Music: Air - Moon Safari
I was woken early again by the dripping water in my toilet cistern (now fixed). From here I thought about getting up and taking more early photos of the Jade Snow Dragon Mountain but decided on trying to sleep more instead! It didn't work too well but after a long period I though I'd check my watch as I was sure it was getting late. Sure enough, my alarm clock had failed to go off on my phone and I was due to be meeting my guide 8 minutes later.
I scrambled into the shower and pulled my stuff together in time to realise that in the pile of returned washing I'd recieved one of someone elses socks instead of a matching pair of my own. Hopefuly this'll be sorted out and my missing sock located!
Today's outing was to the Tiger Leaping Gorge, a deep gorge forged by the Yangsze river between Jade Snow Dragon Mountain and Ha Ba Snow Mountain. It has a large rock in the middle of the narrowest section and it said onto this a Tiger leaped to make good it's escape from a group of hunters from Lijang.
The drive took us a couple of hours and the only stop along the route was a bit of a let down. It is a viewpoint looking out over the whole valley, and from here we should have been able to see the twin peaks of the mountains that overlook the gorge. Sadly there was mass of white smoke in the valley and we couldn't see very much at all, in any direction. We later saw that this was due to a forest fire that was raging on the slopes of the opposite, Shangrila side of the valley.
The walk to the rock from the car park is about 30minutes and this is on a path cut into the face of the gorge and also a series of tunnels opened a few years ago to bypass some of the more dangerous parts of the gorgeside track. The focal area has a massive amount of water rushing through it constantly and I was told by Alvin that during the summer months this can increase such that the large rock in the middle of the flow is completely submerged, as are the lower viewing platforms (labelled as "Stands of Watching" on the site map).
On the way back we stopped for lunch in a small local restaurant. Here we tried the local carp, which was plucked fresh from a storage tank out the back and weighed for us. I have to say, boning fish with chopsticks is a rather skilled task, although I managed it fairly well. Alvin and Mr Hu, our driver, were just eating the fish and spitting out the bones. Mealtime manners in China are a not exactly aligned with those in England, as I may have pointed out previously.
I'm now back in my hotel and have discovered a network cable that had been dangled over something behind my bed. This means for the first time here in Lijang I don't have to write up everything and sort out the photos in a cafe before my battery runs out. I think I'll still head back to the cafe once I'm done though. It'll get me out of my room for a while.
Bye for now.
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