Day 81: On the lake

Mood: Happy and relaxed
Music: Air - Moon Safari

I was awoken this morning to the sound of the people above me and to one side preparing to leave. I tried to get my head down a little more until my alarm went off. I then got myself up, showered and dressed so I could take some photos from my balcony of the sun rising and reflecting in the water.

After breakfast I met my guide for the next few days, Alvin. He's a lovely bloke and although he looks about 16, he's only a couple of years younger than I. For some reason he thought I was younger then he is!

Our first stop for the day was a small lakeside village about 10 minutes drive from my hotel. From here we took a boat with a young chinese couple over the lake to the island in the lake that houses a buddist temple. This area of China has Tibetan Buddhism as their main religion. The temples are very simple but the prayer wheels around the edges are something I'd not seen before.

On the way out to the island I was getting cries of "Hello!" from the other boats going in the other direction. Alvin was translating some of the other things the people were shouting after I'd replied "Nehow!". It seems like many people in this area aren't used to seeing foreigners and as such I had my photo taken with and by countless Chinese people during the rest of the day.

After we got back to the land, we went to a museum / house of the local Mosuo people. They have a matriachal society where the grandmother of the family rules the roost. They also have no formal marriages but are known for their "walk in" marriages, where by the male is allowed into the girls room from midnight until sunrise (assuming he can climb up the timber wall) and from there has no part in the child's life. They are brought up by the family and the only role men have (other than providing food) is in the education of their sister's children.

From here we went and had lunch by the lake, eating in a restaurant run by people from the Si Chuan region (which borders with the province I'm in about 5 minutes up the road). I've been expecting the local food to be spicier than it is. Given the area is famed for such!

On the subject of food... I've acually been quite impressed. The Chinese have a lot more vegetable dishes then we'd ever see at home, one of my favourites so far being To Dou Shi or stir fried grated potato. They also seem very fond of a dish of chopped tomato stir fried with egg. I'm sure I said this before but 've been eating my fair share of Gung Bao Rou Shi too (Kung Po Shredded Pork).

This afternoon we went for a walk up in A Xia Yu Gu. This path follows a stream up a valley to a waterfall. The path is quite steep in places and it didn't take me long to remember that I was at altitude again (albeit only 2700m above sea level). The only scarey bit on the normal path was a small field that we had to cross that contained two Yaks. They were rather big and kept facing us the whole way around. I've never been too keen on being chased by cows but when they've got massive great horns that desire goes down somewhat!

After reaching the waterfall we followed a sign that pointed towards another path leading further up the mountain. Unfortunately we ended up unable to find where this path went and after 30 minutes of clambering through dense forest clinging to the side of a mountain, we desided to turn back!

I was then taken back to my hotel, where I've been sat on the balcony / terrace outside my room over looking the lake for the past couple of hours. As the sun has gone behind the hills it's starting to get a little chilly now. I've got dinner this evening and then I'm going to go and have a look at the local square dance. This might prove interesting as I'm fairly sure I'll be the only person present who doesn't speak Mandarin and I'd guess there are going to be few or no English speakers...

Wish me luck!