A Travellerspoint blog

Entries about sunshine

Trekking - Day 4 & 5

sunny 33 °C

Day 4

Next morning we got up at 5.45am to see the Fishtail Mountain in the sunrise. The lodge had an amazing view and we could see the peaks a little bit through the clouds.

8721289281_c5ce65502a.jpg

We had our tea and then attempted to do yoga while the entire group of English lads and lassies stood outside laughing, chatting and shouting to each other. Me being me, I couldn't concentrate at all - I'm pretty sure that's another sign of failure in the Yoga world, as you're supposed to be able to ignore all outside interference! :D But my head hurt again and the sun was bouncing off my noggin. I felt a bit sorry for myself and had a bit of a moment in my room before heading back out to have breakfast. It was a glorious day and on we trekked through the terraced landscapes til we came to our gaf for the night - Little Paradise!

8722409630_1bf0123134.jpg8722411958_d272422042.jpg8721315151_76457409c5.jpg8722444214_9d11153cd1.jpg

This lodge was so cute. It had a lovely dining hall, small little bedroom huts, blankets that smelt nice, delicious organic homemade and homegrown food, pet rabbits, chickens, dogs and huge spiders in our bedroom!

8722437616_1195050b63.jpg8722438006_f12532a4e9.jpg8721321185_dc0cef12b3.jpg8722446154_0efeec7d9f.jpg8721328837_2e2ba2e197.jpg

We only had a half day's trekking today so we were delighted to be able to wash our clothes, read, snooze, eat again and laze about! Sumit did today's yoga nidra for us and it was so cute - shadow climbing Annapurna 2 and getting showered in stars! awwwww..

Dinner was mushroom soup and a delicious apple, banana and chocolate roll. We were back in bed by 8.30pm and then chasing spiders around the place til 11. How on earth I was supposed to sleep in the room with these MASSIVE spiders was beyond me. (More proof that I am not a humoungous 'hut' type person and do appreciate 4 walls with no holes in them!!) ;)
We had a riot trying to get the JUMPING spiders out of our bedroom and we had to sleep with the light on so we could see any more of these monsters! ;)

Day 5

Got a weird kip due to not moving from my one spider-prevention-sleeping-position - i.e keeping my sheet over my head! :D
I kept waking up and doing a bug patrol too. (I know, I know - grow up Kenny!) We then slept through our morning wake up concert - Sumit playing the singing bowls!
Yoga today with Sumit was very difficult - he had tougher moves and we were all very stiff. It seemed to go on forever, but just behind him were awesome views of the moutain peaks. We were supposed to close our eyes during meditation, but there was no way I was taking my eyes off this sight..

8722454494_037ea1c826.jpg8722456918_069f2cbded_b.jpg8722453568_d44a42b093.jpg8722501834_c4ca6142dc.jpg

I just pretended to pay attention and gazed at the mountains. The sun was out and the sky was blue and everything was punky brewster. After a mahoosive breakfast and some dawdling around, it was time to leave Little Paradise behind. :( Just 10 minutes after we trotted away from the hill with Little Paradise perched on top of it, the clouds surrounded it and it was no longer visible to the eye. I wondered aloud if the whole of Little Paradise had been a dream or if we were still in yesterdays yoga nidra! :)

We saw giant vultures circling above us as we walked and chatted, and soon we were surrounded by lots more lush green mountains and terraced hills. Tons of donkeys carrying heavy loads and wearing lots of jingly bells trundled past us non stop. Today's trek was all downhill and we passed through lots of lovely stone villages with friendly locals and cute kids.

8722509046_89a3264912.jpg8722518558_7b03f06579.jpg8722526840_4e6dc69774.jpg8722529096_20ec2f665d.jpg8721410875_0a8a5ab55d.jpg
8721412037_3d87e5cd3a_b.jpg8722539744_2e6805f066.jpg8722556814_a1d7b64eba.jpg

We stopped for stretches and lunch in this lovely flowery joint, then mosied on to Sauyli Bazar - our last night on the trek. (1100m) Today was due to be a 3 hour trekking day, but I think it was more like 5 or 6 hours. It seemed very long and was all downhill steps, so we had the worst wobbly knee syndrome ever when we got down. Trekking is not a walk in the park (he he), it's pretty exhausting! Luckily we have had great weather for most of our trip, narrowly missing huge downpours by a matter of minutes. We've had great scenery to inspire and rejuvenate us, as well as the yoga to stretch us out every day and ease our stiff joints. The meditations helped us relax and calm our minds. I would thoroughly recommend the Yoga trek to those who like to take their time and take in the views!

(Yoga Nidra today contained a wandering 'you' who got in a boat on the lake, looked into the eyes of a fish, and then moved up a mountain to join a Nepali family for a dinner by candlelight.)

After a real dinner by candlelight, it was into bed at 8pm. There was no electricity and bog all to do but read in bed by torchlight. The place outside was pitch black and totally silent. It was very eerie! Myself and Lindsey had our regular evening chats about life and the universe and what not and hit the sack.

Posted by squeakylee 22:37 Archived in Nepal Tagged trekking hill sunshine yoga poon peaks lodges Comments (0)

Hitchhiking from Shangri La to Lijiang...

sunny 30 °C

So we set off. I couldn't stop smiling and giggling, which I attributed to nerves and lack of sleep. Stef however was as cool as a cucumber, him being a hitchhiking pro an' all, and he was confident we'd have no problems getting to Lijiang by 4pm. We'd told the US / UK ladies, who were getting the bus to Lijiang, that we'd see them later, and now we reallllly wanted to get to Lijiang before them. :D It was a beautiful sunny day and the view from the side of the dusty highway was quite nice.

9146996513_093919683a.jpg

So we walked for maybe 20 minutes or so before a chap in a van, with no seats in the back, stopped for us. Stef did his best (and amusing) hitchhiking routine, involving lots of small questions and big hand gestures!

Stef: ''Lijiang?? You go to Lijiang?? We come with you?? little bit? small bit? We come? Ok? We get in? ''

It worked anyways, yer man let us in to the back of his van but said he could only take us to the intersection as he worked in the hospital nearby. ''Grand job'', we said.
Yer man didn't say much, but he did offer Stef a smoke. Not me though. Apparently women don't smoke, or maybe aren't supposed to in China. So he brought us maybe 10 minutes or so down the road to the big roundabout/intersection, where we got out and perched ourselves on the corner, munched on some nuts and stuck our thumbs out every now and then when cars went by.
(I thought of that Felix the Housecat track - ''(Standing on the corner) Watching cars go by'', numerous times. :)

Finally some cool dude wearing a cap and sunglasses, smoking a cigarrette and carrying a tray of red bull in the back seat gave us a lift. (I paid special attention to what was in the back seat of everyone's car - juuuussst in case. ;) ) This guy wasn't going far either but he was pretty chatty and offered us a smoke and we attempted to chat to him using various apps and bad pronunciation. We told him we were on our honeymoon for a bit of a laugh. HA! :D He brought us another 15 minutes or so down the road before he had to go to turn up another road towards some big pipes to go to work.

9149218558_267a2af0c7.jpg9149219896_e0e7ce8d49.jpg

We were only just ouf of that car when another dude in a white van pulled over and after Stef's routine, offered to take us another bit of the way. ''This is great'' I thought.... ''and so easy''!
This dude had fake grass on his dashboard, Chinese cowboy music playing loudly and a SAWEEEET pair of blue shoes on him. We didn't understand him at all really, but he stopped to do his shopping in this tiny village for a while and left us alone in the van. LOL. We gave him a hand getting his shopping into the boot. I really thought this guy must have been going to take us a long way, seeing as how he stopped to do his shopping and all!

9149221000_2e0a9eb310.jpg9146993415_d47997ae59.jpg

He dropped us off at the DEATHZONE - aka an odd mall full of animal furs, bones, horns, gizzards and all sorts of other weird shit. Grim. Anyway too many buses were pulling in in where we were standing so we mosied on down the road til Stef spotted a ''great hitching spot'' down the road. I lolled.

9147025157_e14abf7c2d.jpg9149227720_e31c828074.jpg9149226484_7d0c3dbfcd.jpg

We waited here for about 15 minutes before 2 young lads in a car picked us up and gave us a lift all the way past Qiataou! ''BACK IN THE GAME'', I thought. We were in the backseat yapping away to ourselves and probably should have made more of an effort to talk to our drivers but were having a good laugh so didn't really think of it. We were mega lucky too as it pissed rain most of the time that we were in their car, and then just stopped before we got out. :D

9149228980_6849270bf3.jpg

Once again, the minute we got out of their car, we got picked up by an old dude in a truck. This was a mixed blessing as the truck was very slow and lost us a lot of time in our effort to get to Lijiang by 4pm. It didn't help that he got stopped by the Police and fined for not wearing a seat belt. :D He dumped us off at the outskirts of Lijiang and Stef did his routine on this little dude who was driving a tiny trailer. It was so funny. This guy did not want to take us at all but Stefan kept going with his ''little bit pleaseeeee'' routine. Who could resist his handsome face, big cheesy grin and boundless enthusiasm? Well not this guy! ;) Yer man caved in and let us in to his trailer and dropped us about 100 metres up the road before dumping us out again. BWAHAHAHAHAHA
We thanked him profusedly and he drove off. Then we saw him at the traffic lights!! GOING IN OUR DIRECTION!! So Stef points at him as if to say ''you ARE going our way? Why did you dump us off??''
SOooooo yer man let us back into his trailer again for another 5 minutes! He ditched us again just outside the old town and Stef unwittingly took the guys water bottle from the trailer, thinking it was his own. ahahahhaahhaha. I'd say yer man was thinking..''Robbing my feckin water now as well??? WHAT ELSE DO YOU WANT FROM ME YOU FOREIGNERS??!!''..

We wandered on and stopped for some momos and who should walk by? Only the 3 girls! They were pretty shocked to see us and I think mega impressed. ;) We agreed to meet up later but I got the impression they were getting into nighttrain mode and we mightn't see them that night. We trundled back to Soh's place for the night and I checked in. We had a wash and went for some food and then met the rest of the gang at Panba hostel before another night of singing and bongoing in Soh's Private lounge. It was great fun. I'd say that was probably the best travelling day I've had on this trip. It was brilliant craic. I was pretty sad to have to say goodbye to my awesome Dutch friend and would have liked to have gone hitchhiking again the next day with him to Lugu lake. However we all have different paths to take and mine involved sorting out my feckin visa extension before I got kicked out of China. : )

9149229966_2693a50e35.jpg9147002369_81e202bcdb.jpg9149232212_284208a869.jpg9149234626_929edb897a.jpg

Posted by squeakylee 05:44 Archived in China Tagged la highway sunshine lijiang shangri hitchhiking dusty routine stef's hilarious Comments (0)

(Entries 1 - 2 of 2) Page [1]