The weather got better and the rain stopped later on completely. But unimportant things like rain doesn't stop the market life at all.
For sale there is not only fruits and vegetables, but also the favorite of the Bai: Pork meat. Maybe it's not a good idea to send a western style food hygienic expert to this market, but without a one the sales are pretty good....
What else for sale? Brown sugar in a nice hat form (but we couldn't find any Feuerzangenbowle or Krambamboli nor Caipirinha ingredients). Chili by the way is not a spice but a vegetable which needs some spices... Velvet is sold next to the bicycle repair man. And if you need a hair cut, no problem.
There is no hectic or stress in the village. It's not need for it. Hurry, speed up? For what?
Time stands still. The dishes are washed with some cold water, who knows which damage soap could create. And nobody complained since the last centuries. So again: no problem at all.
The rain did no good for Regina. The light cold grew more and more to a real flue. Let's see, first we drive in the direction to Lijiang. Next stop was a small village which is specialized to the production of batik fabric. Including growing the indigo plant for the blue color. The process is quite simple: Put the green thing (Indigo) into a vat, take some strings and bind it into a fabric of your choice, put it in the vat, let it dry, take away the strings and that's it. Easy, don't you think?
And we're on the road again. The landscape changes slowly to nice hills as we reach an altitude of around 2.500m N.N. But the climate is here also very mild, so there are at least 2 harvests possible per year. Rice, Corn, Tobacco and sun flower is the most grown plants. And there are eucalyptus trees all around. But no Koala bears, really.
After 2.5 hrs ride we arrived at the "border" between Dali and Lijiang. The people living in the small village are called "middle people" - just from the middle of no where, as we suspected. We convinced our guide that it's really ok to have the lunch here in this village. No, we don't want to drive another hour until we're in a "town" and yes, simple food is pretty fine with us. And hey, the lunch was really great. Pork, potatoes, veggies, field coriander,....
It was a good decision. Before we went to the direction of the town we drove to the "stone treasure mountain" to visit an old Buddhist monastery with pretty old stone carvings. It wasn't destroyed during the cultural revolution because nobody found it in the hills. And nobody reminded the mob, that there is a forgotten monastery somewhere near by. Nowadays a kind of a road leads there and from the parking area it's only 500 stairs and a short walk away. Regina decided to stay in the car.
Inside the grot it's forbidden to take photos from the stone carvings and there are enough angry looking guards. Ok, then let's have some pictures from the hills and the partly blue sky.
Reginas cold got worse and worse, so we drove directly to the hotel in Lijiang, where we arrived around 6pm in heavy rain. It was a small discussion with the guide not to have a tour through the old town. But Regina needed a hot shower, some medicine and a bed. What we found in the very nice hotel in the middle of the ancient down town quarter.
Stephan organized some more tissues, water and dinner. Obviously he had the camera with him.
Chinglish is after Chinese and bad English the most common language in the tourist areas here.
Walking through the town paid back, Stephan managed a picture with the first impression of the jade dragon snow mountain.
If it's possible to see more of the mountain, how thin the air in 4.800m is and what kind of adventures we went through is a completely different story.......
Car maintenance...
...in China is a little different from the western standard.
But also working somehow...
