Mike In China

The next day we got up and hopped back into the car for another full day excursion. We started out by going to see the first bend of the Yangtze River in Stone Drum Town. We walked a little through the town and up to an area with amazing views of the town, river and surrounding mountains and valleys. Mom got a history lesson about the importance of the town (something about how it was an important area because during some war a bunch of troops crossed the river here or something like that) while I once again opted out for self exploration and picture taking. From there we drove to the Tiger Leaping Gorge which was absolutely beautiful. We hiked along the gorge for awhile taking many pictures while talking with our guide. I actually took a turn talking with him because he found out that I had majored in Real Estate in college and had a bunch of questions about investing in real estate. I answered them to the best of my ability but it was pretty hard without any knowledge of how the real estate system and laws are set up in communist China. The gorge got its name from a legend of a tiger trying to escape and, what asurprise, he leaped across the gorge. Seeing as how the gorge was decently wide and the river cutting through it looked like a whitewater rafters heaven, I don't think there is much truth to the story. More interestingly though (or depressingly) is the fact that it probably won't exist in ten years! The area is high up on the Chinese government's list of places to build another gargantuan damn slash hydroelectric power plant. I don't think plans have officially been cemented yet but by the way our guide was talking things don't sound to hopeful. It really isa shame because it really is a beautiful area. That night for dinner Mom and I went a restaurant in Lijiang and had a great time. In addition to the dinner, we once again had a fair number of beers (more of the Dali beers) and had a great time talking about anything and everything. In addition to our conversation the local waitresses danced and sang around a fire in the middle of the room most of the night. Upon leaving we came to find that the streets ofLijiang are even more busy at night than they are during the day (or at least they are on the bar streets). Lit only by red Chinese lanterns hanging from the various pubs the streets are packed with tourists as the workers at the pubs have singing contests with the pubs across the street/stream. It was quite a site to see (but unfortunately I couldn't manage a good picture of it) and is another reason as to why I really likedLijaing. The next day was a free day so we slept in and then hit to the streets to do the last of our souvenir and gift shopping. In the afternoon we also got massages. I ended up getting a massage from a blind man, which is fairly popular in China. I think the theory is that since they are blind they have a better sense of touch and are able to tell better where you are tense and such. In all truthfulness it seemed just like any other massage. We went out to dinner again at the same place andreminisced of our trip and what a great time we had. The next day we got up really early to go catch a flight back to Kunming. Upon arrival at the airport Mom was hurried inside to her connecting flight to Shanghai as I was whisked out the door to wait two hours before I could re-check in for my flight to Hanoi. The abrupt goodbye made things short, yet sweet (thank god, I believe a long goodbye would have been awkward with Mom crying everywhere and attracting a crowd of staring Chinese people). Our original guide in Kunming picked me up and we spent two hours chatting inKFC about everything from education and politics to music and movies. I really had an absolutely wonderful time with my mom and am very glad she was able to come. I would like to thank her once again for taking me on such a great trip down to Yunnan and I hope that she enjoyed it as much as I did! The plane ride to Vietnam was very nice (I have found that thus far every airline has better food than the ones in the US) and things seemed to get off to a great start. However, fate would not let it be so and things began going wrong as soon as I got my bags from the terminal, that I will save for the next trip post.