All Day Travel to LiJiang, China
This is where we are tonight as I write this. Lijiang, China. We spent most of the day traveling. After leaving the Flowers Hostel in Guilin, we boarded a flight to Kunming. Then after a two hour layover, we hopped on a 45 minute flight to Lijiang.
Our taxi from the Flowers hostel to the Guilin airport was a friend of the girl at the reception desk - which means he was just a friend of hers looking to make some extra money - but hey, we saved quite a bit on that LOOOONG taxi ride. Plus, I think he may have taken a short cut - at the very least it was a roundabout way that took us through some ROUGH roads and countryside. Seriously. At one point we were so far out from EVERYTHING that I almost wondered if we were gonna be left stranded out in the middle of nowhere. But eventually we arrived at the airport and everything was good.
This the old town and we’re staying at Mama Naxi’s Guesthouse. Old town is very confusing and our taxi driver got lost and then eventually gave up. Fortunately, he was close and as were exiting the cab to go wander in search of the hostel, this old man comes from the black alleys and says that he will take us to the hostel. We get to the door and it says “a fu guesthouse” - some letters are missing but… then he takes us into a courtyard, up some stairs and to a decent room. It’s all a bit weird since there’s no reception desk and who knows if this guy was just some guy who took us to his house and decided to let us stay in a room.
Fortunately, he’s a nice old man and after we put our bags down, we gather an understanding that there are a few ’sites’ and that he was now going to take us to the main site and the office. Ahhhh. I see.
So we walk down some dark alleys (these are clean alleys, not like the dirty hutongs of Beijing) and eventually arrive at the main site. Internet, dogs, cats, and other travelers. Finally, we see Mama Naxi.
We sit down and order some food -and she cooks it up… and then halfway through our meal she gives us another sandwich to split… and then a few minutes later she’s handing out sandwiches to other travelers just because she felt like making extra food!
It’s all quite awesome, casual, and more like a home and less like an ‘international youth hostel’. (The other place we tried to stay at, but didn’t hear from in time so by chance we ended up here.)
At this site ‘two’ where our room is at, I was even able to connect to a stray wifi signal and that’s how this post was completed.
I would post some pics of the day, but they won’t compare to what I’m going to have for you tomorrow - we arrive here around 9pm and the town is pretty dark except for the laterns hung near every door. It’s a stark contrast from Beijing, and even Yangshuo or Guilin. And while I initially thought Yangshuo was the greatest thing since sliced bread and then couldn’t leave fast enough, I think Lijiang will be everything I think it is and more.
