mrsjono

Upon arrival at Chengdu Airport, there were lots of people to welcome us. Wow, we're popular!

We didn't like Panba so we decided to stay at Naxi Mama when we return to Lijiang from Shangrila. It's on the outskirts of the old town and we had problems finding it. We were walking up and down the street with our bags and out of nowhere, a middle-aged lanky man asked where we were going. We thought he's a tout and ignored him. The man kept asking and my donkey friend flared up and told him to go away. We went off down another alley and back again to the same street where the man was. I showed him the name card I was holding in my hand and he immediately said "I know where, follow me." It was his house. He was Naxi Baba, the owner of the guesthouse we were going to stay at.

As the bus weaved its way through the mountain roads, I rocked to the beat of the music playing in my ears. How strange, for I usually find myself skipping almost every song that comes up on the player. Then I started singing aloud, totally immersed in my own world and it felt like the most enjoyable ride I ever had.

I stared out of the window looking at the vast lands and clear skies whizzed past me in a blur of green, brown and blue. While I'm really looking forward to KFC in Lijiang having deprived of real food for days and getting overdosed by all those mountains, I know eventually I'll miss the rugged natural terrains here. I discovered I've taken a liking to the sense of remoteness and sacredness I found in Shangrila. And I am truly in awe with all the good people we met.

I may be back for all I know, but until then it's goodbye with great reluctance.

RS LOST HIS HANDPHONE

After a longer than expected journey up to Feilaisi, we've finally come to the last destination of the entire trip. Big sigh from me, I'm running outta steam trying to post all of these. Anyway, the previous few photos you see were painstakingly taken by me as I forced myself to get out of the vehicle while trying to avoid shitting in my pants for 10 hours cos I don't want to miss out on anything after travelling miles to come to Mount Meili.

The only hotel we stayed in throughout our trip. It's a 3-star hotel (all hotels in Feilaisi are 3-star) recommended by the waitress we met in Lijiang who worked here last time. Too luxurious for me though, I don't need the carpet, chairs, dressing table and bathtub but we decided to spend the money to have a comfortable stay after a long journey here. Same price (160 yuan) as Sim's Cosy but service was a far cry from the latter. Double room can go as low as 130 yuan. So bargain!

We almost got a free night's stay in this room cos no one asked us to pay. I had wanted to take off quickly while rs was feeling bad about it when we were caught by the female owner who shouted "Have you guys paid the rent???!" from the window at the second floor lol.







After a disappointing early morning, the pack got onto the vehicle and headed to Mingyong, where there's a massive glacier at the foot of Kagebo Peak. During the 1.5hrs, the Hongkie (someone in the pack, who has visited this place umpteen times he knows the people in the village) kept complaining about the driver (who also runs a guest house in Yubeng) blasting music in the guest house and disturbing the peacefulness of the village. Quite hilarious listening to their conversation when half the time, I couldn't understand the driver's broken Chinese but the Hongkie does and just keep firing at him.

Risk is the best

Mingyong Glacier is fast retreating due to climate change. All that ice below comes from the melted snow from Kagebo. It's a tough climb up...took us 4 hours to go round and round the mountain along horse shit trails. All that shit has produced very pretty flowers that I've never seen before. Look at that silly animal on the bottom right hand corner chewing on a plastic bag! Haa!

Intrigued by the formation of blue ice

Yan Yan, Ling Long, Me & Jia Bao

You may be wondering, where's the food section? We didn't eat any real, solid food. Hmm except for the two oily fried eggs from the hotel that cost a freaking 6 yuan. Otherwise, it was junk all the way for 3 consecutive days. Cup noodles, chips, chocolates, pasteries and whatever we had brought up here. I had enough of food poisoning attacks!