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In Shangrila we stayed at Kevin’s Trekkers Inn, a wonderful little guesthouse near enough to the old town, but far enough not to have been involved in the fire in January this year which destroyed 260 homes over 10 hours … Continue reading
Continuing our travels in Yunnan province of China brought us to a small city variously called Shangrila, Shangri-La, Zhongdian, Jiantang or Gyaitang! And the airport is called Diquing. There are ethnic reasons for this surplus of names but it does … Continue reading
From Lijiang we were heading north to Shangrila. In between is the Tiger Leaping Gorge and it would be wrong to not stop there for a walk or a look. There is a high hiking trail which sounded energetic and … Continue reading
I’d harboured hopes of a trip to Jade Dragon Snow Mountain up the valley from Lijiang but the cloudy weather ruled that out. There is a gondola or chair lift or something up to 4,500m and then you can walk … Continue reading
Lijiang Old Town is one of the big tourist draw-cards in Yunnan Province and one of the must-see places in China. Lijiang city is a small city of 150,000 people at 2,400m above sea level. We had chosen to stay … Continue reading
Some of the best things about travel are surprises. Some days are unknowns, especially for we who organise ourselves. Some days are travel days, getting from somewhere to somewhere else; maybe with transfers and changes along the way. Our day getting … Continue reading
Our last day in Sideng village (in the Shaxi valley of Yunnan province in China) was market day. So we were keen to make the most of it. It turns out there are two markets, one for produce and one for livestock. … Continue reading
The day after our cycling expedition we went in search of some mountain temples to the north of Sideng village in Shaxi. As with most of our outings in China, we didn’t know much about it before we started
“Just a minute, it’s stopped raining; guys are swimming, guys are sailing…” So goes a song from the Sunday morning Children’s Request Session on the radio way back in the olden days. It often plays in my head when the weather lets … Continue reading
We had hoped to get on some bikes on our first full day in Sideng village in Shaxi, Yunnan province. Except we woke to rain which wasn’t in the plan. We had fun having Cato’s Inn breakfast – sort of … Continue reading
Time to confess. We are travelers who follow Lonely Planet guidebooks. We realise that Real Travellers look down on us, faithfully following the words as writ, clutching our chunky little books as we try to navigate our foreign adventures. We … Continue reading
We had known that Dali in Yunnan province in China was near a lake, Erhai Lake to be exact. But we hadn’t appreciated that it was underneath a sizeable mountain range called Mt Cangshan. Faced with a choice of lake … Continue reading
Night trains that arrive before the day starts are a bit awkward. Where the heck are you supposed to go? We were in the carpark/taxi park area of the Xiaguan Railway Station. It was 5am and still firmly dark.
So there we were, rosy and relaxed in the plane from Shanghai to Kunming. Trying to work out how we’d been so lucky to even get there. We knew we owed the God of Travel. After that we always turned … Continue reading