collapsible stick to good effect. The great food and company continues though we are learning to control the quantity a little- only noodles tonight last night after a had a nine dish lunch!! Today’s lunch was just as many courses so the birthday bash was much more modest and came to the princely sum of $15 for the six of us. Sigh, don’t know how we’re going to last with these drains on the funds!!
Bought a couple of bits of textiles these last two days- also very good prices and of course they are things that we couldn’t possibly live without. Yeah! Kay decided that they needed a silk doona so come back with one weighing a kilo and costing about $60- a great deal she tells us and there was the satisfaction of a good barter. I trust that this is the last of the purchases as there is very little room in the case unless we drink the remainder of the scotch!
We’re on the road again tomorrow, this time by bus with our own driver up to Tiger Leaping Gorge which we are told is open again after recent landslides. Weather should continue to be brilliant and maybe even a couple of degrees warmer as the gorge is a touch lower than our 2,500m. I managed to climb the nearby hill for a panoramic view of the city late this afternoon and despite the panting with poor condition and altitude, I managed better than expected and it bodes good for th higher bits. They sell Oxygen in cans that resemble those long hairspray aerosols so if it comes to that then we can have those on hand.
Enough of this trifling stuff. Hope that all is well with all of you- now that is a big ask for the Great Pumpkin but I’ll spin a prayer wheel for you when next I visit a monastery. See can’t say that I don’t try to be good!!
Ciao for now,
P.
PETER'S LETTER (1)
Peter, one member of our group, sends out to the outside world regular reports of our progress. We have been fortunate to be among the recipients of the amusing tales of his past travels. Here I include a slightly editted version of his latest, a view from someone who is relatively new to China, and one who is able to see the many funny sides of the land....
Hi Guys and Girls,
So, here we are in beautiful Lijiang and the place is hopping. From the open window of this boutique Internet place (only one machine and I am on it) there is a vista of lanterns and lit buildings and a raucous crowd doing some local version of a serenade across the rooftops. Except I think it is more of “anything you can do I can do better” than courtship. Makes for great colour though as the girls are dressed in costumes of the minority Naxi people and are perched on verandas or balconies across the willow tree embanked stream. Cobbled streets, tiled roofs in the ancient manner- every inch the beautiful picture card scene. Also ever inch a touristy town full of thousands and thousands of tourists- 99% Han Chinese. Next week it is national holiday week so I can only be glad that we aren’t here then.
The train trip into mainland China (from Hong Kong) on Saturday when smoothly, all the more so because we were transferred from the East Guangzhou station to the main one via the subway. We could have managed it by ourselves but it was more comfortable to have someone to lead the way. We had time to kill before the 26 hour train trip to Kunming so we did so at the soft class waiting room, something that everyone should experience once. It was like Chairman Mao’s reception room- huge leather chairs with anti-makassars marble floors and traditional wall decorations of misty mountains and flowers. And just as we were reaching dozing stage, a railway woman arrives with a bull-horn and announces something like the end of the world. It was really only that the train standing on platform three was ours but it took the evacuation of the room and some urging for us to twig. Hurry up and a wait!
Thereafter it was a pleasant day plus in our four berth sleeping compartment- more anti-makassars and lace curtains , a lovely young Chinese lady and a boorish young man who snored a lot, spoke on his mobile at other times and slurped his noodles. Still, the landscape of those misty mountains and rice fields in between tunnels and river gorges was well worth the time and minimal cost. We sampled the food in the dining room and the general pleasure of train travel, though I have to admit to enjoying a shower on arrival at our hotel in Kunming. There we met up with our friends Kay and and Kin-Mun and our other travelling companions, Jessie and Seong, also from Sydney. They are great to travel with, especially that both Kin-Mun and Seong have a facility wth Mandarin and it makes things so much richer and understandable. Besides, they can order very successfully so the food has been a big part of the enjoyment.
First night in Kunming, Sunday, we went to a concert of ethnic minorities and thankfully it wasn’t as bad as expected. Lots of colour and movement, some cat-lke wailing but also some maginative and creative singing and dancing. I trust that that will be our fill of cultural performances, though I guess it will be hard to get through Tibet without something. The big attraction in Kunming was the trip to the Stone Forest, about an hour’s drive out of the city on this big new expressway. Sucha pity that they fill such spaces with terrible drivers, but we did survive to see and enjoy the wonderful Karst ( limestone) landscape. The worst part was that it rained all the time so the pics will be less than impressive. Today, it is gloriously fine.
So, everything has been pretty good save for today when I managed to break my previously repaired front tooth on the flight up from Kunming. Thankfully our guide took me to a dentist,
who did a great job for the modest sum of $30. I won’t mention to my dentist when I return but at that rate one could probably afford a whole new mouth for the price of a clean back home Almost forgot to mention that the security people at the airport confiscated about 700ml of scotch which I had in my carry on baggage! Grrrrr!! Time enough to end, tme and energy are running out.Hope that it won’t be a week before the next.
Take care all,
Very best
from us both,
P.
And when the weather cleared, the scenery was worth it.
This was George St leading to The Rocks . . . . . . .
Police frequently stopped traffic for motorcades and even pedestrians !
Some streets were totally blocked off . . . . . . .
And rubbish bins were sealed off from prying eyes . . . . . .
For a short video clip of our drive . . . . . (sorry about the irrelevant audio)
