Lijiang Day 4 (0422) - Lashihai and Yi Village
Woke up after not having slept too well due to the cold and moths, and took a shower in a cement room with no light.
We spent the day around Lashihai seeing different things. We started by taking a van up to the top of this one mountain to a Yi Village (another minority group in the area). Unfortunately most of the people were out in the farms so we only saw a handful and they were not very willing to have their pictures taken. We walked up to the top of the mountain and saw the first bend of the Yangtze off in the distance. Lily ran into someone she knew and we went to their place for more tea. The wife had very long hair and was washing it in a bowl with detergent for almost an hour I think.
We took the van back down the mountain and it smelled like burning rubber most of the way. For lunch we went to this restaurant where we waited forever to get our food. Things seem to move very slowly, which is refreshing, but we were getting quite hungry. There were these really annoying Chinese girls sitting at a table near us and it was obvious they were talking about us. They also seemed to be interested in the guys in our group because they kept giggling and then their van followed us to our next destination . . . "canoeing." We were all excited to go canoeing on Lake Lashihai and then we discovered that "canoeing" means getting into a boat, wearing bright orange lifevests and getting pushed around by a Chinese man. A little disappointing, but we still had fun. The lake was surprisingly shallow considering how big it was.
After the lake we drove to a Tibetan Temple. We went at a perfect time when the monks were doing their chants and playing the loud vibrating drums. We walked through the temple and I could have just stayed there all day listening to it. It was amazing and the drums just filled me up. Outside of the temple there were lots of little children and again, they posed for many photos and made it hard for us to stop. They would keep looking at the result on the camera, and then would reorganize and pose again and again and again. All very cute and so happy looking. I need to print a bunch of my photos out and send them to Lily to give to the kids. She said that people come through and take photos, but no one sends anything back, so some people in the villages do not want their photos taken anymore. I hope not to give all of us foreigners a bad name, and return some photos.
When we returned to Lily's family's there was an American couple also staying there with their Chinese daughter, Bebe. She was really cute and so full of energy. Unfortunately a little bit too much at times. She does not speak Chinese and it had been a while since she had people to play with who spoke English, so she was running us all around the place on little adventures. One awkward moment was when we were eating and Bebe asked Adina about her adoption. Adina looked at the parents wondering what to say and then said "I don't think I was adopted, but my siblings do." During dinner we picked up some walnuts and were doing that thing where you play with two in your hands. I don't know how to describe it without showing it, but it's like what you do with those Chinese balls that make the little jingling sound. Know what I mean? Anyway, those stuck with us the rest of the trip.
We spent the day around Lashihai seeing different things. We started by taking a van up to the top of this one mountain to a Yi Village (another minority group in the area). Unfortunately most of the people were out in the farms so we only saw a handful and they were not very willing to have their pictures taken. We walked up to the top of the mountain and saw the first bend of the Yangtze off in the distance. Lily ran into someone she knew and we went to their place for more tea. The wife had very long hair and was washing it in a bowl with detergent for almost an hour I think.
We took the van back down the mountain and it smelled like burning rubber most of the way. For lunch we went to this restaurant where we waited forever to get our food. Things seem to move very slowly, which is refreshing, but we were getting quite hungry. There were these really annoying Chinese girls sitting at a table near us and it was obvious they were talking about us. They also seemed to be interested in the guys in our group because they kept giggling and then their van followed us to our next destination . . . "canoeing." We were all excited to go canoeing on Lake Lashihai and then we discovered that "canoeing" means getting into a boat, wearing bright orange lifevests and getting pushed around by a Chinese man. A little disappointing, but we still had fun. The lake was surprisingly shallow considering how big it was.
After the lake we drove to a Tibetan Temple. We went at a perfect time when the monks were doing their chants and playing the loud vibrating drums. We walked through the temple and I could have just stayed there all day listening to it. It was amazing and the drums just filled me up. Outside of the temple there were lots of little children and again, they posed for many photos and made it hard for us to stop. They would keep looking at the result on the camera, and then would reorganize and pose again and again and again. All very cute and so happy looking. I need to print a bunch of my photos out and send them to Lily to give to the kids. She said that people come through and take photos, but no one sends anything back, so some people in the villages do not want their photos taken anymore. I hope not to give all of us foreigners a bad name, and return some photos.
When we returned to Lily's family's there was an American couple also staying there with their Chinese daughter, Bebe. She was really cute and so full of energy. Unfortunately a little bit too much at times. She does not speak Chinese and it had been a while since she had people to play with who spoke English, so she was running us all around the place on little adventures. One awkward moment was when we were eating and Bebe asked Adina about her adoption. Adina looked at the parents wondering what to say and then said "I don't think I was adopted, but my siblings do." During dinner we picked up some walnuts and were doing that thing where you play with two in your hands. I don't know how to describe it without showing it, but it's like what you do with those Chinese balls that make the little jingling sound. Know what I mean? Anyway, those stuck with us the rest of the trip.
posted by Ramune at
5/10/2006 05:59:00 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home