Tiger Leaping Gorge Day 2
The only reason I was able to get any sleep on the piece of plywood with sheets was out of complete exhaustion. I felt like my parents going to bed as soon as it got dark and waking up with sore all over my body. Before we left the guest house we asked our hosts how long it would take to reach the end of the trail where we could catch a bus back to “civilization,” we were told about 1-1/2 to 2 hours and it was mostly flat and downhill. Thanks to the terrain it was a relatively easy hike compared with yesterday however my body feeling like I had been hit by a bus every step was still a struggle. Trough waterfalls and past goats the trail went on for about 6 KM before we started to see the signs for Tina’s Guest house where we hoped to get a van or bus out of the gorge. It was interesting along the way to find the make shift temples that were a reminder of how close we were to Tibet along with the traditional Tibetan Buddhist prayer flags and stone piles.
At the end of the trail we arrived at Tina’s Guest House and where I arranged for a pickup back to Lijiang. About an hour late our bus shows up with the explanation of “oh the roads were bad.” We all look at each other and laugh at this explanation considering there are maybe 15 cars in a 30 mile radius. After loading our bags into the van we set off to Lijiang.
The road turned from paved to loose gravel about 500 meters into our trip, then from loose gravel to sand and dirt another 500 meters up the road. We started to “S” turn our way farther down the mountain as we could feel ourselves fishtailing our way down the mountain. The road is narrows to a the point that we have less than a foot on either side of the van on one side rock face on the other side a death drop to the river. It becomes clear that the road being bad was part of the construction of a road on the side of the mountain. Unlike in the states where a road under construction is closed until it is safe in China if its “drivable” use it. As we make our way slowly down the road trying to avoid boulders the size of Volkswagens, rock slides and the occasional construction crew who were busily trying to build a retaining wall to keep the road from falling into the river 600 feet below. About ten minutes into our trip our and with nothing around us our driver a Chinese woman wearing faded blue jeans, a brown Dior coat and sunglasses stops the van, looks at me and says “I’ll be right back.” She jumps out of the van and takes off up the mountain leaving all of us sitting on the side of the mountain. When she gets back to us she doesn’t say anything but we start off the road again and there is a new odor I get when the wind blows through the windows, it only takes a minute for me to register the unmistakable smell of pooh. For the next 3 hours and 45 minutes I got to ride next to the woman who used the side of the mountain as her bathroom and didn’t wipe.
Back on the road we maneuvered a times inches away from the cliff to avoid the potholes and Volkswagens. I look up just in time to see another van coming at us right from around the corner both cars lock the breaks and we both start sliding towards each other and towards the cliff, it would suck to be part of a head on collision right now but probably not as bad as falling off the mountain or watching the other van plunge to its demise. About a foot from each other our vans stop and our drivers laughing I guess just another day on the mountain road for these two. We all had a good nervous laugh and its really being lean what it means that “the roads are bad.”
As we continue down the doomsday highway we come along a pile of rocks with a dump truck sitting off next to the pile. I quickly realize that this truck is being loaded with these rocks as our driver pulls up to a few feet behind the truck. We sit and wait and watch the truck slowly fill up with rocks, as the loader tries to cram every last rock he can into the back of the truck he places a boulder on top that begins to shift as it moves its gaining speed and coming in the direction of our van the operator noticing the danger moves quickly and blocks the rocks path to the hood of our van. About 15 minutes later we are back on the road to Lijiang pooh smell and all.
We got dropped off at the bus station in Lijiang and went to buy to tickets for Dali or somewhere beyond with the aim to leave later that night (it was about 5:30 PM when we got in). We were quickly informed that we would not be leaving Lijiang tonight as they were out of ticket so we were forced to spend another night in Lijiang and take the Sunday 8AM bus to Dali.
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