Tiger Leaping Gorge, Yunnan, China – Images by Jamie McDonald

Chengdu Airport, Sichuan Province. Departing rather than arriving, which means I’ve had about a week off from the blog, which in turn means I’ve got rather a bit to catch up on!

We left Shangri-La under the guidance of one of Daisy’s (from Sean’s Cafe) friends who had a hostel in Haba village, under the snow capped Haba Snow Mountain. Our journey was quoted to be three hours, but after stopping for every person with a thumb out on the way (and halting again to let them out again) and dropping off everything from bananas to a bathroom complete with windows, door frames and tiles it was right on five hours.

Arriving in Haba we grabbed our room (which was one of our worst, for one of our highest prices) and then went back to the lodge for dinner. We got invited into the kitchen to say what meat and veg we liked – what we didn’t know was that every ‘yes’ resulted in another meal, so we ended up with a banquet for ourselves and a debt that would need to be fixed up in the morning. A great German couple had just arrived back in the lodge after their second attempt at climbing Haba Snow Mountain – bad weather forced them down again, but their loss was our gain as we got to share dinner and a few beers with them.

Waking early to take advantage we were shocked to hear that our minivan to Tiger Leaping Gorge was already at the lodge and waiting for us. Perhaps miscommunication, or maybe just the reality that there wasn’t much traffic from Haba to Tiger, but our planned day of hiking around the mountain was thrown in the waste bin and we jumped in to our transport. We bundled in the backseat so as to hide from the officious ticket clerk who should have charged us 50 Yuan each to enter the gorge, so despite spending too much on a room and too much on dinner we did have one win from the Haba episode.

The drive from Haba to Walnut Garden in Tiger Leaping Gorge was worth the cost in scenery, and the relative comfort in the van made the 90 minute trip fly by. We had decided that we’d stay in Sean’s Cafe & Guesthouse as it was run by Sean, the father of Daisy who looked after us so well in Shangri-La. Definitely a mistake in hindsight. The room whilst nice was 180 Yuan, or about three times what we’ve been paying, and bar the inclusion of Al-Jazeera International it didn’t have anything to whet the appetite for spending time in it.

A hike that was to take 2-3hrs to the river below was undertaken and despite the thin air making it reasonably tiring we managed to do it in 2 hours with a half hour break down on the river. I could ramble on about how spectacular the gorge is, but the photos can tell the story far more eloquently and succinctly than I could ever manage.

Having lost one of our travellers to altitude sickness in Shangri-La we were surprised to see him hanging out of a bus waving as we walked down the road along the gorge after lunch. A happy reunion followed, and then we ventured off on the walk to the ‘big waterfall.’ This time we walked uphill on a path that soon became unmarked and we found corn farms, horses, slightly crazed locals, but we didn’t come close to finding a waterfall.

After our safe but weary arrival back at the cafe we waited three hours for our dinner, which ended up giving two out of four of us food poisoning. The next insult from Sean’s was in the morning when we fixed up the bill to find that we’d been charged for beers not purchased and billed for food that had already been paid the day before. Luckily time heals all wounds, and despite our dissatisfaction at the time we now remember just the magnificence of the gorge, and not the incompetence of staff at our guesthouse.

We caught a mini van to Lijiang from Sean’s, and other than an altercation with another guesthouse owner in which he was told to suck a fart we got to the next town with little hassle.  Our van driver dropped us at the bus station that took us to the airport, well, the road that leads to the airport. After bundling out of the bus we walked down the road past a restaurant that we would return to after sorting out our tickets. A miscommunication in Shangri-La left us with tickets that were good for the next Friday, not this Friday, and we had no choice but to buy new tickets and deal with it another day.

If you do ever find yourself at Lijiang airport then head to the restaurant that is on your right as you drive (or walk…) into the complex. It will be filled with airport workers at anytime, and it would have to be in the top ten work cafeterias in the world. With no english spoken we managed to get the best fried noodles with vegetables and a plate of greens that we’ve received thus far into our trip. A few rounds of Dali beer with cards and it was time to order dinner and then we were on the plane to Chengdu.

Arriving near midnight in any new town is never a good plan, and we suffered from the typical taxi driver taking us the very long way to Sims Guesthouse which in turn has moved a long way from where we wanted to be. He also didn’t want to use the meter – tip for travelling in China, the little ‘For Hire’ sign is the meter switch, either push it forward or pull it back and the meter starts, and the driver realises that you didn’t get off the last plane.

After some serious arguing we decided we wanted nothing of Sims so we caught another cab to the Loft hostel. Between going to the bank and suffering from my first bout of food poisoning in four weeks we checked into a dorm and got a nights sleep.

Kitty at the Loft rang China Eastern for us to be told that if we want a refund on our tickets to go back to Shangri-La (now a plane ride and a four hour bus away.) Going well out of her way Kitty then rang the agent and arranged to have the refund placed into her own account and then she got the money from an ATM to return to us. The bathrooms and dorms were spotless and had a great vibe at the Loft, and I couldn’t recommend it more highly for 40 Yuan per bed (including a free Snow beer, which was weaker than water.)

Chengdu is a great city, much like Hong Kong, but spread out, and with room to swing your arms without knocking someone over.  We had great dumplings, again, and then again in Chengdu, and they were better suited to my pallete than the incredibly spicy Sichuan dishes. For 35 Yuan we called into a traditional masseuse just up the road from the Loft and received a one hour massage, followed by Scraping, and then Cupping. Whilst my back now looks more like someone that suffered burns and bruises in a car accident than a massage it actually feels great.

We more or less left Chengdu reluctantly given that our place to stay was great, and the food was enjoyable, but there wasn’t much there to interest us, and the flight to Urumqi was booked and boarded.

We’re actually in Kashgar now, but given that this is pushing 1300 words as is I think it’s only fair that I update in a separate post. Photographs of Tiger Leaping Gorge are going onto my site, Jamie McDonald Photography as I type this out.

Thanks again for emails and comments!