We're staying tonight at Lao Shay hostel just outside Shangri-La. We arrived in the Old Town last night, after a thoroughly exhausting two-day trek through Tiger Leaping Gorge, without a hostel reservation or decent map. None of the locals knew any of the street names, and most of Lonely Planet's recommendations were shut for winter. We stayed in an over-priced and unwelcoming Lamtim YHA and were cold all night.
This place, Lao Shay, is another world though. Actually, I suspect it's going to be another cold night as it's been SNOWING all day!! It's 7km outside of Shangri-La, surrounded by nothing but snow, yaks, snow and Tibetan chorten (word of the day, Google it). The common room from which I'm writing is more of a log cabin, with wood stove and two gorgeous Golder Retrievers that Anna has taught to sit on command.
It couldn't be further from Zhenghou, and although there's not much else to do other than read, and go on walks and practice Chinese, it'd be nice to stay a few more days. Hang on, I like all those things, maybe we should stay. Except it's a bit chilly and we've not got yak fur jackets (though Anna may have bought some yak-fur-lined gloves, we're not sure)so it's south on the night-bus tomorrow night to Kunming to get Vietnam visas. From then on, as we head further and further south, it'll get warmer and warmer, less and less like Zhengzhou.
Apologies, by the way, for the lack of photos - by and large the file sizes are too large for Weebly, I'm looking or a way to upload them soon and will hopefully do this in Kunming the day after tomorrow. Anna's blogging some interesting encounters at the moment - I'll also do a write-up of our first week-and-a-bit from Kunming, perhaps with some jokes and definitely with some pictures.
Having an ace time, this is a great part of China and a fantastic start to our six week break.
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