China - Lijiang 2

June 17: Lijiang - (Snow mountain and some towns)
June 18: Travel, mainly.

Morning: The main attraction for today is the jade dragon snow mountain (玉龙雪山). But first we stop at a village of the Naxi people. It's a little like the PCC in Hawaii.

Interesting foods! They had rice cakes made from regular rice (not sticky rice); it was just mashed a lot with a log. Also "yak meat", which was very clearly just chicken skewers. Finally, a human sieve at the exit:

10:20 Back on the road now.

11:10 At visitor center waiting for electric car thing. Announcer on the PA system sounds just like GLaDOS. Frogs and tadpoles in the stream.

Finally go up the gondola to the mountain:

It's pretty high up (4500 m) and the altitude was starting to get to us. Had to remember to breathe as if you were running, even when just walking around.

12:33. Sinking into the snow. Stepping stones. Greatest idea ever.

Views of the glacier:

There was a guy collecting all the hats that had gotten blown off people's heads:

With the layer of clouds, the descent was like going into a different world.

I'm actually not sure where this next photo was taken, but it's pretty, isn't it?

Afterwards, we went to another scenic spot. I don't know if there was some kind of significance to it, but there were fishes:

Then a horse ride into an old city. Faced down a car on a narrow road. Turns out horse carts do not have a reverse gear, but the car refused to budge so we had to execute a very tricky U-turn.

Finally got lunch at a pretty restaurant here. Super expensive, though; like American prices. 30 for beer, 15 for can of Sprite, individual bowls of fried rice for 26.

Went to another old city after that:

Bought some silver for 19 per gram (looked it up afterwards; COMEX silver spot price in June was 7.3 RMB per gram; in May it hit a 20-year high of 9.9 RMB/gram).

Walking back to the bus:

Dinner. Got some real food (payback for missed meals) and it looked visibly different from the standard tour package.

Train station afterwards. Some kind of screw up with the train. People are not pleased.

10:34. Trying to sleep on train. Smells like smoke everywhere and all the time. Ears popping - must be a tunnel. Wafts of odor from the bathroom make breathing impossible.

June 18: Back to Kunming

6:49. Just finished eating breakfast in Kunming. Coffee zhou. Brother is cranky because he didn't sleep. Should've put the snorers in the far bunk (train was a triple-bunk open sleeper).

Apparently the complaint system is very strong here. Reminds me of reading about the BBB in Highlights magazine.


------------
Some notes by SC from the whole Yunnan trip:
------------

Scenery like Mongolia. Female taxi drover. Mountain. No water! Only soda. Dirty snow on the mountain ? Bar street. Eyes on the mountain. Nitpicking on prices for the travel agency. Smoke in the air , or dust from the road.

The fishes from the rice fields. Little dark fishes scooped from one pail to another. Unhappy horse that got hit a lot by the guy with the stick. And used a brake instead of the reins.

Riding horses - go! Quickly! Follow me! Guy would yell at you as if you were a horse. I think working with horses reduces your social skills.

The thing like the PCC, which I thought was pretty silly. I wonder how people feel about it, and what the assimilation was like. If it was a conquest, with rebellion and may be offended by the theme park. How long it's been. And if people actively practices this anymore. Is it like the suspeders and shorts in Germany?

Things I like better than PCC
1. Not plastic. A place where you got fleeced, and that is part of the game. But the PCC coddled you and everything was fake. No pretense about education, here let me amuse you. Here's a drum. And a yak. And that was okay.
2. The stuff they did was more interesting. Some of those people I imagined actually lived that way. Like some old people. And they probably used to and still do live in smoky houses.
Less plastic.
4. The lack of railings on bridges. Because people are not retarded.
5. Chinese tourists. Are actually like us, with the same standard of living as us at home. So they're putting up with the same stuff as us. Attitudes are also similar. The releasing fish and turtles. People care, like us. Perhaps a cultural shift? Sampling bias