8:30 am. Been on the road for a while and stopped at a rest stop for the driver to add water to his brake cooler (this is a common aftermarket modification to tour buses - a simple gravity-fed system that sprays water onto your brakes to prevent overheating).
At the stop, there is a guy selling dried lizards (some kind of non-vegetarian herbal medicine). One guy in the crowd steps up and calls him out on it; says these are fake and no good. Who the hell are you? counters the vendor. The heckler flashes some kind of medical-looking ID card, says the real ones should have red bellies, but of course those are protected as an endangered species. Vendor says ah, looks like I can't fool you, and pulls out another box from under the table. It's full of red-bellied lizards. Dr. Heckler inspects one with an expect gaze and says, man, this is so illegal, but if you sell them to me for half price I'll keep quiet. He insinuates to the gathering crowd that they, too, may partake in this deal of a lifetime. Some people do, and eventually the crowd disperses.
15 min. later, as we are about to leave, this little routine begins again.
9:35 am. Mountain road. 2960m.
Our driver is telling stories.
In the old days, when he was driving long distance freight trucks, he'd go 2 days without seeing another person on the road. He'd stay at villages along the way, and visitors were rare in those days, so they'd bring out the best wine to greet you with. But it's not just a free drink; it's a test of how manly you are. If you take more than 3 gulps to drink it, they'll give you some food and send you back out on your way. If you do it in 3 or less, you can stay the night. If you do it one, you get treated to the best meat in the village and the village elder comes out to drink with you.
10:00 am. Another jade store. There is an activity known as "rock gambling" (赌石), where you buy a rock (which may or may not contain jade; nobody knows) and then cut it open to see whether or not you've won! SC's brother buys a rock that ends up having some jade in it. Not worthless, but not worth writing home about either (but still worth blogging about!).
1:00 pm. Arrived in Lijiang. Our tour guide tells us that we're supposed to address people as "fat golden brother/sister" (胖金哥, 胖金妹). So far, everywhere we've gone, our tour guides have filled us in on the local customary honorifics. The other thing they're eager to share are the local traditions for eloping.
Anyways, we're told that traditionally women do all the work because, historically, all the men were in horse gangs (马帮) and so were away from home most of the time. It surprised me that banditry was a traditional livelihood, but it turns out a "horse gang" is a trading caravan.
1:30 pm. A horse adventure! Here we are being told to stay on our horses because a few months ago some white people went wandering on foot, got bitten by a dog, and subsequently sued.
We're also told the horses learned English from all the tourists, and now respond to "Go!" and "Quickly!". They never did tell us what to say to make them stop, though...
It turns out riding horses is not like driving cars, nor are the horses all that cooperative really. Mine was pretty keen on straying off the path and biting the horse in front of me. As a result I didn't have a chance to take any pictures from horseback; I was preoccupied with dealing with my horse. SC's horse was led by a guy in a hurry, and so she was preoccupied with fearing for her safety.
We have one stop where we get off the horses and wander around a bit.
Downstream there is a pond with a guy sitting by this stainless steel bowl of fish (there is also a bucket nearby with more fish in it).
husband: You know they're just going to catch them again. (reaches for wallet)
daughter: Grabs a fish, throws it into the pond. Misses.
fish: Bounces off rock into water. Swims away.
Our last stop in the horse park is a large lake/marsh. In the spring, there are lots of visiting waterbirds, but there's only a few ducks while we're there.
This guy is selling roasted fish:
6:30 pm. Hot pot dinner, with mushrooms. Really good soup. Most mushrooms are pretty normal, but there are some morels that were really good. Upset stomach afterwards.
8:00 pm. Walk through old city. Very lively.
There is a manmade stream that runs along the central street. You can buy candles to put in little paper boats and float them downstream.
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