TIGER LEAPING TOAST

We are in Lijiang, in northern Yunnan, south west china. We went for a big walk for two days up Tiger Leaping Gorge. We were so lucky, the rain stopped the night before we left and the next morning was as fresh as Bizzy Bee - we were ready to walk! We took the bus to the gorge, bought the entrance ticket and then started walking up a little track with a French boy and his Romanian Canadian girlfriend. They were very interesting and Jimbino chatted non stop about books, psycology, Wales, mountains and Marx and only shut up for a really steep ascent when he had to catch his breath and concentrate on walking! It was a fantastic meader - we walked up to about 26000 m (ok - we started at 18000) and then along a rocky path on the edge of the mountain through water falls and up and down. Our two new friends had met in Iran - they were both travelling single in the same direction (europe - iran - uzbekistan - turkmenistan - tibet) so they hooked up. They were real fun! We strolled on chatting and laughing, stopping now and then to look at the raging water of the gorge below, the mountains with bikinis of cloud and grey glaciers or the pretty flowers and beautiful horses and goats by the path and many gigantic waterfalls along the way! It was like strolling in paradise. It was so nice to be chatting - I was distracted all the way by interesting conversation - normally when I am cycling I am quite bored most of the time! I wish i could meet some other cyclists like these guys - the road would be so much easier.

Anyhow, we came to a hostel around 6pm and drank lots of tea and eat some dinner and rented a dormatory bed forthe night. The people staying there were a big mix and some very interesting characters, a chicken farmer called Chicken, from Alabama with an accent like a sherriff in a John Wayne movie. Johney said: "Folk like that dont leave home often!" There was an interesting guy from Bruxxles who had lived in lots of French colonies and was real smart about politics - some boring English kids buying real estate in China - lynch the yangguedze (foreign devil) landlord!!!! - and an american dude who lives in south africa and has travelled a lot and laughed like a volcano and taught us Phillipino card games! He was hilarious. I stayed up late until the owners asked us to sleep and then I stumbled in the dark down to the dormatory by the conceiled light of the clouded moon sailing over the big mountains.

The next morning the clouds were having a market day in the gorge - patches of giant mountain appeared through a sea of white and then vanished again in a few seconds! Jimbino was quite spellbound and did some Chinese paintings with ink and brush which worked out well but only impressed him how hard clouds are to paint. He just can't paint clouds like those Chinese dudes - they are so good at it! We walked down the mountian after a tastey apple pie and rice porridge breakfast and then returned to our starting point the day before along the road at bottom of the gorge. Landslides had blocked traffic so it was quiet and easy going and we had to clamber over some impressively massive rocks, as we scrambled over them we watched the mountain carefullly for more lithic droppings. It was very impressive and mae one feel very small but full of life. We came eventually to the Tiger Leaping Gorge, the rock in the middle of the raging waters which the gorge is named after. Legend tells how the hunted tiger jumped onto a rock in the middle of the raging water and then to safety on the other side using this rock as a stepping stone, thus fleeing to safety in two giant leaps over the rushing apocalyptic crashing rapids. It is very hard to believe - unless the tiger had wings! Maybe in the dry season, but it would been impossible when we were there - the river was so fast and big and raging- before the gorge it is about 80 meters wide and is then squeezed to about 20m width by the narrow gorge and added to by the many mountain streams pour into it so it powers its way through like drain water in a torrential downpour! The water was roaring and crashing, blooming like a muddy brown flower exploding open and then shutting up again. There were white veins like the river was straining to the max and the water seemed to be like a bubbling and boiling monster cauldron but going too fast to get throthy! It looked like something in a Mad Martin canvas.
Triin and Jimmy were very impressed but suddenly discovered Johney had taken the rucksack with Triin's purse in so we had to hitch-hike back to Lijiang - the FIRST car stopped and the speedy Cantonese driver (who said he would never pick up a Chinese) zoomed us to Lijiang and left us near the hostel. Triin's feet were quite tired and blistered so we limped back home and that evening we met our first ESTONIANS of the journey! Triin could not believe it but they were not very cool - they played card games and drank beer and hardly raised their heads from the card table the whole time Triin told them about her adventures! She looked like she wanted to hug them all and she found it really hard to speak Estonian for the first time in 9 months but she said she would not talk to them for one minute in Estonia - they were the kind of kids she did not hang out with. It was funny. Anyhow, we did it - Jimbino said she wouldn't meet any other Estonians for the whole journey. Later they saw our street show and liked it and laughed a lot and we sang the Estonian song for them! Funny!
Heading for Sichuan soon!
Jazz workers plunge on!