After our first night in Lijiang we had a small breakfast in our room and headed for a small village north of Lijiang called BaiSha. It was mentioned in our guidebooks as still rural and original, and we would be able to see the real Naxi lifestyle there.

After about 1 hour bus ride with the local bus we arrived and walked through the small main street. Then suddenly we heard music, a group of old man playing self made instruments with a sign saying they were keeping the old traditions alive. We were quickly invited to join them and suddenly we were “playing” music in BaiSha, very nice.

After walking a bite further we soon found out that the guidebooks were definitely dated, this town was also filled with coffee shops and souvenir booths, all having the same stuff. So we had lunch in a not so traditional coffee shop and had the best dumplings we have had so far in China a well as a great noodle soup for Charlotte.

After lunch we came to the house of Dr. Hu, a 95 year old Chinese medicine doctor who is still practicing. He was very sweet, and when he discovered Martijn was from the Netherlands he showed a whole range of business cards from Dutch guests, and even Maxima had been there.

I had to promise to give Maxima the best from him and inform her that he was still alive 🙂 So next time we have tea I will do exactly that.

On leaving the village we decided to take a d-tour with the bus to the local Walmart to get some food for breakfast etc (Marmalade is difficult to get in normal shops) and witnessed something quite interesting there. On the square in front there was a hiphop and break dance contest and the team were really good!

On our way back we got hit by the rain and were very happy we had a bath tub this time, something very rare in the guesthouses we normally stay 🙂

Today we had to get up early to catch our flight from Chengdu to Lijiang. We already packed everything the night before and around 6:45 am (!) we were outside and searching for a taxi. That did not went well, the district we were in somehow was completely empty of cars and taxis, so after waiting some 10 minute we decided to go for plan B and run for the subway. A short ride later we were further away from the airport but at the south railway station and managed to get a cab there, after some cursing when a Chinese took the cab right in front of us.

Arriving at the airport about one hour before take off we were just in time to check in, after seeing a big sign at the entrance that due to some regulation check in now closes not 30minutes but 45 minutes before takeoff. Pfeeew.

The airport of Chengdu was again big as ever, and they are still building and extending to make it a real international and national air hub within China. When we could board we were driven a long way to one of the outer positions and Manu was really happy that the plane was new, good looking and everything during the flight went without any issue.

Arriving in Lijiang we were picked up by a driver holding our names (a bit of comfort is necessary) and in 40 minutes we arrived at our Charming Heart Inn. Due to the fact that we were a bit early we dropped off our luggage and went for diner and a stroll in the old town, quite nice with all the little alleys and small shops etc. But like in every Chinese tourist destination we’ve seen so far every 100m the same kind of shops repeat itself,  so the typical Yunnan Coffee, Bongo shops, Scarves, etc. You just have to look through it.

After lunch we could get in our room and it was perfect. We even had a big bath tub, which we surely would use. We enjoyed a bit of time on the roof top, took a little nap and later we went into the city for Diner and more site seeing. We also met Keith, an Australian Guide, with whom we made plans for going to the Tiger Leaping Gorge on Wednesday. Nice guy, had his office in a western restaurant called N’s place and we could barely find him but wenn we looked for something to ear there he was  🙂