I'm Back!

I'm feeling like a whole new person! After feeling like scum for the past few days, I was literally sick of being sick. I spent my entire time in Lijiang holed-up in my bed--nauseous and cold. I didn't eat for 2 days, it was to cold to shower, and I didn't change my clothes for 4 days. I was feeling so gross! I had been really looking forward to doing a 2-day trek along the Tiger Leaping Gorge, about 60km north of Lijiang, but obviously wasn't feeling up to it. Instead, I opted for a 1-day visit to the middle-section of the Gorge, which was rather disappointing. The Gorge is formed by the great Yangzi river that runs between the Jade Dragon Snow Mountain and the HaBa Snow Mountain. According to legend, a tiger jumped across the river, and thus its name was born. Tiger Leaping Gorge. The river was nothing spectacular, the scenery was nice, and the weather was frigid--it made for a rather unexceptional day. It's another one of those natural attractions that have been turned into an overpriced, over hyped tourist attractions.

I left Lijiang this morning for Dali, another of China's preserved old cities. The old city is sandwiched between the 4000m tall Jade Green Mountains and Erhai Lake. Thankfully there are far fewer Chinese tour groups clogging the quaint cobblestone streets, but still you feel you in a bit of an amusement park. Lonely Planet boasted of the amazing hot showers (24-hours a day!!) and immaculate western toilets at the No. 3 Guest House, so you can be assured that I made a beeline for its front door. The showers really were as good as Lonely Planet made them out to be (or maybe it was the fact that it was my first shower in 4 days that made it so good!) and the sight of an actual toilet, you know the kind you sit on, not the open trough, squatting kind that I've become accustomed to, well that just made me giddy! And to top it all off, my bed has a heating pad and the restaurant's cook claims to make a mean chocolate brownie. What more could I ask for? A personal masseuse for less than $5/hour? Well, they have those too! This couldn't have come at a better time.