Lijiang and Tiger Leaping Gorge (21-27 April)
Lijiang is the main staging point for tourists heading for the Tiger Leaping Gorge, Jade Dragon Snow Mountain, as well as several other attractions whose details escape me – although I believe one of them is the highest altitude golf course in the world? Sad... Along with Dali, it's also a popular stop for people who have successfully obtained the necessary permit on their (long) way to Tibet. As with Dali, there is an old and a new town – although, while these are separated by distance in Dali's case, the Old Town in Lijiang is located with the larger new town that surrounds it. On arrival at the bus station, you'll need transport to get to your accommodation in the Old Town – if you book accommodation in advance, it's common to get a free pick-up, but I wasn't that organised... Anyway, by good fortune I found myself at Mama Naxi's Guesthouse, which is run by an amazingly friendly elderly Chinese couple (Mama and Papa) with the help of their younger relatives. I can thoroughly recommend this as a great place for meeting other travellers, since Mama basically enforces communal meals – whether you're hungry or not! Yes, she maybe makes a bit of a profit off these “forced meals”, if you want to be cynical, but the accommodation is cheap and good quality, and they are nothing but honest with prices. In fact, when it was eventually time for me to leave for Chengdu, I gave Papa his estimate of the price of the busfare, he personally went to the bus-station to purchase my ticket, and returned with the ticket and change – pointing out to me on the receipt that he'd over-estimated the cost. While I didn't exactly encounter thieves in my travels through Asia (aside from some occassions in Vietnam, as previously mentioned!), there was a tendency for hotel/bus operators to take the odd commission or favourable rounding – not something I begrudge, but there you go – so I found this quite amazing, considering he would have been entitled to a commission for picking up the ticket.

The World Heritage listed Old Town of Lijiang is kind of like Old Dali, architecturally, but on a much larger scale. It's still touristy, but geared more towards domestic day tourists than backpackers, and as such felt more “authentic” to me. We didn't really find much nightlife, aside from the bizarre Sexy Tractor Irish-run bar, which on the night we were in had no ice (warm cocktails all round!), and so few glasses that they had to wash the ones we were using whenever we ordered another drink. But it's a good place to wander during the day – assuming you avoid getting lost, since the alleyways are quite windy and all look the same. Shopping is plentiful, with a lot of generic and local crafts on offer. There's some beautiful teahouses throughout the town, which are worth a visit. The wandering strawberry sellers were doing a good trade, too.

At the time I was in Lijiang, the advice I had from the CITS ticket office (where I was trying to book my train travel from Beijing into Mongolia/Russia) was that the earliest train still available was one day after my Chinese visa was due to expire! So I tried to sort out a visa extension, only to find out that you cannot apply for one if you still have more than 10 days left on your existing visa; given that processing the extension takes 7 days, this only really gives you a 3-day window – I've never read about this in relation to Chinese visa extensions, so maybe I was badly advised by the PSB office in Lijiang? Visa extensions are reputedly easy to obtain, but my experience suggests you should be prepared for the possibility of complications...

After a couple of nights of what was supposed to be restful preparation (but involving too much drinking and not enough sleep to be successful in this aim), I hooked up with a couple of couples (Tanya and Alex from Israel, and Wilco and Suzan from Holland) and headed out to start the trek from the Qiaotou end. At our first stop on the mountain for lunch I spotted Anna, who I'd first met quite randomly on the streets of Kunming, and together with a German friend of hers (name escape me – but he sure asked a lot of questions when he found out I was a scientist!) we continued on. Even early in the trek, you quickly get an appreciation of how beautiful it is up here. Views of snowcapped mountains aren't a regular occurrence for me, given that I've lived most of my life in Western Australia, so I always find them amazing – but especially when combined with the sheer rockfaces and the play of light and shadow in the narrow gorge. Embarrassingly, my new companions found out how opinionated I can be when it comes to politics and religions – especially when drunk – when we started a longer-than-planned drinking session at our overnight guesthouse. Poor Anna also had to share a room with me, and put up with my snoring... The only positive to come from my over-indulgence was the necessary call of nature during the night, which allowed me to view a stunning night sky – up amongst the mountains, with a bright moon illuminating their snowy caps haloed by cloud, and all the sky around filled with stars. It really was breathtaking – if only I had a good enough camera set-up to have captured it, I think I could have lived off the profits!

We rose early the next morning – although not as early as many others! - to continue our treking. Each time you walk around a bend is quite exciting, as you wonder what view you'll witness next. We got patches of rainy weather, but nothing too bad – although the incessant wind means you do have to make sure you're reasonably wrapped up in the colder months. I think we picked a good time of year to do the trek – while there is still snow on the peaks of the facing mountains, but none on the side you walk, and before the rains hit, which I imagine would make the path muddy and possibly dangerous (not to mention the possibility of landslides). Although the trek is popular, it's of a long enough distance that it is quite easy to keep your travel group isolated and enjoy the serenity, aside from at the very start of the trail and in the vicinity of the guesthouses. The section between Qiatou and Walnut Grove is regarded as the most beautiful, and takes the best part of two days to complete at a reasonable pace (some manage it in one, if you're after a challenge, but I kind of think that misses the point). We decided to stop around Tina's Guesthouse, a couple of kilometres short of Walnut Grove, to make it back to Lijiang in time for dinner – although spending the second night (or more) in Walnut Grove is also meant to be well worth it.

After one more restful night with Mama and Papa, I said a sad farewell and headed to the bus station bound for Chengdu.