April 4, 2015 –
Good morning! Mark and I just had our cup of Starbucks coffee. Like I've said before, thank goodness for those VIA packets! They're really life savers!
Before we head to breakfast and figure out where and what we'll be doing today I wanted to show you something in our room:
That glass room is our bathroom…the toilet and shower. Soooo….can you guess what it sounds like if someone has an upset tummy in the middle of the night? Yikes. Sound proof walls are an excellent thing. 😉
And the tub is *right* to the window. I'm so sorry but flashing people outside isn't my idea of a good idea. 😉 (thank goodness for curtains!)
Today we're first going to start with what Chris called the "10-Mile Natural Gallery". And we'll see where we go from there. Chris and I are checking out a map of the park:
These builders are giving this plain, boring building some Chinese character:
A view of one of the streets close to our hotel. We bought our "western" lunch food at the bakery on the right of the photo:
Coming…..
Going…
The *entire* walk was right alongside the mini train. Sigh. Not my favorite. I definitely prefer being AWAY from people. Hmpf.
Tree Mushroom… gives new meaning, doesn't it?
Annika is taking photos with her iPod so that she draw/sketch/paint these beautiful landscapes:
"Please PLUSH the toilet with your hand". I dare you to "plush" the toilet. HA! (this was in the men's restroom):We decided to take the silly train back to the starting point (since we'd have to walk back the same route we'd already walked)
There was a stall making lattes. Yay! We decided to take the funny, short train ride back to the start.
The Frog Prince Qiao Fragile Ice Cream. Um….what???:
Chris suggested another hike for us to go on (since that the clouds weren't letting up any time soon). The hike would start at the end of our previous day's hike (the same location where we caught the bus to take us to Bailong Elevator). We'll walk back part of the Golden Whip Stream walk (from yesterday) and then head off to the right on a different hike….one that is away from everyone.
On the walk up the mountain, we walked past many stone playing cards…one a few meters after another. Mark, Ava, and Annika tried to guess what the next card would be. It was an amusing game, some times they got it right…most times, no.
A different kind of graffiti:
At the top of the mountain, Chris had explained that there used to be a "village" at the top but because this trail doesn't receive a lot of traffic (mostly Europeans that use it, which means very few people actually use it). This means that there isn't a shop up here selling food or everyone a toilet! There is an abandoned wood shed that looks…or SMELLS…that it's been used as a toilet. Yuck!
Annika is writing in her journal:
A spider-web:
Heading back down the mountain:
We saw more beautiful flowers on the hike back down the mountain….
Is this an orchid? Doesn't this flower look beautiful?
Styling this little girl…for photos.
Mark learned that coworkers from his office would be in ZJJ we asked them if they could meet us for dinner. We met at a "famous" restaurant close to their hotel (they were staying at the Pullman Hotel). We got to the restaurant before they did and fortunately there were a bunch of fun-loving, interesting, and interested local kids for us to play with.
The girl in the yellow coat is 12 years old (the oldest of the bunch) and she was fun to talk to…she also shared a yummy treat with us.
Annika being a wee bit shy:
Playing tag…it may be called many things in different languages but it's still tag!
TAG!!!!
The kids are all comfortable playing with each other!
So…the meal in the restaurant was oh-kay but nothing special. And it was expensive! We got two things that I *really* loved…one was a tofu dish and another was a glutinous rice patty filled with herbs…that's the best description I can give you. I ate way too much of the tofu and the patties. I think those patties might have been called "baba" (or something like that).
Here's our hotel:
The girls decided they were too tired to go out so Mark and I decided to "go out on the town"…which meant going for a short walk in the tourist area around our hotel. This shop had all kind of dried goods…our best guess – for medicinal purposes:
Dried beetles, anyone?????
Mark and I found a bar to get a drink in. Mark asked for a gin and tonic at the bar (which was decorated with photos of famous American musicians and actresses). Do you think they understood what a gin and tonic drink was? Or a jinnantonic? LOL…according to "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy" every culture has a version of gin and tonic drink. Mark went to the bar and showed them how to make it but sadly they didn't have tonic water so the drink was made with Sprite and gin (well, maybe it had gin…but it didn't taste like there was a drop of gin in the drinks). For only 100RMB (about $15) for only TWO drinks. Yikes. After we finished our drinks there was a bon fire lit outside with loud music playing:
There was a small show with music, dance and costumes next to the bonfire. I especially loved listening to the drums!
After watching the small show at the square, Mark and I continued to walk around and check out all the shops. Most of the items for sale were items that we've seen for sale in Lijiang or Tianjin but it was still fun to check them all out. There were, however, some new-to-us, unique alcohol shops. One shop that looked like it was actively distilling outside its shop, Mark went into and sampled several different distilled alcohols. He was expecting baijiu (which he really doesn't like) but instead he found something more-than-drinkable. After several,different samplings he selected a glutinous rice drink to bring home:
Good night!!!!
*One thing I'd like to mention is something we've witnessed here and other places in China….and that is how Chinese people seem to enjoy the "wilds" of China. Many of the tourists we've seen are wearing the most inappropriate clothing- high heel shoes, business suits, and other completely inappropriate clothing. I guess on the one hand I applaud them for enjoying the Great Outdoors even though they don't have the appropriate clothing (and hopefully they don't break an ankle or an arm while walking with their ridiculous clothing!). However, in a completely first-world, sort-of-way I'm surprised that people don't own a pair of walking shoes. Why? *